Text 55] What Prahlada Learned in the Womb 115

“The maha-bhdgavata, the advanced devotee, certainly sees everything
mobile and immobile, but he does not exactly see their forms. Rather,
everywhere he immediately sees manifest the form of the Supreme
Lord.” (Cc. Madhya 8.274) Even in this material world, a devotee does
not see materially manifested things; instead he sees Govinda in every-
thing. When he sees a tree or a human being, a devotee sees them in rela-
tion to Govinda. Govindam ddi-purusam: Govinda is the original source
of everything.

isvarah paramah krsnah
sac-cid-Gnanda-vigrahah
andadir adir govindah

sarva-karana-kéranam

“Krsna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an
eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other
origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes.” (Brahma-samhita 5.1)
The test of a perfect devotee is that he sees Govinda everywhere in this
universe, even in every atomic particle (andéntara-stha-paramanu-
cayantara-stham). This is the perfect vision of a devotee. It is therefore
said:

nardyanam ayam dhirah
pasyanti paramarthinah

jagad dhanamayam lubdhah
kamukah kaminimayam

A devotee sees everyone and everything in relationship with Narayana
(néréyanam ayam). Everything is an expansion of Narayana’s energy.
Just as those who are greedy see everything as a source of money-making
and those who are lusty see everything as being conducive to sex, the
most perfect devotee, Prahlada Maharaja, saw Narayana even within a
stone column. This does not mean, however, that we must accept the
words daridra-ndrdyana, which have been manufactured by some
unscrupulous person. One who actually envisions Narayana everywhere
makes no distinction between the poor and the rich. To single out the
daridra-narayanas, or poor Narayana, and reject the dhani-ndrayana,
