Text 36] The Appearance of the Demon Vrtrasura 129

within this material world in a body produced by the material
modes? Do You enjoy or suffer the good or bad results of actions
under the influence of time, past work and so forth? Or, on the
contrary, are You present here only as a neutral witness who is
self-sufficient, free from all material desires, and always full of
spiritual potency? We certainly cannot understand Your actual
position.

PURPORT

In Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that He descends to this material world
for two purposes, namely paritradndya sddhiindm vindasdya ca
duskrtam—to relieve the devotees and kill demons or nondevotees.
These two kinds of action are the same for the Absolute Truth. When the
Lord comes to punish the demons, He bestows His favor upon them, and
similarly when He delivers His devotees and gives them relief, He also
bestows His favor. Thus the Lord bestows His favor equally upon the
conditioned souls. When a conditioned soul gives relief to others he acts
piously, and when he gives trouble to others he acts impiously, but the
Lord is neither pious nor impious; He is always full in His spiritual
potency, by which He shows equal mercy to the punishable and the pro-
tectable. The Lord is apdpa-viddham; He is never contaminated by the
reactions of so-called sinful activities. When Krsna was present on this
earth, He killed many inimical nondevotees, but they all received
sadriipya; in other words, they returned to their original spiritual bodies.
One who does not know the Lord’s position says that God is unkind to
him but merciful to others. Actually the Lord says in Bhagavad-gita
(9.29), samo "ham sarva-bhiitesu na me dvesyo ’sti na priyah: “I am
equal to everyone. No one is My enemy, and no one is My friend.” But
He also says, ye bhajanti tu marn bhaktya mayi te tesu capy aham: “If
one becomes My devotee and fully surrenders unto Me, I give him special
attention.”

TEXT 36

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