19820825 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.47

(Disclaimer: The following is a machine-generated transcript and may contain errors or inaccuracies. It will be reviewed and verified against the original audio soon.)

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 25, 1982 – in Atlanta, USA. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.47

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Sachayam Deity Eva Certainly to Lord Hari Worship yeah who Shaya faithfully engages Engages of Kṛṣṇa Bhakteshu toward the devotees toward people in general. Materialistic devotee is called translation of His Divine by His divine grace. A devotee who faithfully engages in the worship of the deity in the temple but does not behave properly toward other devotees or people in general is called a Prakrita Bhakta A materialistic devotee and is considered to be in the lowest position with repetition. A devotee who faithfully engages in the worship of the deity in the temple but does not behave properly toward other devotees or people in general is called a Prakrita Bhakta A materialistic devotee and is considered to be in the lowest position Report by His divine grace.

Śrīla Acharya Dev and the previous Śrīla Madhva Acharya comments that one in the lowest stage of devotional service faithfully worships the deity in the temple but is not aware that the supreme personality of Godhood is actually all pervading. The same mentality can be seen in the Western countries where people commit all types of sinful activities in their homes and in the street, but then piously go to a church and pray to God for mercy. Actually God is in our home, God is in the street, God is in our office. God is in the forest. God is everywhere and therefore God should be worshipped everywhere by the process of devotional service at his lotus feet as stated in verse 41 of this chapter. Kang Vayum Agni Salilam Mahing Chap.

Jyoti Satvani di Shodrumadin Sarit Samudra Sari rang Translation A devotee should not see anything as being separate from the supreme personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa, Ether, fire, air, water, earth, the sun and other luminaries. All living beings, the directions, trees and other plants, the rivers and oceans. Whatever a devotee experiences, he should consider to be an expansion of Kṛṣṇa. Thus seeing everything that exists within creation is the body of the supreme Lord Hari. The devotee should offer his sincere respects to the entire expansion of the Lord’s body. End of Translation this is the vision of the Mahabhavata devotee of the Lord. Śrīla Madhya Crya states that a Madhyamadhikariya devotee in the intermediate stage sees the supreme personality guided as the cause of all causes and therefore offers his love to the Lord.

Such a devotee is a sincere friend of other devotees, is merciful to the ignorant and avoids the atheist. Nonetheless, his realization of the all pervading feature of the Supreme Lord is imperfect. Although he does not have a general sense that everyone is ultimately meant to be a devotee of the Supreme Lord and he tries to use everything in the service of Kṛṣṇa aware that everything belongs to the Lord, he may bewildered by association with atheistic men. Rlamadvhacharya states, adhikari has no idea that the Supreme Lord has the power to exist outside a church or temple. Furthermore, being puffed up by his own ceremonial worship Atmano Bhakti Dharapatta, he cannot imagine that anyone is more pious or religious than he and he is not even aware that other devotees are more advanced.

Thus he cannot understand the Madhyam or Uttam standard of devotional service and sometimes because of his false pride he criticizes the more advanced devotees of the Lord, neglects them or simply has no understanding of their exalted position as preachers are completely self realized souls. Another symptom of Kanishta Adhikari is that he is infatuated by the material qualifications of so called great materialistic persons. Having a bodily concept of life himself, he is attracted by material opulence and thus minimizes the position of the Supreme Lord Vishnu. Such a Kanishta Adhikari therefore is disturbed if a second class devotee criticizes the non devotees of the Lord in the name of compassion or kindness. The Kanishta Adhikarti approves of the non devotional activities of such materialistic men because the Kanishta Adhikari is ignorant of the higher realms of devotional service and the unlimited transcendental bliss of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

He sees devotional service merely as the religious aspect of life but thinks that life has many enjoyable and worthwhile non devotional aspects. Therefore, he becomes very angry when second class devotees who are experiencing that Kṛṣṇa is everything criticized in non devotees. Madhvacharya says that such a person because of his rudimentary faith in Kṛṣṇa is considered a devotee, but he is Bhakta Adam, a devotee on the lowest standard. Such materialistic devotees follow the rules and regulations of deity worship. They will gradually be elevated to a higher standard and eventually become pure devotees of the Lord unless they commit offenses against other devotees, in which case their advancement will be checked. Rla Madhwacharya states, Tada Bhakta Nam Upekshaka Kuryur Vishnab those who neglect or show indifference to the devotees of the Lord are to be considered offenders at the lotus feet of Vishnu.

