Gita 07.22 – Krishna accomodates within the house of the Vedas even those who cant worship him
Thank you Bhagavad Gita 7.22 Krishna is talking here in these verses about the system of demigod worship and he is stating here that Satya with that Shaddaya Yuktas being equipped with that faith what is that faith? that is mentioned in the previous verse Krishna has said that whichever form a person desires to worship I make the faith in that particular devata strong so Krishna is saying with that strength and faith with that strength and faith they worship that particular devata and they attain what do they attain? they attain the fulfillment of their desires from me only the fruits which they attain are obtained from me not from anyone else so in the previous talk we discussed about the system of demigod worship how we compare it with the biblical allegory of the prodigal son and how God is not just a father who waits and welcomes but also strives for the well-being even when the son is away so what devatas what is indicated here is that here the supreme being offers people the opportunity to connect with him just like the son once the son starts working with the minister and the minister pays the salary to the son now where is the minister getting the money to pay the salary from? it is from the king so like that the devatas are ministers in Krishna's cabinet and when they accept worship from their worshippers and they give results they don't have the capacity to give independent results they can give results only by virtue of their own only by virtue of their connection with Krishna as Krishna says over here that they attain the fruits but those fruits are coming from me to the extent we can connect ourselves with Krishna to that extent we can move onwards towards him and gradually attain him but if we can't connect with Krishna if we connect with the representative devatas then gradually at least we are coming within the broad house of the Vedas people who are outside the house of the Vedas for example people who are following the Abrahamic religions those people they have enormous cultural and conceptual barriers in trying to appreciate the system of Krishna bhakti they just can't realize or recognize or relish how it is that Krishna is offering how that one supreme God if it is there in the God of Christianity and the God of the Vedic literature is the one same God then the God of Christianity proclaims himself as a jealous God and thou shall not bow to any God other than me whereas you see the God of Bhagavad Gita acknowledges the existence of other Gods and facilitates people to bow down to them by giving them faith and giving the demigods giving the devatas potency to offer the fruits of that worship so Krishna is not a God who is concerned about maintaining his own supremacy his primary concern is to ensure the soul's elevation so whatever enables the soul to get elevated that is fine Krishna accepts that and even if by accepting that there is some higher power beyond me the soul can begin the journey towards Krishna that can begin the spiritual journey which will ultimately culminate in Krishna even that is acceptable to Krishna and thus Krishna enables the soul to move closer to him and to attain him eventually so actually if we see from this perspective that the system of demigod worship demonstrates the unparalleled compassion of Krishna in allowing anyone and everyone to come closer to him and to attain him gradually such is the wondrous nature of Krishna's compassion Sathya Shaddaya Yuktas with the faith given by Krishna the Devata Upasak worships the Devata the word Kama Krishna has used at the start of 7.20 so they attain the Kama so here Kama clearly doesn't refer to illicit sexual desire the way the word lust is used frequently it refers to Kama refers more or less to the fulfilment of the desire for material opulence and enjoyment which is Dharmic so Kama can be Dharmic Kama can be Adharmic Dabhateyajatah Kaman Mayaiva Bhihtan Hithan they obtain they obtain it from me alone although they don't realise it right now they are getting it from me by worshipping the Devatas gradually the consciousness of the soul starts expanding acknowledging that there is a higher authority and I need some I need to appease some higher authority for the fulfilment of even my material needs without an appeasement even my material needs can't be fulfilled and soul understands that then that itself is a step forward in the soul's evolution of consciousness which will culminate ultimately in Krishna consciousness now Krishna facilitates the system of demigod worship but at the same time there is also a problem there is a limitation to the system of demigod worship and that limitation will be mentioned in the next verse.