Why does the Gita refer to people following scripture (17.11) while describing people without scriptural faith?
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Question in the 17th chapter Arjuna asks what is the status of those who are between the Divine and the spiritual master but have some faith and Krishna in his answer from the 11th verse talks about those who are following scripture so how is Krishna actually answering Arjuna’s question actually this is one question of Arjuna that Krishna does not answer precisely rather Krishna gives Arjuna overall analytical framework for understanding the answer so what follows between them is not everything in that 17th chapter does not refer to people who are in between only for example we talk about austerity of the body mind and body mind and speech and now that is something which even as devotees we can practice for transcendental purpose there he talks about clearly what is that recitation of scripture clearly they are not people who are defying scripture if they are reciting scripture so Krishna is in that sense rather than answering the question specifically Krishna gives Arjuna a broad analytical framework based on which he can find the answer himself so this is in goodness, this is in passion, this is in ignorance and then he says that actually the flow of the chapter is that Arjuna asks what is the stage of those who have faith but not in scripture then Krishna says that faith is in three modes and when you talk about faith in the three modes thereafter he gives ok how do I know what is the nature of somebody’s faith and then he gives characteristics like food and sacrifice austerity and tapa and charity by which we can infer which mode of the persons are in and these are not just general activities these are activities which are connected with faith so based on our faith we will choose our diet so Krishna gives him a framework for analyzing and it’s not that certainly that is in goodness that won’t be against scripture so in fact Krishna even talks about so those are in goodness so that is not at all according to scripture so it is rather like if somebody asks ok you went to America what are American people like I may tell you one or two examples ok I met this person this person like this but it is very difficult to categorize people like that so Krishna doesn’t literally specify he gives broad principles for analyzing how to understand and within that definitely those who are in goodness are following scripture so in fact the characterization that Krishna does in the 17th chapter of people in goodness is actually quite similar to what he does in the first half of the 18th chapter he talks about how people usually work in detachment then he talks about Tyaga Tyaga in the three modes working with detachment so it’s more of analytical framework rather than a specific description of people who have unscriptural faith so he gives more of a scriptural framework for analyzing people all kinds of people those who are following scripture and those who are not following scripture