Similarly, those who respect, the demigods will become bereft of devotional service and be forced to rotate again and again within Saṁsāra, the cycle of birth and death. Pūjā Devash Tata Sadhguru the demigods are always to be offered respect since they are devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If someone is envious of the demigods, he is to be considered envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Similarly, one who offers sincere respect to the demigods is considered to be respecting the will of the Supreme Lord. A vaiava does not foolishly think that there are many gods. He knows that there is only one supreme personality of Godhead.

But as stated many times in Seema Bhāgavatam, the Lord has a mission within this material world which is to reform the conditioned living entities through the cruel laws of nature and the Lord’s mission within this world, the demigods are to be considered limbs of the Lord’s body. It is stated in Bhagavad Gītā 720 kitagna prapadyan tenya devatah Tangatanganiya Mamastaya Prakriti Niyata swaya those whose minds translation those whose minds are distorted by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures. There are many examples of devotees who worship the demigods to get benediction for serving Lord Kṛṣṇa. The Gopīs worship the demigods to achieve Kṛṣṇa and similarly Rukmiṇī Devī on the day of her marriage engaged in such demigod worship, her only goal being Kṛṣṇa.

Even today the preachers of the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement cultivate important people with all kindness and diplomacy so that such wealthy or influential people will engage the resources in the devotional service of the Lord to glorify Kṛṣṇa all over the world, similarly offering all respects to the demigods so that they will give facility for the devotional service that Kṛṣṇa is not against the Bhakti mark, although nowadays such demigod worship has also deteriorated. Therefore, Caitanya Maharaj recommended Hari Nama Saṅkīrtana. Chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa is the only realistic process for this age. Nonetheless, a devotee of the Lord should not misinterpret Bhagavad Gītā’s instructions against demigod worship as a license to offend the demigods who are bona fide by Shnavasarya notes Vishnur Upekshakang Sarve Vid Visorah Patatya Vasya Harina Taisha Pat. All the demigods are extremely inimical to one who does not respect Lord Vishnu.

Such a person is pushed into the darkest regions by the Lord as well as by the demigods. End of translation from this statement by Śrīla Madhvaracharya, the devotional sentiments of the demigods can be understood. It is stated that in the supreme liberation achieved by Uttam Adhikari, the most exalted devotee of the Lord, the devotee enjoys transcendental bliss in that direct association of the supreme Lord and the demigods. Actually there was a devotee who was india. He was planning to join the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Movement just in 1977. And then he saw in the newspaper that Rla Prabhupāda left the world and he became hopeless. He thought, well, now the guru is gone, so there’s no hope, there’s no use in joining at all. He was in Assam state, so not finding a spiritual master. He was feeling very forlorn.

Because without his spiritual master to guide one, someone who is in connection with the bona fide disciplic succession, who’s conversant with the subject matter of absolute truth, who’s sincere and honestly presenting the absolute truth, and who cares about the advancement of the individual, then it’s very difficult to advance in spiritual life. So he didn’t actually come to this any Iskcon temple. He just got some literature from the traveling party. He decided he’d become a devotee. Then in the meantime, Prabhupāda left. He thought, well, he didn’t know what was the actual situation. So anyway, there’s a famous temple of Mother Durga which is standing there since many thousands of years. In fact, even that Kṛṣṇa visited the area near that temple. And that deity had some pastime with Kṛṣṇa in his avatars. It’s a very famous temple. It’s called Kamaksha or Kamakhya.

It’s in the city now of Gohati, but what was known as Prag Jyotishpur in the time of the Mahabharata. And that was quite near the kingdom of Nakashasur. Nakashasur was a great devotee of the Kamakya. When Kṛṣṇa killed Nakasha shore delivering him, then his daughter came out to fight against Kṛṣṇa with her hair flying. And being a demon’s daughter, she was able to fight anyone, find out things. So she came to attack Kṛṣṇa, who wasn’t in the habit of fighting with women. But just then Kamakya Devī appeared. And this daughter of Nakasha Shua immediately offered her respect. Don’t attack Kṛṣṇa. He’s going to be your uncle in law. You should touch his feet. You know how to respect a relative. So Asuras are very attached to family relationships. So since Kṛṣṇa was going to become.

