9-23

ये तु अन्य देवता भक्ताः यजन्ते श्रद्धयाऽन्विताः ।
तेऽपि मामेव कौन्तेय यजन्ति अविधिपूर्वकम् ॥ २३ ॥

ye tu anya devatA bhaktAH yajante zraddhayA'nvitAH |
te'pi mAmeva kaunteya yajanti avidhipUrvakam || 23 ||

ये तु [ye tu] On the other hand, those who अन्य देवता भक्ताः [anya devatA bhaktAH] are devoted to other sources of power यजन्ते [yajante] worship श्रद्धयाऽन्विताः [zraddhayA'nvitAH] in complete faith. ते अपि [te api] Even they मामेव यजन्ति [mAmeva yajanti] worship Me alone अविधिपूर्वकम् [avidhipUrvakam] without following the prescribed rules completely.

Followers of the three Vedas worship various sources of power with great faith. In reality, they worship Me too. That’s because everything exists as My body . The names of all gods and various powers actually address Me.

However, these followers worship without following the prescribed procedure completely. They do not worship according to the Vedantas, which have laid out the fact that everything in the universe exists as the Lord’s body.

Service to any source of power, when rendered with the thought that it exists as the body of the Lord, is worship according to the prescribed procedure.

On the other hand, service to anyone, rendered while seeing them as the recipient of the service isn’t according to the prescribed procedure. People who render service in this way practice Vedic philosophy that’s related to material comforts. They don’t know that the Lord is the One who is worshipped by all forms of service; that He alone is to be worshipped.

Such people attain limited results. After their achievement is done, it’s in their nature to fall back and lose the achievement. This is said in the next Shloka: