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Now we have some idea of the concept of Ishta Devata.

While choosing our Ishta Devata we have to clear some of our ideas about God.

1. There is a tendency to categorize Deities ad Sattvic, Rajasaic, and Tamasic and again as Soumya and Ugra. But these categorizations according to the Gunas does not apply to the Supreme God as GOD is above the three Gunas. We call MAA as Thrigunathmikai. GOD is omnipotent and omniscient.

This categorizations depend on our Vasanas. For example Maa Kali is seen by most of the Tamil Brahmins as Ugra whereas in Bengal she is seen as the Universal Mother. Most of the Tamil Brahmins who are in Bengal see her as Karunamoyi, Dayamoyi and Anandamoyi. In Tamil Nadu Maa Kali is worshipped by many communities. In fact the Tamils are the only community in India where a Male is named Kali or Kaliappan. These are based on our own conceptions/misconceptions and not on facts.

The Devatas are conceptions of Rishis/Enlightened people. The sculptural details of Murtis are from Dhyana slokas. The Dyana sloka is written by a person who has attained Mukti through the particular dhyana. It is the conception of the person who has done the Dhyana.

Recently I has seen an English movie with a Girl called Mary as the heroine. GOD appears in that. The hero asks him whether he is GOD. GOD replies that "I am Mary's conception of GOD."

Since for a Bhakta, Ishta Devata is GOD, there is no question of any categorization. The Bhakta conceives GOD.

2. Many people believe that the Bhakta will acquire the characteristic of his/her Ishta Devata. This again is a fallacy. To quote an example Sri Ramakrishna was a Kali Bhakta. But he was very Sattvic in nature.

3. GOD does not have the human emotions like anger, jealousy, etc. Nor does GOD show any partiality towards any caste, creed, race, or gender. GOD is beyond all that.

GOD treats everyone alike. Bhaktas, non-believers, sinners. GOD burns up all your karma and gives you Mukti. By doing good karma we make it easier for GOD to do that. Of course we Bhaktas would like to believe that GOD is partial to us and we can please GOD. We pray Stotra Priyayai and Studhi Priyayai. We also pray Gudanna Priyayai. I am sure this was written by a person who considered Ney payasam to be a great delicacy.

More than this many of us believe that GOD is waiting to punish us. We talk about putting the fear of GOD into someone. This again is a fallacy. There is a story in the Purana about a thief plucking Bilva leaves on Sivaratri night to keeep awake and dropping them in a Sivalinga about which he was not aware. He attains Moksha.

GOD is love, compassion, happiness (Daya, Karuna, Ananda) personified. GOD is waiting for an opportunity to reward you for your good actions.

We needed the concept of a punishing GOD when we did not have any formal judicial system. Again this belongs to the Mimasa philosophy of Karma Kanda. There is no place for this concept in Bhakti. Suddham, Madi and Acharam are not important in Bhakti. Iswara Chinthai is what counts.