And they don’t doubt, although they’re envious of Vishnu, but somehow or another they don’t doubt anything that Devī says. This is also amazing. So she went over and touched the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. And by that she also became purified. And later on it worked out. There’s another story that the daughter of Bhima Gadakac, who was half man and half Asura, that they couldn’t marry him to any Asura, to any human being because he was too ferocious, he was too strong. And they didn’t want to marry him to a demon because demon were completely. He was a pure, he was a Vaishnava. And demons were inimical. So then finally they came up with the idea that the only suitable one was this daughter of Nakasha. Because she touched the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, although she was a demon, she became purified.

That’s a whole other story in the Mahabharata. So anyway, this Karma Khya Devī, she’s also known as Bhakti Pradyini. Vishnu Bhakti Pradhyini, a giver of Kṛṣṇa, Vishnu Bhakti. So Durga is known as that if you ask for Vishnu Bhakti, she can also give that. She can’t give liberation, but she can give a blessing to be a devotee. So anyway, this devotee went to that temple. That temple they have various type of worship. As you know, they always worship both Kṛṣṇa Prasadam as well as not always. Sometimes they just offer Kṛṣṇa Prasad to the Goddess Durga. And sometimes they’re also offering goat. Well, everybody eats meat in the west, so it shouldn’t be very shocking. It’s just that before they eat it there, they have a ceremony offering. And they’re not allowed to kill cow or other higher animals, just goat, which is considered insignificant.

So it’s quite a. You have got some people there who are doing this Tantra meditation, ghost pujas and so many things. And then some are going there, just pilgrims to take some blessing. It’s quite an intense temple. I went there once. I wasn’t fortunate enough to see the deity. The deity was closed at that time. I just saw the outside utsav muti. But this devotee, he went there and so many people were coming and offering their pujas, offering their. He saw, they were asking give me wealth Give me money, give me my kids sick, I have to pass my exam. Whenever they are making so many, he thinking, I don’t want all these things. I know that these things are already useless. I want to find a bona fide spiritual master. So he prayed to Kamaki Devī that you are giving so many blessings.

And if you hear your devotees prayers, I don’t want to ask you for anything material. I only want to beg to you that if you grant anyone’s prayer then please, since I am the most humble person, grant my prayer to lead me to a bona fide spiritual master. So like that he made a prayer to her. And then that night when he was sleeping, she appeared in his dream. And at that time I believe Prabhupāda also was there in the dream. And then they showed one of the present day Iskcon cryas who he had never met before in his life and said, you take initiation from so demigods they can. Their main business is they’re busy with the administration of the universe. But they are devotees of the Lord.

And if someone wants to be directed further in devotional service then you can also ask for that. In fact, every devotee of Vishnu always asks for those benedictions from the demigods. It’s only the materialists who are asking for the material benedictions. So even in Vrindavan you will find that they’re worshiping Lord Shiva as Gopeshwar Lord of the Gopīs. He became a Gopī in Kṛṣṇa Leela. You will see that in Jagannath Purī they worshiping Bimala Devī and giving her Jagannath Prashad. In Bhubaneswar, the Lingaraj temple. Any Vishnu bhakti can take prasad there. They offer all the prasad first to Narzingadeva, then to Lord Shiva like that. The worship of demigods as powerful agents of the supreme Lord. This very ancient process. Of course now it’s become almost like polytheistic that due to the influence of impersonalism they’re thinking that all the demigods are the same.

This is not at all supported by the Vedas, by Rigveda or by any of the Vedas. Nowhere can you find a slug where all the demigods are the same. Some places it may exclusively glorify a particular demigod, you see. And so they take that to mean, well, that he’s supreme. But if you. But in other places it doesn’t ever say that they’re equal. And in many places it says rather that Vishnu is supreme. Over all the demigods. So the Kanishtadhikaris india they sometimes they can differentiate clearly the difference between Vishnu and the difference between other demigods. Sometimes they don’t like to fully dedicate themselves just to Vishnu. So you see they have in their pūjā rooms picture out of 33 million demigods they have at least a good percentage. They don’t want to miss anyone.

