Bhagavad Gita Verse 2, Chapter 17

Shree Bhagavaan uvaacha:
trividhaa bhavati shraddhaa dehinaam saa svabhaavajaa |
saatvikee raajasee chaiva taamasee cheti taam shrunu || 2 ||
 
Shree Bhagavaan said:
Threefold is the faith that comes from the nature of the embodied ones, saatvic, raajasic and taamasic. Listen about that from me.
 
trividhaa : three fold
bhavati : is
shraddhaa : faith
dehinaam : embodied ones
saa : they
svabhaavajaa : come from nature
saatvikee : saatvic
raajasee : raajasic
cha : and
eva : also
taamasee : taamasic
cha : and
iti : in this manner
taam : about that
shrunu : listen
 
Arjuna began this chapter by posing the following question. If one does not have access to the scriptures but uses their faith to guide their lives, what kind of a position is that? Shri Krishna does not answer that question directly. The entire chapter, in fact, is the answer to that question.
 
It is not an easy question to answer because faith differs from person to person. We can say that we trust our faith, our conscience, to guide us towards performing right actions. But the faith of a terrorist is different than faith of a saint. If we do not have guru to guide us, we cannot assess our faith objectively. So how should we tackle this issue?
 
Shri Krishna gives us a starting point to help us. We first need to understand what he means when he says that faith comes from svabhaava or nature. What exactly is meant by nature here? Nature refers to the collection of samskaaraas or impressions that are present in a person, a “dehin” or embodied one, from birth until death. Whenever we perform an action and get its result, both the action and result are ingrained in our mind in the form of an impression. This impression is called as samskaara. Whenever we repeat the action and get the same result, the impression is further ingrained and strengthened. If we repeat it often enough, it becomes a habit. It could be a good habit such as respecting our elders, or a bad habit such as smoking.
 
So this nature, this collection of samskaaraas or impressions, is where our faith comes from. Now let’s go back to Arjuna’s question. In the absence of scriptures, in the absence of a rational, logical means to check our actions, what will happen if we use our faith instead? If someone swears loudly at us in the middle of the street, we will respond instinctively at that point rather than using logic or reason. We may punch the person who yelled at us, or we may ignore him. It depends on the makeup of our nature.
 
Now, based on the makeup of our nature, we can classify our faith into three types: saatvic, raajasic and taamasic. But it is difficult to do so directly. We will have to infer the nature of faith through something else. Shri Krishna tells Arjuna to listen, since he will explain how to do this.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 21, Chapter 7

yo yo yaam yaam tanum bhaktaha shraddhayaarchitumicchati |
tasya tasyaachalaam shraddhaam taameva vidadhaamyaham || 21 ||
 
Whichever devotee desires to faithfully worship a particular form, I fortify his faith in exactly that (form).
 
yaha, yaha : whosoever
yaam, yaam : whichever
tanum : form
bhaktaha : devotee
shraddhaya : faithfully
architum : worship
icchati : desires
tasya,tasya : that
achalaam : firm
shraddhaam : faith
taam : in that
eva : exactly
vidadhaami : make
aham : I
 
The chapter so far dealt with the notion of the infinite Ishvara’s ability to bless us with infinitude. But Shri Krishna recognized that not all devotees have the vision of pursuing that infinite Ishvara. That is why they worship finite, localized forms of Ishvara in the form of deities such as Ganesha, Saraswati and so on.
 
So in this shloka, Shri Krishna offers a ray of hope for such devotees. Even if we worship a finite deity with a finite goal, Ishvara will ensure that our finite goals are awarded to us. In doing so, Ishvara will strengthen our faith in that deity.
 
There is nothing wrong in asking for something finite. All notions of spirituality, no matter how finite the goal, are equally valid. They have the power to lift us from our egoic centre towards the universal.
 
For example, if we ask Saraswati for success in our exams, it is Ishvara who delivers that success through Saraswati. Saraswati becomes the channel through which Ishvara works. He is the running the whole show, as it were. But more important than the delivery of our desire is faith. Ishvara ensures that our faith in Saraswati is strengthened. It is because there will come a when that faith will be eventually turned towards Ishvara. More about this faith is mentioned next.