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Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7 Verse 16 - Swami Vivekananda Explains

Four kinds of virtuous men worship me, O Arjuna, the dissatisfied, the seeker of (systematized) knowledge, the seeker of wealth and the wise, O best among the Bharata (Bhagavad Gita chapter 7. verse 16).


Swami Vivekananda explains the verse

Shri Krishna says in the Gita (7.16), ‘Four classes of people worship Me: the distressed, the seeker of material things, the inquirer, and the knower of truth.’

People who are in distress approach God for relief. If they are ill, they worship Him to be healed; if they lose their wealth, they pray to Him to get it back.

There are other people who ask Him for all kinds of things, because they are full of desires—name, fame, wealth, position and so on. They will say, ‘…, I will make an offering to you if I get what I want. If you are successful in granting my prayer, I will worship God and give you a part of everything.’

Men not so material as that, but still with no faith in God, feel inclined to know about Him. They study philosophies, read scriptures, listen to lectures, and so on. They are the inquirers.

The last class are those who worship God and know Him.

All these four classes of people are good, not bad. All of them worship Him.