Bhagavad Gita 17.28
Spoken by Krishna ☆ Key verse · Verse 28 of 28
अश्रद्धया हुतं दत्तं तपस् तप्तं कृतं च यत् । असद् इत्य् उच्यते पार्थ न च तत् प्रेत्य नो इह ॥
aśraddhayā hutaṃ dattaṃ tapas taptaṃ kṛtaṃ ca yat | asad ity ucyate pārtha na ca tat pretya no iha ||
Whatever is sacrificed, given, done, or tapas practiced without śraddhā — that is asat: naught here or hereafter.
Word by word (3)
- aśraddhayā hutaṃ dattaṃ tapas taptaṃ kṛtaṃ ca yat
- — whatever (yat) is offered/sacrificed (hutam), given (dattam), austerity practiced (tapas taptam = tapas undergone), and done (kṛtam) — all four sacred acts — without śraddhā (aśraddhayā = with absence of śraddhā)
- asad ity ucyate pārtha
- — that is called (ucyate) asat (not-real, not-good, not-being), O Pārtha — the ultimate verdict: without śraddhā, even correct external religious action is asat — non-existent in spiritual value
- na ca tat pretya no iha
- — and that (tat) is naught (na = nothing) hereafter (pretya = after death, in the next world) AND not (no) here (iha = in this world) — double negation across both worlds: aśraddhā action yields nothing in the present life OR after death; total spiritual nullity
Whatever is sacrificed, given, practiced as austerity, or done without śraddhā — that is called asat, O Pārtha; it is naught in this world or the next.
A modern analogy
This is the chapter's closing blow: even technically perfect religious action — correct yajña form, measured giving, disciplined tapas — is ASAT (spiritually non-existent) if performed without śraddhā (faith). Think of someone who files all the right tax forms but from a place of total inner emptiness and no genuine engagement — the forms may be technically complete, but something essential is missing. That something is śraddhā. Without it: nothing here, nothing hereafter.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Whatever is sacrificed, given, or done, and whatever austerity is practised, without faith, it is called 'asat,' O Partha; it is naught here or hereafter. [1]
Whatever is sacrificed, given, or performed and whatever austerity is practised without Shraddha, it is called Asat, O Partha; it is naught here or hereafter. [4]
Whatever oblation is offered, whatever is given, whatever penance is performed, and whatever is done, without faith — that, O son of Pritha! is called 'Asat,' and that is nought, both after death and here. [9]
Whatever oblation is offered, whatever is given, whatever penance is done, whatever is done, without faith — that is Asat, O Partha; and it comes to naught both here and hereafter. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
OṀ Tat Sat: triple name of Brahman — by which brāhmaṇas, Vedas, and yajñas were ordained in the beginning.
Arjuna asks: those who perform yajña with sincere śraddhā but without śāstric ordinance — what guṇa is their state?
Śraddhā of the embodied is threefold — born of svabhāva (one's own nature): sāttvikī, rājasī, tāmasī. Hear this.
Those who practice ghora tapas without śāstric sanction, driven by dambha, ahaṃkāra, kāma and rāga — āsurī tapas.
Tāmasic yajña: against ordinance, no food-sharing, no mantras, no dakṣiṇā, no śraddhā — declared tāmasic.
Sāttvic tapas: the three-fold tapas practiced with supreme śraddhā, without fruit-desire, by the disciplined.
Verse 28 of 28 · back to Chapter 17