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
V28 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. 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.
V28 is the perfect CHAPTER SEAL — the closing judgment that frames everything that preceded it. Ch.17 opened (V1-3) with Arjuna's question about those with śraddhā but without śāstra — and Krishna answered that śraddhā is the essential inner condition (yo yat-śraddhāḥ sa eva saḥ). Ch.17 then analyzed all four domains (food/yajña/tapas/dāna) by guṇa-quality, and explained OṀ Tat Sat as the consecrating formula. Now V28 delivers the definitive verdict: ALL of that analysis means nothing without śraddhā. The external form (guṇa-quality, correctness, OṀ Tat Sat) is insufficient. śraddhā is the sine qua non.
Asat (na-sat = not-Sat) is the perfect antithesis of V26-27's Sat. V26 defined Sat as being/goodness/praiseworthy action; V27 defined Sat as steadiness in yajña-tapas-dāna; V28 now defines asat as action in exactly those domains but WITHOUT the inner condition (śraddhā) that makes them Sat. The double negation na... no... (naught here, naught there) is the Gita's most absolute dismissal of external religious form divorced from inner quality. This connects the entire chapter to its opening (V3: person = their śraddhā) and to Ch.16's critique of religious performance without genuine inner fire.
Advaita lens
From the Advaita standpoint, aśraddhā = absence of the recognition that ātman IS Brahman (aham brahmāsmi). Without this śraddhā — even if merely as an intellectual holding-open — all action remains within avidyā (ignorance). The asat verdict (naught here or hereafter) is Shankaracharya's teaching on karma without jñāna-śraddhā: it accumulates more saṃsāra rather than releasing from it. OṀ Tat Sat consecration requires the deeper śraddhā that the act arises from and returns to Brahman.
Bhakti lens
For the devotee, śraddhā in V28 is devotion to the Lord — the heart's trust and love. Action without this devotional śraddhā is action without God at its center. Even technically perfect pūjā becomes asat if it's mechanical — the outer form is present but the inner surrender (samarpaṇa) is absent. V28 thus establishes that bhakti-śraddhā is the foundation of all religious life: even sacrifice, tapas, and dāna are emptied of value without the devotee's genuine heart-engagement.
Karma-Yoga lens
For the karma yogin, V28 is the final teaching: ALL the three-fold action taught in Ch.17 (yajña/tapas/dāna) requires the śraddhā that consecrates action to Brahman (OṀ Tat Sat). Without that inner orientation, even perfectly executed karma becomes asat — binding rather than liberating. The karma yogin's śraddhā is the conviction that action done with the right inner orientation (aphalākāṅkṣin + yukta + dedication to OṀ Tat Sat) is itself the path. This śraddhā is what V28 calls the necessary condition for action to be Sat.
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.
Those who practice ghora tapas without śāstric sanction, driven by dambha, ahaṃkāra, kāma and rāga — āsurī tapas.
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.
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.