Lord Krishna
Divine TeacherThe Supreme Lord, the charioteer and divine guide of Arjuna. Krishna delivers the eternal wisdom of the Gita, revealing the nature of the soul, duty, and the path to liberation.
Speaking: Chapter 17, Verse 11
Verse 11
The Yoga of the Three Types of Faith
That sacrifice which is performed according to scriptural prescription by those who desire no fruit, with the mind fixed on the thought "this is to be done" — that is sattvic.
Context & Meaning
The sattvic sacrifice is characterised by three qualities: it follows scriptural prescription (vidhi-dṛṣṭa — seen in the scripture, conducted according to the revealed method); it is performed without desire for results (aphala-ākaṅkṣibhiḥ — by those who seek no fruit); and it is done with the mind settled in the conviction that "this is simply to be done" (yaṣṭavyam eva iti). This last quality is perhaps the subtlest: the sattvic sacrificer does not need the act to produce a particular outcome to justify performing it. The act is its own justification — it is right, it is dharmic, it is the appropriate offering at this moment in this life. This is the purest form of yajña: action as cosmic participation, not transaction.
Scholar Commentaries
1 commentary · Public domainRamanujacharya
VishishtadvaitaAphalākāṅkṣibhiḥ — by those who desire no fruit. This is the heart of the sattvic sacrifice: the offering is genuine precisely because nothing is being demanded in return. For Ramanuja, this is the natural expression of bhakti — love that gives without calculating what it will receive. The sattvic sacrifice is offered to God not as a bribe but as an expression of relationship, of belonging, of the soul's natural orientation toward its source.