The seventeenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is Sraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga. In this chapter, Krishna describes the three types of faith corresponding to the three modes of the material nature. Lord Krishna further reveals that it is the nature of faith that determines the quality of life and the character of living entities. Those who have faith in passion and ignorance perform actions that yield temporary, material results while those who have faith in goodness perform actions in accordance with scriptural instructions and hence their hearts get further purified.
Food also, which is dear to all, is of three kinds; and so also are sacrifices, austerity and charity. Listen to this classification of them.
OPEN VERSEFoods that augment life, firmness of mind, strength, health, happiness and delight, and which are succulent, oleaginous, substantial and agreeable, are dear to one endowed with sattva.
OPEN VERSEFoods that are bitter, sour, salty, very hot, pungent, dry and burning, and which production pain, sorrow and disease, are dear to one having rajas.
OPEN VERSEFood which is not properly cooked, lacking in essence, putrid and stale, and even ort and that which is unfit for sacrifice, is dear to one possessed of tamas.
OPEN VERSEThat sacrifice which is in accordance with the injunctions, (and is) performed by persons who do not hanker after results, and with the mental conviction that it is surely obligatory, is done through sattva.
OPEN VERSEBut that sacrifice which is performed having in view a result, as also for ostentation, -know that sacrifice to be done through rajas, O greatest among the descendants of Bharata.
OPEN VERSE