BHAGAVAD-GITA 4:12

[Guest guest]

BHAGAVAD-GITA 4:12

 

kanksantah karmanam siddhim

yajanta iha devatah

ksipram hi manuse loke

siddhir bhavati karma-ja

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

kanksantah--desiring; karmanam--of fruitive activities;

siddhim--perfection; yajante--they worship by sacrifices; iha--in the

material world; devatah--the demigods; ksipram--very quickly;

hi--certainly; manuse--in human society; loke--within this world;

siddhih--success; bhavati--comes; karma-ja--from fruitive work.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore

they worship the demigods. Quickly, of course, men get results from

fruitive work in this world.

 

PURPORT

 

There is a great misconception about the gods or demigods of this

material world, and men of less intelligence, although passing as

great scholars, take these demigods to be various forms of the Supreme

Lord. Actually, the demigods are not different forms of God, but they

are God's different parts and parcels. God is one, and the parts and

parcels are many. The Vedas say, nityo nityanam: God is one. Isvarah

paramah krsnah. The Supreme God is one--Krsna--and the demigods are

delegated with powers to manage this material world. These demigods

are all living entities (nityanam) with different grades of material

power. They cannot be equal to the Supreme God--Narayana, Visnu, or

Krsna. Anyone who thinks that God and the demigods are on the same

level is called an atheist, or pasandi. Even the great demigods like

Brahma and Siva cannot be compared to the Supreme Lord. In fact, the

Lord is worshiped by demigods such as Brahma and Siva

(siva-virinci-nutam). Yet curiously enough there are many human leaders who

are worshiped by foolish men under the misunderstanding of

anthropomorphism or zoomorphism. Iha devatah denotes a powerful man or

demigod of this material world. But Narayana, Visnu, or Krsna, the

Supreme Personality of Godhead, does not belong to this world. He is

above, or transcendental to, material creation. Even Sripada

Sankaracarya, the leader of the impersonalists, maintains that

Narayana, or Krsna, is beyond this material creation. However, foolish

people (hrta-jnana) worship the demigods because they want immediate

results. They get the results, but do not know that results so

obtained are temporary and are meant for less intelligent persons. The

intelligent person is in Krsna consciousness, and he has no need to

worship the paltry demigods for some immediate, temporary benefit. The

demigods of this material world, as well as their worshipers, will

vanish with the annihilation of this material world. The boons of the

demigods are material and temporary. Both the material worlds and

their inhabitants, including the demigods and their worshipers, are

bubbles in the cosmic ocean. In this world, however, human society is

mad after temporary things such as the material opulence of possessing

land, family and enjoyable paraphernalia. To achieve such temporary

things, people worship the demigods or powerful men in human society.

If a man gets some ministership in the government by worshiping a

political leader, he considers that he has achieved a great boon. All

of them are therefore kowtowing to the so-called leaders or "big guns"

in order to achieve temporary boons, and they indeed achieve such

things. Such foolish men are not interested in Krsna consciousness for

the permanent solution to the hardships of material existence. They

are all after sense enjoyment, and to get a little facility for sense

enjoyment they are attracted to worship empowered living entities

known as demigods. This verse indicates that people are rarely

interested in Krsna consciousness. They are mostly interested in

material enjoyment, and therefore they worship some powerful living

entity.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.