Bhakti Shastri (014) – Sri Isopanisad Mantra 12 (Part 01)

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Hare Krishna so today we begin with the next section of the Isopanishad that is the fourth section in the last section we discussed about Vidya and Avidya, that was mantras 9, 10 and 11 now the next section is in structure and in analysis similar to the previous section that was a three mantra section this is also a three mantra section and there also the structure is using similar methods but only instead of Vidya and Avidya here there is Sambhuti and Asambhuti so let’s look at this so the first mantra says, the 12th mantra it says Asambhuti takes to darkness and Sambhuti takes to greater darkness so actually here Asambhuti what it refers to, basically it refers to something non-eternal, Sambhuti refers to something eternal so the meanings of these we will discuss, now specifically it is the worship of Asambhuti takes to darkness and worship of Sambhuti to greater darkness, to keep it short we are using Sambhuti and Asambhuti now the next mantra says, Asambhuti gives one result, Sambhuti gives another result so now there is an obvious contradiction if we just go linearly because 12th is saying that both Asambhuti and Sambhuti take on to darkness only so here Asambhuti and Sambhuti means something different in 13 as compared to 12 and then in 14 it is said that Asambhuti and Sambhuti together grant immortality so like the previous set of mantras let us look at the meanings which Prabhupada explains so Asambhuti refers to worship of the demigods so worship of the demigods leads to darkness and Sambhuti here is just like earlier it was so called knowledge so here is so called understanding of the absolute truth, so that is impersonal absolute and the worship of the impersonal absolute leads to greater darkness that is mantra 12, we will see what this darkness refers to and how demigod worship or impersonal worship can lead to darkness but for now let us look at mantra 13 and that is Sambhuti gives one result Asambhuti gives another result so in mantra 13 Asambhuti refers to anything other than the supreme personality of Godhead so we get one result by that and by worshipping the supreme personality of Godhead we get another result and in last mantra I was saying that both Sambhuti and Asambhuti together grant eternity so that means it refers to we need to know the material world to be able to navigate through the material world and we need to know the supreme law to attain the supreme law so there Asambhuti refers to knowledge of the material world and Sambhuti refers to knowledge of the supreme personality of Godhead so for understanding the meanings we need to see the text and the context if we just look at the text we will get completely confused so the meanings of the words are are not just stored in a dictionary meanings semantics is a profound branch of knowledge and in general in semantics the primary focus is often on the science of meanings how words meanings are some people have the idea that the meaning of a word is a dictionary and this is the meaning so are meanings something which is stored in a dictionary and are words simply carriers of meaning like say there is a electric wire and then electricity is injected from here and electricity is taken out from there so are words simply conveyors of meaning so the meaning is something which is there in the mind of the people and words are tools by which the meanings are conveyed are the meanings intrinsic to the words so actually it is a combination of both words have certain meanings but people use the words in certain contexts and accordingly also the meaning gets changed so the way the words are used have to be understood based on both the text and the context that means what is the text means what is the literal meaning of the word and context is what is the situation surrounding in which the word is used surrounding in which the word is used so if we look at both these things what we will understand is that there is a necessity for a holistic understanding now let’s look at this particular verse so they enter into darkness those who worship the into greater darkness go those so earlier it was so actually Prabhupada translates this as those who are engaged in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance and still more so do the worshippers of the impersonal absolute in this way this verse talks about two primary ways by which the religious those who are within the Vedic path or in general the spiritual path they get deviated from the supreme lord they get deviated and the destinations of those people who get deviated on the path of religion but away from the supreme lord that is talked about so let us look at an overview of this purport so Srila Prabhupada basically talks about three main themes the first point he makes is that even the demigods and rishis misunderstand the absolute to be truth to be impersonal that he talks in paragraphs 1 to 3 in paragraphs 4 to 7 he mentions demigod worshippers stay in the dark material world and after that in the last paragraph Srila Prabhupada mentions that impersonalists who mislead people go to the darkest region of hell so let us look at these one by one now the demigods and rishis misunderstand the absolute truth this is mentioned repeatedly in the scriptures the absolute truth the supreme lord is so great that it is not easy for him to be understood in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says in 10.2 in the Bhagavad Gita I am not known even the rishis don’t know me because I am their source and the same point