The Residents of Jambudvipa Offer Prayers

hiraṇmaye 'pi bhagavān nivasati kūrma-tanuḿ bibhrāṇas tasya tat priyatamāḿ tanum aryamā saha varṣa-puruṣaiḥ pitṛ-gaṇādhipatir

upadhāvati mantram imaḿ cānujapati

TRANSLATION

Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: In Hiraṇmaya-varṣa, the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, lives in the form of a tortoise [kūrma-śarīra]. This most dear and beautiful form is always worshiped there in devotional service by Aryamā, the chief resident of Hiraṇmaya-varṣa, along with the other inhabitants of that land. They chant the following hymns.

PURPORT

The word priyatama (dearmost) is very significant in this verse. Each devotee regards a particular form of the Lord as most dear. Because of an atheistic mentality, some people think that the tortoise, boar and fish incarnations of the Lord are not very beautiful. They do not know that any form of the Lord is always the fully opulent Personality of Godhead. Since one of His opulences is infinite beauty, all the Lord's incarnations are very beautiful and are appreciated as such by devotees. Nondevotees, however, think that Lord Krishna's incarnations are ordinary material creatures, and therefore they distinguish between the beautiful and the not beautiful. A certain form of the Lord is worshiped by a particular devotee because he loves to see that form of the Lord. As stated in Brahma-saḿhitā (5.33): advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaḿ purāṇa-puruṣaḿ nava-yauvanaḿ ca. The very beautiful form of the Lord is always youthful. Sincere servants of a particular form of the Lord always see that form as very beautiful, and thus they engage in constant devotional service to Him.

Today, we are reading from Srimad Bhagavatam chapter 18 entitled “The Residents Of Jambudvipa Offer Prayers”, text number 29. The residents of Hiraṇmaya-varṣa experience pure love in ecstatic bliss in remembering the beautiful form of the Lord who is eternally existing as a tortoise in their abode. Srila Prabhupada herein is bringing to our attention a most essential truth, that the Lord is absolute, and His opulences including infinite beauty is absolute, and in whatever form He assumes, whatever form He possesses, it is of absolute infinite beauty. It is a fact. In this world, the only person who is attracted to a tortoise is another tortoise. Human beings, they may become attached to a little turtle as a pet, but tortoises are big. Very few people are attracted to tortoises, what to speak of love a tortoise. However, when the Lord appears as a tortoise, there is no man, there is no woman in this world or even in the heavenly planets that could be so attractive and can awaken such deep love from within the heart.

What is a materialistic person? Someone who is attached to their own mind’s and senses’ conceptions. Material life means to forget our relationship with God and to try to serve our own desires. Stoka Krishna Prabhu recited a verse from the 7th canto of Bhagavatam:

matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā

mitho 'bhipadyeta gṛha-vratānām

adānta-gobhir viśatāḿ tamisraḿ

punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām

As long as we are attached to being the enjoyer rather than being the servant, then we are plagued with this disease, the disease of being attracted to the senses and their objects. How is this possible? The eternal soul that is part of God is under the conception that “I am this body, I am this mind” and is relinquishing our eternal wealth of the ecstatic abode of the Lord, the loving association of the Lord to indulge in what Bhagavad-gita calls the sources of misery of material happiness. As long as we have this attachment to be the enjoyer, we cannot understand the Lord by any means we endeavor, either by our own efforts or even with the help of others. We have to give up this misconception that “I am the enjoyer” and assume the real nature of being a servant.

