Chapter 7 Shloka 23
अन्तवत्तु फलं तेषां तद्भवत्यल्पमेधसाम्।
देवान्देवयजो यान्ति मद्भक्ता यान्ति मामपि।।२३।।
Bhagwan continues:
However, the fruit aspired for by these men of inferior understanding is transient. Those who worship the deities, attain those deities. My devotee attains Me.
Little one, the Lord has just clarified that those who aspire for the fruit of desire, worship the deities with faith. Thus they attain their aspired fruit which has already been written in their destiny by the Lord. The desired fruit has already been reserved for them by the Supreme, yet they mistakenly labour under the illusion that they have procured it through their worship of the particular deity whom they invoked. The Lord now says that such fruit, attained by those men of little wisdom, is transient.
Alpmedhasaam (अल्पमेधसाम्)
Such people do not understand that:
a) The individual’s destiny has already been determined.
b) All worldly attainments are perishable.
c) The body, too, is destructible and will be annihilated some day.
d) If the body is perishable, then all that is attained by that body will cease to be when the body is no more. Parting is inevitable with all gross objects of the world. Then why be unhappy?
e) Such people do not recognise that Eternal, Indestructible, ever Blissful Self.
f) They do not know the intrinsic secret of joy.
g) They do not worship the Lord’s innate Essence through which they could be established in the Atma Itself.
h) Thus they squander the eternal and immortal fruit in order to attain that which is transient and destructible.
Worship of the Supreme procures a fruit that is opposite to the fruit obtained through worshipping the deities or devtas.
Worship of the devtas
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Worship of the Supreme
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1. Augments desire. |
1. Annihilates desire. |
2. Increases discontent. |
2. Grants satiation. |
3. Increases craving and greed. |
3. Annihilates desire and avarice. |
4. Builds expectation and hope. |
4. Eradicates all expectation. |
5. Is ego inflationary. |
5. Subjugates the ego. |
6. Augments attachment. |
6. Leads to detachment. |
The Lord therefore says, “Those who worship Me, attain Me”, which means they are invested with attributes of the Supreme.