after Krishna finishes the Bhagavad Gita from 10.8 to 11 then when Arjuna is giving his understanding then he says in 10.14 that he says that oh Bhagwan you are a vyakti but what kind of vyakti you are what kind of person you are neither the gods nor the demons they understand so it’s complex similarly the Bhagavatam says in the first verse itself it says that by that absolute truth even the suras are bewildered and the conclusion of the Bhagavatam one of the last verses people don’t know who don’t know? suras, suraganah so not only the asuras even the suras don’t know they don’t understand that absolute truth they simply offer obeisances to that absolute truth so the theme that the absolute truth is not easy to understand even for the gods is well reiterated in the scriptures now the question comes if they don’t understand him what does it mean? they obviously go and pray to Vishnu whenever they are in danger and they know there is some higher being but what is their conception? Shri Prabhupada tells that when we don’t have an understanding often we get a misunderstanding so they know they have to go to Vishnu and pray to him for help whenever they are in trouble and they do that but they tend to think that actually beyond Vishnu is some light and that is the ultimate truth so they misunderstand the absolute truth to be impersonal so if the demigods also misunderstand then what to speak of all of us? so we have to be very careful in how we understand even Brahmaji it is said that in Bhagavad Gita second canto that first time when he heard the Vedic literature he thought that the import of the Vedic literature was karma the path of karma, doing fruitive activity according to religious rituals that is the import, the essential meaning of the Vedic literature second time he heard it he thought that the meaning is jnana that it is impersonal speculation so that one can attain impersonal world and the third time he heard the Vedas then he understood actually the conclusion is bhakti so that was the conclusive understanding the correct understanding so this is evolution, it takes time even for Brahmaji to understand the correct conclusion of the Vedic literature what to speak of others so this is a theme that is there absolute truth is not very easy to understand so now the people in this world when they have some religious inclination, they conceive of the absolute truth as a multiplicity of beings there are many gods, different gods for different departments and they worship those gods or they may conceive of the absolute truth as some impersonal light so let’s look at these now they enter into darkness, what does it mean here it simply means that the demigod worshippers stay in the dark material world they continue to stay in this material world just as we discussed earlier that those who pursue sense gratification, they continue on in the dark material world now demigod worshippers may not get degraded but they don’t get substantially elevated Srila Prabhupada gives the example that when a person is in the jail whether the person is tied by iron shackles or golden shackles it really doesn’t make a lot of difference because they are shackles either way so even if the demigod worshippers get some material benefits but still they stay in ignorance of spiritual truth and as long as they are in ignorance of spiritual truth they have to continue on going round and round in the cycle of birth and death so if they continue to go on in the cycle of birth and death that means they are staying in darkness and that is what is being regretted over here so the Upanishads their focus is to elevate people to the highest goal and for elevating them to the highest goal all other goals even if they are higher than the present goal are not encouraged so that people can focus simply on the highest goal everything else is put aside so as we say often the good is the worst enemy of the best so there is the best thing that we can do but the good thing is also not bad so often we do the good thing and miss out on the chance to do the best thing so the demigod worship is not necessarily bad it is good, it is pious it is religious but it is often the worst enemy of the best and the same applies to the impersonal worship also so now when the good is misunderstood to be the best then it becomes a far more serious problem it is one thing to choose the good instead of the best but it is quite another thing to declare the good to be the best and to declare the best to be the lower so let us see how this happens before that we will look at what is the logic of demigod worship so if demigod worship is ultimately condemned then why is it talked about in the Vedic literature what is the purpose of the Vedic literature giving the system of demigod worship the whole purpose is to enable people to get gradually elevated different people have different natures and depending on their nature they cannot get elevated directly so if they are unable to be attracted to the supreme lord then an alternative is provided in the form of intermediaries so the lord is here, the conditioned souls are here if they cannot worship the supreme lord then intermediaries are provided in the form of the demigods let us understand this with an example so in the bible there is the famous story of the prodigal son so there was a wealthy father and his son wanted to have his own share of the inheritance and he took it insistently and squandered away all the wealth and then fell into poverty and then had to live under abusive master and finally he becoming frustrated he decided, still fearful whether I can go back to