So it becomes very confusing in that way who are they actually directing their energy. There’s in the Bhāgavatam, there’s a story like that. Actually it’s in one of the other pranas. But it’s just mentioned that how once there was a devotee and he was asking for the controller of the universe. But he asked in such a vague way that Vishnu, Shiva or Brahma, they couldn’t differentiate that which of them he was calling. So they all three came because the way he expressed it, they all it all fit all three of their qualifications. And that Gajendra, the picture is in my room. When he called he said the supreme controller. So then every Brahman sheep knew that well, supreme controller is Vishnu. General way he was saying the controller of the universe, the powerful.

So that way the three could assume he might be calling me also. So all three came and asked what do you want? And so that way people, they have some vague idea. If you study the Mormons teachings, it appears that their conception of God is actually Brahma. They don’t have a conception of absolute Godhead that any Jīva can ultimately in another universe become God the father. So Brahma is the father of the creatures in the universe. And that we say and you can become a Brahma. So that way. And there they say that Jesus is an incarnation of Brahma or a son of Brahma sent down. He may be a manasputra of Brahma. His preachings were a little more directed towards the demigod type of although he Vishnu worship, but he was more help your neighbor.

This type of mood the demigods are in to see the material welfare of the people. Anyway they have the different theories. If you see it from the Vedic viewpoint, you get other points of view. The Vedas are so authoritative and so vast in their description that every philosophy that’s presented on theistic science easily fits within the Vedas. So that way, especially when one understands Vishnu, then all the other pieces fall into position. So here it’s saying that we shouldn’t be inimical to the demigods. I know you all know the philosophical side. So I am just telling you some of the practical stories because I think it might be interesting to you. We have our boat, Nitaipa de Kamala. It’s under repair now. And that boat was sailing up the Ganges near Calcutta, about. Near Panihati, just about 10 miles from Panihati.

And there was a devotee there and they went by a temple of either Shiva or Durga. So Kali, I think. And then devotee, for some reason, out of the sky blue, he said something very critical of the of Kali, which is not all warranted. There’s no reason to criticize her. People are foolish enough to not worship Kṛṣṇa and then mistake that she’s supreme. It’s not her fault. So what happened was as soon as he said this, some critical, some derogatory statement, out of the sky blue. In fact, the sky was blue and the water was calm and it was a nice breeze and the boat was sailing along. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a huge gale came and hit the boat and knocked the boat right into the whole sail, Just pushed it over, knocked the sail right into the water.

The water was pouring in the boat and it was going down just like. Just immediately the water was pouring in and it was starting to sink. The captain of the ship, he jumped over and took a knife and cut the rope that was holding the sail because he had a tight sail. They were going in a good course. Suddenly a huge gust came so strong out of nowhere, just pushed the whole sail, pushed the whole boat. He cut with the knife and released the sail and it came back up again. That devotee pullover went down. You get some practical experiences. So one should avoid. Sometimes you see, devotees come from the west. And we of course criticize the worship, demigod worship as in a sense, we criticize that it’s not the real purpose of human life.

Demigod worship as the end and be all is not the fulfillment of the goal like that. We have some in our preaching, but we have to be very careful. When they come to India, they don’t know. First of all, they have to be careful not to offend the people who have faith in demigods. And second of all, sometimes they carry it over and even get some inimical feeling towards the demigods. And so as a result, they endanger themselves. Śrīla Charya Dev quoted the different Acharyas that we should not offend any demigods. They’re after all, good devotees of Kṛṣṇa. They’re doing work for him. Pūjā Devas, Tata Sada, the Demigods are always to be offered respect since they are devotees of the supreme personality of Godhead. In fact, the demigods, they respect the pure devotees of Kṛṣṇa.

They see them as having forearms or see them as having spiritual forms. And actually the demigods, they can see that the devotees of Kṛṣṇa, when they leave their body, they go by all these demigod planets and are heading back to Vaikuṇṭha and they offer respects. So that way they don’t fully understand the position of a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, but they can see that a division devotee of Kṛṣṇa is very exalted because the demigods can only go so far within the universe and they can’t go further. But they see that the devotees of Kṛṣṇa, they go right by even beyond where they can go. And they know that where they’re going to the parang padang, to the supreme destination, they don’t have to come back. So they respect the devotees Kṛṣṇa and the demigods help the devotees to Kṛṣṇa. But then one shouldn’t offend them.

