The vocabulary · श्रद्धा
Shraddha
Faith — and the Gita’s claim that a person is made of theirs.
What does shraddha mean in the Bhagavad Gita?
Shraddha is usually translated as faith, but the Gita uses it for something nearer to what a person actually trusts and rests their weight on. Chapter 17 opens with Arjuna asking about people who worship sincerely while setting the prescribed method aside. Krishna answers that shraddha is of three kinds and that it grows out of a person’s own nature. Then he makes the claim the chapter is remembered for: a person is made of their shraddha. Whatever a person’s faith is, that is exactly what the person is.
Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust · 15 verses use श्रद्धा
In the text
श्रद्धा
śraddhā
A verse is counted when its Sanskrit contains the word, compounds included. That is a checkable fact and a floor, not a total — the Gita teaches the idea in verses that never say it.
The question that opens chapter 17 is a practical one. What about people who set the scriptural procedure aside and still make their offerings with faith — where does that leave them? Arjuna wants a verdict, and what he gets is a classification instead. Shraddha is of three kinds, sattvic, rajasic and tamasic, and it is born of each person’s own nature. The Gita does not tell him whether such worship works. It tells him the question is the wrong shape, because faith is not one thing that people either have or lack.
Then comes 17.3. Everyone’s shraddha matches the make-up of their inner being; a person is made of their shraddha; whatever a person’s faith is, that is exactly what the person is. It is worth leaving that where it stands, unsoftened. The verse is not saying that faith is important, or that faith shapes character over time. It is saying the two are one thing seen from two sides, and that if you want to know what a person is, the place to look is what they actually rest their weight on.
Two things the verse is not doing. It is not sorting people by the religion they profess: 17.4 sorts by what the worship is aimed at, and 9.23 says those who worship other gods with faith are in fact worshipping Krishna, though not in the way that is laid down. And it is not a statement about what anyone is owed. The Gita here is describing the relation between a person and their own trust. It draws no conclusion about how such a person should be treated, and a reader should not draw one either.
The other surprise is where the Gita puts faith in relation to knowledge. 4.39 says the one who has faith gains knowledge — the person intent on it, with the senses held in check — and having gained it, comes soon to the highest peace. Faith is the condition of learning rather than a substitute for it. And 17.28 sets the floor from below: whatever is offered, given or undertaken without shraddha is called asat, and is said to count for nothing here and nothing afterwards. An act with no trust behind it is not counted at all.
What it does not mean
Shraddha means believing without evidence, so the Gita is asking a reader to switch off their judgement.
The word is doing different work here. 4.39 makes faith the condition under which a person gains knowledge, alongside being intent on it and holding the senses in check, which describes study rather than credulity. 17.2 says shraddha grows out of a person’s own nature, which puts it nearer to what someone already leans on than to a proposition they have signed. And 3.31 asks for following a teaching without fault-finding — a stance towards something one is actually trying, which is not the same as a demand to stop thinking.
In the Gita’s own words
The verses this rests on.
The Sanskrit and both translations are the text. The note under each verse is the Trust’s reason for pointing at it — you may disagree with the note and still trust the verse.
Bhagavad Gita 17.1Arjuna
ये शास्त्रविधिमुत्सृज्य यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विताः ।
तेषां निष्ठा तु का कृष्ण सत्त्वमाहो रजस्तमः ॥Krishna, people who set aside what the scriptures prescribe and still make their offerings with faith — where does that leave them? Is their state one of sattva, rajas or tamas?
Arjuna’s question, and a good one: what about people who leave the prescribed method aside and still worship with faith?
Bhagavad Gita 17.2Shri Bhagavan
त्रिविधा भवति श्रद्धा देहिनां सा स्वभावजा ।
सात्त्विकी राजसी चैव तामसी चेति तां शृणु ॥The shraddha of embodied beings is of three kinds, and it grows out of their own nature. It is sattvic, rajasic or tamasic. Listen, and I will describe each.
The answer begins by refusing the yes or no. Shraddha comes in three kinds, and it grows out of a person’s own nature.
Bhagavad Gita 17.3Shri Bhagavan
सत्त्वानुरूपा सर्वस्य श्रद्धा भवति भारत ।
श्रद्धामयोऽयं पुरुषो यो यच्छ्रद्धः स एव सः ॥Everyone's shraddha matches the make-up of their inner being, Bharata. A person is made of their shraddha: whatever a person's faith is, that is exactly what the person is.
