Quick recap: Bhakta Vatsal Lord Vishnu is so satisfied with Maharaj Prithu, that He came down to visit him

at the sacrificial arena and not only

that, he brings Lord Indra with him, who was very embarrassed for his wrong doing but per instruction of Lord Vishnu, Prithu Maharaj had
already forgiven Indra.

 Chapter 20 – wonderful -, text 2 to text >20 Lord Vishnu’s instruction to Maharaj Prithu.
 In this text, - Lord Vishnu has already finished giving His instructions > go back>
 He sees that His devotees heart (Maharaj Prithu’s) heart is not yet content.
And is longing for more. Maharaj Prithu is in a state of ecstasy, eyes full of tears, voice is chocking,
And in his heart embracing Lord Vishnu!
 After listening – Vishnu’s instruction – Maharaj Prithu’s heart gets so purified that there no envy, No desire for vengeance any more.
He had pardoned Indra. His ygya was successful. As he desired, the Lord had appeared in front of him and had bestowed Maharaj
Prithu with all benedictions and is about to leave. But Lord being the Supersoul understands that Maharaj Prithu does not want the
Lord to leave as yet. He was craving for a bit more of Lords association.
 And Lord Vishnu is so merciful > cannot leave > devotee in such a state
 Not only stays back to fulfill his devotees desire but He touches the ground for His devotee (now what does this mean)
 See earlier, we see that Lord’s feet was not touching the ground at all. He was behaving as one of the
Jivas from the higher planetary system does. They maintain their weightlessness.
 Lord was behaving like a devta, not touching the ground but when he saw his devotee in such an ecstatic state, the loving exchange
between Bhagwan and His devotee begun to happen. Lord came a little lower and touched the ground just for His devotee.
He also put His arm Garuda to prevent from falling but we should understand that He was depicting that. Now when we say loving
exchange begun to happen, it doesn’t mean that there has to be an action always. Sometimes loving exchanges happen just by
standing in front of the Lord, cherishing Him in your heart. Just by being in presence of the Lord can fill the Jivas with ecstasy.
 Here Prithu Maharaj was serving the Lord in His heart. He was paying his obeisance and embracing him in his heart. It was a sincere
act of devotion.
Now one fundamental thing we must understand very clearly, so let’s pay attention:
- Devotional service is not just an external act.
- Devotional service is a combination of an act and a little bit more than that act
- That more is the consciousness. It is the emotion, your bhav should be there.
- The love between Prithu Maharaj & Lord Vishnu that we see here is not just a bodily act it is at the level of the soul, between soul
and Paramatma, between soul and super soul. Lord Vishnu was just standing in front of His devotee reciprocating his love. Though
all his duties were over, he coulnot leave his devotee at this state where he hankering for Lord’s love.
- To understand it bit better we can take an example
- let say you ask your child to go and pay obescience to an elderly man.
Your child might do it, he will bow down, touch his feet etc. But..
- When you see a good devotee who has surrendered to his spiritual master … offering obesiences
You’ll immediately see that his act came from his heart.
- So externally the act might look the same. Offering the obesciences is not the devotional service
But that service becomes devotional only when you do it with full faith, Shraddha and
Consciousness accepting that Yes you are superior to me. Anybody who is superior, we follow
their instruction, we take their orders, this shows that we are acknowledging him as our superior
- Otherwise, if you just say, that you are very intelligent but I’m not gonna follow your instructions, then
I’m not accepting your superiority. In a way I consider what you say is right & what I’m doing is wrong,
But still I continue doing what I am doing – then I am not accepting your superiority. So when we accept
Someone as superior we are bound to follow Him, not because of force but because of our understanding.
 In devotional service when we accepts someone as superior then we’ve come to that understanding
 Maharaj Prithu understood that. He accepted all the instructions of Lord Vishnu fully and was
paying obesciences to the Lord in his heart. He was doing Manas puja. It’s not that externally he was doing aarti, offering flowers at
Lord’s feet etc – no, he was praying mentally. His consciousness had become so full of Krsna that his tears wouldn’t stop rolling
down his cheeks. He was so much in love with Lord that when he saw him, he got completely frozen, couldn’t move, couldn’t talk he
just kept crying. So it’s very important that we understand the consciousness with which Prithu Maharaj was praying. That
consciousness we have to bring in to our day to day lives.
 How can we apply this to our current situation to understand better:
 We work, we earn money, why because we all want our children’s lives to be better right? Not that we don’t
use that money in other things, but the consciousness behind it, is for our children. We say : I work for my
family. You put your heart and soul in the labor, but the consciousness behind that labor is to make
your kids prosperous. Similarly when we do something for Krsna, our heart and soul should be involved
in it, otherwise it remain as an external act. So for example when we are doing our morning Japa, we have to do it with our heart.
 We should offer each and every Mahamantra at His lotus feet mentally. Do it with bhav, emotion, total faith and Shraddha. Only
then the loving exchange happens between bhakta and the bhakta vatsal. Only then it becomes a devotional
service, otherwise it will just remain a an external act.