Rather as Rukmiṇī and others, if you want to offer them respect at all, then you can ask them for a benediction to serve Kṛṣṇa to get Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise it’s no need to offer respect or disrespect to the demigods. One can simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and not be concerned with the demigods at all. Calcutta actually Kali Kata is called the thumb of Kali. It’s a deity there of Kali. That’s her. Actually Vishnu cut Kali into 56 places, 656 different pieces. And she fell down all over the universe, those pieces. So her thumb fell in Kaukata Kali Kath. Kath means thumb. So but she always takes Kṛṣṇa. Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. Prashad, they have Rādhā Kṛṣṇa temple right in her temple. And then they offer Rādhā Kṛṣṇa prasadam. And that prasadam they offer her. And then they also offer, on this dark moon night, they offer a goat.

So it’s described that Kali doesn’t actually eat the goat. She doesn’t eat goat. That’s a facility given for the meat eater. Actually she gives that to the ghosts because her husband’s the bhutnat. He’s in charge of all the hellish residents, ghosts and all the crates, wizards, all these. So they actually worship her with these offerings. She actually takes only the Kṛṣṇa Prasad. She only takes what her husband takes. And he only is a pure vegetarian yeshiva. You can’t offer meat or anything. So obviously she’s not going to eat any meat. But they don’t understand this She’s a faithful wife. She’s only going to eat what her husband eats. Her husband eats Ram and Kṛṣṇa Prashant. That’s what she eats. So they offer the meat that all the ghosts and other attendants that she has. She gives all those ghosts and Dhanavas and others.

They gives them the meat and then they. Actually, what the people are getting is ghost Prashant. That way. You see, we have to have faith in the spiritual master. Sometimes we don’t have faith in the spiritual master. And when we talk. I just remembered when we talk about gospel. One time there was some kind of big festival going on in Vrindavan. Middle of the night. One disciple asked a spiritual master, I believe, Sanātana Goswami, whether he could go and participate in that festival. I said, in the middle of the night, a festival? I don’t think you should go there. This doesn’t sound very auspicious to me. But he was insisting that it seems they’re having a big. He said, all right, but you don’t eat anything there. If they give you anything to eat, you just take it and pack it up.

You don’t eat anything. So he went and there was some festival going on. They were having some big party, all these respectable people. And then they put out the plates, everyone sat down and they gave everyone nice rice and halwa and so many preparations. So when he gave it on his plate, he took it and he packed it up in a cloth, didn’t eat it. So then he went back after the ceremonies and went back, took rest. When he woke up in the morning, then the spiritual mass asked what happened. He told them. So they said, open up your cloth. He opened it up and there he saw bones, blood, stools, all kind of thing. He said, what is this? He said, that was a party of ghosts and they’re eating all these things. They just made it up here in the other form.

He threw the thing away and fell down before his spiritual master and said, from now on, I will simply listen to your advice. I won’t question again and again like that. So a lot of subtle things that the neophyte devotee doesn’t know about. There are various subtle creatures and various different type of higher existences, life on other planets, which modern science is not going to be able to perceived by their neutron smashers. You see, practically from time immemorial, people have had experiences about ghosts and different things. But science can just say, well, since we haven’t seen it on our electron microscope, we can’t. We don’t admit it. But then different times, so many people have had experiences. So what is it? Veda is clearly described. This is a subtle body without the gross body. We are a combination of gross and subtle body.

When we die, we go in our subtle body to the next body again we take birth, we form the new gross body. In this way, life is going on. If someone commits suicide, if someone dies while taking drugs, if someone suddenly dies of extreme shock or while Verti attached, then he may not go, that soul may not go forward and the subtle body may remain at that place or in that subtle state that’s called ghostly existence. So some of the black arts are to actually try to control those souls. By using various mantras and by doing austerities, one gets some power and can control these lost type of unembodied souls, subtle bodies. That voodoo and all these things are going on in Brazil. Charyadev, he can tell so many stories about there.