Servant does not want to enjoy. The true spirit of a servant is to be enjoyed. The true spirit of a servant is to want to please the object of your service even if it creates much difficulty for ourselves, and we find this the consistent quality of all the great devotees in all the great scriptures throughout history. Prahlad Maharaja did not mind his own persecutions. He simply wanted to please the Lord. The residents of Vrndavana, they didn’t care if they were in heaven or hell. They only wanted to please Krishna. Ambarisa Maharaja was not concerned with his own life or death. He only wanted to satisfy the Lord. This is love. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura explained that as long as we maintain this misconception that “I am the enjoyer,” it is like an anchor in the boat of the human form of life. This human form of life is especially meant to cross over the ocean of material existence, but however much you row, however many good people you have on board to help you, as long as 9.51 the anchor is connected to the bottom of the sea, you cannot really go anywhere. So Krishna says in Gita: ye yathā māḿ prapadyante tāḿs tathaiva bhajāmy aham…as we approach the Lord, the Lord reveals himself accordingly. If we approach the Lord in a spirit of servitude, in a spirit of devotion, then the Lord reveals Himself to us as He is. Otherwise, if we want to enjoy this world, then the Lord will, corresponding to our desire, reveal the things of this world as very, very attractive. Sripad Yamunacarya, he was a king, Alabandara. He had great opportunities for material pleasures. But in his famous prayer, he is revealing his heart that “Even the most exquisite pleasures of this world that I was so deeply addicted to, now that I have tasted the sweetness of your loving service, when I think of those things, my lips curl in distaste and I spit at the thought.” How is this possible? This is not an aversion based on too much attachment. This is that he’s seen that the pleasures of this world are impediments that distract us from our eternal constitutional purpose which is to serve the Lord and please the Lord. He’s not spitting at the thing, his lips are not curling in distaste because of the particular thing that is before him, but it is the principle of these things that drag us away from our relationship with God.

So herein we find the Lord who is all attractive, He awakens within the heart, according to our spirit of devotion, attraction to Him. No one can be attracted to God without the grace of God…premanjana-chhurita-bhakti-vilocanena. Some people look at the deity and they see something not at all attractive. They see it as an idol, a diversion from real religion. Other people see the deity of the Lord and their hearts melt in ecstatic love. They’re willing to give everything for that deity. There are so many stories of people. For a simple deity in a temple, they’re willing, I mean, they’re willing to give all their wealth to build beautiful temples, they’re willing to give all their energy to cook wonderful food. For materialistic people, this is incomprehensible. One disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he was a wealthy man and he gave, literally, every paisa he had to build a temple for the deity of his Guru Maharaja, every paisa he had. And he also arranged the architecture, he put practically full time. He couldn’t earn any more money because he was giving his full time to build the temple, and all the money he had saved his whole life was going into building that temple. And by the time it was done, he had absolutely nothing, and he was blissful! He asked permission from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura where there was some little floor space in the corner of the temple where he could stay because he was homeless. He sold his home just to make the temple nicer, and he spent the rest of his life just doing menial service to the deity and he was happy. He was more happy than anyone else in this world because he was experiencing Krishna. Now for a materialistic person, why? A deity?

For those of you who have been to Vrndavana, you have seen Radha Govinda temple, magnificent temple, unbelievable work of art. So much time, so much energy for the deity. Now from a material point of view, it doesn’t make sense. Just like Radha Rasabihari temple. The deities only cost, maybe, 15,000 rupees to have carved in Jaipur. But for them, they spend crores of rupees to make them happy. Does that make sense? Yes, because when Prabhupada installed Krishna, when he invited Krishna to appear in the deity, then it’s not some…it’s not just a statue that cost 15,000 rupees to make. The Lord has appeared within to accept our services and Srila Prabhupada and the devotees, they risked their lives. They went through so many unbelievable hardships and difficulties just to keep their word to the deity. Prabhupada promised, “We will build you a temple.” The municipality was against them, mafias were against them, so many people were against them, but they fought, and fought, and fought, and built the temple, just for the deities…that’s love. Because Krishna is revealing Himself.

