udaaraah sarva evaite jnaanee twaatmaiva  me matam
    aasthitah sa hi yuktaatma  maamevaanuttamaam gatim // 7.18 //
   
    Noble  indeed are all these; but I deem the wise man as My very Self, for steadfast in  mind, he is established in Me alone as the Supreme goal.

All  devotees are noble because of the very fact that they are approaching the Self.  But the wise is exceedingly dear to Him because he has a steady mind, with a  single pointed concentration on Him. He does not desire any worldly objects  except the Supreme Being. He seeks Him alone as the goal. He practices  meditation on Him as the Self of all. He tries to realize that he is identical  with the Supreme Self. So The Lord regards him as His very Self.

While  the first three types attempt to use God according to their ideas, the Wise  belong to God to be used according to His will. Therefore they are the best  among them all.

By  calling the man of wisdom His own self, the Lord shows that there is no  difference between Himself and the man of wisdom. Such a devotee is the same as  God, and God is the same as the devotee. There is absolute identity between the  two.

bahoonaam janmanaamante jnaanavaanmaam  prapadyate
    vaasudevah sarvamiti sa mahaatmaa  sudurlabhah // 7.19 //

At  the end of many births the wise-man takes refuge in Me, realizing that Vaasudeva  (the innermost Self) is all ; such a great soul (Mahatma) is very difficult to  find.

It  is rare to find in a community of men people of rational thinking and diviner  emotions. Even among those who have fully developed mental and intellectual  capacities it is only a rare few that take up study of scriptures seriously. All  those who study scriptures do not try to live up to them, but feel satisfied in  understanding their contents. Only the rarest of the few reach the goal of  their evolution and discover their true nature of divine perfection.

This  process of evolution takes place during several lives in different births.  However, it does not mean those who strive  hard in this birth have no chance of realizing the goal of life. The very fact  that the seeker has found disappointment with his present state of existence  and finds attracted towards Upanishadic literature itself means that he has  reached the threshold of the Self.

A  little more faithful pursuit of the higher life will take him to the highest  state of evolution. At the end of his efforts spread over several births the  seeker attains the Inner Self and realizes that everything is Vaasudeva (Self)  only in the ultimate analysis. ‘All’ implies that the whole Universe with its  sentient and insentient beings is nothing but the manifestation of Vaasudeva  and that there is nothing apart from Him.

It  is indeed very difficult to find such a great soul. None is equal to him.  “Association with great souls is not only rare but hard to obtain, though  unfailing in its effect”. Narada Bhakti Sutra.

N.B.Vaasudeva  means the Lord, the innermost Self of all beings, Sri Krishna. Vasudeva means  Sri Krishna’s father and husband of Devaki.

TOLERATION

kaamaistaistairhritajnaanaah  prapadyante'nyadevataah
    tam tam niyamamaasthaaya prakrityaa  niyataah swayaa // 7.20 //

Those,  whose discrimination has been distorted by desires, resort to other gods,  observing various rituals, led by their own natures.

Desire  for sense objects and their gratification is the greatest cause which separates  the discriminating faculty from human intellect. It is discrimination which  makes man conscious of his Self. But when the discriminative capacity is  deprived of, the deluded individuals engage themselves in some ritualism,  dictated by their inborn tendencies to propitiate some Deity or the other. The  Deity referred to here means various joys contained in the different sensuous  fields which are sought due to intense desires for getting complete  satisfaction from them.

The  chain of `Desires - Thoughts - Actions' disturbs the mental equanimity  resulting in loss of discrimination. With the loss of discrimination he  propitiates the productive potential of the given fields of activity which is  called a Devata. As the invocation is required to be done in a particular  manner to achieve specific results he follows ritualistic practices. In this  process each man follows his own way because each individual acts according to  his mental impressions gathered in his earlier moments of activity and thought.

