260
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 7, Ch. 5]
worship of the Deity within the mind is recommended.” In the  Nārada-pañcarātra  it is stated by Lord Nārāyaṇa that worship of the Deity within the mind is called  mānasa-pūjā . One can become free from the four miseries by this method. Sometimes worship from the mind can be independently executed. According to the instruction of Āvirhotra Muni, one of the  nava-yogendras , as mentioned in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , one may worship the Deity by chanting all the  mantras . Eight kinds of Deities are mentioned in the  śāstra , and the mental Deity is one of them. In this regard, the following description is given in the  Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa .
In the city of Pratiṣṭhāna-pura, long ago, there resided a  brāhmaṇa  who was poverty-stricken but innocent and not dissatisfied. One day he heard a discourse in an assembly of  brāhmaṇas  concerning how to worship the Deity in the temple. In that meeting, he also heard that the Deity may be worshiped within the mind. After this incident, the  brāhmaṇa , having bathed in the Godāvarī River, began mentally worshiping the Deity. He would wash the temple within his mind, and then in his imagination he would bring water from all the sacred rivers in golden and silver waterpots. He collected all kinds of valuable paraphernalia for worship, and he worshiped the Deity very gorgeously, beginning from bathing the Deity and ending with offering  ārati . Thus he felt great happiness. After many years had passed in this way, one day within his mind he cooked nice sweet rice with ghee to worship the Deity. He placed the sweet rice on a golden dish and offered it to Lord Kṛṣṇa, but he felt that the sweet rice was very hot, and therefore he touched it with his finger. He immediately felt that his finger had been burned by the hot sweet rice, and thus he began to lament. While the  brāhmaṇa  was in pain, Lord Viṣṇu in Vaikuṇṭha began smiling, and the goddess of fortune inquired from the Lord why He was smiling. Lord Viṣṇu then ordered His associates to bring the  brāhmaṇa  to Vaikuṇṭha. Thus the  brāhmaṇa  attained the liberation of  sāmīpya , the facility of living near the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
(6)  Vandanam . Although prayers are a part of Deity worship, they may be considered separately like the other items, such as hearing and chanting, and therefore separate statements are given herewith. The Lord has unlimited transcendental qualities and opulences, and one who feels influenced by the Lord’s qualities in various activities offers