So the form of Kurma is sat cid ananda – spiritual, eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. A material tortoise, you may like it at the best, but are you willing to give up everything in ecstasy to please a tortoise? No human is like that. But for God, He’s not a tortoise, He’s not a boar, He’s not a fish as we know it in this world. He’s the supreme controller of all controllers, He’s the ultimate object of everyone’s love, and in whatever form He appears, when we please Him, He awakens that love within our heart. Salagrama sila is just a little stone. He doesn’t have a three-fold bending form that we can see…just a little stone. To a materialist, the salagrama sila is no different than any other rock lying in the river. Yes? But how is it that great devotees, they have centered their entire lives around the service of that little stone called salagrama? We read about that brahmana who came to Navadvipa. He was a worshipper of Gopal. He had a deity of salagrama. His life, his soul, his everything was making offerings to salagrama, pleasing salagrama. What is he seeing? Yes, if we have some sense of love of God, seeing a salagrama sila, we will see billions of times more beauty than a neophyte devotee even seeing the most wonderful darsana of the deities of Radha Gopinath in the temple decorated with wonderful jewelry, and garments, and garlands, and all sorts of incredible decorations all around. If we have love of God, we’ll see billions of times more beauty in a salagrama sila. How is that? Because Krishna reveals his opulences by His causeless mercy in proportion to our service attitude and our love.

So this is a wonderful thing. The inhabitants of Hiraṇmaya-varṣa, they don’t care anything for any of the pleasures of this world, or any of the pleasures of the heavenly planet. They simply want to live eternally with tears of love in their eyes just remembering Kurma avatara, the form of the Lord as a tortoise. And Śrīla Prabhupada explains herein that according to a devotee’s particular inclination to serve the Lord, the Lord awakens our love accordingly. Krishna consciousness is beyond sectarian misconceptions. God is one, that is a fact. But by the Lord’s inconceivable potencies, He can appear in so many forms to so many people with so much variegatedness. In the Navadvipa Mahatmya as well as the Bhakti Ratnakara, we read about a devotee named Vasudeva. He knew about Rama, he understood the various forms in which the Lord has taken different incarnations in this world, but he particularly was so deeply attached to Varaha, the form of the Lord as a boar. Now relatively, most people consider even a tortoise more pretty than a boar, an uncivilized pig in the jungle. But that was his goal of life. He just wanted to have darsana of Lord Varahadeva. It was his only passion. He was performing great austerities just to get that darsana of Lord Varaha. Why? Why not Krishna? Why not Rama? Why not Mohini murti? [Laughter]. He wanted darsana of Lord Varahadeva. That was his goal of life, his everything. And Lord Varahadeva, in the place called Koladvipa, gave His darsana to Vasudeva because the Lord awakened within him the realization of the greatness of this beautiful form. In Srimad Bhagavatam, we find when Varahadeva appeared, the sages, the rsis, and all the devotees, they were offering prayers of love to Him. They saw that He had the most attractive lotus-like eyes. His paws were the essence of all beautiful things…His hooves. Yes? And the bristling hairs on His body were just magnificent, mind boggling in the way that they were attracting their hearts with such love. What to speak of His irresistibly beautiful nose? Not too many humans are attracted to the snout of a pig. But for Lord Varahadeva, that snout is more attractive, unlimitedly, than the nose of any lover of this world because it is Krishna. He is Krishna, the all attractive one whose body is eternal and spiritual. And when He awakens that attraction within our heart, then what we see and what we remember is irresistible.

So we cannot bring Krishna down to our mentality. This is the condition of a neophyte devotee. We try to judge Krishna through the limited perceptions of our eyes and our ears. Sometimes we see these ancient deities, and they’re just not as pleasing to look at as the modern deities that are carved very precisely in a very beautiful way so that the eyes just see such a beautiful lady in Radharani and such a beautiful man in Krishna. Yes? The features are so nice. But some of the ancient deities, there’s hardly any features that we can see. They’re just black stones that just have a basic shape. Yes? But we find that the acaryas, what were they seeing? Rupa Goswami, he was warning us, “If you are attached to your family, friendship, love, and home in this world, don’t go to Kesi Ghat because the form of Govindaji is there, and once you see that form of Govindaji, how can you ever be attracted to anything of this world again?” He’s talking about the deity of Govindaji. This is what he’s seeing, he's seeing Krishna. So no, we cannot judge things by our material senses. When Krishna appears, our attraction should not be based on superficial sentiment. Our attraction has to be based on love. Therefore, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he has told us again and again, “Do not try to see Krishna because you cannot see Krishna.” Even if you see Krishna, you can’t see Krishna. You cannot see Krishna with your eyes…even if He’s standing right before you. You have to see Krishna with your heart. Kamsa saw Krishna but he wasn’t feeling love. He was feeling hatred. Prahlad was ecstatically worshipping Lord Nrsimhadeva, but when Hiranyakasipu saw him, what did he see? He saw the most horrible form of death. Varahadeva—Hiranyaksha was not attracted by him. The form of Varahadeva only awakened fear and hatred in his heart.

