Arjuna's question concerns those who worship without reference to any scriptural rule. They set aside the directive of revealed and remembered scripture and worship gods and the like, yet they do so 'endowed with faith', that is, joined to the conviction that what they revere is real. Such people see no rule, whether grounded in revelation or in remembrance, but worship the gods simply because they have watched their elders do so, and they do it trustingly. These are the ones meant by 'they set aside the scriptural rule and worship, endowed with faith'. This must be distinguished from another case. Some people do find a scriptural rule, recognise it, and still abandon it, worshipping the gods in a way the rule does not sanction. They are not the ones spoken of here. The reason is the qualifier 'endowed with faith'. One cannot suppose that a man who actually sees a scripture prescribing how to worship a god would set it aside out of disbelief and then turn faithfully to that very worship the scripture enjoins. So it is only the first group, who worship faithfully having set the rule aside, that the question is about. Arjuna asks: what is the standing of such people, Krishna, is it sattva, or rajas, or tamas? In other words, the worship they offer to gods and the rest, is it of the nature of sattva, of rajas, or of tamas? Since the question is put in general terms and cannot be answered without first drawing distinctions, the Blessed Lord replies.

Arjuna spoke. Of those who, setting aside the rule of scripture, worship endowed with faith, what is their standing? Is it sattva, or rajas, or tamas? 'Standing' (nishtha) is the abiding, that in which one abides; so sattva and the rest themselves are called the standing. The meaning is: is their standing in sattva, or in rajas, or in tamas? Thus asked, the Blessed One, holding in His heart the fruitlessness of faith not sanctioned by scripture and of the sacrifice and the rest that come of it, in order to set forth the threefoldness, by quality, of scriptural sacrifice and the rest alone, first states the threefoldness of scriptural faith.

Salutation to Him who is full of every quality. Shri. In this chapter Krishna unfolds the differences of the qualities, in the case of those who, setting aside the rule of scripture, act without knowing it. The rule, 'the whole Veda, with its secret, is to be mastered by the twice-born' (Manu 2.165), is set aside by them. The Madhucchandas scripture says, 'know those who do not study the Veda, nor its meaning, the Veda-abandoners, to be of stunted understanding'. Were it otherwise, they would simply be called tamasic, and not divided up. If they are sattvic, then they have not set aside scripture, for there is no dharma opposed to the Veda; as the smrti says, 'the whole Veda is the root of dharma, and then the tradition and conduct of those who know it' (Manu 2.6), and the Bhagavata, 'dharma is what the Veda enjoins, and adharma its opposite' (Bhagavata 6.1.40).