God's plan is better than our desires

Let us start with a story called "The Greatest Devotee". The sage Narada once asked Vishnu who was his greatest devotee. Narada was a devout Vaishnav and chanted the Lord’s name all day, so he was sure that Vishnu would say it was him. Vishnu knew this and decided to deflate Narada’s ego. He pointed out a poor farmer tilling the earth and said, “That man right there is my greatest devotee. He and his family will easily survive every famine and he will gain Moksha the moment he dies.”

Narada was surprised and decided to find out why his Lord gave this honour to the ignorant farmer than to him. He observed that the farmer woke up early, took a bath, and offered a small prayer to a crude idol before going to the fields. There he worked until noon and prayed before having his lunch. He toiled away the entire afternoon too. After returning home in the evening, he lit a lamp and said another prayer before having dinner and going to sleep.

Narada came back to Vishnu, arguing that the farmer only took the Lord’s name 3 times a day. Surely he wasn't worthy of being called the greatest devotee! Vishnu said that he would give him a detailed answer if he managed to carry a shallow bowl, full to the brim with oil, and circumnavigate the entire universe without spilling a drop. Narada succeeded and came back to the Lord for his answer. Vishnu asked him, “While you were doing this task, how many times did you think about me?” Narada was incredulous. “I was too busy doing the job you gave me and trying not to spill a single drop, my Lord. I had no time to think of you.” “That farmer does the job I gave him too. But he still makes the effort to thank me for his lot in life. And that is exactly why he is worthy of my favour.”

Another story called "A Cup Full of Milk". A childless king once had a dream in which the Lord Shiva came to him and revealed that an extremely pious but deeply impoverished person resided in his capital. He told the king that helping this person would be such a good deed that fortune would smile upon him and he would be granted an heir. But before the king could ask how he was to find this individual, the dream ended and he woke up.

The greatest of the great priests and astrologers were summoned to interpret this dream. A consensus was reached that on an auspicious day, the king should host a great festival at the Shiva temple and every citizen would be asked to contribute a bit of milk for bathing the Lingam. If such a pious person did in fact exist, the gods would send a sign. The festival started off without a hitch. But when the time came to bathe the idol in milk, a curious thing happened : no matter how much milk was poured, the channel surrounding the Lingam refused to fill. The royal couple, the ministers, the merchants, the priests, the farmers, everyone collectively poured entire buckets of milk. But there was always just a little bit more needed to make the channel fill up. It seemed as if the stone was drinking all the milk. Nobody could understand it and many took it to be an ill omen.

Just when they were all about to give up, a tattered old woman hobbled into the temple with a small cup of milk. She requested the crowd to move aside and let her offer her bit of milk. The people ridiculed her, asking her what she expected to do with her little cup where entire buckets had failed. She humbly said that she simply wanted to pay her respects to god.

And lo and behold! That little cup didn't just fill the channels, it made them overflow and the entire sanctum sanctorum was flooded with the sweet liquid. The old woman was a widow looking after her two grandchildren and a daughter-in-law by herself after her husband and son passed away in a famine. While everyone else had simply brought all the milk they had, she ensured that everyone in her family was fed before bringing along the excess milk for worship. Needless to say, when the king heard this, the entire family received royal patronage and the kingdom was soon blessed with many princes and princesses.

Third story is about "Two Traders". There were two traders, Ram and Gopal, who set up shop in a market, side by side. They were both good men, but they nevertheless had to engage in a bit of foul play now and then to eke out a profit and feed their families. Ram was a very religious man. He prayed every day and donated a reasonable amount of money when he went to the temple every Monday, simply because he feared the wrath of the gods for all his misdeeds, like a thief fears the police. Gopal on the other hand did not go to the temple and felt disgusted by Ram’s transactional approach to religion. Instead, he chose to feed the poor beggars languishing on the temple’s steps, the very beggars that Ram consciously ignored during his weekly trips.

It just so happened that they died of old age in the same time frame. Thus, they ended up in the courts of Yama together. First was Ram’s turn and it was brought up that he had sinned by cheating people regularly in his trading, but he had managed to wash off a quarter of those sins by his religiosity. He was sentenced to a fortnight in hell where he would be lashed with a red-hot iron everyday and after that was over, he would be sent back to earth to be reborn in the house of a marginal silk merchant.

