60 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 6, Ch. 7
terial gain, but to profit the demigods. Such is the duty of a priest. The
word purah means “‘family,”’ and hita means “benefit.” Thus the word
purohita indicates that the priest is the well-wisher of the family.
Another meaning of the word purah is “first.” A priest’s first duty is to
see that his disciples benefit spiritually and materially by all means. Then
he is satisfied. A priest should never be interested in performing Vedic
rituals for his personal benefit.
TEXT 39
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qe Bri oarieratt fren |
a
MBAR TOTS PTT FTAA
sura-dvisam Sriyarh guptam
ausanasyapi vidyaya
acchidyddan mahendraya
vaisnavya vidyaya vibhuh
sura-dvisam—of the enemies of the demigods; sriyam—the opulence;
guptam—protected; ausanasya—of Sukracarya; api—although;
vidyaya—by the talents; dcchidya —collecting; adaét—delivered; maha-
indréya—unto King Indra; vaisnavya—of Lord Visnu; vidyaya—by a
prayer; vibhuh—the most powerful Visvaripa.
TRANSLATION
The opulence of the demons, who are generally known as the
enemies of the demigods, was protected by the talents and tactics
of Sukracarya, but Visvariipa, who was most powerful, composed a
protective prayer known as the Narayana-kavaca. By this intelli-
gent mantra, he took away the opulence of the demons and gave it
to Mahendra, the King of heaven.
PURPORT
The distinction between the demigods (devas) and demons (asuras) is
that the demigods are all devotees of Lord Visnu whereas the demons are
devotees of demigods like Lord Siva, Goddess Kali and Goddess Durga.
Sometimes the demons are also devotees of Lord Brahma. For example,
Hiranyakasipu was a devotee of Lord Brahma, Ravana was a devotee of
