अश्रद्धया हुतं दत्तं तपस्तप्तं कृतं च यत् ।
असदित्युच्यते पार्थ न च तत्प्रेत्य नो इह ॥ १७.२८ ॥

aśraddhayā hutam dattam tapastaptam kṛtam ca yat |
asadityucyate pārtha na ca tatpretya no iha || 17.28 ||

Inattention leads to downfall

The concluding statement in the chapter gives a note of caution, emphasizing what represents spiritual impurity, decline and downfall:

Whatever, be it sacrifice, gift, austerity or a simple activity, if done with inattention, is considered ‘asat’, unholy. It will bring no benevolent outcome either here or hereafter.

Yajña, dāna and tapas (sacrifice, gift and austerity) are the three legs on which rests the entire religious life and pursuit. An understanding of how these three have to be performed is, therefore, necessary. Krishna emphasizes that it is not enough that one does yajña, dāna and tapas somehow. Even the least inattention or indifference will retard and endanger the performance.

An act may seemingly be good and noble. But if it is done without the necessary attention and involvement, it will prove deleterious. About śraddhā, assiduous application, Krishna had already emphasized (śraddhā-mayo’yam puruṣaḥ 17.3). All the acts virtually become only aids or instruments to generate śraddhā. The śraddhā part alone counts. That alone is the kernel and all the rest is but a shell.

All cannot access scriptures and scriptural injunctions while offering worship or observing religious practices. At the same time, such people are fervent in their intentions and want to be effective in what they do. Is there any place for them and what will happen to their pursuit? Arjuna wanted an elucidation of the subject (17.1), which virtually meant dealing with the very content and role of ‘attention’ (śraddhā). The whole discussion followed as a sequel.

Krishna gives maximum importance to attention. But he makes it clear that mere attention is not sufficient. The attention has to be sāttvika. How to make it so is what he divulges throughout the dialogue. This chapter gives ample guidance to analyze the nature of attention and remove all its inferior or demeaning notes.

The crux is to rid the mind of all wrong expectations and specific preferences. The effort always should be to make the mind pure, gentle, sublime and wholesome. Then the mind will begin to experience joy and fulfillment, which unfortunately people seek in vain through protracted external processes including rituals and ceremonies. Thus all the religious efforts mostly become abortive.

While the true focus should be their own mind and its purity and sublimity, the external acts, which are but a shell, rob the peace and poise away from the performers. Instead of gaining purity by dispossessing desires and allied notes, the mind is filled with them and, as a result, tension and heaviness grow. Intention, though good, the outcome becomes adverse!

The mind will not be clean and pure until the intelligence, the higher faculty, whose function is to know and reason, is re-oriented for the purpose. Krishna thus leads the seeker to the sāttvika dimension, where the thoughts, emotions and responses of the mind will be the best – sublime, selfless, expansive and refined.

The guna-traya discussion is, in fact, an exposition of the complex human psychology, bringing forth the constrictions as well as potentials in the human personality. By this, Krishna wants the seeker to unravel the mysteries of the mind, and also realize its potentials.

Following the guna-traya philosophy, exposed in the 14th chapter, this śraddhā-traya discussion becomes a complement to the subject of human psychology. The fact that in the concluding chapter too Krishna again deals with the guna-traya exposition goes to prove how important the subject is.

The true seeker will not feel the least confronted by the gunas. On the other hand, he should feel enlightened and empowered to understand their intricacies and strive to harness them effectively.