Bg 3.11

devān bhāvayatānena
te devā bhāvayantu vaḥ
parasparaṁ bhāvayantaḥ
śreyaḥ param avāpsyatha

Word for word: 

devān — demigods; bhāvayatā — having pleased; anena — by this sacrifice; te — those; devāḥ — demigods;bhāvayantu — will please; vaḥ — you; parasparam — mutually; bhāvayantaḥ — pleasing one another; śreyaḥ — benediction; param — the supreme; avāpsyatha — you will achieve.

Translation: 

The demigods, being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you, and thus, by cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign for all.

devān bhāvayatānena, 

The word ānena was used in previous verse also anena is referring to this, this sacrifice 

Bhāvayatā, Devatas becomes satisfied by practice of this Yajna

te devā, those devatas

bhāvayantu vaḥ, they will satisfy you – so this is system of cosmic cooperation – you pefrom Yajna to satisfy to devatas and when they are pleased they will please you and

parasparaṁ bhāvayantaḥ – In this way satisfy each other 

śreyaḥ param avāpsyatha – and by this ultimately you will attain supreme auspiciousness, śreyaḥ param, prosperity will reign for all as SP translates it.

So now if we try to understand this by the perspective of current world view:

Today scientist are almost priest of society they decide this is acceptable or not, there is no conflict between scientist and spiritualist actually there is eternally conflict between atheism (materialism ultimately leads to atheism and they think matter is the higher reality there is no higher reality so they forgo God) and spiritualism. Science is basically tool. Science is like a map so depending on what the map is used for I will see political feature of the country the state boundaries or if the map is a physical map then I see ok there is mountain ranges here there is Plato over here, river over here so it is a map.

So a map in many ways are neutral, a map doesn’t tell what is good or what is bad so science is basically a map. It is a way of looking at the world. 

So unfortunately science is hijacked and monopolized by atheists for their purposes. People say if you are scientific you cannot believe in God, soul etc. Science should be used to glorify God, many scientist are not atheist many people are in the field of science for their livelihood and they wanted to help people by providing comforts etc. And there are some scientist who are aggressively outright fanatically atheists and these people think that religion is the greatest evil in the society. They say that concept of God is the virus that corrupts the mind of people and they are in campaign against God so these kinds of fanatical atheist or right wing atheist we can say they are in minority but they are aggressive and vocal they do propaganda to convert people to the religion of atheism so apart of these people science is a tool like a map so science can be used to look at the world depending on the pre-existing biases of the people they will perceive things accordingly for example there is a lot of evidence of soul and re-incarnation which comes from various sources if science is use to study that then science can be used to actually point towards spirituality.

So Currently science focuses to study materialism but science can also be used to understand and promote spiritualism. We have past life memories, near death experiences, we have phenomena of consciousness and all these actually indicate that the soul is different from the body and the soul goes from one body to another. So these are things which are not unscientific these are talked in science and there is good amount of scientific evidence available.

So the point is, is this conception of demigod scientifically acceptable? It is one thing to say there is Supreme God, even the conception of God many scientist (actually atheists among them) feel that it is not scientific. And many people feels that is if believe in God I have to give up science. No, science is simply a tool, and as a tool it can look at only material things so science in itself can neither prove of disapprove existence of God. There are inferences by which we can understand for example creation of universe it is so intricate that it cannot happen by chance for example here Krishna will talk about rains so when we talk about rains what is the phenomena? Scientist may be able to explain how things happen but if we look at the details … for example we can say water is evaporated by sun and it moves around and where it condenses rain will happen, there is no Indira predominating god for rains, there is no Vishnu it is a simple mechanism, but if we go in integrity to make one small cloud in laboratory is extremely difficult. To evaporate water make a cloud and move it and make it rain is very difficult. 

In fact some scientists tried artificial rains. Artificial rain is like artificial life, all cloud are not rain bearing clouds it doesn’t contains rain so when such clouds are there not much can be done.  So when water bearing cloud is present and it is not condensing to poure down, at that time certain chemicals are spread by which it can start rain, it is called cloud seeding. So it is not artificial rains as waters are not evaporated and transported. The entire mechanism is so complex, we cannot have any control, even in artificial rain there is no control where it will rain, suppose it rains over the river and not on land then whole water is just lost. Also the amount of water present in cloud is not so much that to make this process economically viable. Also artificial rain is considered unviable. We also cannot control about the quantity. So the point is even amidst our best technology these simple things are not easy and economically viable. 

It is a miracle of technology how a cloud is produced we have the water getting evaporated and then basically there is certain chemicals present in atmosphere and those chemicals along with water vapor are mixed and there are some dust particle and other things and it make a cloud and basically a cloud is an air bone mobile water tank that is made of aircraft proof technology, the designer of WTC cannot make anything aircraft proof where an aircraft can pass through and practically there is no leakage, so the cloud itself is miracle of technology, it is made with most ordinary and easily available raw material…PVT is maintained in such a way that some place rains falls and some place it is will not fall. So we may know the mechanism by which rain is happening but the mechanism is not complete explanation. When we say something happens automatically that doesn’t mean absence of a controller, automatically simply means absence of awareness of the controller. E.g. When a child is having automatic toys he is think how the toys is automatically moving around. Or an automatic door which opens when someone approaches near it. 

Similarly nature seems working automatically but this complex mechanism someone is controlling who are devtas. So scientific explanation and scriptural explanations are not contradicting but is complementary. Scriptures don’t go in explaining the mechanism but focus’s on person who is controlling this mechanism. For example in movies we see Indria throws the Vajra and rain starts but that is simply depiction no where scriptures says this is the mechanism.