The chapter’s hardest claim, stated without hedging: a person is made of their shraddha. Whatever a person’s faith is, that is what the person is.
Bhagavad Gita 4.39Shri Bhagavan
श्रद्धावाँल्लभते ज्ञानं तत्परः संयतेन्द्रियः ।
ज्ञानं लब्ध्वा परां शान्तिमचिरेणाधिगच्छति ॥The one who has faith gains knowledge, the one who is intent on it and holds the senses in check. Having gained knowledge, he soon reaches the highest peace.
Faith placed before knowledge rather than against it. The one who has it — intent on it, with the senses held in check — gains knowledge and comes soon to peace.
Bhagavad Gita 7.21Shri Bhagavan
यो यो यां यां तनुं भक्तः श्रद्धयार्चितुमिच्छति ।
तस्य तस्याचलां श्रद्धां तामेव विदधाम्यहम् ॥Whatever form a devotee wishes to worship with faith, it is I who make that person's faith in it steady and unshaken.
Whatever form a devotee wishes to worship with faith, Krishna says he himself makes that faith steady and unshaken. The verse is unusually generous and is often passed over.
Bhagavad Gita 9.23Shri Bhagavan
येऽप्यन्यदेवता भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विताः ।
तेऽपि मामेव कौन्तेय यजन्त्यविधिपूर्वकम् ॥Even those who are devoted to other gods and worship them with faith are in fact worshipping me, Kaunteya, though not in the way that is laid down.
Those who worship other gods with faith are said to be worshipping him, though not in the way that is laid down. The qualification is in the verse, and so is the concession.
Bhagavad Gita 17.28Shri Bhagavan
अश्रद्धया हुतं दत्तं तपस्तप्तं कृतं च यत् ।
असदित्युच्यते पार्थ न च तत्प्रेत्य नो इह ॥Whatever is offered, given, undertaken as tapas or simply done without shraddha is called Asat, Partha. It counts for nothing after death and nothing here.
The floor. Whatever is offered, given or undertaken without shraddha is called asat and said to count for nothing, here or afterwards.
In practice
What it looks like when someone does it.
17.3 is more useful as a question than as a doctrine. Not what do I believe, which most people can answer quickly and inaccurately, but what do I actually lean on when something goes wrong. The answer is usually visible in behaviour: whom you telephone first, what you reach for, what you assume will still be there. The Gita’s claim is that this, and not the stated position, is the shape of the person.
4.39 matters for anyone beginning to read the Gita. The verse does not ask for certainty before study. It asks for enough trust to stay with the thing, plus attention and some restraint, and it says knowledge follows from that. A student who decides to read a chapter a week for a year without first settling whether he agrees with it is doing exactly what the verse describes.
17.28 is a hard verse to sit with and a useful one. Work done with no trust behind it — the puja gone through because it is Tuesday, the donation made because the list came round — is called asat, not counted. The verse is not asking anyone to manufacture a feeling. It is pointing out that the act, by itself, was never the thing being measured.
Words that travel with it
Common questions
About shraddha.
What is the meaning of shraddha in the Gita?
Faith, in the sense of what a person trusts and rests on, rather than an opinion they hold. 17.2 says it is of three kinds and grows out of a person’s own nature. 17.3 says a person is made of theirs. The Gita treats it as constitutive rather than optional: everybody has shraddha of some kind, and the question the text asks is what it is aimed at.
What does it mean that a person is made of their faith?
It is Gita 17.3, and it is meant as plainly as it sounds. A person’s shraddha follows the make-up of their inner being, and whatever that faith is, the person is that. The verse is not saying faith improves character over time. It is identifying the two. The practical use of it is as a question: what do I actually rely on, as distinct from what I say I believe?
Does the Gita say faith in other gods is wrong?
9.23 says those who worship other gods with faith are in fact worshipping him, and adds that it is not done in the way laid down. Both halves are in the verse. 7.21 goes further and has Krishna himself making steady whatever faith a devotee brings. The Gita registers a difference of method without withdrawing the word faith from anybody.
Can a person have the wrong kind of faith?
The Gita sorts shraddha into three by guna (17.2) and describes what each kind is directed towards (17.4), so it does say that faith differs in kind. What chapter 17 does not do is draw any conclusion about what a person of one kind of faith is owed by anyone else. Reading that into these verses is adding to them.