Prayers by the Personified Vedas 249

out of good behavior one should stick to the worship of Your lotus feet
because You are the ultimate controller of creation, maintenance and
dissolution. You are the controller of the three worlds, Bhar, Bhuvar and
Svar, You are the controller of the fourteen upper and lower worlds, and
You are the controller of the three material qualities. Demigods and persons
advanced in spiritual knowledge are always engaged in hearing and chanting
about Your transcendental pastimes because this has the specific potency
of nullifying the accumulated results of sinful life. Intelligent persons
factually take a dip in the ocean of Your nectarean activities and very
patiently hear of them. Thus they immediately become freed from the
contamination of the material qualities; they do not have to undergo severe
penances and austerities for advancement of spiritual life. This chanting
and hearing of Your transcendental pastimes is the easiest process for self-
realization. Simply by submissive aural reception of the transcendental
message, one’s heart becomes cleansed of all dirty things. Thus Krsna
consciousness becomes fixed in the heart of a devotee.

“The great authority Bhismadeva has also given the opinion that this
process of chanting and hearing about the Supreme Personality of Godhead
is the essence of all Vedic ritualistic performances. Dear Lord, the devotee
who wants to elevate himself simply by this process of devotional activities,
especially by hearing and chanting, very soon comes out of the clutches of
the dualities of material existence. By this simple process of penance and
austerity the Supersoul within the devotee’s heart becomes very pleased
and gives the devotee directions so that he may go back to home, back to
Godhead. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita that one who engages all his
activities and senses in the devotional service of the Lord becomes com-
pletely pacified because the Supersoul is satisfied with him; thus the
devotee becomes transcendental to all kinds of dualities, such as heat and
cold, honor and dishonor. Being freed from all dualities, he feels transcen-
dental bliss, and he no longer suffers cares and anxieties due to material
existence. Bhagavad-gitd confirms that the devotee who is always absorbed
in Krsna consciousness has no anxieties for his maintenance or protection.
Being constantly absorbed in Krsna consciousness, he ultimately achieves
the highest perfection. While in the material existence, he lives very
peacefully and blissfully without any cares and anxieties, and after quitting
this body he goes back to home, back to Godhead. The Lord confirms in
the Bhagavad-gita, ‘My supreme abode is a transcendental place where
going no one returns to this material world. Anyone who attains the
supreme perfection, being engaged in My personal devotional service in
the eternal abode, reaches the highest perfection of human life and doesn’t
