Bhagavad Gita -Srila Prabhupada 195

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is -Shri Shrimad A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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Transcendental Knowledge
Chapter 4: Verse-12

känksantah karmanäm siddhim
yajanta iha devatäh
ksipram hi mänuse loke
siddhir bhavati karma-jä[1]

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 nityänäm: 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 (nityänäm) with different grades of material power. They cannot be equal to the Supreme God—Näräyana, Visnu, or Krsna. Anyone who thinks that God and the demigods are on the same level is called an atheist, or päsandi. Even the great demigods like Brahmä and Siva cannot be compared to the Supreme Lord. In fact, the Lord is worshiped by demigods such as Brahmä 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 devatäh denotes a powerful man or demigod of this material world. But Näräyana, Visnu, or Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, does not belong to this world. He is above, or transcendental to, material creation. Even Sripäda Sankaräcärya, the leader of the impersonalists, maintains that Näräyana, or Krsna, is beyond this material creation. However, foolish people (hrta-jnäna) 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. enjoyment, and therefore they worship some powerful living entity.


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References

  1. känksantah=desiring; karmanäm=of fruitive activities; siddhim=perfection; yajante=they worship by sacrifices; iha=in the material world; devatäh=the demigods; ksipram=very quickly; hi=certainly; mänuse=in human society; loke=within this world; siddhih=success; bhavati=comes; karma-jä=from fruitive work.

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