7.23 antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ (Original)

SrI:  SrImathE SatakOpAya nama:  SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:  SrImath varavaramunayE nama:

Chapter 7

<< Chapter 7 verse 22

Simple

antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ
tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām
devān deva-yajo yānti
mad-bhaktā yānti mām api

‘But to those of small understanding, (all) fruit has an ending. The votaries of the deities join the deities; My votaries join Myself.’

The fruits or rewards which the witless men who worship lower deities like Indra etc., obtain, are trivial and transient. Why?

Because the worshippers of Indra etc., go to those very divinities whom they worship. The blessed state of Indra etc., is indeed restricted, and lasts, besides, for a time only. The worshippers achieve but that blessed state as is on a par with that of Indra etc., but when Indra and other deities reach the end of their happy state, they fall; with them do their worshippers necessarily also fall.

As for My worshippers, they also perform the very same acts of worship as those men, but they do them with the knowledge that they are acts of My worship; and do them without regard for their appropriate fruits; do them as acts having for their reward nothing else than the pleasure they afford Me. My devotees, thus, attain to Myself, and they do not return (or fall, as the others do). Verily so, it is declared:—

(Mām upetya etc.,) ‘But, by joining Me, Kaunteya! there is no re-birth.’ (viii-16).

In the following verse, the Lord says: there are people who disregard even My Avatars among men undertaken for the express purpose that they may have easy access to Me.

>> Chapter 7 verse 24

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