my father, what face will I show to my father but still he decided to go back and when he returned back at that time his father welcomed him happily so this is the story of how god loves us selflessly that although we turn away from him although we squander away whatever he has given us, still when we want to come back to him, he welcomes us so this is a story which talks about the selflessness of god’s love and it is wonderful but the vedic scripture describes that god’s love is much more than this god’s love is far greater and far deeper that means god not only welcomes us back when we turn to him but he also strives to get us back he strives multifariously to get us back and one such extraordinary effort of his is the system of demigod worship so to understand this let’s look at the system of demigod worship from a perspective of the vedic literature so the great sage Yajnavalkya is asked the question how many devas are there so his answer progresses from three thousand and three, three hundred and three thirty three, six, three, two and finally one and he answers as if there is no contradiction inherent in the various answers how many gods are there, so he describes there are many and there is one only how is that, because it’s like there is one king and he has many ministers, so all the ministers are government authorities and how many government authorities are there ok, there are twenty five government authorities, there are fifty government authorities, but ultimately how many government authorities are there there are five major departments, ok how many government authorities are there, ultimately one authority the king, so like that katidevaha, this is a sequence that is ascending upwards and the purpose of the ascending sequence is to illustrate the point that it’s not that all the gods are the same, but all the gods are a part of the same system of demigod world of arrangement by the supreme lord by which people can get elevated and eventually liberated now when people have to turn back to the supreme lord what is primarily required for that is some arrangement by which they can come to him so what is that arrangement that arrangement is demigod worship, let’s look at this now, so here this may seem a little complicated, but I’ll try to keep things simple first, let’s look at the king so there is the wealthy father and his son, he comes back home now he is not ready to come back home that is the way we are explaining the story, so the father wants his son to come back so the father has initially gone away from the father’s home, gone away from the father’s kingdom, has gone to some other place and is serving some other master who is exploiting that person making the son work very hard and giving him only a pittance so then the father knows that my son has some inimical feelings towards me, so even if I invite him back he will not come, so the father decides to send his own minister he says go and invite him back now when he invites him back, the minister says ok, you are being paid over here, I’ll pay you, why don’t you come and work with me now the son may or may not know that this minister is working for my father only, he says ok how much will you give me, ok you will pay me that much, I’ll take good care of you better than what you have over here, ok come back so now, when the son agrees the son has now come back to the kingdom of the father although he has not come back to the home of the father he has come back to the kingdom of the father for what purpose? he has come back to the kingdom of the father, not reunited with the father but just because he felt that there are better material facilities available over here, I’m being paid better I’ll be taken care of better, but indirectly through the minister the father has arranged for taking better care of the son and the father has got the son back into the kingdom, the king has brought back his prince within his jurisdiction now, as the prince is serving the minister, gradually he sees that the minister is paying me but this minister is also serving someone, who is he serving? and he finds out the minister is serving the king and who is the king? he comes to know that this person is the king, it’s my father only, he may not want to serve his father, but he thinks that this minister is serving the king, if I serve the king, will he pay me better? then he approaches the king he says, will you employ me? you are my son why do I have to employ you? come and stay with me my kingdom is yours, my whole palace is yours, come and stay, he says, no, no, no I don’t want that if I work for you, how much will you pay me? he says, ok, whatever you want I’ll pay you, the father wants the son to come closer to him, at least instead of working in the minister’s ministry he can work directly with him so he offers him a raise and invites him, now gradually the son starts seeing, the prince starts seeing that my father, the king is a really kind hearted person, why did I ever leave him and go away? and gradually by serving him, by seeing him, by associating with him, his affection awakens, and then he says father, can I come back home? welcome my dear son, I was just waiting for you to come back and that’s how the father and the son get reunited so similarly there is a progression by which the demigod worship helps the souls come back to Krishna so when the souls have turned away from Krishna and are living materialistically the demigods are ministers of Krishna Krishna is the prime minister, demigods are the ministers who have been allocated different departments in the university cabinet and these demigods