Does any literature declare that the devatas are supreme?
Thank you. Is there any literature that states that devatas are supreme? See we have to understand that the Vedic scriptures are, you could call it user-friendly spirituality.
They offer, they don't offer just a one-zero kind of spirituality. See, Vaishnava Acharya has explained that all the religions, they come from God and they are different ways by which people can approach God. But there are some differences.
For example, in Christianity, they consider Jesus as the only way. And if one doesn't surrender to Jesus, then one is going to go to hell. In Islam, they consider Muhammad as the seal of all prophets.
He is the last prophet. There is no prophet after him. Muhammad is the only authentic way to Allah.
So these religions, people can approach God through these religions also. But they present religion in a sort of digital logic. One-zero.
Either you do this and you are elevated. If you don't do this, you are going to go to hell. In fact, some fanatical people will say you are not only going to go to hell, we will help you get there.
So, now, the Vedic scriptures do not offer this kind of program. They don't say that you have to have faith in this one particular representative, one particular path and if you don't, you are going to go to hell. Rather than making like one steep cut-off point, the Vedic scriptures offer like a continuum.
So now, as I said, the devatas are meant to be intermediate substitutes. Just like the minister is meant to be an intermediate substitute for the king. Now, for people to worship the devatas, they have to have faith in devatas.
So now, whatever is required for boosting that faith, that is given in the scriptures. That means, if you are glorifying a particular person, say for example, there is India's number one cricket batsman in front of you. Now, when you are talking about that number two cricket batsman is right now in front of you, at that time, you say, yeah, he is the best Indian batsman except for him.
Now, when you are glorifying a particular person, you glorify him wholeheartedly. It's not that all the time you are speaking and you are always qualifying all that. The nature of glorification is if we especially want people to be attracted, impressed by that person's achievement, what are the positives of that person.
So like that, for inspiring faith in the devatas, there are Puranas which talk about the glories of the devatas. And while talking about the glories of those devatas, they do talk in profusely glorificatory ways. If you see the overall program, the devatas are not called as Anantakoti Brahmandanayak.
That is the title which is only for Vishnu. Anantakoti Brahmandanayak means the one who is the creator of the unlimited number of universes. The point is that while glorifying the devatas, within their jurisdiction, like for example, Lord Shiva is called as Vishwanath and he is Vishwanath.
He is the master of each universe. But there are many many universes and all these universes come from Vishnu. So there are certain valid glorifications of devatas.
They are given in scriptures. But sometimes from those valid glorifications, there are certain followers of devatas who extrapolate it. And they make those devatas into supreme.
So the answer is in two parts. First is that the glorification of devatas in the Puranas do, they don't hold it back. It's not that when the Purana is about Shiva, that Purana is going to say, no, Shiva is not supreme.
They will glorify Shiva profusely. And there is in the Matsya Purana, there is a description that, in the Matsya Purana it is there and there is also a description in the Linga Purana. Linga Purana is considered to be a Shaivite Purana.
So basically there are 18 Puranas and in Matsya Purana it is said that there are 6 Puranas in Sattva Guna, 6 Puranas in Rajoguna, 6 Puranas in Tamoguna. In Tamoguna means what? These three modes of material nature there are, goodness, passion, ignorance. So people are of different levels of consciousness and to encourage them on their spiritual journey, different prescriptions are given for different people.
So people who are in goodness, they have a particular mentality and for them the worship of Vishnu is recommended and Padma Puran, Vishnu Puran, Bhagwat Puran, all these are Puranas for people in the mode of goodness. There are people in Rajoguna, there are people similarly in Tamoguna and the scriptures don't say that because you are in Tamoguna you get lost. Even in Tamoguna, you can also be elevated.
So people who are Tamasik, when they are dirty, disorganized, you tell them, God he puts ashes on his body and he carries a snake around his head and he lives in crematory. Fascinating conception of God and they become attracted by that. So by that they are elevated from where they are.
So the overall plan is in the Shiva Puran itself, in the Langa Puran, in the Skanda Puran, Lord Shiva tells Kartikeya that if there is a conflict between the Satvaguni Puranas and the Satvik Puranas and Tamasik Puranas, if there is a conflict between the two, then the Satvik Puranas should be considered as a higher authority. So, there is, within their jurisdiction, there is profuse glorification of Devatas done. But if someone starts glorifying the Devatas as supreme, then we should know that we should rely on the Tamasik Puranas, we should rely on the Satvik Puranas and get the conclusion.