यान्ति देवव्रता देवान्पितृन्यान्ति पितृव्रताः ।
भूतानि यान्ति भूतेज्या यान्ति मद्याजिनोऽपि माम् ।। ९.२५ ।।

yānti deva-vratā devān-pitṝn-yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ |
bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā yānti mad-yājino’pi mām || 9.25 ||

Futility of worshipping heavenly-deities

The seekers and devotees have thus to make use of their own mind and intelligence to cultivate exclusiveness in their relationship with God. When this is done, they will soon understand that devotional pursuit is one of instilling into oneself sufficient devotional qualities, all of which make the mind purer and the intelligence clearer. And in this purificatory and expansional process of true worship, knowledge constitutes an important part.

True, the Vedas prescribe a number of religious routines in the form of daily, occasional and special ceremonies. Each ritual may propitiate a certain deity. And there are a number of such deities. Krishna says that the devotee should make a proper devotional assessment in his own mind about what he should or should not do about these plural prescriptions.

Let there be many deities like Indra, Soma, etc. But in reality the Lord of all sacrifices and rituals is but One, the Supreme. Is there any need therefore, to seek or to propitiate individually, or severally, other powers or deities? Altogether there is only One. It is this basic sense of Oneness that needs to be cultivated with discrimination, instead of going hither and thither for plural propitiation.

As devotion deepens, the attention of the devotee should be centred on his own self and he will find that God becomes more a subject of thought and reliance, than otherwise. All that is needed is to fix one’s mind, with the help of intelligence, exclusively on God. The notions and attitudes about God and worship have thus to become deeper and finer.

However, the compulsion and obsession to worship many sources is strong in the human mind. Constriction of the mind is the lot of such devotees, says Krishna.

Those given to the worship of Devas (heavenly deities) attain to them. And those taking to the manes, go there. Those who worship the spirits reach the state of the spirits. Whereas, those who take to the worship of Me, the Supreme, verily attain the Supreme.

This is a clear pronouncement. As one thinks so he becomes. Mind and its thoughts alone are the architects of one’s fate. The attainment is not at all physical, when it comes to spiritual worship. Worship is itself a means for focusing the mind on its ideas, emotions and attitudes. For helping devotees, some props are, no doubt, required. So, various alternatives are presented like Devas, Manes, Spirits and the rest. These are to be soon outlived because the source as well as the terminus of all these is but One, the Supreme. But, instead of seeking and identifying oneself with intermediary agencies, why not engage the mind in the beginning itself, directly on the Supreme?

Inability to conceive of such a Supreme is only due to sheer constriction of the mind and the intelligence. It is but self-denial. That intelligence which is generally given to ratiocination in so many other worldly matters, can it not spend some time to think about worship, the subject of worship, the meaning and goal contained therein? And is there any extra effort involved in accomplishing this? Indeed, the significant point is that the worshipper, his efforts, the time he employs, all remain the same.

It is like using the eyes to see what is close by, and equally employing them to see far and beyond. In both cases, the eyes alone see. Do they see only the small, near and few, or do they acquire the vision of the endless spatial variety? In the second case, a sense of expanse, vastness and abundance is bound to arise in the mind.