they tell Krishna, they offer to their worshippers or their potential worshippers the opportunity to get material benefits, but within a religious context so when the people start coming to the demigod worshipper, demigod worship they are not coming for any selfless motive, they are coming for material motives only, but what is happening, because the demigods are the representatives of Krishna so they are coming in the house of the Vedas and when they come in the house of the Vedas that is safer actually Prabhupada asked who is better person who is worshipping a devata within the Vedic tradition or a person who is worshipping God in some other religious tradition, in one of the Abrahamic religions Prabhupada said that the demigod worshipper is better because he is in the house of the Vedas of course we also have to see if the person who is worshipping God in the Abrahamic tradition has a very advanced level of devotion to God, that things may be different but on an average religious level to be in the house of the Vedas is safer so what has happened is people have come closer closer to the Vedic to the supreme lord through the arrangement of demigod worship so now after they worship the demigods gradually they come to know through the Vedic demigods are also servants of the supreme lord and they come to the supreme lord but initially when they come to the supreme lord they are not coming out of love you know this demigod is giving you some wonderful results will you also give me results? you tell Krishna, yes Krishna will surely, whatever you want but then Krishna purifies them by their contact with Krishna elevates them and their love for Krishna awakens and then they become pure devotees and they return back to Krishna so let’s look at this now so essentially what this table is saying is so the first table, first column is talking about what the prince is doing the second column is talking about what the conditioned soul is doing, the third column is talking about what the motive is for the prince to do that and from the philosophical point of view when somebody is doing this, what is their religious level so when the prince is gone and serving some other lord outside, so like that souls are serving some other people in this world, so those people they are semigods say me god I am god, obey me my way or the highway so every boss, whatever he is, thinks that I am god, in a small sense I am the god of this office, I am the god of this house, I am the god of this company so people are serving, what is their motive it is wealth, so this is materialism now when the prince comes back, comes to the father’s kingdom and starts serving the minister that is like the soul coming and serving the devata so the prince’s motive is wealth so devata, the conditioned soul’s motive is also material so this is karmakand that is religious materialism, then when the prince starts serving the king, it is like conditioned soul comes to Krishna but still the prince’s motive is just to earn from the king, similarly the conditioned soul’s motive is to simply worship Krishna for material gain but because it is directed towards Krishna it is not karmakand, it is sakam bhakti and then when the prince gets reunited with the father and starts serving him with love that is similar to the conditioned soul starts loving Krishna and starts practising shuddha bhakti so this is the slow steady way by which the system of demigod worship is meant to elevate people so now is demigod worship good or bad what is the purpose of demigod worship it is actually in one sense very good because it is accommodating so this vedic system of multi level worship, multi level worship means if you cannot worship the supreme lord, worship some intermediary representative of the supreme lord, it bears testimony to a unique concern for the individuality of the worshipper every worshipper is individual, that individual may not be ready to worship the supreme lord so other religions say there is only one true god all other gods are false you have to reject all the other gods and worship that one supreme god so then if people are not ready to worship that supreme god, then there is no way for them to advance but Krishna is so kind that you can’t worship me because of your conditionings, your nature you are not able to worship me, fine you can worship some representatives of mine so Krishna accommodates the individuality of the worshipper, along with that the system of multi level worship also, it bears testimony to an unparalleled flexibility of the worshipable in making himself accessible that means Krishna is making himself accessible over here and just like the father even if you don’t want to serve me my dear son still, you know I am available for you, through my minister if you come in the kingdom I will take care of you through my minister so like that Krishna makes himself accessible makes a connection to himself available through the demigod worship so here we see that the demigod worship is a manifestation of Krishna’s compassion, in fact Krishna’s non-enviousness that how can the same supreme lord is so eager to reach out to people that he doesn’t even care whether they are worshipping him or not he doesn’t care in the sense that even if they worship some of his representatives it’s fine, at least they are getting elevated and then eventually when they are elevated enough Krishna guides them to the higher understanding so now when we look at the system of demigod worship whether it is good or bad that has to be understood based on the level of a person so if a person is at a particular level the