So Arjuna is asking that "There are many who actually do not follow the principles of śāstra, but they have got some faith. Then what is the result of such mentality?" Ye śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya: "Not following the śāstra-vidhi, the regulative principle mentioned in the śāstra," yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ, "they also make one guru or incarnation or this or that," there are so many going on. "So what is the result of such activities?" This is very important question, because there are so many pseudo so-called gurus. They do not know what is śāstra, neither they follow the principle. Still, they gather some people, and the world is full with such not bona fide gathering. So . . . but they have faith in their so-called guru that some way or other, so-called meditation . . . these things are going on. So what is the result of this?
It is very important question. Ye śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ. But they have got faith. Faith is there, but misguided. Teṣāṁ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa: "Kṛṣṇa, that their faith, that blind faith, how it is to be defined? Why? What will be the result?" Teṣāṁ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa. Now, "Whether it is faith in sattva-guṇa or faith in rajo-guṇa or faith in tamo-guṇa?" Because without coming to the platform of sattva-guṇa, nobody can advance in spiritual life. That is a fact. Just like nobody is allowed to enter the law college unless he is graduate. This restriction is there. What he will understand, law? He must be a graduate. So similarly, first of all one has to come to the platform of sattva-guṇa. Then spiritual knowledge begins. Because spiritual knowledge is above sattva-guṇa. Above sattva-guṇa. Sattva-guṇa is the best quality, when one brain is clear and he can see things as they are, no hazy understanding but clear understanding. The sattva-guṇa is the qualification of brāhmaṇa.
There are three guṇas. We should always remember. The material nature is working under three guṇas, three divisions. Just like . . . the example is that the fire, smoke and the wood. Wood . . . there is fire. Everyone knows that from wood, fire will come out. And when you ignite wood, there is smoke first of all. And then the blazing or the flame of the . . . comes out. So one may say . . . they are saying like that, that "After all, from . . . it is wood. So there is fire, there is smoke and there is no smoke—it is wood. It is all one." No. Although it is one, still, you require the flame, not the smoke, neither the wood. If you want work, then . . . "Now I have got the wood. My work is finished." No. From the wood, when you get fire, flame, then you can work. You can cook; you can get heat; you can get light, so many things. So that is required, not that, "Because I have got the wood, I have got everything." This is rascaldom. You have to ignite fire, blazing fire, flame. And that is sattva-guṇa.