Some of our devotees, they had a lot of trouble with these voodoo practitioners in Northern Brazil. So you see, these are all at very low level, tamasic mode of ignorance. Actually they don’t have any scope to enter this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Pure goodness. See? Pure goodness. So there all these tamasic, dark and passionate things, they can’t enter in. So even some of the demigods may be over these affairs. Some may be over the passionate affairs. Kṛṣṇa is over all the affairs. And personally he’s watching over the mode of goodness. The devotees, they simply concentrate on worshiping Kṛṣṇa. They don’t disrespect anyone else. When we bow down Tana dapi Sunni Chena Torori, Vasahi Samane nama Nadena, kirtaniya Sarah. Even to the straw in the street, we’re bowing down to every living entity. Why not to the demigods who are powerful servants of God?

But we don’t think that the demigods are equal to Kṛṣṇa. See, that would be a great offense to Kṛṣṇa. So just in conclusion here, according to Śrīla Jīva Gosvmi, since a Kanishtari kari who cannot properly respect other devotees will certainly fail to offer respects to ordinary living entities who are not even devotees, the Kanishta Adhikari is useless for practical preaching work unless he comes to a higher platform of understanding. Rlajiva Goslami says because of the Kanishta Adhikari’s faith is not actually based on the statements of Vedic literature, he cannot understand the exalted position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead within everyone’s heart. Therefore he cannot actually manifest love of Godhead, nor can he understand the exalted position of the devotees of the Lord. Kṛṣṇa is so glorious that KA’s intimate associates must also be glorious, but this is unknown to a Kanishta adhikari.

Similarly, the essential qualifications of a vaibha, which is to offer all respects to others Kirtaniya sadhri is also conspicuous by its absence in the Kanishta adhikari. If such a person, however, has faith in the Vedic literatures and tries to understand the statements of the Bhagavad Gītā and the Rmad Bhāgavatam, he will be gradually elevated to the second and first class stages of devotional service. According to Rla Bhakti Siddhānta Sara Rita Kanisht Adhikari should very seriously engage in regulated worship of the deity. The Deity is a particular incarnation of the supreme personality of Godhead. Lord Kṛṣṇa can present himself before the worshipper in five different manifestations, namely his original form as Kṛṣṇa Para, his quadruple expansion, his pastime incarnations, Vaibhava, the super Soul, Antaryami and the Deity.

Within the deity form archaeological is the super soul who in turn is included within the Lord’s pastime forms. Vayibhava, the Lord’s Vaibhava Prakash is an emanation from the Chatu Bhuha. This quadruple expansion of the Lord is situated within the supreme Truth Vasudeva who himself is situated within the Swayam Prakash Tattva. The Swayam Prakash consists of expansions of the ultimate Swayang Rupata, the original form of Kṛṣṇa within Goloka Brunavana in the spiritual sky. This hierarchy of the expansions of the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world is realized even within the material world in terms of one’s eagerness to render service to the Lord. A beginner in the lower stage of devotional service should try to dedicate all his activities to the satisfaction of the Lord and cultivate the worship of Kṛṣṇa in the temple.

According to Rla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarslitakur, all the plenary expansions of the Supreme Lord mentioned above descend into this world and enter within the Deity who exhibits the function of the Super Soul by accompanying the daily life of the vaiava. Although the vaibhava or pastime expansions of the Lord incarnate at specific times Rāma Adimurti Shukal ni Amenat the super soul and Deity forms are constantly available for the spiritual advancement of the devotees in this world. As one comes to the Madhyama Adhikari platform one is able to understand the expansions of the supreme Lord, whereas the Kanishta adhikari’s entire knowledge of the Lord is limited to the deity.

Nonetheless, Kṛṣṇa is so kind that to encourage even the lowest class of vaiavas, he condenses all of his various forms into the deity, so that by worshipping the deity, the Kanishtarikari devotee is worshipping all the forms of the Lord. As the devotee makes advancement, he can understand these forms as they appear in their own way, both within this world and in the spiritual sky. As long as one remains on the third class, platform, one has no transcendental appreciation of the blissful reality of the Supreme Lord’s paraphernalia and entourage. R. Caitanya Mahprabhu was very pleased with King Prataparudra when the king, upon receiving an outer cloth from the Lord, immediately installed it as a deity and began to worship it as being as good as the Lord himself. Lord Śiva himself has stated.