Krishna reciprocates with our devotion. And this is the difference between a neophyte devotee and one who is actually striving for real spiritual progress—is a neophyte devotee remains too much attached to the external forms, to the external rituals, and a devotee who is actually aspiring for real advancement understands that all of these forms and rituals that the Lord has given us, it is simply a facility and opportunity to surrender our lives and awaken love.

Srila Prabhupada explained that we could do without everything else, but we must have the association of devotees, and we must have the holy name of Krishna. But even the name of Krishna, why are we not tasting the sweetness and the ecstasy? All of the opulences and beauty of Krishna is in his name. It is because of our service attitude. We must develop the selfless service attitude to understand Krishna as He is.

When Murari Gupta was told by Lord Caitanya that “There’s no need for you to serve Rama. Rama is the supreme Lord, all attractive, no doubt, but Krishna’s pastimes are most sweet, most playful. Everyone else around you is a devotee of Krishna. Join with us and worship the Krishna of Vrndavana.” Murari Gupta said, “Yes, I will do, that is your order.” But the next day Murari Gupta approached Lord Caitanya with tears and begged for his permission, “Let me end my life because all night I tried to surrender to Krishna but in my heart I could only see Lord Rama, and it is too painful for me to take my head away from Rama. I have already offered it to His lotus feet. It’s not possible for me to worship anyone but Lord Rama.” Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu embraced him and celebrated the good fortune of Murari Gupta. He said, “I wanted to test the faithfulness and chastity of your love for Sri Rama.” So Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was most pleased. Lord Caitanya is Krishna himself, is Rama himself. The Lord is infinite and He can appear in so many forms in so many ways and attract different people’s hearts. And a devotee, if he understands his own Lord with love and devotion, then he will understand the other forms of the Lord that He may take. It is said that even a dog understands his master regardless of how the master may dress. The master may be dressed in a business suit, or in a simple dhoti and kurta another day, or kaupinas another day [Laughter]. The master may have hundreds of dresses, but the dog will love and serve the master regardless. So similarly when you love the Lord, you actually have some love for God, even when you see Him in other dresses, in other forms, you can only love Him. And if you do not appreciate the other forms and the other ways that the Lord is revealing Himself in other religions, what does that mean? It means that you are less than a dog, that’s all, less than a dog. Srila Prabhupada emphasized this point. Sukadeva Goswami, he loved Krishna. Sukadeva Goswami is a parrot of Vrndavana, the intimate pet of Srimati Radharāni. He’s coming from Goloka. He’s witnessing and participating in the most intimate pastimes of conjugal love with Radha and Krishna. But yet, with such ecstasy he is describing Kurma avatara, Varaha avatara, Matsya avatara, the Lord in the form of a fish. For Satyavrata muni, that fish was so attractive, he could not conceive of letting his mind divert to any other form of the Lord. And Sukadeva Goswami is glorifying these devotees of the fish incarnation; the boar incarnation; the half-man, half-lion incarnation. Why? Because he loves Krishna. If you love Krishna, you love everything about Krishna. God is great. To understand how God is great is bhakti.

