7.21

Sanskrit

यो यो यां यां तनुं भक्तः श्रद्धयाऽर्चितुमिच्छति । तस्य तस्याचलां श्रद्धां तामेव विदधाम्यहम् ॥ २१ ॥

yo yo yāṃ yāṃ tanuṃ bhaktaḥ śraddhayārcitum icchati tasya tasyācalāṃ śraddhāṃ tām eva vidadhāmy aham

Translation

Any devotee who seeketh to worship with faith any such aspect, I verily bestow the unswerving faith of that man.

Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain

Explanation

Notably permissive: Krishna doesn’t merely tolerate worship of other deities, he actively supplies the faith (śraddhā) that sustains it, whatever form the devotee chooses. This sits deliberately in tension with verse 15’s harsher line about those who never approach at all — the difference isn’t sincerity of devotion but its object and its motive, which verse 23 goes on to grade rather than condemn.