THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 09
RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:
VERSE NUMBER 25
Text in Transliteration:
yaanti devavrataa devaan pitrrn yaanti pitrvrataah
bhootaani yaanti bhootejyaa yaanti madhaajino ‘pi maam
Text in English:
Votaries of the Devas go to the Devas; the votaries of the Pitrus go to the Pitrus; to the Bhutas go the Bhuta worshippers; My votaries come to Me.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
The water in the pipe can rise to the level in the reservoir to which it is connected. Likewise the mind of man rises to the level of the deity whom he adores. The sadhaka(practitioner) should therefore be able to distinguish between the minor deities at various cosmic levels and Iswara, the Ultimate Reality.
The Devas are more evolved than men. Their span of embodied life being great, they are called immortals; but they are also subject to birth and death. By worshipping them men may gain longevity and supernatural powers which are all hindrances to bhakti (devotion), jnana (wisdom) and mukti (emancipation).
The Pitrus are the manes who form a region of their own. Sending holy thoughts for the welfare of the departed ancestors is good; but drifting into ancestor-worship is not desirable. Priestcraft usually encourages this weakness and credulity in man. The ancestors necessarily get changed with every new birth that man takes. Undue concern therefore for Pitrus is purposeless and detrimental to spiritual growth; it only adds to earthly attachment and bondage.
The bhootaas are, in the scale of evolution, intermediate between men and Devas. By worshipping them the votaries may at best get some psychic power, leading to vanity and greater bondage to mundane life.
It is the worship of Iswara, the Supreme Reality, that is beneficial. It leads to prosperity, perfection and emancipation.
Access to the minor gods is rather easy; but access to Iswara is not so easy. An idea to this effect may rise in the minds of people. But the Lord clarifies this position in the next stanza.
SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDHBAVANANDA:
A dyer once had a unique method of colouring the clothes. He had a solitary tub into which he would dip the cloths brought in by the customers and give whatever colour they wanted. Red, yellow, blue, green, purple—all these and more colours were produced from the same tub. An intelligent customer who watched these miracles entrusted his cloth to the dyer and requested him to dye it as he liked.
Our mind is the cloth. Iswara is the dyer and the dyeing tub. He gives us what we pray for. The best that we can do is not to ask Him for anything but give ourselves over to Him. He in His turn gives Himself to us.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
The shining gods, the spirits of the dead and the spirits in the psychic world all happen to be worshipped by men in different stages of development but they are all limited forms of the Supreme and cannot give the aspiring soul the peace that is beyond all understanding. The result of worship is assimilation to the form worshipped and these limited forms give limited results. No devotion fails of its highest reward. The lesser ones bring lesser rewards while devotion to the Supreme brings the supreme reward. All sincere religious devotion is a seeking after the Supreme Godhead.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
The worshippers of the manes such as the Agnistvattas who perform sraddha and other rites in devotion to their ancestors go to the manes. Those who worship the gods with devotion and vows go to them.
Bhutas are ‘elemental beings’ lower than the gods but higher than human beings; they are the Vinayakas, the hosts of Matris, the four Bhaginis and the like.
Those who devote themselves to the gods attain the form of those gods at death. Similar is the fate of those who worship the manes (their own ancestors) or the Bhutas. The fruit of the worship is in accordance with the knowledge, faith, offering and nature of worship of the devotee.
Though the exertion is the same, people do not worship Me on account of their ignorance. Consequently they get very little reward.
My devotees obtain endless fruit. They do not come back to this mortal world. It is also easy for them to worship Me. How? (Cf. VII. 23)
Comments by the blogger:
I used to be a great devotee of Lord Siva before my father’s death. Before he died, my father used to advise me to not pray so much and for so many hours and the Lord will test those who pray to Him. He used to tell me, “I am telling this out of my experience, son. The Lord will test only those who worship him intensely!” And after some time he died a natural death at the ripe old age of eighty. And his words during his living days affected me to such an extent, that I started to pray to my father! This went on for quite some time. Then on one fine morning, I started to study Swami Sivananda’s commentary to Bhagavad Gita. I was going through a lean patch at the time. That was why I turned to Gita for want of doing something. I was greatly amazed by what I read. After a faithful reading of Swami Sivananda’s commentary, which had opened a new vista in my life, I bought commentaries by Swami Chidbhavananda and Dr.S.Radhakrishnan. I made a regular study of the books. And then I bought some more commentaries. But these three commentaries made my life in the sense that instead of contemplating committing suicide, I became a great person with full of faith in the Lord and the greatness of Gita. All this happened in the years 1998 and 1999. Before the year 2000, I had become such a devotee of Lord Siva and Krishna that I left completely worshipping my deceased father. Instead of that, I would pray for his Atman during my prayers to the Lords. And the perusal of Bhagavad Gita continues even now. It was God’s gift that I became a blogger and write to you about the three most emphatic commentators on Gita!
You also don’t ever worship your manes. This does not mean you should not perform sraddha. Do it with worshipful mentality. And daily pray for your manes. But never come to the level of worshipping them and praying to them. We take many births. There must be hundreds of thousands of manes. We can simply pray for them all within a minute of two. Then pray for you and your family and then for the good of the world. We are not individual islands. We should also pray for the world. Then our stupid selfishness would take leave of us. All our petty-mindedness would leave us. We would be the owner of the whole world. We would come to have a stake in what happens to our earth and the world. That kind of life is a great one. And never pray to your manes. Instead pray for them, Ok?
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