(Side B of the Cassette)

Paraphernalia taraj or devotees of the Lord is even better than worship of the Lord because the Lord is more pleased by worship of his devotees and entourage than by worship of himself personally. According to Rlabhakti Siddhānta Sara Thakur, the inability of the Kanishta Adhikari to appreciate the Lord’s devotees, entourage and paraphernalia indicate that such a materialistic vaiava is still affected by the speculative understanding of the Karma Vadis and the Mayavadis, those who are dedicated to sense gratification and impersonal speculation about the absolute. Rla Prabhupda often said that only the personalist desires to see Kṛṣṇa alone. We desire to see Kṛṣṇa with his cows, his friends, his parents, his gopīs, his flute, jewelry, forest scenery, and so on. Kṛṣṇa is so is gorgeous in the setting of Vrindavan.

It is the land of Vrindavan that Lord Kṛṣṇa is surrounded by so many beautiful associates manifest his exalted indescribable beauty. Similarly, the unique mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is exhibited in the activities of his pure devotees who selflessly travel around the universe distributing the dust particles from Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet on the heads of the conditioned souls. One who is uninterested in the Lord’s paraphernalia, entourage and devotees has a stunted conception of the supreme personality of Godhead. This must be due to contamination from the impersonal and sensuous understandings of life. R.L. Siddhānta Saraswati Thakur states that after hundreds of lifetimes of faithfully worshipping the deity of Lord Vasudeva with external paraphernalia, one realizes the true nature of his transcendental name and mantras, and the bondage of one’s materialistic mentality slackens in this way.

As a Kanishta Adhikadi gradually comes to perceive the mental activities of a devotee and tries seriously to advance to a higher stage, his materialistic conceptions will go away of their own accord. He then exhibits loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and makes friendship with the devotees who are the dear most sons of the Lord. And by appreciating the universal quality of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, he becomes very much eager to engage other innocent people in the service of the Lord. Further, as he begins to make significant advancement, he becomes inimical to anything or anyone that hinders the progress of his devotional life, and thus he avoids atheistic people who cannot benefit by good instruction.

The international society for Kṛṣṇa consciousness founded by his divine grace Vishnu Pada Paramhansa Parabcacharya 108 Śrīmad Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda is so nice that anyone who helps this society immediately engages in preaching work for the Lord. Thus there is a great facility for the members of this society to come quickly to the second class stage of devotional service. If in the name of Kṛṣṇa consciousness one gives up preaching and instead becomes interested simply in collecting funds for maintenance, he is showing a type of envy of other living entities. This is a symptom of the third class platform. According to RLA Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur, verses 45 to 47 constitute the answer to King Nimi’s two questions, what is the nature of devotional service to the Lord? And are these specific? What are the specific duties of the Vaishnavas?

They send the purports by the humble servants of Bhakti Si Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupda of Text 47, Chapter 2, Canto 11 of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. So just in conclusion, we can come to the inspired conclusion that it is the greatest opportunity for us to be able to render devotional service to Kṛṣṇa that even religious people, godly people, may not be able to appreciate initially the exalted platform of devotional service, dedicated life, because they’re still on the third level of devotion, they’re neophytes. And this platform of dedicated service is already on the second, intermediate and highest platform of devotional service. So there’s a need for some people in society to take up this higher stages of devotional service for the benefit of preaching, for the benefit of helping the rest of society.

Without the second class or intermediate devotees and the higher class devotees, the Uttamalikaris, then the whole society ultimately loses its connection with this greatest opportunity for returning back to home, back to Godhead, for getting out of the cycle of birth and death, and for achieving full realization of their eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa. So devotees should be to take up this responsibility for serving in pure devotional service and for promoting this perfect philosophy which was handed down for thousands of years by the Great Acharyas and which is ultimately the original words, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So this is a great opportunity. Everyone should be very careful not to pass it up, not to come back again to a third class level of devotional service, to remain on the higher platform of devotional service, and thus to complete one’s business in this life.

