24
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 1
the  dvija-devas  and the  devas  always establish temples of Lord Viṣṇu in His various forms, such as Govinda, Madhusūdana, Nṛsiṁha, Mādhava, Keśava, Nārāyaṇa, Padmanābha, Pārthasārathi and many others. The Lord expands Himself in innumerable forms, but all of them are nondifferent from one another. Lord Viṣṇu has four hands, and each hand holds a particular item—either a conchshell, wheel, club or lotus flower. Of these four emblems, the  cakra , or wheel, is the chief. Lord Kṛṣṇa, being the original Viṣṇu form, has only one emblem, namely the wheel, and therefore He is sometimes called the  Cakrī . The Lord's  cakra  is the symbol of the power by which the Lord controls the whole manifestation. The tops of Viṣṇu temples are marked with the symbol of the wheel so that people may have the chance to see the symbol from a very long distance and at once remember Lord Kṛṣṇa. The purpose of building very high temples is to give people a chance to see them from a distant place. This system is carried on in India whenever a new temple is constructed, and it appears that it is coming down from a time before recorded history. The foolish propaganda by atheists that temples were only constructed in later days is refuted here because Vidura visited these temples at least 5,000 years ago, and the temples of Viṣṇu were in existence long, long before Vidura visited them. The great sages and demigods never established statues of men or demigods, but they established temples of Viṣṇu for the benefit of common men, to raise them to the platform of God consciousness.
TEXT 24
ततस्वतिब्रज्य सुराद्र्मृद्धं 
सौवीरमत्स्यान् कुरुजाङ्गलांश्च । 
कालेन तावद्यमुनामुपेत्य 
तत्रोद्धवं भागवतं ददर्श ॥२४॥
tatas tv ativrajya surāṣṭram ṛddhaṁ 
sauvīra-matsyān kurujāṅgalāṁś ca 
kālena tāvad yamunām upetya 
tatroddhavaṁ bhāgavataṁ dadarśa
tataḥ —from there;  tu —but;  ativrajya —by passing over;  surāṣṭram —the kingdom of Surat;  ṛddham —very wealthy;  sauvīra —the kingdom of Sauvīra;  matsyān —the kingdom of Matsya;  kurujāṅgalān —the kingdom of western India up to the Delhi province;  ca —also;  kālena —in course of time;  tāvat —as soon as;  yamunām —bank of the River Yamunā;  upetya —reaching;