 So here we find an exemplary action of devotional service by Prithu Maharaj. There is no external movement but the deep
devotion and mental act of love is going on. Prithu Maharaj is in complete state of ecstasy and is desperately seeking Lord’s
association. He is enjoying the loving exchange so much that he is completely in a frozen state. He is in pure bliss just by
taking the darshan of the Lord. And the Lord is reciprocating His love by touching the ground and by staying longer only to satisfy his
devotee.
 You see, to seek someone’s association, you do not need to be in their physical contact or do an act externally. Just by being
emotionally connected you can feel happy and enchanted. You might have experienced this so when you are in presence of
your Guru Maharaj, you might not taking to him but just by looking at him or being in their presence you feel uplifted.
 Example of Prabhupada with the mosquito: The mosquito was on Prbhupada’s foot, so PP asked. “what
Is this mosquito doing? Is he taking my association? No its not taking my association. its just sitting on my foot and sucking my blood.
It is not emotionally connected with Prabhupada, it is just doing its job, sucking blood.
So being in association means that U R emotionally attached and when U R accepting the exchange between two
entities. So let’s say you go to work, you are constantly meeting people, working with them etc. And you have to
because you need to earn your daily bread and butter right? Does it mean you should stop talking to non-devotees? No. you
cannot. So what does association mean? It means when you open your heart and accept the exchange with the other person
and apply his teachings/ principles etc. in your life. So even when you are not there physically, you mentally think of them, you
dwell on their principles. For example we are trying to associate with SPP. Not physically but mentally and emotionally. How?
by reading his books, by dwelling upon his stories and principles, by discussing about him with other devotees etc. Another example:
So every weekday we listen Srimad Bhagavatam right? Now if we just listen to it, and then forget about it after the class is over
not dwell on what we hear or what we read and do not care to apply the teaching in our lives, then it only remains as a
pious activity. But when we consciously choose to understand Srimad Bhagavat in a better way, and we consciously choose to
apply its teaching only then it becomes true association.
Real association, is when we take instruction with enthusiasm and apply it with full consciousness. That’s why SPP started this whole
movement of Krsna CONSCIOUSNESS. One has to be conscious of Krsna at every moment and be mindful with every
action. He is not asking us to stop our actions, do whatever you have to do, your nitya karmas but do it with Krsna in the centre!
Then it will become a devotional service. “Yat Karosi Yad Asnasi Yad Juhosi Dadasi Yat
Yat Tapasyasi Kaunteya Tat Kurusva Mad-Arpanam”

What ever you do what ever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform – do that, O son of Kunti, as an
offering to me.

 So just a quick recap, from today’s verse we understand that when loving exchange happens, it becomes a devotional service. Prithu
Maharaj is at that situation right now. The sacrificial yajya has been performed, the objective of Lord Vishnu coming in has been
fulfilled, Indra has asked for forgiveness, Prithu Maharaj has accepted his apology. Lord Vishnu has made the yagya successful and
has given benedictions to Prithu Maharaj but Prithu Maharaj is not yet fully content as he wanted to have a bit more of loving
exchange and the most merciful Lord decided to stay back a little longer. He lowered himself to touch the ground though he was still
touching the Garuda. Furthermore, we find Prithu Maharaj in an ecstatic state, he was in a state of bliss just by taking darshan of the
Lord