demigod worship system may be good if the person is not at that level the demigod worship system may not be good so let’s look at this logic of demigod worship so if there is a student who has got 60% marks if the score, is 60% good or bad it will depend on what is the previous level of the student if the student was getting 80% then coming to 60% is bad, if the student is getting 40% 60% is good so envision there are two sons of a father and both of them have got the results both of them have got 60% and one of them used to get 40% the son says father I have got 60% the father pats his back well done my boy, I am proud of you and the other son used to get 80% and he comes to his father and says father I have got 60% slaps his back, what have you done you disgraced me why have you got such poor marks now the second son says both of us have got 60% he was praised, I was chastised, why it is because your level is different so similarly is demigod worship good or bad it will depend on what is the level that a person is at if the person is just living materialistically like at 40% marks then to come to 60% level is progress so to come from godless materialism to religious materialism is progress but if somebody can directly come to the worship of Krishna somebody’s level of intellectual understanding and spiritual evolution by which one can worship Krishna then for such a person to worship devatas it is like a step down it is going down from 80% to 60% so Krishna will tell in the Bhagavad Gita that those who worship the demigods are less intelligent so going back to the analogy, the prince is staying in the father’s house the son is ready to serve the father and be happy there, the prince says I will go and serve the minister it is not required you are my son you stay with me, you serve me and you be happy with me, you love me so what will be, what is good or bad depends on the level at which a person is so the demigod worship system is good for those who are at the level of godless materialism but it is undesirable for those who are at a higher level of understanding and spiritual evolution now the Upanishads points us towards the highest absolute truth, so those who can come to 80% for them 60% is undesirable, so like that from that perspective, the 60% is the elevation of 40%, but 60% is still in the material world and that is why the demigod worship system is not spoken of highly over here, it keeps people in the cycle of birth and death so before discussing the problem let’s look further how in some cases the system can elevate people so there are many cases in history, for example there is a story of Vallabhacharya now Vallabhacharya was a devotee worshipper of both Shiva and Vishnu so one time he had some great reversal in his life, so he went to Shiva temple and started offering fervent prayers and when he offered those prayers at that time lord Shiva appeared in front of him and lord Shiva asked him what do you want, I am pleased with you so Vallabhacharya he said, my dear lord whatever you wish to give me whatever is most dear to you, please give it to me so lord Shiva smiled brightly and then he was given a deity of lord Krishna Krishna, this is my dear most object of love and then he went on and became a devotee of Krishna, so here we see demigod worshipper or person who did demigod worship being elevated to devotional understanding similarly there is in Chaitanya Chaitanya Tamrith the story of Keshav Kashmiri now Keshav Kashmiri was a great worshipper of Saraswati Devi and when he was worshipping Saraswati Devi at that time she had given a blessing that you will defeat all other scholars, nobody will be able to defeat you so he had gone around defeating everyone else and having a victory sheet, a Jai Patra where everybody would have signed that I have been defeated by Keshav Kashmiri so when he came to Mayapur and met Navadweep and he met Chaitanya Mahaprabhu over there Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was small at that time he was called Nimaya Pandit so Nimaya Pandit had an informal discussion with him in which he was completely flummoxed tongue tied and didn’t know what to do so he came Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not humiliate him but told him please go think about it, study your books, come back tomorrow and we will continue the discussion so when he came back to his place he was devastated his ego was shattered in many ways he came forward and fell at the feet of his Saraswati Devi and begged her what is this, you had promised me that I will never be defeated why did you forsake me like this, have I offended you please tell me what happened and as he was praying like this he fell asleep in his moroseness and then Saraswati Devi came and said why did you forsake me you told me that I would never be defeated by anyone in the world he said I did not forsake you my promise was that you will not be defeated by anyone in this world but the person whom you met was not from this world he is the supreme lord he is the lord of my lord my lord is Brahma Brahma’s ultimate master Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is not different from Krishna so he told him like this at that time he realised the absolute truth he said that he told him my greatest blessing is not that you are made a world champion scholar my greatest blessing is that you attain the lotus feet of the supreme lord, please go and surrender to him and then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did that sorry Keshav Kashmir did that so here Saraswati Devi guided him to Vishnu similarly this story of Chandidas Chandidas