Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krsna in the Womb 17
His lotus feet. Simply by meditation on the lotus feet of the Lord, great
sages cross over this vast ocean of material existence without difficulty.
“OQ self-illuminated one, the great saintly persons who have crossed over
the ocean of nescience, by the help of the transcendental boat of Your
lotus feet, have not taken away that boat. It is still lying on this side.”” The
demigods are using a nice simile. If one takes a boat to cross over a river,
the boat also goes with one to the other side of the river. And so when
one reaches the destination, how can the same boat be available to those
who are still on the other side? To answer this difficulty, the demigods
say in their prayer that the boat is not taken away. The devotees still
remaining on the other side are able to pass over the ocean of material
nature because the pure devotees do not take the boat with them when
they cross over. When one simply approaches the boat, the whole ocean of
material nescience is reduced to the size of water in a calf’s hoofprint.
Therefore, the devotees do not need to take a boat to the other side; they
simply cross the ocean immediately. Because the great saintly persons are
compassionate toward all conditioned souls, the boat is still lying at the
lotus feet of the Lord. One can meditate upon His feet at any time, and by
so doing, one can cross over the great ocean of material existence.
Meditation means concentration upon the lotus feet of the Lord. Lotus
feet indicate the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who are im-
personalists do not recognize the lotus feet of the Lord, and therefore
their object of meditation is something impersonal. The demigods express
their mature verdict that persons who are interested in meditating on
something void or impersonal cannot cross over the ocean of nescience.
Such persons are simply imagining that they have become liberated. “O
lotus-eyed Lord! Their intelligence is contaminated because they fail to
meditate upon the lotus feet of Your Lordship.” As a result of this
neglectful activity, the impersonalists fall down again into the material
way of conditioned life, although they may temporarily rise up to the
point of impersonal realization. Impersonalists, after undergoing severe
austerities and penances, merge themselves into the Brahman effulgence
or impersonal Brahman existence. But their minds are not free from ma-
terial contamination; they have simply tried to negate the material ways of
thinking. That does not mean that they have become liberated. Thus they
fall down. In the Bhagavad-gita it is stated that the impersonalist has to
undergo great tribulation in realizing the ultimate goal. At the beginning
of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, it is also stated that without devotional service
to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one cannot achieve liberation
from the bondage of fruitive activities. The statement of Lord Krsna is
