Bhagavad Gita 4.12

kāṅkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṁ siddhiṁ

yajanta iha devatāḥ

kṣipraṁ hi mānuṣe loke

siddhir bhavati karma-jā

 

“For worldly success through actions they aspire,

They worship the gods to gain their desire.

In this mortal world of men,

Fruits of action come swiftly to them.”

 

My dear Lord, your concern is not for your own glorification but for my elevation. That is why you mercifully provide alternative objects of worship for me — the many gods — if I am unwilling or somehow unable to worship you. Indeed, it is you who empower the gods so that they can fulfill my desires. However, the difference between them fulfilling my desires and you fulfilling them is that you are truly concerned about my welfare, not just about whether I am offering proper worship. Because of your untiring concern for my welfare, you are not satisfied with a mere exchange where I offer worship, and you satisfy my desires. 

You want to transform my consciousness so that I truly understand which desires are actually desirable for me. If I desire things that you know will intoxicate me with ego or addictive attachment, you do not fulfill those desires until I am purified enough to safely utilize those things. Just as you are selfless, my Lord, in providing me alternatives to you as objects of worship and let me also become a tiny bit selfless in considering alternatives to my own desires as pathways to happiness. Please grant me the conviction that you can provide me happiness even if my specific desires are not fulfilled. Help me, my Lord, to always stay connected with you without making that connection conditional to your fulfillment of my desires.

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04.12 Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore they worship the demigods. Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world.