Text 26] The Lord’s Pastimes Out of Vrndavana 115

tatra—there; snatva—by taking bath; pitrn—forefathers; devan—demi-
gods; rsin—great sages; ca—also; eva—certainly; tat—of that; ambhasa—by
the water; tarpayitva—by pleasing; atha—thereupon; viprebhyah—unto the
brahmanas; gavah—cows; bahu-gunah—greatly useful; daduh—gave in
charity.

TRANSLATION

After arriving there, all of them took bath, and with the water of this
place of pilgrimage they offered their respects to the forefathers, demigods
and great sages and thus satisfied them. They gave cows to the brahmanas
in royal charity.

PURPORT

Amongst the devotees of the Lord there are several divisions, mainly
nitya-siddhas and sadhana-siddhas. The nitya-siddha devotees never fall
down to the region of the material atmosphere, even though they
sometimes come onto the material plane to execute the mission of the
Lord. The sadhana-siddha devotees are chosen from the conditioned souls.
Out of the sadhana devotees, there are mixed and pure devotees. The
mixed devotees are sometimes enthusiastic about fruitive activities and are
habituated to philosophical speculation, The pure devotees are free from
all these mixtures and are completely absorbed in the service of the Lord,
regardless of how and where they are situated. Pure devotees of the Lord
are not enthusiastic to put aside their service to the Lord in order to go
visit holy places of pilgrimage. A great devotee of the Lord in modern
times, Sri Narottamadasa Thakur, has sung like this: ‘To visit holy places
of pilgrimage is another bewilderment of the mind because devotional
service to the Lord at any place is the last word in spiritual perfection.”

For pure devotees of the Lord who are completely satisfied with the
transcendental loving service of the Lord, there is hardly any necessity to
visit the various places of pilgrimage. But those who are not so advanced
have the prescribed duties of visiting pilgrimage sites and regularly
performing the rituals. The part of the princely order of the Yadu dynasty
who went to Prabhasa performed all duties to be done in a place of
pilgrimage and offered their pious actions to their forefathers and others.

As a rule, every human being is indebted to God, the demigods, great
sages, other living entities, people in general, forefathers, etc., for various
contributions received from them. Thus everyone is obliged to repay the
debt of gratitude. The Yadus who went to the Prabhasa pilgrimage site
performed their duties by distributing land, gold, and well-nourished cows
in royal charity, as described in the following verse.
