Summary:

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Verse 40: People don't take to this teaching for five reasons. First, unrefined discrimination prevents recognizing its depth. Second, lack of faith causes one to shrink Krishna's words to fit personal agendas — better relationships, career, spiritual image — when the knowledge is meant to expand the mind. Faith isn't an affirmation but trust built gradually through hearing, reflecting, and being transformed. Third, people think “knowledge” only means information that updates with new discoveries, missing that the Gita is vastu-tantra – timeless truth centered on reality itself. Fourth, the doubting mind chooses comfort over effort, staying stuck in self-doubt and anxiety rather than investigating deeper questions – though this isn't entirely one's fault, since childhood conditions us to seek freedom through what others pursue, breeding competition and insecurity. Eventually, existential discomfort turns every doubter into a seeker. Fifth and worst, having viveka without shraddha means using sharp intellect to defend half-baked ideas while dismissing anything that challenges your view, never trusting an alternative long enough to benefit from it.

Revision on Verse 39 (About Shraddha):

Story: The Traveler and the Ancient Map

A traveller came to a vast mountain range. He had never crossed such mountains before, and he knew nothing about the paths, the weather, or the dangers.

At the entrance to the mountains, he found an old map. It was worn, but carefully drawn. Many wise travellers before him had used it and written small notes on the sides:

“This path looks difficult, but continue.”
“Do not turn back here.”
“From this point, the sunrise becomes visible.”
“Trust the narrow bridge; it is stronger than it appears.”

The traveller thought, “I do not yet understand this land. I cannot verify every instruction right now. But this map comes from those who have crossed before me. Let me trust it enough to walk.”

Because he trusted the map, he looked carefully. He did not dismiss strange symbols. He did not argue with every turn. His mind became alert, humble, and curious.

At first, he followed by faith.

Later, he began to see: “Ah, this warning was true.”

Then: “Now I understand why the path bends here.”

Finally, from a high peak, he saw the whole mountain range clearly.

Then he smiled and said:

“At first I believed the map because wise ones had walked before me. Now I see what they saw.”

Faith is Not a Belief — It is Your Whole Being

Śraddhā is not just a belief system; it is your whole attitude towards life — towards your body, wealth, people, and your own growth.

It is what you stand for, what pulls you forward, what you think is beneficial for your self-growth. In times of crisis, whatever system of thinking you fallback on, is what you have faith in.

NEXT VERSE: Suppose you choose to live on your own terms, never developing faith in any teaching, except faith in your likes-dislikes. What happens to these people?

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Verse 40:
Path of Those Without Faith

अज्ञः च अश्रद्दधानः च संशय-आत्मा विनश्यति ।
न अयं लोकः अस्ति न परः न सुखं संशयात्मनः ॥ ४-४०॥
ajñaḥ ca aśraddadhānaḥ ca saṃśaya-ātmā vinaśyati ।
na ayaṃ lokaḥ asti na paraḥ na sukhaṃ saṃśayātmanaḥ ॥ 4-40॥
One who has no discrimination, and who has no faith (in the śāstra and the teacher), and one who has a doubting mind perishes. Because, for the one with a doubting mind, this world is not there, nor the world beyond, nor happiness.

“One who has no discrimination, nor faith”:

If BG has key to living a meaningful life, why doesn’t everyone take to it? Reasons include…

1. Unrefined Discriminative Capacity

2. Lack of Faith (Commitment)

Krishna says, don’t disturb such people as their worldly or dualistic ambitions are the very things they need to evolve.

We keep trying to put Krishna’s words into our perspective, such as wanting to convert it into wisdom to have better relationship with spouse, work, have spiritual aura, etc. So every great idea gets reduced to size of your unspoken agenda. Yet the knowledge’s purpose is supposed to expand the mind.

The solution is having faith in the teaching, that it's intention is to help, and was put together by brilliant minds.

When we say “having faith”, it's not something you tell yourself with an affirmation. It's developed by hearing the teaching, reflecting upon it, and letting it transform your perception and life for the better. Each time, you develop more faith (trust) in the teaching and teacher.

3. Partial Understanding what “Knowledge” Means:

Access to knowledge isn’t an issue, because it’s abundant. Nor is the issue that BG is from India. For example, no matter what part of the world you're in, if you want to learn about relativity of space-time, you'll initiate a search, contact the right people, and will land on Einstein’s theory of relativity sooner or later.

Just because it's discovered by a Jew, doesn't mean it's only restricted to Jewish people. Nor is BG restricted to Indians.

Any knowledge is vastu-tantra, meaning it's centered on the nature of the object, and not centered on who discovered, or what time it was discovered. For instance, saying “earth is round” today, doesn't make that knowledge any better or more modern then saying the same statement 5000 years ago.

So the third reason why BGita isn't popular is because definition of “knowledge” is incomplete. In vernacular, “knowledge” refers to information that's changing and improving based on new discoveries. But second definition of “knowledge” is vastu-tantra, meaning it's “timeless” – which is category of BGita. Not knowing thus, they dismissed 5000 year old BGita knowledge for modern texts.

4. Saṁśayātmā (Doubting Mind)

Saṁśayātmā means one whose mind (ātmā here denotes antaḥ-karaṇa) is dominated by doubt. Such doubting people will not gain anything worthwhile in this world, nor the next – because one is choosing the easy path of comfortable.

For example it takes effort and time to investigate why you automatically assume the worse.

Instead, the doubters mind is preoccupied with self-doubts, suspicion, anxiety. It's occupied with thoughts like, “Will this last? Are they telling the truth? Do they care about me?”.

A doubter without shraddha is far worse off then doubter with shraddha. For instance, he won't commit time to see how punya-papam, rebirth, following dharma – might be true. 

A doubter without faith won’t listen to anything that doesn’t fit her comfortable model of the world.

Having a doubtful mind isn't anyone's fault

However, we can't entirely blame anyone. Because path of comfortable isn’t your fault, since you’re born in a world, where from childhood, you notice the way to experience freedom is by pursuing what others are pursuing. This then build dependency and competition. Both promote doubt in one's ability and other's loyalty. 

Eventually every doubter has sense knocked into them

Sooner or later one realizes that no amount of world solutions will solve one's existential discomfort and ongoing doubts about oneself, God, nature of reality, purpose of living. This is when one enters the stage of a spiritual seeker, which isn't initially comfortable, because that's when you're faced with more doubts then every before, being presented spiritual solutions from so many teachers and books.

5. Have viveka (discrimination), but not shraddha (faith)

Even if don’t have nuanced viveka, but have shraddha in the teaching, over time your viveka will sharpen because by listening, the teaching constantly challenges you. And there there’s discomfort, there’s growth.

However if you have viveka, but not shraddha, this is far worse. Because that'll result in lack of vairagyam (objectivity). You'll use your brilliant viveka (discerning power) to support half-baked ideas, such as what we see in neuroscience, with the idea that  consciousness is in the brain. And anything that opposes your view (including the Bhagavad Gita) — you'll destroy it with your brilliant viveka, because you're unable to exercise faith (trust) long enough in a competing school of thought, thus missing out on the benefits.

NEXT VERSE: Having removed enough doubts to sincerely take the shastra seriously –  how do I live my life that leads me to an upwards trajectory?…

—

Course was based on Swami Dayananda (Arsha Vidya) home study course.

Recorded 14 June, 2026