 Controlling nature there are two ways supplication and manipulation, supplication means praying e.g. someone want good harvest do they pray or do yajnas, and devatas provide, other way is manipulation, means we don’t focus on person who is controlling the mechanism of nature we focuses only on the mechanism of nature, ok now I understood how this mechanism is working let me try to change the mechanism for my purpose. 

For example a gang of thief’s are staying in forest and they see that water supply is going to village the so they cannot go and ask government that we have a community of 50-100 people please supply water as the government will ask what are you doing there? But a tribes can go the government complete the necessary transactions and then government can supply them water so this is supplication. But what thieves will do is they cannot go to government so they will make hole in pipe and connect their pipe so that water can come to their area of stay, this is manipulation. So when we look only the mechanism without looking at the beings who are controlling the mechanisms and then we try to intervene and use things for our own purposes then that is manipulating. 

So in some cases in artificial rains when the cloud is in one state but it is not raining and the cloud is moving to another state they does cloud seeding and get rain and the other state complains that it was our property and how you can do this and there will be court cases, so this is absurd. So interfering through the process of nature is manipulating. And understanding the higher beings and harmonizing with them is supplicating. So these two approaches are not contradictory they are complementary. So when there is a water supply trough pipe it doesn’t mean that there is no authority to it. So both are complementary. 

Sometimes we can say that we don’t believe in these things but whether we believe or not the fact remains that we are enormously depend on nature. We may say we are human beings we got so much of power we have conquered space we have conquered nature but we still remain dependent on nature to a large extent so if we had to pay bills for this we would have become bankrupt.  But if we say that these are automatically provided by nature so as discussed automatic means we are not aware about the controller. 

Now going forward is there some way by which we can verify some higher beings? So the important point is not verification but the spiritual transformation. So as a devotees we shouldn’t have simplistic notion of this. Simplistic notion is when we do kirtans rains comes, it is ok it does happens but it is not just some playing of Kartals or singing of songs produces rains, what produces rains is the principle of harmonization with the Supreme Lord. So as a devotees our primary focus is we don’t do Sankirtan to get rains, Sankirtan is to purify us to develop love for Krishna and to the extent people learn to live in harmony with God then to that extent the rains will come. Natural necessities will be provided but still there are ways by which this can be understood. Many researches have pointed out that actually there is emphircal evidence for consciousness effecting nature so there are communities who try to communicate with plants and by this way they are able to grow vegitables even in barren land this is covered in Deva Garden handbooks. So this is not some mathelogical believe but it is philosophical truth, and philosophical truth can also be verified if we purify ourselves and share the purification with others.

So now what exactly happens when we do Yajna the technicalities are very difficult for us to understand because the principle of devatas and how devatas are worshipped are all subtel. 

Sometime we have very simplistic understanding of things example where is heaven? Heaven is up, well that is true but what does that up mean actually? Now up or above India and up or above USA are in two different directions, where it is actually? So that up is not a simplistic geographical up? In the vedic cosmos there is a vertical dimensions, the vertical dimensions points to a karmic Y-axis and on karmic Y-axis there are different planets which are at different levels, so the Swarga Loka is above in the 5th canto of SB there is a description of Vedic cosmology where multiple levels are discussed. Which means higher karmic qualifications are required to ascend to Swarga.

So the initial point is we are trying to harmonize with cosmic governance and Yajna is the means by which we will harmonize. As discussed earlier the essence yajna is sacrifice, like in credic card system we put the money and we can use card so depending upon the system of economy, the culture the method of exchange may be different. But the principle of exchange is universally understood. So Krishna is talking here about the principle of exchange, devān bhāvayatānena
te devā bhāvayantu vaḥ, we satisfy the devastas and the devatas satisfy us. So we put money into the bank and the bank will give us credit card, so this is the system of exchange. Same way system of Yajna is to exchange. So Srila Prabhupada said performance of Yajna is like paying the tax to the government, so when we pay the tax government gives us results, government gives us rewards, and what are the rewards, the rewards are in terms of the necessities of life which they provide, so this is a whole profound system. And in Kaliyuga the recommended form of Yajna is Sankirtan, so when we do Sankirtan we are harmonizing with the universal system of government. So chanting, dancing in Sankirtan are ways but in our example of robbers in forest…if few robbers say that we want supply of water in our village and we will pay tax to government so that water supply reaches us, will water supply come to the village? It may or it may not!!! Overall if the whole community decides to do so then the water supply will be given by the government. So similarly if few devotees starts chanting Hare Krishna in a place where there is droughts, will rains come they may or they may not!!! It depends on mass Karma of people over there. And various factors over there. So our goal is not to do Yajna to counter the law of Karma, the law of Karma is action produces reactions, so if there are shortage of water that is because people has done some bad Karma that is why people have shortage of water, so our goal is to provide people proper philosophical education and to encourage them to reform themselves so when people stop bad Karma then the nature will start providing necessities. And in that way there is harmonization with the nature and there will be provision of necessities so our focus is not to perform Yajna to provide rains our focus is doing Yajna chanting and glorifying the Supreme Lord by which people will learn to live in harmony with cosmic nature then rains will automatically follow.

SP mentioned from Vedas: āhāra-śuddhau sattva-śuddhiḥ sattva-śuddhau dhruvā smṛtiḥ smṛti-lambhe sarva-granthīnāṁ vipramokṣaḥ. By performance of yajña one’s eatables become sanctified, and by eating sanctified foodstuffs one’s very existence becomes purified; by the purification of existence finer tissues in the memory become sanctified, and when memory is sanctified we started remembering Krishna we started remembering our spiritual reality then we are no longer attached to material things then sarva-granthīnāṁ, all material attachments are vipramokṣaḥ, we become liberated from them,