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 21
Verse 21
The Yoga of the Three Types of Faith
But that gift which is given expecting something in return, or with a view to its fruits, or given grudgingly — that gift is remembered as rajasic.
Context & Meaning
The rajasic gift is exposed by three motivations: pratyupakāra-artham (expecting something in return — social credit, future favours, reciprocal obligation), phalam uddiśya (aiming at a specific fruit — perhaps a religious result, perhaps a business advantage), and parikliṣṭa (given grudgingly, with inner reluctance — the gift that is given because social pressure makes refusal awkward but the heart is not in it). All three describe a gift that is fundamentally a self-serving transaction: the form of generosity is maintained while the substance — genuine care for the other — is absent. The rajasic giver calculates, even if subconsciously, the return on every offering.
Scholar Commentaries
1 commentary · Public domainMadhvacharya
DvaitaParikliṣṭam — given grudgingly. This quality is perhaps the most psychologically revealing: the person who gives under social pressure, inwardly resentful of the cost, is not truly giving at all. They are paying a social tax while calling it generosity. True dāna (giving) is characterised by inner freedom and joy — the spontaneous overflow of a generous heart. When giving is accompanied by inner pain at the loss, it reveals that the ego has not actually released the object; it has merely surrendered the physical possession while maintaining the claim.