160
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 3]
of the family who is above twelve years of age should be initiated by a bona fide spiritual master, and all the members of the household should be engaged in the daily service of the Lord, beginning from morning (4 a.m.) till night (10 p.m.) by performing  maṅgala-ārātrika ,  nirañjana ,  arcanā ,  pūjā ,  kīrtana ,  śṛṅgāra ,  bhoga vaikāli ,  sandhyā-ārātrika ,  pāṭha ,  bhoga  (at night),  śayana-ārātrika , etc. Engagement in such worship of the Deity, under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master, will greatly help the householders to purify their very existence and make rapid progress in spiritual knowledge. Simple theoretical book knowledge is not sufficient for a neophyte devotee. Book knowledge is theoretical, whereas the  arcanā  process is practical. Spiritual knowledge must be developed by a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge, and that is the guaranteed way for attainment of spiritual perfection. The training of devotional service by a neophyte devotee completely depends on the expert spiritual master who knows how to lead his disciple to make gradual progress towards the path back home, back to Godhead. One should not become a pseudo-spiritual master as a matter of business to meet one's family expenditure, but one must be an expert spiritual master to deliver the disciple from the clutches of impending death. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākur has defined the bona fide qualities of a spiritual master, and one of the verses in that description reads:
śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā- śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau yuktasya bhaktāmś ca niyuñjato'pi vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam.
Śrī-vigraha  is the  arcā  or suitable worshipable form of the Lord, and the disciple should be engaged in worshiping the Deity regularly by  śṛṅgāra , by proper decoration and dressing, as also  mandira-mārjanādau , the matter of cleansing the temple. The spiritual master teaches the neophyte devotee all these kindly and personally to help him gradually in the realization of the transcendental name, quality, form, etc., of the Lord.
Attention engaged in the service of the Lord, especially in dressing and decorating the temple, accompanied by musical  kīrtana  and spiritual instructions from scriptures, can only save the common man from the hellish cinema attraction and rubbish sex-songs broadcast everywhere by radios. If one is unable to maintain a temple at home, he should go to another's temple where all the above performances are regularly executed. Visiting the temple of a devotee and looking at the profusely decorated