Now, here the same thing is being presented by the same Supreme Personality of Godhead by His unalloyed mercy to the conditioned souls. We are all conditioned souls. We are under the threefold miseries of this material world, and the Supreme Lord is giving us the opportunity to get out of it by this surrendering process. So if we take up the surrendering process immediately, then God realization is a business for one second. Otherwise, I'll have to go on with this research work for many, many, many, many, many births. Then another question is, may be raised, that "If the Supreme Personality is the ultimate goal and one has to surrender to Him, then why there are so many different processes of worship in the world?" That question may be raised. So that is answered here, in the next verse.
- kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ
- prapadyante 'nya-devatāḥ
- taṁ taṁ niyamam āsthāya
- prakṛtyā niyatāḥ svayā
- (BG 7.20)
There are different kinds of men under different mixture of the modes of nature, and generally, they are not after liberation from this material stage. They want to gain something out of spiritual power. Just like somebody goes to a swami: "O Swamiji, can you give me a medicine? I am suffering from this disease." He thinks, "A doctor is very expensive. Let us go to a swami who can play miracles, and my disease will be cured." Yes. Sometimes we go and... Of course, in your country such swamis are not very easily found, but in India, there are so many so-called swamis. They go to innocent people and they preach that "If you can give me one ounce of gold, I can make it one hundred ounce of gold." Oh, people think those... Everyone seeks, "How many ounce of gold I have got in my home?" So all bring. "I have got some, ten ounce. So give me five hundred ounce." So in this way the swami collects all the gold of the village, and while performing the ceremony, he vanishes and... (laughter)
So this is our disease. When we go to a swami, when we go to a temple, when we go to church, our heart is full with material desires. We want some material profit out of... We practice yoga just to keep the health fit. That's all. That is... Well, for keeping your health, why do you take the shelter of yoga? Oh, you can keep your by ordinary exercise, by regulated diet and by following some health rules. There is no need of practicing yoga. But people are... Because kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.20). That material desires, "I want to keep myself fit to enjoy life. Oh, let me take this yoga," or "Let me go to the church," "Let me have a swami as my spiritual master, order-supplier." So these things are going on all over the world.
So such class of men, they worship different kinds of gods with a desire, with a material desire. They have no idea how to get out of this matter. They want to use this material world to the best capacity. That is their idea. Just like in..., in the Vedic literature there are different recommendations. "Oh, if you want to cure your disease, then you worship sun." So that is fact. Suppose if you are diseased, you simply keep yourself in the sunshine. You'll be cured. You'll be cured. That's a fact. So similarly, "If you want to be beautiful, then you worship such-and-such god. If you want very good learning, education, then you worship such-and-such god."
So there are different kinds of... Therefore sometimes it is misunderstood that "The Hindus have many, many gods, not one God, and they are heathens." But actually this worship is to the God, but there are demigods, demigods. They are worshiped. They're not God—God is one—but they are demigods. Demigods means that they are also living entities just like you and me, but they have got some power. Just like here also we worship some demigods, some government officer. He's also man like me, but he has got some power, and in order to take some advantages of the power, I worship him. I want his favor. Similarly, these kinds of worship of different kinds of gods, the Bhagavad-gītā condemns them. They're not required. The Lord says, kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ prapadyante anya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20). One person does not surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they worship different kinds of gods. Why? Now, kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ: "They have lost their sense out of lust, material lust." That's all. Because our life, this material life, is simply based on lust. We want to enjoy this world. We love this material world because I want to satisfy my senses. So this lust is the perverted reflection of my love of God. In my original constitution, I am made to love God, but because I have forgotten God, therefore I love matter. Love is there. Love is there. Either you love this matter or you love God, but you cannot get out of this loving propensity. Just like sometimes we see: one who hasn't got children, he loves a cat, loves a dog. You see? Why? Because he wants to love something. But in the absence of reality, he puts his faith and love into cats and dogs. So love is there, but that love is now represented in the form of lust. And this lust, when we are baffled in the lust, we become angry. We get wrath. And when we are in wrath, then next stage is illusion. And when we are illusioned, we are doomed. This process is going on.