Now this particular form of Lord Kurma, when he appeared in this world, it is a very instructive story. We know that the demigods and the demons were churning the ocean of milk with the Mandara mountain as the churning rod and Vasuki as the rope. But as they began this great chore, the entire mountain sunk into the ocean, and none of them individually or collectively had the power to lift this mountain. It was just sinking, and sinking, and sinking. It was a great difficulty. So the demigods, they prayed to Krishna. They prayed to Krishna for help. The demons, they just thought that this is some accident that’s impossible to resolve. And the Lord appeared as a huge tortoise and entered into the ocean and became the base to support the mountain. Now in this regard, Srila Prabhupada explains the difference between a materialistic person and a real devotee of the Lord. A materialistic person sees when hindrances come, either they’re coming by accident, or these hindrances are caused by others. But a devotee sees that behind everything is the will of the Lord and an opportunity to come closer to the Lord. Therefore, for a devotee, hindrances, obstacles are a benediction. For a nondevotee, they are simply disturbances. It is a matter of perception. Nothing happens by accident. Everything is happening according to the higher power of God. Now different reactions that we may endure may be karmic. There is no doubt, the laws of karma is that for every action there is an equal corresponding reaction and everything that comes in the life of an ordinary person is simply the reactions of their past karma. But for a devotee understands that this law of karma is working ultimately under the Lord’s command. Everything is happening under the Lord’s command. He is the ultimate controller of all material and spiritual worlds. We are getting the reactions to our previous acts. They may be pleasurable or they may be painful. But the system was created by God and the system was created for a perfectly auspicious purpose. Therefore, even karma, a devotee sees the all merciful, benevolent hand of the Lord behind it. And those who are surrendering to the Lord, then the Lord personally puts us in various situations that are perfectly according to what we need to spiritually grow and a devotee sees that. No, nothing is an accident. A devotee wants to see Krishna’s hand behind everything… tat te 'nukampāḿ su-samīkṣamāṇo bhuïjāna evātma-kṛtaḿ vipākam. That even in a most painful condition, even in a most difficult circumstance, a devotee folds palms with gratitude and thanks Krishna, sees this difficulty as a benediction, and wants to serve the Lord. Now we may say that the reactions to certain things are due to our own mistakes or our own offences and that may be, but the fact is that Krishna has created the system that gives us that reaction for our mistakes and offences. Sometimes, Prabhupāda, he would chastise devotees. They would do things negligently and then the results were bad, and they would say to Prabhupada, “It is Krishna’s mercy.” And Prabhupada said, “Do not blame Krishna for your negligence. It is your foolishness.” That is a fact. But it is also a fact that it is the mercy of Krishna, that He is giving us a bad reaction because of our foolishness. So the fault is our foolishness but still the reaction is mercy. The punishment is mercy, the failure is mercy because we’re supposed to learn from it, we’re supposed to grow through it, and we’re supposed to take shelter of Krishna in the face of this situation. So a devotee sees even great hardships and reversals in life that this is just a small token of what I deserve from my past karma and Krishna, you’re giving it to me in the form that it’s coming specifically for my purification. Therefore, it is a benediction.

A few minutes ago we heard from our dear Stoka Krishna Prabhu, how he is seeing what human beings fight to avoid their whole lives, he’s seeing it as a benediction of the Lord. Terminal disease, which puts us very close to the most feared of all experiences in creation—death. Is there anything more feared universally than death. Can you think of anything? Doesn’t matter if you’re Indian or Pakistani. Doesn’t matter if you're American or Russian or European, or African or Oriental. There’s something that every…doesn’t matter if you’re an insect or a rat or a lizard or a dog or a cat or a camel, doesn’t matter whatever specie of life you’re in, whatever caste, universally, we’re all afraid of death. Isn't that amazing? Even in the heavenly planets they’re afraid of death. Even in the hellish planets where they’re suffering like anything, even they’re afraid of death. And why are we afraid of somebody in this world? Why are we afraid of terrorists? Why are we afraid of dictators like Stalin or Hitler? Not because of who they are but because they may bring us to meet with death. Ultimately, our real fear is death. But to a devotee, Bhaktivinoda Thakura prayed, “Krishna, if you want you can protect me or if you want you can kill me, it doesn’t matter. I’m your servant, you can do anything you want with me.” Srila Prabhupada gave the example that for a kitten, the cat is the most protective, loving mother but for the rat, the cat is death personified. So when the kitten is in the mouth of the cat, there’s no place anywhere that it would rather be than in the mouth being carried by the mother, but for the rat, there’s no place it’s more afraid of than to be in the mouth of the cat. What is the difference? Same mouth, same cat. Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita, I am death personified. For a devotee, even Krishna in the form of death is the all protecting, nourishing, loving mother but for a materialist, it’s the most horrible thing to dread and to fear. So painful disease which is racking the body with all sorts of discomforts and invalidity, nobody wants it. We try to fight against it, it’s our duty. But if it comes beyond our control, for a materialistic person, it’s simply horrible, but for a devotee, it’s benediction `cause a devotee sees through the eyes of faith, eyes of faith in the truth that ultimately Krishna is the controller of all controllers, He is the cause of all causes…sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam…the cause of all causes.

