Q: What is Ishta devata?
Let us contemplate Ishta Devata. Ishta Devata means a deity whom I like. So, we have so many Deities. What are these Deities? Who are these Deities? Are there many Gods?
All of us are actually praying to one Divine, one God, one Supreme Being, one Supreme Reality. That is called Parabrahma, Parameshwara. The Parabrahma or Parameshwara is beyond our thought, beyond our mind and beyond our intellect. There is no way we can reach Parabrahma or Parameshwara or the Supreme Reality through our mind & intellect.
To give an example: There was a frog in the well. A bird comes and sits on the wall of the well and starts singing. The frog asks the bird “What are you doing”? Bird says, “I am singing the praise of ocean”. The frog asks, “What is Ocean?”. The bird replies as “Ocean is full of water”. Then the frog asks, “How much water?”. The bird replies “Too much”. Then the frog shows the hand says, “Is this much?”. The bird replies “No! It is more”. The frog questions again, “As much as this well?”. The bird replies, “No! It is more”. Then frog finally concludes by saying “You are lying”.
Similarly, our mind and intellect are very, very limited in understanding the Supreme Reality. The Supreme Reality can be understood only when the mind, body and intellect become totally silent. That is called surrender. So, you can be one with the Supreme Being, but you cannot know the Supreme Being. So, that Supreme Being, Supreme Reality, we worship.
But, for our worship, we need a concrete idea. Concrete thought process. Because our minds are limited in nature. Definitely, we cannot comprehend that Supreme Being. So, we have to take some aspect of the Supreme Being and worship. And these aspects are represented through various Deities. These are the qualities of the Supreme Being represented through various Deities. And the quality which you want and which you like very much is called Ishta Devata. Devata is not the Supreme Being, Devata is nothing but the Divine, the personification of the Divine qualities of the Supreme Being.
We have many Ishta Devatas possible, and these Ishta devatas represent Divine qualities in various aspects. So, you can think of the Supreme Being and Divine qualities, like, fire and qualities of fire. The fire has a burning ability. The fire gives out light. Now, the fire itself you cannot comprehend totality without light and burning. So, if you take one aspect of fire, which is burning and start looking at the fire, that is actually equivalent to looking at the Supreme Being through one of the Deities. Ultimately, the Deity is not the goal, the Supreme Being is the goal. The Deity shows the path. That is, what is, our Deity worship is about.
We instinctively get attracted to certain Deity. This Deity which attracts us, is called the ‘Ishta devata’ and we worship the Deity, we pray to the Deity with an idea of purification of our inner Consciousness, so that, we can reach the Supreme Being, Supreme Reality, when the body, mind, and the intellect become silent and purified. The Deity we worship may have different qualities. For e.g.: When we worship Shiva, we are actually looking at the detachment, vairagya and jnana aspect, which is predominant in Shiva. Narayana or Vishnu has more of a compassion aspect, a love aspect. Lakshmi has a wealth aspect.
So, each of the Deities has special characteristics, attributes, which they bestow on us. By constantly thinking of the Deity, chanting the mantra of the Deity, those Divine qualities start manifesting in us. By constantly contemplating on the Deity, meditating, thinking, those Divine qualities manifest in us. Because you become what you think. This is actually what we call, a deep inner purification. Remember, we are worshipping the Deity through mind and intellect, which is limited in you. By constant meditation on the Deity, chanting the Deity mantra, these instruments get purified, so that we open up for the higher reality or Supreme Being.
The inner purification happens in four stages. They are called Salokya, Sameepya, Saropya and Sayugya.
Salokya means that you start feeling the presence of the Deity. When you are meditating or when you are chanting the name of the Deity, you start feeling the presence.
Samipya means that your mind has become more purified and you mentally start feeling a closeness to the Deity. Mental closeness means, when I say I am close to somebody, really what I am saying is, our minds are matching. So, you start for e.g.: Deity worship has a vairagya and jnana as quality. So, you also start acquiring the qualities of vairagya and jnana in your life. From, there you move on to Saropya.
Saropya means that the mind becomes so pure that most of the qualities of the Deity manifest in you. You become the embodiment of vairagya and jnana. If we are worshipping Deity with vairagya and jnana as main qualities or compassion, these will manifest in you fully.
And finally, Sayugya means that ultimately you merge with the Deity. It is not Deity, but ultimately when a merger happens, your mind has become so pure, your mind becomes so silent and merges with the qualities of the Divinity and you become and you open up for realization of the ultimate, the Supreme Being.
This is called Salokya, Sameepya, Saropya and Sayugya. It is also called Krama Mukti or progressive liberation.
Pranams.
References:
Sk17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m8NPwekAO8
Self Knowledge_T17_Ishta Devata_12Apr2016