792 Stimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 3, Ch. 20

Gaya, where oblations are offered at the lotus feet of Visnu in a celebrated
temple. Because the Lord is thus pleased with the devotional service of
the descendants, by His grace he liberates the condemned souls of fore-
fathers who do not have gross bodies, and He favors them to again receive
a gross body for development of spiritual advancement. ;

Unfortunately, by the influence of maya, the conditioned soul employs
the body he gets for sense gratification, forgetting that such an occupation
may lead him to return again to an invisible body. The devotee of the Lord,
or one who is in Krsna consciousness, however, does not need to perform
such ritualistic ceremonies as sraddha because he is always pleasing the
Supreme Lord; therefore his fathers and ancestors who might have been
in difficulty are automatically relieved. The vivid example is Prahlada
Maharaja. Prahlada Maharaja requested Lord Nrsimhadeva to deliver his
sinful father, who had so many times offended the lotus feet of the Lord.
The Lord replied that in a family where a Vaisnava like Prahlada is born,
not only his father but his father’s father and their fathers-up to the
fourteenth father back—are all automatically delivered. The conclusion,
therefore, is that Krsna consciousness is the sum total of all good work
for the family, for society and for all living entities. In the Caitanya-
caritamrta the author says that a person fully conversant with Krsna con-
sciousness does not perform any rituals because he knows that simply by
serving Krsna in full Krsna consciousness, all rituals are automatically
performed.

TEXT 44

fear arrives fata disearg |
PASTA ARTATY eel

siddhan vidyadharams caiva
tirodhanena so ’syjat

tebhyo ‘dadat tam atmanam
antardhanakhyam adbhutam

siddhan—the Siddhas; vidyadharan—Vidyadharas; ca eva—and also; tirah-
dhanena—by the faculty of remaining hidden from vision; sah—Lord
Brahma; asrjat—created; tebhyah—to them; adadat—gave; tam atmanam—
that form of his; antardhdna-akh yam—known as the Antardhana;adbhutam
—wonderful.
