Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 17, Verse 2: Krishna to Arjuna — Śraddhātraya-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Shraddha (faith) is of three kinds in all embodied beings, each arising from svabhava (one's own nature) — the accumulated dharmic impressions (samskaras) of previous births, which become manifest at the time of death. The sattvika variety orients the person toward worship of the devas; the rajasa toward yakshas and rakshasas; and the tamasa toward pretas and pisacas. Shankara's point is diagnostic: until discriminative knowledge (viveka) purifies the svabhava, shraddha follows the guna-configuration blindly, binding the jiva to samsara rather than releasing it into jnana.

  divergence: Shankara: 'janmantarakrtah dharmadisamskarah maranakale abhivyaktah svabhavah ucyate' — the nature declared from prior-life dharmic impressions, made manifest at death.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Bhagavan declares that each embodied soul's shraddha is rooted in vasanas (prior-life tendencies) which generate ruchi (distinctive relish) — and wherever ruchi is, there shraddha is born. These vasanas are not the soul's intrinsic nature but are guna-born qualities acquired through contact with the body, senses, and mind. Ramanuja therefore frames the three kinds of shraddha not as metaphysical categories but as directional tendencies of the soul's kainkarya (service-impulse), showing which embodied instrument the jiva is working through on its way toward Bhagavan.

  divergence: Ramanuja: 'svabhavah svasa dharano bhavah, pracinavasananimitah tattadrucivisesah' — svabhava is one's own distinct nature, the particular relish born of prior vasanas.

• Madhvadvaita

  The Lord distinguishes (vibhajya) the threefold faith precisely to show that jivas are constitutionally differentiated from one another and from Hari. Shraddha is a function of the jiva's eternal, particular nature (svabhava) — not a defect to be dissolved, but a revelation of its dependent ontological station. The tamasa and rajasa jivas worship entities other than Hari because their svabhava is oriented away from Him; sattvika jivas, by the grace of Hari, orient their shraddha toward the Supreme.

  divergence: Madhva's gloss is minimal: 'ato vibhajya aha — trividhety adina' — he therefore proceeds to distinguish, beginning with 'trividha.' The differentiation itself is the doctrinal point.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads this verse against the backdrop of the asura who has abandoned shastra-vidhi: for those still bound by the triple-guna svabhava, the shastriya knowledge capable of transforming that svabhava is absent. The shraddha that remains is therefore purely svabhava-born — a function of Krsna's own lila-prasada working through the conditioned instrument. Even tamasa shraddha is not outside Krsna's dispensation; the three types represent degrees of distance from His direct anugrahah, not escapes from His sovereignty.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'triguna-mayam svabhavam anyatha karttum saktam hi shastriyam vijnanam, tattu uktanam nastiiti' — the shastriya discernment that can transform the triple-guna nature is absent in them.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara Svami draws a precise distinction: for those acting from shastra-tattva-jnana (scriptural discernment), shraddha regarding Paramesvara-puja is of one kind only — sattvika. It is only for those moving by loka-acara (social convention alone) that shraddha fractures into three. The cause is svabhava: prior-karma-samskaras without the corrective of shastriya viveka-jnana. Shraddha here is not generic belief but the animating relish that orients devotional action — and its quality determines the fruit and the deity reached.

  divergence: Sridhara: 'shastratattva-jnanatah pravartamananam Parameshvara-puja-vishaya sattviki ekavidhaiva shraddha; lokacaramatrena tu pravartamananam... trividha bhavati.'

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana synthesizes: those who abandon shastra-vidhi yet worship with shraddha are divided by that shraddha's guna-quality. Those with sattvika shraddha are the devah — qualified for shastra-sanctioned sadhana and its fruit. Those with rajasa or tamasa shraddha are the asurah — unqualified. This shraddha is svabhava-born; it arises from the prior-birth samskaras of dharma and adharma that inaugurate the current birth. The shastriya viveka-vijnana that could override svabhava is absent in those who have set shastra aside, so their shraddha is governed wholly by guna-trika. Listening to this analysis, Arjuna can discern for himself whether he is deva or asura in this moment.

  divergence: Madhusudana: 'janmantarakrto dharmadharmadi-shubhashubha-samskara idanim-tana-janmarambhakah svabhavah... tena janita shraddha trividha bhavati; karananurupatvat karyasya.'