Text 29] — Lord Visnu’s Appearance in the Sacrificial Arena 803
on His face, and sets His bed and sitting places in the right order. In this
way she is always engaged in the service of the Lord, and there is hardly
any opportunity for any other devotee to intrude upon His daily activities.
Prthu Maharaja is therefore almost certain that his intrusion into the service
of the goddess of fortune would irritate her and cause her to become angry
with him. But why should mother Laksmi, the mother of the universe, be
angry with an insignificant devotee like Prthu Maharaja? All this is not very
likely. Yet Prthu Maharaja, just for his personal protection, appealed to
the Lord to take his part. Prthu Maharaja was engaged in performing the
ordinary Vedic rituals and in performing sacrifices according to karma-
kanda, or fruitive activities, but the Lord, being so kind and magnanimous,
was ready to award Prthu Maharaja the highest perfectional stage of life,
namely devotional service.

When a person performs Vedic rituals and sacrifices, he does so to
elevate himself to the heavenly planets. No one can become qualified to
go back home, back to Godhead, by means of such sacrifices. But the
Lord is so kind that He accepts a little insignificant service, and therefore
it is stated in the Visnu Purana that by following the principles of
varnasrama-dharma one can satisfy the Supreme Lord. When the Lord is
satisfied, the performer of sacrifices is elevated to the platform of devo-
tional service. Prthu Maharaja therefore expected that his insignificant
service to the Lord would be accepted by Him as being greater than that of
Laksmiji. The goddess of fortune is called cafcala (restless) because she is
very restless and is always coming and going. So Prthu Maharaja indicates
that even though she might go away out of anger, there would be no harm
for Lord Visnu, because He is self-sufficient and can do anything and every-
thing without the help of Laksmiji. For example, when Garbhodakasayi
Visnu begot Lord Brahma from His navel, He didn’t take any help from
Laksmi, who was just sitting by Him and massaging His lotus feet. Gener-
ally if a son is to be begotten, the husband impregnates the wife, and in
due course of time the son is born. But in the case of Lord Brahma’s birth,
Garbhodakasayi Visnu did not impregnate Laksmiji. Being self-sufficient,
the Lord begot Brahma from His own navel. Therefore, Prthu Maharaja is
confident that even if the goddess of fortune became angry with him there
would be no harm, neither to the Lord nor to himself.

TEXT 29
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