Text 17] Lord Visnu’s Appearance in the Sacrificial Arena 785

PURPORT

Lord Visnu was very pleased with Maharaja Prthu’s good character and
behavior and offered him a benediction. The Lord openly says that per-
forming great sacrifices or undergoing the austerities of mystic yoga prac-
tice cannot satisfy Him. He is only pleased by elevated character and be-
havior. But these cannot develop unless one becomes a pure devotee of the
Lord. Anyone who has developed unalloyed, unflinching devotional ser-
vice unto the Lord develops his original good qualities as spirit soul. The
spirit soul, as part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has
all the good qualities of the Lord. When the spirit soul is contaminated by
the material modes of nature, one is considered good or bad with
reference to the material qualities. But when one is transcendental to all
material qualities, all the good qualities come out. These qualities of a
devotee, twenty-six in number, are listed as follows: (1) kind to everyone,
(2) does not quarrel with anyone, (3) fixed in the Absolute Truth, (4) equal
to everyone, (5) faultless, (6) charitable, (7) mild, (8) clean, (9) simple,
(10) benevolent, (11) peaceful, (12) completely attached to Krsna, (13)
has no material hankering, (14) meek, (15) steady, (16) self-controlled,
(17) does not eat more than required, (18) sane, (19) respectful, (20)
humble, (21) grave, (22) compassionate, (23) friendly, (24) poetic,
(25) expert, (26) silent. The Lord is satisfied by development of the
transcendental qualities of the living entity and not by artificial perfor-
mance of sacrifices and mystic yoga. In other words, unless one is fully
qualified to become a pure devotee of the Lord one cannot expect to be
liberated from material entanglement.

TEXT 17

#349 sara
a rei sagem farasaaa frat |
Tamar aa Aa AW et: 12!

maitreya uvaca
sa ittham loka-guruna
visvaksenena visva-jit
anuSasita adesam
Strasa jagrhe hareh