We saw in Srila Bhakti Tirtha Swami, even the most miserable physical condition that anyone could possibly have to go through, he was weeping in gratitude and happiness and said he would not change his situation for anything else in the world. Hare Krishna! Because he was feeling Krishna’s love so deeply in that circumstance. Stoka Krishna Prabhu, we have seen, he was always a nice devotee. He was always sincere in struggling to control his mind and senses and to perform nice service and to please his Guru and the Vaisnavas, always, very sincere soul. But the disease and the imminent death that he is facing has made him grow. His realizations are so deep. His love for Krishna has expanded like never before. It is a fact. Now on a Saturday morning which is the prime time for Srimad Bhagavatam class, is given to him. If he wasn’t sick like this, there would be no question of Stoka Krishna giving a Saturday morning class [Laughter]. Yes? If he sat on the asana, people would say, “Get out from here.” But now people are listening to him all over the world. They’re not listening to him because he’s dying. That’s not the reason. There’re so many people dying. They're listening to him because of the gratitude, the positive Krishna conscious realizations that he has in those situations. It’s an inspiration for us. It increases our faith, our love. We want to follow in his footsteps. So yes, although it’s a horrible thing on one level that a devotee may soon be leaving this world, it’s a benediction. He’s seeing it as such and therefore it becomes. His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami on several occasions told me that, “If I lived in good health for another 30 years, in that 30 years I could not do the quantitative and qualitative service that I’m doing for the Vaisnava community as I’m being allowed to do in the last 6 months on my death bed. I could not affect people’s hearts in 30 years the way I have done in 6 months. Therefore, I consider this cancer to be a great benediction in my life because it’s providing the opportunity to do greater service to the devotees.” So he's not just seeing it as an accident. He’s seeing it as an arrangement of the Lord. And that is what the story of Kurma avatara represents.

Great difficulties come into our lives, great obstacles, sometimes impediments to our service of the Lord. But Advaita Acarya in Sri Caitanya Bhagavata, he described that the impediments that come in the path of a devotee’s lives are actually servants of the Lord. Those impediments are just what we need to spiritually grow. We may not understand intellectually exactly the details of how and why, but God cannot be understood intellectually because God is beyond the intelligence. The intelligence is a sense. It is a material element. Just as Sita, the real Sita could not be touched by Ravana, it was the illusory Sita that he got. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he explained this…that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is beyond the grasps of the mind and senses. We must understand the Lord through something that transports our consciousness beyond the limitations and relativities of this world, and that is called faith. The foundational substance of our spiritual life is our faith, and we must use our intelligence to the capacity we have to understand the validity of such faith, to convince our minds to accept such faith. Faith can transport the consciousness from the material world to the spiritual world, but that faith must be in the word of God which is transported in this world generation after generation through parampara, guru, sadhu, and sastra. And to increase faith is to come closer to God and that is the duty of every devotee in the association of other devotees, is to act, speak, and live in such a way to help increase other people’s faith as well as our own. It is all important. If we act recklessly, we can disturb other people’s faith and that is a great, great disservice. In fact, there is no greater disservice we can do than disturb another person’s faith in the evolution in development of their faith. We should be there to help each other in this regard, and that is why association of devotees is so sacred because it nourishes faith; whereas, associating with people who are too much addicted to materialistic conceptions, their association challenges our faith, has the power to distract our faith. And to lose faith is the greatest loss. To lose money, to lose prestige, even to lose health, even to lose one’s physical life is not such a loss. But to lose faith means disconnecting ourselves from the Lord or the possibility to reunite with the Lord, so it must be protected very carefully.

