Verse 9.23
येऽप्यन्यदेवता भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विताः ।
तेऽपि मामेव कौन्तेय यजन्त्यविधिपूर्वकम् ॥
Transliteration
ye'pyanyadevatā bhaktā yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ |
te'pi māmeva kaunteya yajantyavidhipūrvakam ||
By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · @indic-transliteration/sanscript 1.3.3
Translation
Even those devotees who, endowed with faith, worship other gods, worship Me alone, O Arjuna, b the wrong method.
From the owner's sheet · +1 more
Even those devoted to other gods who worship them filled with faith, they too worship me alone, son of Kunti, though not according to the true rule.
By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08 · +1 more
Word by word
By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08
Explanation
Krishna returns to the question of other gods with remarkable openness. Those devoted to other deities who worship them with faith (śraddhā) are, in truth, worshipping Krishna himself, though not according to the proper rule, avidhi-pūrvakam. The verse holds together two ideas: all sincere worship reaches the one source, and yet worship that does not know its true object is incomplete. It allows respect for other forms of devotion while still pointing to a fuller understanding.
By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08