146 Sr¥-Caitanya-caritamrta

laksa laksa loka aise prabhuke dekhite
maha-bhida haila dvare, nare pravesite

SYNONYMS

laksa laksa—hundreds and thousands; /oka—people; aise—came; prabhuke—unto
the Lord; dekhite—to see; maha-bhida—a great crowd; haila—there happened; dvare—
at the door; nare—may not; pravesite—to enter.

TRANSLATION

The crowd at the door of His residence was so great that it numbered hundreds
and thousands.

TEXT 157

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prabhu yabe ya’na visvesvara-darasane
laksa laksa loka asi’ mile sei sthane

SYNONYMS

prabhu—Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu; yabe—when; ya’na—goes; visvesvara—the
deity of Varanast; darasane—to visit; /aksa laksa—hundreds and thousands; /oka—
people; asi’—come; mile—meet; sei—that; sthane—on the place.

TRANSLATION

When the Lord went to visit the temple of Visvesvara, hundreds and thousands
of people assembled to see Him.

PURPORT

The important point in this verse is that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu regularly visited
the temple of Visvesvara (Lord Siva) at Varanast. Vaisnavas generally do not visit a
demigod’s temple, but here we see that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu regularly visited
the temple of Visvesvara, who was the predominating deity of Varanasi. Generally
Mayavadi sannyasis and worshipers of Lord Siva live in Varanasi, but how is it that
Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who took the part of a Vaisnava sannyasi, also visited the
Visvesvara temple? The answer is that a Vaisnava does not behave impudently
toward the demigods. A Vaisnava gives proper respect to all, although he never
accepts a demigod to be as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In the Brahma-samhita there are mantras offering obeisances to Lord Siva, Lord
Brahma, the sun-god and Lord Ganesa, as well as Lord Visnu, all of whom are wor-
shiped by the impersonalists as paficopasana. |n their temples impersonalists also
