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Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.4.41
SYNONYMS
viprāh — the brāhmanas; gāvah ca — and the cows; vedāh ca — and the Vedic knowledge; tapah — austerity; satyam — truthfulness; damah — control of the senses; śamah — control of the mind; śraddhā — faith; dayā — mercy; titikshā — tolerance; ca — also; kratavah ca — as well as sacrifices; hareh tanūh — are the different parts of the body of Lord Vishnu.
TRANSLATION
The brāhmanas, the cows, Vedic knowledge, austerity, truthfulness, control of the mind and senses, faith, mercy, tolerance and sacrifice are the different parts of the body of Lord Vishnu, and they are the paraphernalia for a godly civilization.
PURPORT
When we offer our obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, we say:
jagad-dhitāya krishnāya
When Krishna comes to establish real perfection in the social order, He personally gives protection to the cows and the brāhmanas (go-brāhmana-hitāya ca). This is His first interest because without protection of the brāhmanas and the cows, there can be no human civilization and no question of happy, peaceful life. Asuras, therefore, are always interested in killing the brāhmanas and cows. Especially in this age, Kali-yuga, cows are being killed all over the world, and as soon as there is a movement to establish brahminical civilization, people in general rebel. Thus they regard the Krishna consciousness movement as a form of "brainwashing." How can such envious persons be happy in their godless civilization? The Supreme Personality of Godhead punishes them by keeping them in darkness, birth after birth, and pushing them lower and lower into wretched conditions of hellish life. The Krishna consciousness movement has started a brahminical civilization, but especially when it is introduced in the Western countries, the asuras try to impede it in many ways. Nonetheless, we must push forward this movement tolerantly for the benefit of human society.
Copyright © r The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
His Holiness Hrdayananda dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
Dravida dasa Brahmacari