In  short this verse implies that a deluded entity strives hard through various  rituals, goes after the mirage of sensuality hoping to gain satisfaction  therein that it will be everlasting while a man of discrimination finds out the  pointlessness of sensuous pursuits and withdraws himself from all the  unprofitable fields and seeks the path of the Real.

yo yo yaam yaam tanum bhaktah  shraddhayaarchitum icchati
    tasya tasyaachalaam shraddhaam taameva  vidadhaamyaham // 7.21 //

Whatever  may be the form a devotee seeks to worship with Sraddha (Faith), in that form  alone I make his faith unwavering.

Sri  Krishna declares that wherever and in whatever form any devotee seeks to  worship with belief, He makes that faith unshakable. Faith here implies  unmitigated belief in the existence of divine intelligence, in their glory and  virtues and in the methods of their worship and its rewards. The more we think  in a particular fashion the more we become so. Faith alone brings success in  worship. All deities are only minor forms of the all pervading Supreme Lord.

The  deepening of the devotee’s faith in every form of worship comes only from the  Lord. Through this intense faith the devotee obtains the result of his worship,  even though he has set before himself a limited goal. It is the Lord alone who  bestows the fruit of worship.

“All  worship elevates. No matter what we revere, so long as our reverence is  serious, it helps progress. Every surface derives its soil from the depths even  as every shadow reflects the nature of the substance”. - Dr.S.Radhakrishnan.

sa tayaa shraddhayaa yuktastasyaaraadhanameehate
    labhate cha tatah kaamaan mayaiva  vihitam hi taan // 7.22 //

Endowed  with that faith, he worships that form and from it attains his desires, which  are in reality, granted by Me (alone).

The  seeker, equipped with that kind of faith as described in the previous verse,  invokes the Devata of his choice and gains his desires. These desires are all  nourished by Him alone. The Self is the source of all activities. The sense of  joy or sorrow out of these activities is a mental-wave. We will not be aware of  this experience of joy or sorrow but for the principle of consciousness.

Faithful  activity in any field of action brings about success. But the capacity to act,  the existence of the field of action, the consistency and zeal with which  action is performed, are all due to the Self alone. Sri Krishna identifies  Himself with this Spiritual Centre - The Self- and declares that He alone is  the One who confers faith in all activities and when the actions are over He  alone provides the results thereof.

The  Supreme and Omniscient Lord alone knows the precise relationship between an  action and its rewards. He is the dispenser of the fruit of action.

All  forms are forms of the One Supreme; their worship is the worship of the  Supreme; the giver of all rewards is the Supreme - Sridhara Swami.

antavat tu phalam teshaam  tadbhavatyalpamedhasaam
    devaan devayajo yaanti madbhaktaa yaanti  maamapi // 7.23 //

Verily,  the fruit that accrues to those men of small minds is finite. The worshipers of  the Deities go to the Deities, but My devotees come to Me.

Since  the deluded ones desire for finite sense objects they do not come to the  all-satisfying peace and hence their results are also temporary and finite. They  are called men of small minds because they take petty objects of enjoyment as  the Supreme Goal.

Even  if satisfaction is achieved after attaining the desired sensuous objects, it is  ineffectual because after some time such satisfaction will end followed by  sorrows. Any enjoyment in the world of time and space invariably has to come to  an end.

The  statement worshippers of Deities go to the Deities means that those who invoke  a desired manifestation of the Lord in the relative world or aspect of the  Supreme, gain only that particular result sought for and nothing else, for the  Supreme accepts our prayers and answers them at the level we approach Him. No  devotion goes in vain.

As  against this those who devote themselves to The Lord go to Him since people  through right living come to discover their identity with the Eternal Absolute  and realize the transcendental and eternal aspect of the spirit. Those who rise  to the worship of the Transcendental Godhead which embraces and transcends all  aspects realize and attain the highest state, integral in being, perfect in  knowledge, absolute in love and complete in will. All other deities are only  partial and limited and have a meaning only at lower level of development.

The  same exertion is needed for the worship of the Lord or the minor deities; but  the results are totally different. Yet men, deluded by transitory desires, do  not seek the Lord Himself, who is the source of all peace, happiness and  knowledge.