200 TEACHINGS OF QUEEN KUNTI

proclaim that they themselves are God. Because such false masters are
rebellious, they have no position. A spiritual master is supposed to act
not as God but as the most confidential servant of God by spreading God
consciousness, Krsna consciousness. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says,
saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair uktah: all the sastras, the Vedic litera-
tures, state that the spiritual master is to be honored as the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. Thus the idea that the spiritual master is as good
as God is not bogus. It is stated in the sdstras, and therefore those who
are advanced in spiritual life accept this spiritual injunction (uktas tathda
bhavyata eva sadbhih). Then is the spiritual master as good as God? Kintu
prabhor yah priya eva tasya: the spiritual master is not God, but is the con-
fidential representative of God. The distinction is that between sevya-
bhagavan (he who is worshiped) and sevaka-bhagavan (he who is the
worshiper). The spiritual master is God, and Krsna is God, but Krsna is
the worshipable God whereas the spiritual master is the worshiper God.

The Mayavadis cannot understand this. They think, ‘‘Because the
spiritual master has to be accepted as God and because I have become a
spiritual master, I have become God.”’ This is rebellious. Those who are
given a position by God but who want to usurp His power, which
they actually cannot do, are rebellious fools and rascals who require
punishment. Therefore Kuntidevi says, avani-dhrug-rdjanya-vamsa-da-
hana: ‘You descend to kill all these rascals who rebelliously claim Your
position.’ When various kings or landholders are subordinate to an em-
peror, they sometimes rebel and refuse to pay taxes. Similarly, there are
rebellious persons who deny the supremacy of God and declare them-
selves God, and Krsna’s business is to kill them.

The word anapavarga indicates that Krsna’s prowess is without
deterioration. This word is the opposite of the word pavarga, which refers
to the path of material tribulation. According to Sanskrit linguistics, the
word pa-varga also refers to the Sanskrit letters pa, pha, ba, bha, and ma.
Thus when the word pavarga is used to refer to the path of material
tribulation, its meaning is understood through words beginning with
these five letters.

The letter pa is for parisrama, which means ‘‘labor.’’ In this material
world, one must work very hard to maintain oneself. In Bhagavad-gita
(3.8) it is said, Sarira-yatrdpi ca te na prasiddhyed akarmanah: “‘One can-
not even maintain one’s own body without work.” Krsna never advised
Arjuna, ‘‘I am your friend, and I shall do everything. You just sit down
and smoke gafja.’” Krsna was doing everything, but still He told Arjuna,
“You must fight.” Nor did Arjuna say to Krsna, ‘“‘You are my great