was a great worshipper of Chandi as the name suggests when he was worshipping Chandi he had quite a good amount of prosperity through his worship of Chandi and he had a brother who was Vaishnava, a devotee of lord Vishnu so his brother had a Shaligram Deity of his own Shaligram Sheela and Chandidas had a big garden in which he would have flowers for worshipping Chandi so one time he, his brother woke up early in the morning and he saw there were so many beautiful flowers so he asked Chandidas Chandidas, brother asked Chandidas there are so many flowers, can I take some flowers give me one flower and he said use it for my worship of my Shaligram Sheela Chandidas said nothing doing so all the flowers are meant only for Chandi you cannot take even one so his brother felt bad, but he was respectful he went away and then later he came back and when he was just passing by he saw these beautiful flowers he thought in his mind if I could just offer these flowers to Shaligram Sheela it would be so nice so he thought like this in mind, his attitude was so devotional and his intention was so sincere and pure to offer the flowers to the lord that became Manas Pooja and those flowers were offered in the mind so when these flowers were offered in the mind they became Uchisht, they became Prasad then his Chandidas came and he took those same flowers and offered them to Chandi now when you offer them to Chandi at that time Chandi appeared and he was reciting the verse to Chandi I am pleased with you, please tell me what do you want I will ask you later but first tell me how is it that you became pleased with me I have been worshipping you the same way for so long you didn’t become pleased with me Chandi said today you have given me the Prasad of the lord of my lord that’s why I am pleased with you what do you mean then Chandidas told the whole story by Chandi Devi and Chandidas asked you mean to say worshipping Vishnu is better than worshipping you of course my lord is Shiva and Shiva’s lord is Vishnu he is the lord of my lord Chandidas said why didn’t you tell me this Chandidas said you never asked me this you are so busy asking me give me this, give me that I am just giving you whatever you asked me for you came for worshipping me something I gave that to you but today because you did extra service you offered me the Mahaprasad of my lord of my ultimate lord therefore I have given you this revelation worship lord Vishnu worshipping him is the ultimate goal of life so eventually Chandidas became a great Vishnu he would write beautiful songs glorifying lord Krishna’s intimate pastimes and he still kept the name Chandidas because he considered Chandi Devi to be his guru, she had guided him to Krishna and that’s why he kept that name but he did not worship Chandi per se he was a worshipper of the supreme lord so in this way we see that the system of demigod worship can work and those who sincerely purely or those who by some circumstances happen to worship the demigods in a proper way they will be elevated upwards to the worship of the supreme lord from the demigod worship but at the same time it can also happen that the demigod worshippers become mistaken in their understanding that the demigods themselves are supreme and those who worship the demigods like this, then for them the worship of the supreme lord becomes difficult because they start thinking that this demigod is only supreme so in such a case then they cannot become liberated from material existence so Krishna says for such people, what happens? then the demigod worship is not necessarily a progression to Krishna it becomes an alternative destination which keeps people away from Krishna so when it is integrated as a part of a step-by-step framework it’s a progression which will take people closer towards Krishna but when people due to a misunderstanding consider the demigods to be supreme then what is a progression becomes a misdirection and that becomes an alternative destination which people cherish almost like the ultimate goal of life and when they cherish it this way then it takes them away from Krishna or it keeps them away from Krishna they are already away from Krishna they stay away from Krishna in the same material world that they were earlier in Krishna talks about this in so those who go to devatas, worship devatas, go to devatas those who worship the pitras, go to the pitras those who worship the bhutas, go to the bhutas those who worship me, come to me so basically Krishna is saying here it becomes an alternative destination and the Ishopanishad is focussing on that possibility which is which has a high probability because many people who worship devatas start thinking of the devatas to be supreme so then they enter into darkness those who worship the asambhuti, those who worship the temporary they stay in the darkness of material existence they do not get elevated so to understand this concept of demigod worship better, let us look at how demigod worship is talked about in the Bhagavad Gita now four significant verses from the seventh chapter are critical for understanding this let us look at these four verses so here, Lord Krishna is telling kama is material desires the knowledge is abducted by material desires and because of that that they surrender to other gods and when they surrender to other gods what do they do? that they worship those gods according to the rules which they like according to their own nature so now, what exactly Krishna is telling look back at the earlier example, if you remember I had given of the prince who lives who leaves his father, the king’s palace and goes