Text 15]
Rṣabhadeva's Appearance
129
yat —because;  u ha vāva —indeed;  tava —Your;  punaḥ —again;  adabhra-kartaḥ —O Lord, who performs many activities;  iha —here, in this arena of sacrifice;  samāhūtaḥ —invited;  tatra —therefore;  artha-dhiyām —who aspire to fulfill material desires;  mandānām —not very intelligent;  naḥ —of us;  tat —that;  yat —which;  deva-helanam —disrespect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead;  deva-deva —Lord of lords;  arhasi —please;  sāmyena —because of Your equipoised position;  sarvān —everything;  prativoḍhum —tolerate;  aviduṣām —of us, who are all ignorant.
TRANSLATION
O Lord, You perform many wonderful activities. Our only aim was to acquire a son by performing this great sacrifice; therefore our intelligence is not very sharp. We are not experienced in ascertaining life's goal. By inviting You to this negligible sacrifice for some material motive, we have certainly committed a great offense at Your lotus feet. Therefore, O Lord of lords, please excuse our offense because of Your causeless mercy and equal mind.
PURPORT
The priests were certainly unhappy to have called the Supreme Lord from Vaikuṇṭha for such an insignificant reason. A pure devotee never wants to see the Lord unnecessarily. The Lord is engaged in various activities, and the pure devotee does not want to see Him whimsically, for his own sense gratification. The pure devotee simply depends on the Lord's mercy, and when the Lord is pleased, he can see Him face to face. The Lord is unseen even by demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva. By calling on the Supreme Lord, the priests of Nābhi Mahārāja proved themselves unintelligent; nonetheless, the Lord came out of His causeless mercy. All of them therefore wanted to be excused by the Lord.
Worship of the Supreme Lord for material gain is not approved by authorities. As stated in  Bhagavad-gītā  (7.16):
catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛtino 'rjuna ārto jjñāsur arthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha