76
The Nectar of Devotion
Bowing Down and Standing Up in Honor of the Deity
In the  Nāradīya Purāṇa  there is a statement about bowing down and offering respect to the Deity. It is said there: “A person who has performed a great ritualistic sacrifice and a person who has simply offered his respectful obeisances by bowing down before the Lord cannot be held as equals.” The person who has executed many great sacrifices will attain the result of his pious activities, but when such results are finished, he has to take birth again on the earthly planet; whereas the person who has once offered respects, bowing down before the Deity, will not again come back to this world, because he will go directly to the abode of Kṛṣṇa.
In the  Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa  it is said: “A person who sees the Lord’s  Ratha-yātrā  car festival and then stands up to receive the Lord can purge all kinds of sinful results from his body.” A similar statement is there in the  Bhaviṣya Purāṇa , in which it is said: “A person who follows the  Ratha-yātrā  car when the  Rathas  [Deities] pass in front or from behind, even if born of a lowly family, will surely be elevated to the position of achieving equal opulence with Viṣṇu.”
Going to the Temple of Viṣṇu or to Places of Pilgrimage
It is stated in the  Purāṇas : “Persons who attempt to visit the holy places of pilgrimage, like Vṛndāvana, Mathurā or Dvārakā, are actually glorified. By such traveling activities, they can pass over the desert of material existence.”
In the  Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya , there is a statement about the benefit of visiting the temples of Lord Kṛṣṇa. As we have explained previously, in Vṛndāvana, Mathurā and Dvārakā the system is that all the devotees take advantage of visiting various temples situated in those holy places. It is stated in the  Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya : “Persons who are impelled by pure devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and who therefore go to see the Deities of Viṣṇu in the temple will surely get relief from entering again into the prison house of a mother’s womb.” The conditioned soul forgets the trouble of living within the