 Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Thirty-four–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
 Worshippers and the Worshipped
“Whatever wish men bring me in worship, that wish I grant them. Whatever path men travel is my path: no matter where they walk it leads to me.”
For us raised in the “light that is darkness” of Western religion, every verse of the Gita is a revelation of stunning proportions. It is impossible to rate them on the inane “one to ten” scale, but certainly this is one of the most revelatory of them all–it opens vistas that free and expand the heart as we never dreamed possible. Let us look at them and rejoice in them. For Sanatana Dharma is not a dose of medicine or a contract of obligation; it is the key that unlocks our shackles, the light that dispels darkness and reveals the wonders of The Way Things Are.
Prabhavananda’s translation is somewhat explanatory. Literally it should read: “In whatever way they take refuge in me, thus do I reward them. O Partha, men follow my path everywhere.” However, it will be good to follow Prabhavanandaji’s lead and use his phrases. Whatever wish
“Whatever wish men bring me in worship, that wish I grant them.” Here Krishna is speaking of the quality or basic character of the desire expressed in worship. After all, God hardly gives us anything we want. I have known of people who went to church or temple and prayed for the death of someone. One confused man I knew spent hours each day in church praying that in the morning he would wake up a woman. So if we desire something that is negative or foolish, that is worthy only of being ignored, God will respond by ignoring it.
If we come seeking spiritual relief and healing, we will receive that. If we come seeking understanding, that will be given us. If we come yearning for living contact with God, that shall be ours. In other words, God will listen to the inmost movements of our hearts and grant any worthy seeking. As already said, it is the character, the quality, of our taking refuge that will determine the outcome. No legitimate seeking is fruitless.
It is not the form of the seeking, the externalities, that matter, but the interior intention/disposition of the heart that evokes the divine response and determines its character. Here, too, it is a matter of sowing and reaping. Whatever path
“Whatever path men travel is my path.” This is wonderful to contemplate. Every single human being is travelling a path that ultimately belongs to God. This is logical, since He is the source of all. They may be misusing that path, but it cannot change the fact that every thought and act of a human being has its roots in the Divine Being. Humans may subvert and trivialize the power of God, but they cannot wrest it from Him. In time its true nature will be revealed. This is why we read so much of men and women who were spiritually awakened and redirected in the midst of their folly and wrongdoing. Some have stepped from darkness into light in the very act of evil–which they turned from in gladness. Many have found God present in the depths of degradation. That is why the Psalmist wrote:
“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.”
This we can know: whatever path anyone is now following, however evil it may seem, it is fundamentally God’s path, and therefore He assures us: Wherever
“No matter where they walk It leads to me.” These few words make me recall a wonderfully peaceful evening when I was going down the holy Narmada river in a sailboat to an ashram on the banks of the river. As the boat glided along it came to the large bathing ghat of the town of Chandod. A hundred or more people were there, sitting looking over the river, visiting, or engaged in various tasks including bathing and laundry. As I watched this tranquil spectacle, for some reason the Christian missionaries in India popped into my mind. What a different reaction they would have! To my mind I was viewing blessed souls making their way toward the Divine Goal, souls whose ultimate destiny was assured. But the missionaries would see lost and darkened souls destined to be dragged off to eternal hell unless they (the missionaries) proclaimed the Gospel and persuaded them to “accept the Lord Jesus Christ”–someone they already believed in as a Son of God in a manner far more realistic than the erroneous theology of the missionaries. Because of this difference in viewpoints I was living in heaven; but they would be in hell (already).
Wherever a human being walks, however tangled the path or how dark the surroundings, eventually it will emerge in the light and they will know themselves as children of the Light. This is a marvelous truth. It also points out that all spiritual seeking, whatever its flaws may be, will lead to God. Yes, even the anxious and tortured missionaries will find in time that their sincere endeavors have produced positive karma that will enable them to move from ignorance to wisdom. Then they, too, will know that “Whatever wish men bring me in worship, that wish I grant them. Whatever path men travel is my path: no matter where they walk It leads to me.” A “footnote”
Of course, not all spiritual seeking is really spiritual. Therefore Krishna makes this comment: “Most men worship the gods because they want success in their worldly undertakings. This kind of material success can be gained very quickly here on earth.”
Whether many gods, or the One God, are worshipped by people, their worship is usually not God-oriented, but centered in this world and their material aims. However, those aims are obtained by them, because no attention given to God is in vain. Moreover, faith is produced in them by their answered prayers so that when they do come to seek God for the right reasons their faith will strengthen and motivate them.
The sum and substance is this: Worship God, worship God, worship God…and find God. It is assured.
Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.
1) Bhagavad Gita 4:11 [Go back]
2) “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23) [Go back]
3) Psalms 139:7-11 [Go back]
4) Bhagavad Gita 4:12 [Go back] |
