7.21 I make their faith steady Krishna speaks
यो यो यां यां तनुं भक्तः श्रद्धयार्चितुमिच्छति
तस्य तस्याचलां श्रद्धां तामेव विदधाम्यहम्
yo yo yāṁ yāṁ tanuṁ bhaktaḥ śhraddhayārchitum ichchhati
tasya tasyāchalāṁ śhraddhāṁ tām eva vidadhāmyaham
Whatever form anyone wishes to worship with faith, I make their faith in it steady.
Explanation
I make their faith in it steady.
Whatever form anyone wishes to worship with faith — he steadies them in it.
Read plainly this is a remarkable concession, and it is not grudging: the assistance is active. He is described as helping the worship of something other than himself, on the grounds that the faith is real.
Going further
Word by word
- yaḥ yaḥ
- whoever
- yām yām
- whichever
- tanum
- form
- bhaktaḥ
- devotee
- śhraddhayā
- with faith
- architum
- to worship
- ichchhati
- desires
- tasya tasya
- to him
- achalām
- steady
- śhraddhām
- faith
- tām
- in that
- eva
- certainly
- vidadhāmi
- bestow
- aham
- I
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Whatever form anyone wishes to worship with faith, I make their faith in it steady.
Read plainly, this is a remarkable concession. The next verses go on to say such worship yields a limited fruit — but the faith itself is described as divinely supported, whatever it is aimed at. The Gita is willing to be generous and unsentimental in the same breath.