off why does he go off? because of the desire for self-centred enjoyment, similarly this verse is saying because of the desire for self-centred enjoyment the intelligence is lost so just as a prince can leave the father, the king’s place because of self-centred desire, the soul whose intelligence whose knowledge has been taken away by material desires, goes away from Krishna and what does he do? surrenders to other gods, just like this prince instead of living with his father, goes and starts serving some other lord in the hope of getting something from him and whom does he go to? according to one’s own nature one serves so basically Krishna is telling how a person instead of coming to him goes to somebody else in fact this section comes after the section which gives two extremes of people in 7.14 in this chapter Krishna has said that material nature is very difficult to overcome but those who surrender to him can overcome it then 7.15 says talks about those who don’t surrender to him, that’s one extreme, the negative extreme and 7.16 to 19 talks about the four categories of people who surrender, that’s the positive extreme so now in between the positive extreme and the negative extreme that is those who surrender to Krishna and those who defy Krishna are those who surrender to someone other than Krishna so Krishna is talking about this category of people now and the demigod worshippers fall in this category so now Krishna will describe how this system can also get those people to come back to him so in the next verse he says what happens to them so now they are serving somebody else because they do not want to serve Krishna now what does he do so yo yo yam yam tanum bhakta, those who whichever tanu, whichever form that means the different devatas have different forms, different natures, different kind of mentalities so they desire to serve according to their own nature, they want to have shraddha and they want to worship so they desire faith so that they can worship Krishna says I make their faith strong achalam shraddham achalam means not unsteady, steady so Krishna is saying I give faith to those people in the particular devata that they want to worship this is fascinating why will Krishna say that I give faith, that is because going back to the earlier story of the prince the father wants the prince to at least come back in his kingdom so the father knows my son he doesn’t he has some negativity against me but still he will like this minister so I will send this minister into his life and he will like that minister and when he goes and sees that minister I will ensure that the minister has the right powers, the right prestige the right positions by which my prince, my son will be able to develop faith in him so Krishna is saying that I will give faith, now Pramapada writes in the paraport that I am in everyone’s heart a super soul so Krishna through this super soul being present in the heart of all living beings gives faith when they want to worship a particular devata why? by this he is getting those souls who have turned away from him to turn indirectly towards him through the medium of the devatas so even the faith that people have in worshipping devatas that is coming from Krishna why is Krishna giving them that faith? it is like remember getting a 40% student to rise to 60% if the student could rise to 80% that is best if the prince who has left the king’s palace, the father’s palace comes back to the father’s palace that is the best but if he can’t at least let him come back to the kingdom so let the 40% person rise to 60% so Krishna accepts them back indirectly through the devatas now when he does this what happens next after that? satsataya shraddhaya yuktas equipped with this faith yuktas is equipped with, engaged with shraddhaya, with this faith which faith? the faith which Krishna has only given them they wanted shraddha to do archana shraddhaya architam ichchati now Krishna gives them the shraddha and they start doing aradhana and when they do aradhana labhate chittataha kamaan they get their desires fulfilled they had gone away from Krishna because of kama that was 7.20 said now Krishna says that kama will get fulfilled labhate chittataha kamaan they get the kama but how are they getting it? mayevavihitaan krishna is saying it is I who give it to them how does Krishna give it? because ultimately the ministers are getting everything from the king so when the minister is paying something to the to all employees including the prince who is now currently working under him the minister is getting that from the king so mayevavihitaan all the demigods whatever blessings they give to their worshippers it is Krishna who gives them power just as the king gives power to the minister and the minister give benefits emoluments to their employees so Krishna is saying that he only runs the system. Now the acharyas explain also that when Krishna says I give shraddha, how I give shraddha? one more way is through the puranas different puranas glorify different devatas there are sattvic, rajasic and tamasic puranas. So sattvic puranas glorify Vishnu and devotional service to him tamasic puranas glorify Shiva and Durga and her worship and rajasic puranas glorify Brahma in general so these puranas also are an arrangement by Krishna by which that particular devata is seen as attractive by the worshippers or by the potential worshippers and then their faith develops so Krishna gives faith to them, they worship and their desires get fulfilled so now if Krishna has only made the arrangement then what is wrong with it? that arrangement can just go on as it is.
