Three Divisions of Faith — Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga
Chapter 17 of Bhagavad Gita by Vyasa
Arjuna said: If men forsake the holy law, yet worship With faith turned to some other guide, what then, O Krishna? Is it Sattva, Rajas, Tamas — The quality of their faith? Pray tell me this.
Krishna said: Three-fold in each born creature lives a faith, Bred of the stuff of being — Sattvic faith, Rajasic faith, and Tamasic. Hear now! The faith of each believer, Bharata! Conforms itself to what he truly is. That which a man hath faith in, that he is. The Sattvic worship godly ones; the souls Of Rajas worship giant-Loss and fiends; The Tamasic bow down to ghosts of dead And hosts of nature-Loss.
Yea, and those men that practise bitter penance, Not enjoined by Scripture, moved by pride And self-will and the force of lust and passion — Inflaming all the senses in their flesh, Tormenting — Loss unwise! — the elements Composing them, and Me within their depths — Know these to be of demoniacal mind In their resolves!