Gopal had the same accusations brought against him, but he had managed to completely absolve himself of sin through serving the poor without having any selfish motives. He had proven himself of being a very conscientious soul and was granted a choice between 6 months in heaven followed by rebirth as a poor merchant or immediate rebirth as a rich prince. He chose the latter and managed to gain Moksha in the next birth by donating all his wealth to feed his subjects during a famine, while Ram’s soul was still stuck in the web of birth and death.

So you see, it isn't that the gods play favourites depending on whether you pray or not, but on whether you do good deeds. Prayer and worship are in fact considered ways to please gods, sure, but that takes a lot of work for it to have any major effect. Only when your devotion can make the mountains quake and the oceans boil do the gods sit up and take notice.

Worship is a conscious act of Karma and except for the impersonal Brahman or Paramatma which doesn't even differentiate between itself and the rest of the world, all our gods are actually finite beings with emotions and egos that like to be pampered. So obviously worship gives you a better standing in the eyes of the divine (remember, they earned their way to heaven, and they were once mortal too).

But no amount of worship will ever wash off all your sins. That's like trying to bribe the police to let you get away with murder. No god is above the laws of Karma and many have even been cursed by human beings. Like Indra’s sin of murdering an unarmed priest, Vishnu being turned to stone by the mortal Vrinda, Brahma getting his fifth head chopped off by Shiva for misbehaviour, Shiva being cursed by sage Bhrigu, the entire population of heaven being kicked out by sage Durvasa’s curse, the list is endless!

So in conclusion, karma is more potent than bhakti. Just a few very good deeds can do the job of years of devotion. Motives are also important. The god of course gives better treatment who invests time with him, and its not at all partial but true justice. All people get things as per there karmas and we cant spare a second without doing karma and doing spiritual karma is of course a karma and as per karma law they doers gets fruit accordingly and fruit of sat karmas are also granted by god hence there things get solved easily, if they are honest there sins will be destroyed and god certainly protects them as per there own karma.

And doing such is justice ,and in this regard god is not partial any body can worship him have shraddha bhakti for him and see what those mundane people do if they don't take some time even for spiritual upliftment ,they are busy in stink of mundane ,being idle in there spare time or seeing masala news ,gossiping for nothing and waste there time here and there in fact that is also karma. Check for yourselves try to have a meal listening to Satsang or bhajan u like and see ,how u feel after meals and than do as usually people do ,watch tv ,ridiculous tamasic masala news etc and see how you feel afterwards people with subtle mind can easily understand it.

So its not that god doesn't like those who don't worship him but he stays neutral with them they will get as per there karmas only ,And those who revere him he becomes helpful ,very positive for them as Shri Krishna said “I attend people the way they see me” and when some one is recognizing him as compassionate wish granter sin crusher he becomes such for them ,those who do not they get what as per there karma ,god is not partial to them they are getting as per their karma.

And know god does not needs sycophants neither he enjoys people chanting praising doing worship to him ,because no one can give him anything everything already belongs to him these poojas etc have you seen any gods eloping away with prasad or gifts offered to him ,no ways people distribute among themselves he simply blesses the prasad and accepts all worships happily because of his compassion for his devotees and same he says in Shrimad Bhagwad Gita in which we have Bhagwan saying - ?????? ?????????? ? ?? ????????????? ? ?????? This is clearly a mention that the Ishwara is impartial. He is equal for all, equanimous towards all.

Individual beings have karma, and Ishwara is the bestower of fruits of action of that karma (karma-phaal-data). He is an impartial one at that, just like a judge who upholds the law of the land, the Lord upholds dharma. Prayer, in whatever form, is also a karma. If one does japa, it is maanasa karma. If one does bhajans, that is then vaachika/manana karma. If one does puja externally, it is again kaayika karma (physical action) and maanasa karma (hopefully). All these are karma. They have their own appropriate effects. Prayers are neither viewed favourably by the Lord nor are actions like himsa (unnecessary violence) viewed by the Lord with scorn. The Lord wants nothing and thus is not really elated or irritated by anything. Individuals reap what they sow.

The sages often liken Ishwara to be a river, perennially filled with water. Those that go towards it and drink from it can satisfy their thirst and be happy. Those who keep away will continue to have thirst. The river is impartial to all. Those who have bigger containers can have more than those who have smaller ones. Similarly the Lord is enjoyed more by those who do dharmic activities, who are connected to Her emotionally and physically and mentally as well. This has nothing to do with the nature of the Lord. It depends on the nature of the individual. So know that God is never biased for any body ,still those who revere him he takes care of them because of there devotional Karmas and everybody who has honest desire to know him be in spiritual realms is always welcome. Jay Shri Krishna