Daily Class

As the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu has nothing to demand from anyone. He is self-satisfied, self-sufficient, but He accepts the offerings of yajña because of His friendly attitude toward all living entities. When His share of the sacrificial results was offered to Him, He appeared very pleased.

Anyone who engages in the worship of the Deity, or the form of the Lord in the temple, is understood to be studying all the Vedas twenty-four hours a day. Simply by decorating the Deities of the Lord, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, in the temple, one very minutely studies the injunctions of the Vedas. Even a neophyte devotee who simply engages in the worship of the Deity is understood to be in direct touch with the purport of Vedic knowledge.

It is confirmed herein that the performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña in this age is as good as all other yajñas in all other ages. If one performs saṅkīrtana-yajña by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, there is no need to arrange elaborate paraphernalia for the prescribed sacrificial ceremonies recommended in the Vedas. In the chant of the holy names, Hare and Kṛṣṇa, Hare means the energy of Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is the viṣṇu-tattva. Combined together they are everything.

The human form of life is called arthada because the body can very nicely help the embodied soul to achieve the highest perfection. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that even though temporary, the body can give us the highest perfectional achievement. In the process of evolution from the lower to the higher grade of living, the human form of life is a great boon. But māyā is so strong that in spite of achieving this great boon of the human form of life, we are influenced by temporary material happiness, and we forget our goal of life.

Here the Gandharvas acknowledge that although the demigods may represent themselves as the Supreme, actually they are not supreme. Real supremacy belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam is the statement of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: “Kṛṣṇa is the only Supreme Lord.” Worship of Kṛṣṇa alone, therefore, includes worship of all the parts and parcels, just as watering the root of a tree also waters all the branches, twigs, leaves and flowers.

This material world is so created that one has to act sinfully, knowingly or unknowingly, and unless his life is dedicated to Viṣṇu, he has to suffer all the reactions of sinful activities. But one who surrenders and dedicates his life for the service of the Lord has direct protection from the Lord. He has no fear of suffering from sinful activities, nor does he desire, willingly or unwillingly, to do anything which is sinful.

For the deliverance of those who are materially conditioned and attached to material enjoyment, performing yajña and following the rules and regulations of the four divisions of society and of spiritual life are recommended. It is said in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa that by offering sacrifice to Viṣṇu one can gradually be liberated. The whole target of life, therefore, is to please Lord Viṣṇu. That is yajña.

Lord Viṣṇu has accepted the superintendence of the quality of goodness, which is the source of religion, knowledge, austerity, renunciation, opulence, etc. Because of this, actual peace, prosperity, knowledge and religion can be attained when the living entities are under the control of the quality of goodness in the material world. As soon as they are subjected to the control of the other two qualities, namely passion and ignorance, their precarious conditional life becomes intolerable.

We offer our respectful obeisances unto the Supreme, who has created varieties of manifestations and put them under the spell of the three qualities of the material world in order to create, maintain and annihilate them. He Himself is not under the control of the external energy: in His personal feature He is completely devoid of the variegated manifestation of material qualities, and He is under no illusion of false identification.

Persons, however, who may not even be conversant with knowledge of the Supreme Personality but who always think of the Lord with love and faith, feeling that He is great and that they are His parts and parcels, ever His servitors, are even more favored by Him. The particular significance of this verse is that the Lord is addressed as vatsala. Vatsala means “always favorably disposed.” The Lord’s name is bhakta-vatsala. The Lord is famous as bhakta-vatsala, which means that He is always favorably inclined to the devotees, whereas He is never addressed anywhere in the Vedic literature as jñāni-vatsala.