Bhagavatam-daily 237 – 11.11.43 – See various worshipable things as pathways to the supreme worshipable

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Bhagavatam 11.43 in the previous text Krishna had stated to Arjuna that he, Krishna can be worshipped through various manifestations still the sun, the cow the brahmanas, fire and so forth and in this verse, in this series of verses beginning with this verse, Krishna will explain how he can be worshipped through various manifestations so he says through Surya he can be worshipped by offering the mantras for worship, obeisance and Surya to Vidyatraya Vidyatraya is that three kinds of mantras which is described as the Vedic hymns for praising, for worshipping and for offering obeisances now at none level these three seem similar but in each of them the stress is different now praise means talking about how glorious how powerful the person whom we are praising is in worship we basically recognize that person to be not just great but as great in a sacred sense as being in a position to receive worship from us as worshipable so there is praise there is worship praise where the greatness of the position then after that worship means there is a divinity of that divinity associated with that position in some way and then there is obeisance obeisance essentially means that we put ourselves in a lower position it’s a combination of praise obeisance and worship we can worship him as the son so especially in the Rig Veda there are mantras which are invoked to receive the presence of the to actually not receive the presence but to there are different mantras which are given and those mantras for different purposes can be chanted and even for the sake of for worshipping son it is understood that it is not the son alone who is worshipped for example through the Gayatri mantra it is Surya Narayan who is the one who is the illuminator of the illuminator and in this way Krishna’s, it is a devotee sees Krishna as above all this world beyond this world and yet Krishna supervises this world now when we start natural food so now the next thing that is described is that fire we can worship Lord Shiva by by offering oblations so the yajna the fire they were they were Narayan Angaja so they said that the gods are the parts of the body of Narayan so when we worship the whole the part is automatically we worship so as devotees don’t have to worry that giving up the worship of other gods no, not at all the point is they have a connected vision so when we see the fire not just as a manifestation of Agni Deva alone but as a manifestation of the potency of the lord to manifest even through matter he certainly manifests as a deity but along with that so the eminent accessibility of the lord is being stressed over here that that by the three forms of the kind of Vedic mantras for praising, worshipping and offering obeisances worship even worship Surya and then that understanding the fire to be the mouth of Vishnu Devanam Paramo Vishnu Amo the topmost among devatas is Vishnu the nearest to us in terms of accessibility is Agni and in between are all the other devatas so the sacrifice that we so the sacrifices that we offer the fruits of those sacrifices are ultimately meant for the supreme lord in 9.24 Bhagavad Gita Krishna says I am indeed the source of all qualities I am the ultimate therefore I am the ultimate object of all sacrifices I am the enjoyer and I am the appropriator Prabhu master the point of this declaration is that Krishna is the ultimate object of all worship through the fire sacrifices also although for specific fire sacrifices specific devatas may be invoked and those devatas may be guided towards worship but the point is they need to know actually speaking that so as seekers especially those who are devotee seekers even when they perform the fire sacrifices they understand that actually the ultimate object of Vishnu is to be worshipped the 4th cant of Bhagavatam is described by Pruthu Maharaj when he performs sacrifices as a king I have to set example and perform certain sacrifices which were not exactly devotional they were more of karmakant type sacrifices internally understanding that the ultimate object of the sacrifices is the supreme lord and he offered all of them to him even when the specific devatas to whom the sacrifices were offered their names were chanted even then he focused primarily on the worship he focused on remembering how those devatas are connected with the supreme how they are subordinate to the supreme and how they are actually meant to enable us to enable those who cannot directly worship the supreme to have an intermediate object of worship so in his case because he was worshipping the supreme in his heart he was devoted to the supreme so although he performed the karmakant rituals the yajnas which were actually karmakant rituals he did them in a mood of worshipping the supreme lord so through the fire sacrifice Krishna says over here I can be worshipped and similarly he says that by the that means if the brahmanas come as guests they should be offered all hospitality and by offering hospitality to the brahmanas we become purified we become elevated we move towards our consciousness gets raised so we see that Yudhishthir and the Pandavas and Draupadi were in such anxiety when Durvasa came because he was a vipra and they considered their dharma to offer hospitality to a vipra now moving onwards so sometimes we just see the vipra as disconnected from the absolute truth then we wonder why is this brahmana come, why do I have to feed him but when we see him connected with the absolute truth then we understand oh this is a opportunity for me by serving this brahmana to serve the absolute truth it is said that the Krishna feels far more satisfied when offerings are given to him through the mouths of the brahmanas than when they are given to him through the fire sacrifices so it’s a way we can worship the supreme lord, lastly it is said similarly by taking care of the cows by offering the grass paraphernalia, it is not just the cow we are worshipping, it is Krishna whom we are worshipping through the cow who being a maternal manifestation of nature we can actually feel affection for her as a mother who gives us milk and as dear to Krishna and by worshipping, by serving the cow in various ways we actually worship the supreme lord and that way we move closer to him