Text 39] Ideal Family Life 189
Lord’s lotus feet one can also obtain in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the
Hare Krsna mahd-mantra.” In Satya-yuga, every person was spiritually
advanced, and there was no envy between great personalities. Gradually,
however, because of material contamination with the advance of the
ages, disrespectful dealings appeared even among bradhmanas and
Vaisnavas. Actually, an advanced Vaisnava is to be respected more than
Visnu. As stated in the Padma Purdna, dradhandndm sarvesam visnor
dradhanam param: of all kinds of worship, worship of Lord Visnu is the
best. Tasmat parataram devi tadiyanaér samarcanam: and recom-
mended more than worship of Visnu is worship of the Vaisnava.

Formerly, all activities were performed in connection with Visnu, but
after Satya-yuga there were symptoms of disrespectful dealings among
Vaisnavas. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has said that a Vaisnava is he
who has helped others become Vaisnavas. An example of one who has
converted many others into Vaisnavas is Narada Muni. A powerful
Vaisnava who has converted others into Vaisnavas is to be worshiped,
but because of material contamination, sometimes such an exalted
Vaisnava is disrespected by other, minor Vaisnavas. When great saintly
persons saw this contamination, they introduced worship of the Deity in
the temple. This began in Tretaé-yuga and was especially prominent in
Dvapara-yuga (dvdpare paricaryéyam). But in Kali-yuga, worship of the
Deity is being neglected. Therefore chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra is
more powerful than Deity worship. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu set a prac-
tical example in that He did not establish any temples or Deities, but He
profusely introduced the sarikirtana movement. Therefore Krsna con-
sciousness preachers should give more stress to the sankirtana move-
ment, especially by distributing transcendental literature more and
more. This helps the sarikirtana movement. Whenever there is a
possibility to worship the Deity, we may establish many centers, but
generally we should give more stress to the distribution of transcendental
literature, for this will be more effective in converting people to Krsna
consciousness. _

It is said in Srimad-Bhégavatam (11.2.47):

arcdyam eva haraye
pujam yah sraddhayehate