This Krishna describes in the next verse this is the last verse in this section where Krishna talks about doing god worship antavattu phalam tesham tad bhavati alpamedhasam devan devaya jo yanti mad bhakta yanti mamati Krishna is telling then they give the phala labhate jitthah kamano sed but that kam which is there antavattu phalam tesham the phala is antavat antavat means temporary it is going to have anta and tad bhavati and they get it who are they? alpamedhasam, they are less intelligent why are they less intelligent? because they don’t understand that they could be getting the eternal by putting in the same effort same amount of time and energy and thought to worshipping the supreme lord what is the temporal result they will get? devan devaya jo yanti those who worship the devatas will go to the abode of the devatas mad bhakta yanti mamati those who worship me will come to me so here Krishna is clearly telling that the demigod worship is not exactly the same as worshipping him although it is a system created by him but still it is not exactly the same as worshipping him, why? because it will lead to a different destination just by serving the minister the son will not come back to the father the prince will not come back to the king for that the prince’s intelligence has to awaken similarly the soul’s consciousness has to evolve and the soul has to rise from the level of worship of the demigods to the worship of Krishna if that doesn’t happen then the soul stays trapped in the cycle of worshipping the devatas getting temporal results, exhausting the results again returning to the worship and this Krishna will talk in 9.20 and 21 where again he talks about demigod worship and there he says it’s temporary people may go even to the heavens but … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … old, we will not go back to Krishna. We will continue on in the cycle of birth and death. We will go to their abodes, when the punya gets over, come back here.
Again we may worship on devatas, again go up, again come back. And if sometime we get misdirected by bad association, we may even stop worshipping devatas and then we can even go down to the lower species or the lower planets. So that’s why, Andham tamah pravishanti ye asambhutir mapasate Those who worship the devatas, they worship the asambhuti, they stay on in the dark material existence.
They are unable to come out of this existence. For them to be able to come out, they have to worship the Supreme Lord. So let us summarise what we discussed with respect to the system of demigod worship.
The purpose of demigod worship is to get back souls who have left Krishna, turned away from Krishna, through the help of an intermediary. It, the system of demigod worship, demonstrates Krishna’s unparalleled compassion, utter non-enviousness, great selfless desire for the elevation of others, of all living beings. Even if they are not ready to love and serve Him and worship Him, still Krishna desires their well-being.
And just like a father of a king whose prince has gone away from him, even if the prince is not ready to come back to the father, still the father takes care of the prince by sending ministers. And then gradually by, through the medium of the ministers, this person, the prince will eventually come back home. That means come back to the father.
So we discussed four levels that the prince goes away and is serving some other master. Like that the soul is serving some other materialist, some other living being in the hope of getting enjoyment. Then the prince comes to the father’s kingdom and is serving a minister.
That is like the soul coming and serving a devata who is representing Krishna. Then after that the prince comes and starts serving his father, but still for material gains. So that is like the soul coming and serving Krishna, but for material gains.
So the lowest level is godless materialism. It is often vikarma. The second level where the soul is serving the devata, that is karmakanda.
And the soul is serving the supreme lord, but for material gains, that is sakambhakti. And when the prince comes back home out of loving regard for the father, that is like the soul coming back to Krishna to serve him out of love, that is kevala bhakti, shuddha bhakti. So there is this extraordinary progression for the soul to come back ultimately to Krishna.
So coming to the demigods is a step higher, but if this higher step is considered to be the highest step, then that mistake can sentence the soul to stay on the cycle of birth and death. So the student to rise from 40 to 60 percent is good, but if the student thinks 60 percent is the highest, and there is nothing more to be got, then the student will not achieve any higher potential. And the difference between demigod worship and Krishna worship is not just a matter of 60 percent, 80 percent.
There is a huge difference because demigod worship cannot liberate a person. It is only worship of the supreme lord that liberates a person. And that is why in this Vishupanishad verse, it is said that even those who worship the asambhuti, the temporary, will not be able to attain eternal destination.
They will continue on in the cycle of birth and death. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.