Why again fall into conditioned life? Why again fall into Materialistic life. When this opportunity has been given to become on the platform of pure transcendental relishment, everything will come into perspective. Nothing is lost, everything is gained. Is there a question? Yes. Can you please elaborate on the fact on how all the different forms of lawyers inside of the de team how we can see our own deeds in that particular way? What’s the need of elaboration? This is the incarnation of the Lord. But we see that this deity is none different than the original personality of Godhead. But even if someone wants to see, well this is material energy, it’s not God, it’s brass or wood or something like that. Well even then the super soul is present in all the atoms present in our heart. So obviously the super soul is present there.

So when we’re worshiping the Lord that the super soul is present there. So the Lord will be directly accepting our worship and he will be able to reciprocate even if one takes it from that point of view in the higher point of view. Because the super soul is present everywhere and the super soul is not different from Kṛṣṇa. So directly Kṛṣṇa accepts our worship by worshipping the deity and directly Kṛṣṇa reciprocates according to the faith of the devotee, he is reciprocating. There’s a deity Al Anat where the father went off to collect some alms to increase the worship of the deity in Purī. This is Alanath, very close to Purī, about 10 miles away. That’s where Lord Caitanya would go when Lord Jagannath was being painting. What do you call that? When Lord Che Jagannath’s painting. So that time Lord Caitanya would go there.

So that deity has got some burn mark. I think you know that story about that boy. You can tell.

That Brahman he has gone up. So he sent his mother like horse. They say no, yeah, I don’t, I forget that. And she has some hot fires. She tries. So when the small boy is offering he’s thinking that deity will eat it personally. But deity is not eating so he has to go for plane somewhere. So he said you please take quickly so ice and go for playing. So then the deity started to eat and he so quickly hot sweet rice fell on his body somewhere here. So he got on his part there. So the boy came back with empty pot. So his mother told what about Prasad the date took everything. So then when he. Then she said that no, you’re lying, you have taken all prasad and yes indeed they never eat anything. So then she became angry.

Then they went to deity and they saw actually deity has taken with his spot by dream or something like that. I forgot. They told that yes, I have taken this part on the on his body. Now you can see also. This is.

Because the child has such a faith. He knew well, this is Kṛṣṇa, he’s going to eat. Didn’t have the slightest doubt that Kṛṣṇa would eat that prasad. Why are you not eating? I have offered, I have done everything. You’re not eating how long? So you know the deity. The devotee was so insisting at such faith. He ate it because we’re thinking, oh, deity is standing his breast so he can’t. We’re thinking that he can if he wants. He can climb right down. He can dance with us so he can eat. We don’t have the faith. Therefore he’s just standing there. If he had absolute faith, the child wasn’t thinking that oh, this is a stone deity. How can he eat? He’s thinking, this is the deity, it’s Kṛṣṇa. Why are you not eating then? The thought didn’t even occur to him that of any.

So because he had that absolute faith. Therefore Kṛṣṇa reciprocated like that. There’s so many stories in the Vedas, so many historical accounts of how deity have reciprocated with the devotees. So according to your faith, you depend on Kṛṣṇa. You worship Kṛṣṇa, you reciprocate. Sometimes Śrīla Prabhupāda would come up. They ask the Gujari, how is the deity feeling today? Gujari, you should know, Pujari is very sincere. The deity will talk to the Pujari. How was prasadam today? Too much salt. Actually the Sanātana Goswami Didi used to complain to him that you’re just offering me the dry jafari. No salt, no butter. You can’t even give me a little salt. He said if I give you salt, then next thing will be butter.

Pretty soon I have to go out and get a job or something and then I won’t have any more time like this they’re discussing. This is a high level of devotion. So we can. Actually, we shouldn’t take the deity for granted. In the one sense, we should take the deity’s mercy for granted. That if we fully depend on the deity, he won’t let us down. But we shouldn’t take the deity that whatever I give, it’s all right. He won’t say anything about it then. That’s offensive. We shouldn’t take it that he’s just not personally there. That way we shouldn’t take him for granted. We should take that deity is actually there. And accordingly, if we treat very personally, he also reciprocates.

If a pujari, a devotee, very personally takes care of the deity with that full understanding that actually Kṛṣṇa is present, Kṛṣṇa will reciprocate. Okay, any question back today? You didn’t get a cookie. Anyone else didn’t get a cookie? Black team Diane, you didn’t get one.