So death, disease, if we see through the eyes of faith, if we see that yes, maybe I am the cause of some of the things that have been done that are causing me pain but the Lord is giving me a reaction just according to the perfect plan that he has made for my benefit, therefore it is a benediction. And to see that benediction and to reciprocate is the basis of making spiritual advancement. And therefore, practically all of the great souls of the past have gone through many difficulties just to show us the way they never give up endeavoring and always see it as an opportunity to grow. Thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

When Lord Caitanya was in Kurmaksetra, the Kurma-brahmana came to see him. Previously, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he was dancing in ecstatic love before the deity of Kurma. Yes? He was chanting the holy names, his limbs were trembling, his hairs were standing on end, his…tears were pouring from his eyes, worshipping Kurmadeva in Kurmaksetra. How beautiful! He was seeing Krishna in the form of that tortoise. He was not seeing that the tortoise was simply some material representation of Krishna. He was seeing…in the beauty of that deity, he was seeing that Krishna has appeared in this form and therefore Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is teaching us what is a real devotee. To love Krishna means to love everything about Krishna and to love Krishna’s relationships in different ways with other devotees in various forms. Hare Krishna. So we will end here. Is there any questions?

Q. Hare Krishna, Maharaja. Thank you for very nice class. Maharaja, in the lecture you were mentioning about how for devotees for those who are neophytes, they are not able to recognize the beauty of, you know, the…like for example, the deity. Now, I just wanted to understand that personally speaking I face the same problem that, though I appreciate at the physical level the beauty of the deity, not able to really get that, you know, that beauty into the heart and also don’t have a taste for deity worship. Other aspects somehow I’m able to appreciate but deity worship I’m just not able to get myself to do. So how important is it and what should we do to modify our consciousness?

A. Do not try to see Krishna but serve Krishna in a way that He is pleased to see you. We are not concerned with our own taste. We are concerned with giving Krishna taste. The actual higher taste is that spirit of selfless service. We do not dress the deity because we have a taste, it gives us happiness. That is also nice if Krishna gives us that taste and that happiness but if it’s not there, then we do it in a spirit of servitude. It’s that service that purifies our heart. Yes? Deity worship is a very, very sacred opportunity for spiritual progress. We don’t do it because we like to do it. We do it because Krishna likes us to do it. And if I like it then it’s wonderful and if I don’t like it, it’s wonderful. We should like to please Krishna. That’s what deity worship is about, pleasing Krishna. That’s what we like. And it does please Krishna. So why not? Does that answer your question?

(Same devotee): Maharaja, but if somehow we just don’t get around to doing it, there's some things that…somehow…like in devotional service there are so many things we’re doing, this is one of the things that somehow I’ve just not got around to doing throughout. How do we…where do we make a start, what do we do? Just don’t have that inclination. I don’t know what to do about it.

H.H. Radhanath Swami: Carry on with what you’re doing. If you’re asked to do it, then you should understand that it is an important part of your spiritual life. But if you’re asked to do other things, then that is your deity worship. If you’re are a gardener, then your deity worship is growing those plants for Krishna. If you’re a book distributor, then your deity worship is honoring and giving those books to others. Yes? Whatever we do is deity worship. Whatever we do is for the personal service of the Lord, but the worship of the deity in the temple is a very wonderful facility because it gives us a very personal experience of serving and pleasing the Lord, and therefore it is especially very recommended for grhasthas. And since you are a grhastha, and since you are publicly confessing this lack of inspiration, we will reciprocate by giving you public instruction to begin doing deity worship [Laughter] on a regular basis. Does that answer your question? [Laughter]. Do you have any other question? [Laughter]. Thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Gaura Premanande, [Hari Hari Bol!]. (END)