Bhagavagd Gita - Session 13- Track 1302

Then He says:

devān bhāvayatānena te devā bhāvayantu vaḥ |
parasparaṃ bhāvayantaḥ śreyaḥ param avāpsyatha ||11|| (III)

Now, is the concept of devān: “May you foster the gods by the performance of sacrifice, in turn may the gods foster you. Thus fostering each other, may you attain the supreme good.”

This is a very important concept: what are the gods? What is their role? Do the gods exist? There has been in the history of thought a great deal of discussion about the existence of the gods. There are some religions, which do not believe in gods at all, like Buddhism and Jainism does not believe in the existence of God. But some religions, which do not believe in the existence of God, they believe in gods. And some religions believe only in God, but not in gods. And some religions believe both in God and in gods.

Here we have this Vedic revelation, that apart from God, there are gods; but these gods are nothing but cosmic powers; they are not independent, they are not original, they are not ultimate: they themselves are nothing but different forms and different powers of one God. But they have a role to play, in such a way that each one of them has been assigned a task. This was another discovery of the Veda, that apart from God, there are gods, and each god has a function, has a role to play.

In other words they have found out that the whole universe is like a huge machinery of administration, in which there are hierarchies, and that there are some who are more supreme, having more powers, some other lesser powers, and then, they have got various kinds of relationships among themselves. One of the great contributions of the Veda is to tell us, which god has what power. It is as if the Vedic Rishis went into the whole administration of the universe, and after examining the entire administration they gave us a direct and continuous idea of the entire administration of the world.

They found out that there is first of all the Sun: Sun is a word, Surya, Savitri, which is the most powerful entity, and everything can be derived through the Sun power. Sun, which we see physically, is only symbol, but really speaking, there is a power, which can be called Savitri, which can be called Surya. In the Veda many names have been given to this power. This Sun has a position, which is intermediate between the Supreme and the world, so that all that happens in the world happens through the Sun: it is the intermediary.

This Sun has got four guardians. You cannot approach the Sun. If you are here and you want to approach the Sun, the Sun power, according to the Veda you cannot reach that Sun power without passing through four guardians, four sentinels. In other words, unless they are worshiped, unless they are pleased, that is unless you offer yourself to them, then they give you back: this is the law of sacrifice. If you want to enter into the Sun power, then first approach these four powers, and therefore you offer first of all yourself to these four powers, then they in return will give you openings to the gates of the Sun power: they are like sentinels at the gates. The Sun is surrounded by four gates, and at each gate there is one of these four powers. They are so powerful because the Sun is the Supreme through which everything can occur.

In other words, the source of “Eventology” is the Sun power. If you want any event to occur, you cannot create any event, particularly those events which are not occurring now, and you want a new event to occur, which has never happened up till now, this cannot happen except through the Sun. If you want some event, which has not occurred, it is not at present in the rhythm of the world, and you want to create a new event altogether, then that can occur only there, in the Sun power: you have to approach the Sun power. How can you reach the Sun power?

You have to, first of all, propitiate these four sentinels, four guardians: they are also called Kings, in the language of the Veda, they are called Raja: they are the four Kings. These four Kings have got their own demands: they will not immediately allow you to enter, unless you propitiate and satisfy them, and they have got their conditions: it’s like entering into a ministry and there is a sentinel and you have to go to reception, and you have to get a pass, and then you have to know which officer you have to meet; and different officers require different kinds of permissions. Similarly, in this administration of the world, there is this kind of process: before you reach Sun, you have to reach these four.