Edit 2: It is really hard to find a corresponding word to 功德 in English... Maybe I should abandon using the Sanskrit word guṇa... And consider 功德 and guṇa as "qualities that leads to better existence in samsara or liberation or buddhahood".
I am recently considering a question, and thus I found that I have difficulties understanding what is guṇa/功德.
The question is: If a person is with firm good heart (which may even be renunciation or bodhicitta), but unknowingly serves and follows unjust masters, does one still generate guṇa/功德? That is, approaching better existence in samsara or even liberation or buddhahood?
Note:
I have known that: a person with deep firm renunciation will eventually go further and further on liberation path and finally attain Arhat; a person with deep firm bodhicitta will eventually go further and further on bodhisattva path and finally attain Buddhahood.
But the question that I have difficulties with involves the concept of guṇa/功德. So I have spend days thinking about it but I still failed to reason out an answer.
Edit 1:
Here is the meaning of guṇa/功德 from < The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism >.