What kind of rules and regulations do the prestige-seekers referred to in the Gita 16.17 follow?

From Tushar

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
answer your question? Hare Krishna. Question from Tushar Prabhu. What kind of rules and regulations are referred to in the Gita 16.17 where Krishna says that the demoniac follow the rules in name only? Answer, generally, these refer to the kind of rituals, religious rituals by which people can gain prestige in life.
So the verse is 16.17, Atma Sambhavita Stabdha Dhanumanavad Anvitha Jante Nama Yagyanste Dambhena Vidhi Purvakam. So here it’s clearly stated Avidhi Purvakam. So actually, that means they’re not even following scriptures which are according to the Vidhi.
Now, actually, this does not necessarily mean they’re entirely anti-scriptural because Krishna uses the word Avidhi Purvakam even for demigod worship. In the ninth chapter when he states that So those who are worshipping the devatas are also worshipping me, but they are worshipping me in an improper way, Avidhi Purvakam, not according to the proper Vidhi of scriptures. So here it may be, for example, in today’s context, sometimes people do Ganesh Puja or Durga Puja or Hanuman Puja and they want to make big, big, big pandals with big, big deities, images of these particular deities.
And then often the size of the image, size of the deity is a reflection of the size of the ego of the person. And often that itself becomes a competition. Oh, you had a bigger deity, I’ll have a bigger deity.
And the attitude of devotion, it can be there. I’m not saying that nobody has this. Many people may be having it, but also many other people, when religion becomes, when they use religious rules and regulations, so for glorifying, for not glorifying Krishna or his representatives, devatas also, but for glorifying their own ego, then that is what is undesirable.
So this verse is very clearly stating that these people are as Prabhupada says, self-complacent and impudent and they are they have a lot of wealth and they want a lot of honor. They are intoxicated by, these things are the signs of success, wealth and honor. And the more we can get these, the more we’ll be successful.
That is their idea. And then they do this. Then they perform Yagya only for the sake of name.
And only for the sake of name means they don’t have any desire to transform themselves. In Hindi it is naam ke vaste karna means, just do it as a show. Not that there is any purpose to be served.
It is just the formality one does it. And that sort of doing is very undesirable. Because jante naam yagyanste, then it doesn’t transform a person.
And when the transformation is not there, that means what does transformation mean? Transformation means that one gets higher inner happiness when one redirects one’s desires from this world to Krishna. When one doesn’t get that higher inner happiness, naturally one wants, one continues seeking lower happiness. And then we normally seek that happiness through whatever we do.
So if you’re doing religious rituals, then we do them and seek happiness. Now we’re not connecting with Krishna, so we’re not getting higher happiness. So we try to seek the happiness of the ego through those things.
And that’s how the same religious rituals which are meant to actually lift us and liberate us, they drag us down and they bind us. So the wings that are meant to free us can become the nets that bind us. And that is how the ungodly, the demoniac become trapped, even by their religious activities.
Thank you.