The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : 15-7.

Chapter 15: The Rarest of Devotees-7.

Yet the great Teacher of the Bhagavadgita tells us that the others of a lesser category, who cannot come up to this level of the supreme devotion of self-identity with the Absolute, are also practicing religion in their own manner.

"Ye’py anya-devata-bhakta yajante sraddhayanvitah" : -

meaning -They also worship God in one way or the other.

Because of the faith that they have, they can be regarded as worshippers of God.

They worship, not according to the rule of ideal devotion, but deviating from this rule, they meander in various abysmal regions due to the desires that they have not fulfilled.

They are finally seeking God.

The images that people worship and idols that they adore in the various religions of the world are temporarily taken as God Ultimate, and the wholeheartedness of divine devotion by these temporal idealists to the gods that are worshipped will justify that devotion.

It takes a long time to reach the Supreme God on account of the error that is involved in their devotion, the error being that they consider their god as one among the many and distant or away from them.

Hence this universal religion of the Bhagavadgita includes all faiths, whether they are of a lower degree or a higher degree, and each one is rewarded according to the nearness that characterises that particular devotion in respect of the presence of God.

The nearer one’s consciousness is to the all-pervading God, the greater is the value of that religion.

The more distant we feel God is in the worship of the religion, the lower is that category of this religion.

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued  ....