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The Nectar of Devotion
if they are offered the four kinds of spiritual opulences,* they will refuse to accept them. So what to speak of their desiring anything within the material world!” Similarly, Lord Krṣṇa says in another passage of the  Bhāgavatam , Eleventh Canto, 14th Chapter, 13th verse, “My dear Uddhava, a person whose consciousness is completely absorbed in My thought and activities does not aspire even to occupy the post of Brahmā, or the post of Indra, or the post of lordship over the planets, or the eight kinds of mystic perfections, or even liberation itself.” In the Twelfth Canto of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , 10th Chapter, verse 6, Lord Śiva says to Devī: “My dear Devī, this great  brāhmaṇa  sage Mārkaṇḍeya has attained unflinching faith and devotion unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such he does not aspire after any benedictions, including liberation from the material world.”
Similarly, there is a statement in  Padma Purāṇa  describing the ritualistic function during the month of  Kārttika  (October-November). During this month, in Vṛndāvana it is the regulative principle to pray daily to Lord Krṣṇa in His Dāmodara form. The Dāmodara form refers to Krṣṇa in His childhood when He was tied up with rope by His mother, Yaśodā.  Dāma  means ropes, and  udara  means the abdomen. So Mother Yaśodā, being very disturbed by naughty Krṣṇa, bound Him round the abdomen with a rope, and thus Krṣṇa is named  Dāmodara . During the month of  Kārttika , Dāmodara is prayed to as follows: “My dear Lord, You are the Lord of all, the giver of all benedictions.” There are many demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva who sometimes offer benedictions to their respective devotees. For example, Rāvana was blest with many benedictions by Lord Śiva, and Hiraṇyakaśipu was blest by Lord Brahmā. But even Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā depend upon the benedictions of Lord Krṣṇa, and therefore Krṣṇa is addressed as the Lord of all benefactors. As such, Lord Krṣṇa can offer His devotees anything they want, but still, the devotee’s prayer continues, “I do not ask You for liberation or any material facility up to the point of liberation. What I want as Your favor is that I may always think of
*The fifth kind of liberation, merging with the Supreme, is not considered an opulence in spiritual variegated existence.