So the devotee offers respect to the demigods as the assistant or energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not as the supreme power. That is the difference. And one who does not know what is God, they take these demigods as supreme. They are less intelligent. So therefore a . . . devotees offer respect to the demigods, but he knows that Supreme Lord is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). Therefore, mayy ananyena bhāvena bhaktiṁ kurvanti ye dṛḍhām. Dṛḍha-vrata. Bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ, Bhagavad-gītā.
- mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
- daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
- bhajanty ananya-manaso . . .
- (BG 9.13)
Ananya-bhāvena. They . . . it is not that they disrespect demigod; they give proper respect to everyone. What to the demigods? Even to the ant.
- tṛṇād api sunīcena
- taror api sahiṣṇunā
- amāninā mānadena
- kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
- (CC Adi 17.31)
Amāninā. Everyone is given respect by Vaiṣṇava. Mat-kṛte tyakta-karmāṇas tyakta-svajana-bāndhavāḥ. But they are ready to give up family, relatives, everything. Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Mat-kṛte, only for Kṛṣṇa's sake, they can . . . this is sādhu.
Then what is their business, activities? Mad-āśrayāḥ kathā mṛṣṭāḥ. They simply take pleasure in talking about Kṛṣṇa. They simply take pleasure, śṛṇvanti kathayanti ca, by hearing about Kṛṣṇa. We have got so many things to hear about Kṛṣṇa: how Kṛṣṇa is fighting, how Kṛṣṇa is killing the demons, how Kṛṣṇa is behaving with the gopīs, how Kṛṣṇa is playing as a cowherd boy. So many things we have got. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has given us so many literature. If you simply hear and talk about Kṛṣṇa . . . we are translating all these books about kṛṣṇa-kathā. Already there are about one and half a dozen books, big, big books. We have to publish sixty books like that, simply about Kṛṣṇa, simply about Kṛṣṇa, apart from Bhagavad-gītā. So we can read. Śṛṇvatāṁ kathayanti, śṛṇvanti kathayanti. So we have got enough to become sādhu if you simply hear about Kṛṣṇa and speak about Kṛṣṇa. Tapanti vividhās tāpā naitān mad-gata-cetasaḥ. The immediate relief will be that we shall be saved from the sufferings of this material condition of life.
So these are the symptoms of sādhu, and Kapiladeva is summarizing, "Mother," ta ete sādhavaḥ sādhvi sarva-saṅga-vivarjitāḥ, "these symptoms are visible when one has no more any material attachment." Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). This is sādhu: no more designation. "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am American"—these devotees, they have got no such conception. They are . . . every one of them is thinking, "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa." This is called sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam. These are upādhi. Even this varṇāśrama, that is also . . . "I am sannyāsī," "I am gṛhastha," "I am vānaprastha . . ." Caitanya Mahāprabhu has rejected all these things. Nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patiḥ: "I am neither brāhmaṇa, nor kṣatriya, nor vaiśya, nor śūdra." Then what You are? Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80): "This is My position." This is called sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170), no more designation.