Shrimad Bhagavad Gita,CHAPTER 7

15. "The ignorant and unwise are the most despicable of men and doers of wickedness, because deluded by maya and having demoniacal qualities they do not worship me."

They who contemplate and adore God know this. And yet there are many others who do not worship. Men with evil propensities whose discrimination has been ravished by maya, the meanest amongst mankind who are immersed in lust and anger, do not worship God. In the following verse Krishn turns to worshippers.

16. "Four kinds of devotees, O the best of Bharat, worship me: the ones who desire material rewards, the distressed and those men of knowledge who aspire to know me.

The four kinds cover all worshippers. There are first those who do the appointed task because doing it will bring good fortune; they are the doers of selfish action. There are, then, men who devote themselves to God because they wish to be liberated from grief. Yet other devotees long to have a direct perception of God. And, lastly, there are the wise men, the realized sages, who have attained to the stage of reaching the supreme goal. Material wealth is the means that sustains the body as well as all its relations. So riches and satisfaction of desires are first provided by God. Krishn says that he is the provider of means, but his words suggest more than this. The really lasting wealth is made up of spiritual acquisition. This is the real treasure.While a worshipper is busy toiling for material gains, God prompts him on towards spiritual achievements, because he knows that spiritual merits are man’s real wealth and that his worshipper will not always be contented with material acquisitions alone. So he also begins to bestow spiritual riches on him. Granting profit in the mortal world and support in the next world are both God’s burden. Under no circumstance does he leave the worshipper unrecompensed.There are, then, worshippers with grief-laden hearts. There are also among worshippers of God men who wish to know him fully. Men who have attained knowledge of God by perception also worship him. Thus, according to Krishn, four kinds of men are his devoted adorers. But of all of them the worshipper with the wisdom that comes from perception is the most superior. The significant point is, however, that this sagacious man is a devotee, too. Among all these kinds,–

17. "To the wise man of knowledge who worships me, the one God, with steady love and devotion, I am the dearest, and so is he to me.’’

Of all worshippers, they love God most who have been enlightened by perception and who therefore abide in him with single-minded devotion. This feeling is reciprocated, for God also loves this worshipper more than anyone else. This wise man corresponds to God; and-

18. "Although they are all generous because they worship me with devotion, the wise man of realization is-I believe-identical with me, his supreme goal.’’

All the four kinds of worshippers are portrayed as generous. But what charity have they shown? Does God benefit by a worshipper’s devotion? Do they give him something he does not have? Obviously, the answer to all these questions is a clear "no." It is really God alone who is magnanimous. He is ever ready to save Souls from degradation. So generosity is also a quality of those who wish that their Souls are not debased. We have thus a case here of mutual charity. They are all, both God and his worshippers, generous. But, according to Krishn, the worshipper endowed with knowledge is identical with him because that discriminating worshipper dwells in him with the faith that he is his sublime goal. In other words, he is God-he is within him. There is no separation between God and him. The same idea is re-emphasized in the next verse:

19. "That great Soul is indeed most rare who worships me with the knowledge, acquired at the end of many births, that I (Vasudev) am the only reality.’’

The enlightened sage, who is at last blessed with perception after meditating for many births, undertakes divine adoration with the conviction that Krishn is everything. Such a sage is the most rare. He does not worship any external entity called Vasudev, but rather feels the presence of God within his own Self. This is the man with discrimination whom Krishn also describes as a seer. Only such realized sages can instruct the human society that is outside them. These seers, who have directly perceived reality, are according to Krishn the most rare. So all men should worship God because he is the giver of spiritual glory as well as pleasure. Yet people do not worship him. This paradox is accounted for in the following verse.

20. "Driven by the properties of their nature, they who fall from knowledge desire worldly pleasures and, in imitation of the prevailing customs, worship other gods instead of the one single God.’’

Bereft of discernment because of their craving for sensual pleasures, ignorant men are unable to see that the enlightened sage, the accomplished teacher and God alone have real worth. So, urged by their nature or rather by the merits (sanskar) they have earned and stored through many lives, they resort to current creed and practices, and devote themselves to the worship of other gods. Here for first time the Geeta makes mention of other gods.

21. ‘‘It is I who bestow steadiness on the faith of covetous worshippers according to the nature of the gods they worship.’’

It is God who imparts the quality of unflinching firmness to the devotion of worshippers who adore other gods because they wish for material rewards. It is God who makes the faith in other gods steady. Had gods really existed, this task would have been accomplished by these entities themselves· But since they are only a myth, it is God who has to render the faith of worshippers in them firm and strong.

22. "Possessing this strengthened faith, the worshipper devotes himself to his chosen deity with devotion and, through this undoubtedly achieves the enjoyment of desired pleasures which are also appointed by my laws."

Possessed of faith that is propped up by God, the desire - ridden worshipper devotes himself with renewed vigour to the adoration of some unworthy gods, but surprisingly he too is rewarded with the desired satisfaction . But this satisfaction is also a gift from God. So God is also the bestower of enjoyment of worldly pleasures. Mean pleasure rather than divine bliss is the reward for those who worship other gods for satisfaction of their desires. But in a way they are rewarded. So there seems apparently nothing wrong with this form of worship. However, this is what Krishn has to say on the question :

23. "But the rewards of these deluded men are finite because they only attain to the gods they worship, whereas the man who worships me howsoever he does it -realizes me.’’

