Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 2.3.2-7

brahma-varcasa-kāmas tu

yajeta brahmaṇaḥ patim

indram indriya-kāmas tu

prajā-kāmaḥ prajāpatīn

devīḿ māyāḿ tu śrī-kāmas

tejas-kāmo vibhāvasum

vasu-kāmo vasūn rudrān

vīrya-kāmo 'tha vīryavān

annādya-kāmas tv aditiḿ

svarga-kāmo 'diteḥ sutān

viśvān devān rājya-kāmaḥ

sādhyān saḿsādhako viśām

āyuṣ-kāmo 'śvinau devau

puṣṭi-kāma ilāḿ yajet

pratiṣṭhā-kāmaḥ puruṣo

rodasī loka-mātarau

rūpābhikāmo gandharvān

strī-kāmo 'psara urvaśīm

ādhipatya-kāmaḥ sarveṣāḿ

yajeta parameṣṭhinam

yajñaḿ yajed yaśas-kāmaḥ

kośa-kāmaḥ pracetasam

vidyā-kāmas tu giriśaḿ

dāmpatyārtha umāḿ satīm

SYNONYMS

brahma — the absolute; varcasa — effulgence; kāmaḥ tu — but one who desires in that way; yajeta — do worship; brahmaṇaḥ — of the Vedas; patim — the master; indram — the King of heaven; indriya-kāmaḥ tu — but one who desires strong sense organs; prajā-kāmaḥ — one who desires many offspring; prajāpatīn — the Prajāpatis; devīm — the goddess; māyām — unto the mistress of the material world; tu — but; śrī-kāmaḥ — one who desires beauty; tejaḥ — power; kāmaḥ — one who so desires; vibhāvasum — the fire-god; vasu-kāmaḥ — one who wants wealth; vasūn — the Vasu demigods; rudrān — the Rudra expansions of Lord Śiva; vīrya-kāmaḥ — one who wants to be very strongly built; atha — therefore; vīryavān — the most powerful; anna-adya — grains; kāmaḥ — one who so desires; tu — but; aditim — Aditi, mother of the demigods; svarga — heaven; kāmaḥ — so desiring; aditeḥ sutān — the sons of Aditi; viśvān — Viśvadeva; devān — demigods; rājya-kāmaḥ — those who hanker for kingdoms; sādhyān — the Sādhya demigods; saḿsādhakaḥ — what fulfills the wishes; viśām — of the mercantile community; āyuḥ-kāmaḥ — desirous of long life; aśvinau — the two demigods known as the Aśvinī brothers; devau — the two demigods; puṣṭi-kāmaḥ — one who desires a strongly built body; ilām — the earth; yajet — must worship; pratiṣṭhā-kāmaḥ — one who desires good fame, or stability in a post; puruṣaḥ — such men; rodasī — the horizon; loka-mātarau — and the earth; rūpa — beauty; abhikāmaḥ — positively aspiring for; gandharvān — the residents of the Gandharva planet, who are very beautiful and are expert in singing; strī-kāmaḥ — one who desires a good wife; apsaraḥ urvaśīm — the society girls of the heavenly kingdom; ādhipatya-kāmaḥ — one who desires to dominate others; sarveṣām — everyone; yajeta — must worship; parameṣṭhinam — Brahmā, the head of the universe; yajñam — the Personality of Godhead; yajet — must worship; yaśaḥ-kāmaḥ — one who desires to be famous; kośa-kāmaḥ — one who desires a good bank balance; pracetasam — the treasurer of heaven, known as Varuṇa; vidyā-kāmaḥ tu — but one who desires education; giriśam — the lord of the Himalayas, Lord Śiva; dāmpatya-arthaḥ — and for conjugal love; umām satīm — the chaste wife of Lord Śiva, known as Umā.

TRANSLATION

One who desires to be absorbed in the impersonal brahmajyoti effulgence should worship the master of the Vedas [Lord Brahmā or Bṛhaspati, the learned priest], one who desires powerful sex should worship the heavenly King, Indra, and one who desires good progeny should worship the great progenitors called the Prajāpatis. One who desires good fortune should worship Durgādevī, the superintendent of the material world. One desiring to be very powerful should worship fire, and one who aspires only after money should worship the Vasus. One should worship the Rudra incarnations of Lord Śiva if he wants to be a great hero. One who wants a large stock of grains should worship Aditi. One who desires to attain the heavenly planets should worship the sons of Aditi. One who desires a worldly kingdom should worship Viśvadeva, and one who wants to be popular with the general mass of population should worship the Sādhya demigod. One who desires a long span of life should worship the demigods known as the Aśvinī-kumāras, and a person desiring a strongly built body should worship the earth. One who desires stability in his post should worship the horizon and the earth combined. One who desires to be beautiful should worship the beautiful residents of the Gandharva planet, and one who desires a good wife should worship the Apsarās and the Urvaśī society girls of the heavenly kingdom. One who desires domination over others should worship Lord Brahmā, the head of the universe. One who desires tangible fame should worship the Personality of Godhead, and one who desires a good bank balance should worship the demigod Varuṇa. If one desires to be a greatly learned man he should worship Lord Śiva, and if one desires a good marital relation he should worship the chaste goddess Umā, the wife of Lord Śiva.

PURPORT

There are different modes of worship for different persons desiring success in particular subjects. The conditioned soul living within the purview of the material world cannot be an expert in every type of materially enjoyable asset, but one can have considerable influence over a particular matter by worshiping a particular demigod, as mentioned above. Rāvaṇa was made a very powerful man by worshiping Lord Śiva, and he used to offer severed heads to please Lord Śiva. He became so powerful by the grace of Lord Śiva that all the demigods were afraid of him, until he at last challenged the Personality of Godhead Śrī Rāmacandra and thus ruined himself. In other words, all such persons who aspire after gaining some or all of the material objects of enjoyment, or the gross materialistic persons, are on the whole less intelligent, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.20). It is said there that those who are bereft of all good sense, or those whose intelligence is withdrawn by the deluding energy of māyā, aspire to achieve all sorts of material enjoyment in life by pleasing the various demigods, or by advancing in material civilization under the heading of scientific progress. The real problem of life in the material world is to solve the question of birth, death, old age and disease. No one wants to change his birthright, no one wants to meet death, no one wants to be old or invalid, and no one wants diseases. But these problems are solved neither by the grace of any demigod nor by the so-called advancement of material science. In the Bhagavad-gītā, as well as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, such less intelligent persons have been described as devoid of all good sense. Śukadeva Gosvāmī said that out of the 8,400,000 species of living entities, the human form of life is rare and valuable, and out of those rare human beings those who are conscious of the material problems are rarer still, and the still more rare persons are those who are conscious of the value of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which contains the messages of the Lord and His pure devotees. Death is inevitable for everyone, intelligent or foolish. But Parīkṣit Mahārāja has been addressed by the Gosvāmī as the manīṣī, or the man of highly developed mind, because at the time of death he left all material enjoyment and completely surrendered unto the lotus feet of the Lord by hearing His messages from the right person, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. But aspirations for material enjoyment by endeavoring persons are condemned. Such aspirations are something like the intoxication of the degraded human society. Intelligent persons should try to avoid these aspirations and seek instead the permanent life by returning home, back to Godhead.