Text 38]
Instructions by Mahārāja Pṛthu
865
and  deva  means “worshipable Lord.” Therefore unless one is on the transcendental platform of being a Vaiṣṇava, or on the highest platform of material goodness (as a  brāhmaṇa ), he cannot appreciate the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the lower stages of ignorance and passion, it is difficult to appreciate or understand the Supreme Lord. Therefore the Lord is described herein as the worshipable Deity for persons in brahminical and Vaiṣṇava culture.
namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ
( Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.19.65 )
Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the prime protector of brahminical culture and the cow. Without knowing and respecting these, one cannot realize the science of God, and without this knowledge, any welfare activities or humanitarian propaganda cannot be successful. The Lord is  puruṣa , or the supreme enjoyer. Not only is He the enjoyer when He appears as a manifested incarnation, but He is the enjoyer since time immemorial, from the very beginning ( purātaṇa ), and eternally ( nityam ).  Yac-caraṇābhivandanāt : Pṛthu Mahārāja said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead attained this opulence of eternal fame simply by worshiping the lotus feet of the  brāhmaṇas . In  Bhagavad-gītā  it is said that the Lord does not need to work to achieve material gain. Since He is perpetually supremely perfect, He does not need to obtain anything, but still it is said that He obtained His opulences by worshiping the lotus feet of the  brāhmaṇas . These are His exemplary actions. When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was in Dvārakā, He offered His respects by bowing down at the lotus feet of Nārada. When Sudāmā Vipra came to His house, Lord Kṛṣṇa personally washed his feet and gave him a seat on His personal bed. Although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa offered His respects to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira and Kuntī. The Lord’s exemplary behavior is to teach us. We should learn from His personal behavior how to give protection to the cow, how to cultivate brahminical qualities, and how to respect the  brāhmaṇas  and the Vaiṣṇavas. The Lord says in  Bhagavad-gītā ,  yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ : “If the leading personalities behave in a certain manner, others follow them automatically.” (Bg. 3.21) Who can be more of a leading personality than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and whose behavior could be more exemplary? It is not that He needed to do all these things to acquire material gain, but all of these acts were performed just to teach us how to behave in this material world.