The prizes won by these ignorant men are destructible. They are impermanent because they are worldly pleasures which have a beginning and an end.The pleasures that are with us today slip away from us tomorrow. Men who worship other gods acquire powers that are themselves perishable. The whole world, from the level of divinities to that of the lowest creatures, is mutable and subject to death. On the contrary, the man who worships God attains to him and so to the ineffable peace that descends on the Soul after he is united with God.Yogeshwar Krishn had exhorted Arjun earlier to foster gods, that is pious impulses, through the observance of yagya. Good fortune accrues from an increase and strengthening of these riches. And ultimately, with gradual progress, there is the attaintment of perception and supreme peace. In this context ‘‘gods’’ represent forces of piety by which the divinity of God is secured. These godly impulses that have to be fostered are the means for salvation and their twenty-four attributes are enumerated in Chapter 16.The righteousness which garners the sanctity of God within the worshipper’s heart is named "god." It was at the outset something internal, but with the passage of time people began to visualize these qualities in palpable forms. So idols were made, the karmkand 7 was devised, and truth was lost sight of. Krishn has attempted to refute the misconception about gods and goddesses in verses 20-23 of the present chapter. Naming "other gods" for the first time here in the Geeta, he has emphatically said that they do not exist. Whenever faith declines or grows feeble, it is he who supports it and makes it firm, and it is also he who provides rewards for this faith. But these rewards are finite and perishable.

Fruits are destroyed, gods are destroyed, and worshippers of these gods are also destroyed. So only the ignorant who are lacking in discrimination worship other gods. Later Krishn will even go to the extent of affirming that such worship is an impiety. (9.23)

24. "Wanting in wisdom and oblivious of the reality that I am immaculate and beyond the mind and senses, men regard my manifestation as a physical incarnation."

There is nothing like gods and the rewards, too, for their worship are ephemeral. All this notwithstanding, all men are not devoted to God. This is so because men who are bereft of discernment are, as we have seen in the last verse, only inadequately aware of God’s perfection and magnificence. It is for this reason that they deem the unmanifest God as assuming a human form. In other words, Krishn was a yogi in the body of a man, verily a Yogeshwar, a Lord of Yog. The one who is a yogi himself and has the ability to impart yog to others is called a Yogeshwar, an accomplished teacher. Adopting the right form of worship, and with gradual refinement, sages also come to abide in that state. Although wearing the apparel of a human body, they at last abide in the formless, unmanifest God. But ignorant men yet regard them as ordinary human beings. How can they be God, these men think, when they were born just like them? They are hardly to blame for this, for their deluded minds, wherever they look, see only the external form. Yogeshwar Krishn now explains why they are unable to see the Spirit embodied within the physical body.

25. "Hidden behind my yog-maya, I am not perceived by all and this ignorant man does not know me, the birthless and immutable God.’’

For an ordinary man, maya, the power by which God evolves the physical universe, is like a thick screen behind which God is completely hidden. Beyond this yog-maya, or the practice of yog,there is also another curtain. It is only by a constant and long practice of yog that the worshipper reaches the culminating point of yog where the hidden God is perceived. Yogeshwar Krishn says that he is hidden by his yog-maya and only they who have secured yog can know him. Since he is not manifest to all, the ignorant and unwise man does not know him-the birthless (who is not going to be born again), eternal (who cannot be destroyed), and unmanifest (who is not going to be manifest again). Arjun initially regarded Krishn as just another mortal. But after he is enlightened and his vision is enlarged, he begins to plead and beg. By and large it is only too true that we are no better than blind men in the matter of recognizing the unmanifest Soul of sages and great men.

26. "I know, O Arjun, all beings that have been (or will be) in the past, present, and future, bur no one knows me (without true devotion).’’

Why it is so is explained in the next verse:

27. "All beings in the world fall into ignorance, O Bharat, because of the contradictions of attachment and repugnance, and of happiness and sorrow.’’

All men are victims of delusion because of the endless dualities of material nature and so fail to know God (Krishn). Does it imply that no one will know him? In Krishn’s words:

28. "But they who worship me in every way are selflessly engaged in good deeds, free from sin and delusion, arising from the conflicts of attachment and repulsion, and of firm intent.’’

Freed from evil and conflicting passions, the doers of virtuous action which brings; the worldly life-of birth and death-to a final end, and which has been variously described as worthy action, ordained action, and the deed of yagya, worship and adore him to achieve redemption.Here it is evident beyond any doubt that the way to God-realization is according to Krishn only through an accomplished teacher. One who performs the ordained task under the guidance of such a mentor acquires mastery of spiritual capacity as well as perfect action. This is also further illustrated in the following verses.

29. "Only they who strive for liberation from the cycle of birth and death by finding shelter under me succeed in knowing God, spiritual wisdom and all action.’’

Knowledge of God, of the kinship of the individual and Universal Soul, and of all action prepares a man spiritually to take refuge in God and seek the ultimate liberation. Along with this,-