An oft-quoted Sanskrit saying states, “Just as water falling
from the sky reaches the ocean, the worship offered to the various gods reaches
Keshava.”
Does this saying imply that the worship of all gods is the
same and by extension that all gods are one?
No, because it asserts Krishna’s unique position as the
ultimate object of worship, just as the ocean is the water’s final destination.
When a person pours water into a flowing river, the water
reaches the ocean, but the person doesn’t.
The learned Gita commentator Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura
adapts the water-ocean analogy by inserting the worshiper, not the sky, as the
source of the water. When a person pours water into a flowing river, the water
reaches the ocean, but the person doesn’t. Similarly, the worship offered to
demigods by their worshipers reaches Krishna, but the worshipers themselves
don’t.
Why?
Because their heart is not devoted to Krishna, and the
Bhagavad-gita (08.06) indicates that our strongest attachment determines our
post-mortem destination. The Gita (09.25) makes this generic point specific
with regards to the object of worship by declaring that demigod worshipers
attain the demigods and Krishna’s worshipers attain him. The reason for this
difference in destinations is stated explicitly in the previous verse (09.24):
ignorance of Krishna’s position as the ultimate object of worship. Krishna
heads the cabinet for cosmic management in which the demigods are departmental
ministers.
To accommodate spiritually under-evolved souls not yet ready
to worship him, Krishna sanctions the demigods as intermediate objects of
worship. Just as the tributes offered to the ministers reach the king, the
worship offered to the demigods reaches Krishna. But as the demigod worshipers
don’t know Krishna’s position, their heart’s devotion remains restricted to the
demigods.
If demigod worshipers let Gita wisdom elevate their devotion
to Krishna, then they too can reach him, thereby attaining life’s supreme
destination.
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