Text 27] Lord Viṣṇu's Appearance in the Sacrificial Arena
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already liberated. They never come into this material world. Lord Viṣṇu is the master of this material world, and there is no question of His being controlled by material nature. Consequently, Lord Viṣṇu is addressed here as  pūruṣottama , the best of all living entities—namely  viṣṇu-tattvas  and  jīva-tattvas . It is a great offense, therefore, to compare Lord Viṣṇu and the  jīva-tattva  or consider them on an equal level. The Māyāvādī philosophers equalize the  jīvas  and the Supreme Lord and consider them to be one, but that is the greatest offense to the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu.
Here in the material world we have practical experience that a superior person is worshiped by an inferior one. Similarly,  pūruṣottama , the greatest, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa or Lord Viṣṇu, is always worshiped by others. Pṛthu Mahārāja therefore decided to engage in the service of the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu. Pṛthu Mahārāja is considered to be an incarnation of Lord Viṣṇu, but he is called a  śaktyāveśa  incarnation. Another significant word in this verse is  guṇālayam , which refers to Viṣṇu as the reservoir of all transcendental qualities. The Māyāvādī philosophers take the Absolute Truth to be  nirguṇa  (without qualities), in accordance with the impersonalistic view, but actually the Lord is the reservoir of all good qualities. One of the most important qualities of the Lord is His inclination to His devotees, called  bhakta-vatsala . The devotees are always very much inclined to render service to the lotus feet of the Lord, and the Lord is also very much inclined to accept loving service from His devotees. In that exchange of service there are so many transcendental transactions which are called transcendental qualitative activities. Some of the transcendental qualities of the Lord are that He is omniscient, omnipresent, all-pervasive, all-powerful, the cause of all causes, the Absolute Truth, the reservoir of all pleasures, the reservoir of all knowledge, the all-auspicious and so on.
Pṛthu Mahārāja desired to serve the Lord with the goddess of fortune, but this desire does not mean that he was situated on the platform of  mādhurya-rasa . The goddess of fortune is engaged in the service of the Lord in the  mādhurya-rasa  of conjugal love. Although her position is on the chest of the Lord, the goddess of fortune, in her position as a devotee, takes pleasure in serving the lotus feet of the Lord. Pṛthu Mahārāja was thinking only of the lotus feet of the Lord because he is on the platform of  dāsya-rasa  or servitorship of the Lord. From the next verse we learn that Pṛthu Mahārāja was thinking of the goddess of fortune as the universal mother,  jagan-mātā . Consequently there was no question of his competing with her on the platform of  mādhurya-rasa . Nonetheless he feared that she might take offense at his engaging in the service of the Lord. This suggests that in the absolute world there is sometimes competition between servitors