Eulogizing or Vandana

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj

All Glories  to HDG Srila Bhakti Siddhanta  Saraswati Prabhupada 

Though eulogy is mostly considered part of the  end worship of the Lord ,still it can be  known  independently as the sixth of the nine limbs of devotion. Now, because of some inability to perform worship of the Lord, if a devotee were to go in front of the Lord in an unalloyed manner  free from any unwanted  motives  and  in humility devoid of egoism were to pay prostrated obeisance in front of  the deity  of the Lord and the pure devotees with after eulogizing with choice verses   request for their causeless mercy it is definite that by that causeless mercy of the devotees , he will be able to obtain  pure devotion to the Lord. .A devotee should see the Lord in every living entity but that  mood of humility  which is the  natural behavior of a person who is free from desires and the glorifying attributed to the  devotion  are actually different. It is not necessary to analyze  any  recipient when giving ordinary respect as above as it is etiquette of the devotee to respect all. However in order to obtain our greatest welfare  we have only to pray to the Supreme Lord and His pure devotees  for receiving it. It is only necessary to eulogize them only and that is the function of this limb of devotion. The Supreme Lord ,spiritual master and the pure Vaishnavas are the the proper recipients of all types of glorification. In this context the guru is one who is aware of the essence of the Vedas and always unalloyed in service to Krishna .He removes our ignorance by bestowing connecting knowledge and thereby giving us the right vision. Not only that he also establishes us in our original identity that is to serve the Supreme Lord .All these are the actual qualifications of a bona fide guru otherwise he cannot be considered as a guru. Generally, one who is a society guru , the relatives or a father and mother who all are not interested in worship of the Lord do not  not usually be  recipients of glorification. Even all the demigods who are not helpful in our worship of the Lord do not come as our objects of glorification .Yet we  cannot disrespect anybody who are not engaging in criticism and blasphemy against the Supreme Personality of Godhead ,the guru and the Vaishnavas. In the Srimad Bhagavatam ,there is the verse that is instructing us to not take the association of those averse to the Supreme Lord. guru na sa syat svajanao nasyat pita bna sa syat janani na sa syat daiam natat syat na patischasa syat na mochayet sa maupetyammrtyum  In fact those who are  averse to the Lord are opposite in nature to the natural function of our soul and hence  they will only cause our destruction of devotion by their association. Usually ,the presence of the demigods and goddesses is the sign of our unlimited desires for material enjoyment therefore their glorification does not help obtaining devotion in any way.

The Padma Purana instructs the devotee to guard against any impediment to steadiness in devotional service. In the way in worship one has to give up the thirty two offenses  ,in the way of glorification too ,one has to be careful to give up  similar offenses that might crop up.All that types of offenses should be given up by remembrance of Vishnu. To give obeisance  to the Lord with one hand only  or when one's body is completely covered with cloth .To give obeisance right in front  of the Lord ,at the back , on the left side of the deity are all offenses. Again to go the  the alter of the Lord  and give obeisance is also an offence and all these have to be given up. The duty of a devotee is after rising in the morning to chant the glories of the spiritual master ,the Vaishnava and the Supreme Lord and to hear the same in a knowledgeable manner. As in the olden days Dhruva,Prahlada ,Suka  and saints as Vyasa then the confidential associates of Mahaprabhu as Raya Ramananda ,the Six Goswamis The Pancha Tattva ,Lokenath das ,Krishna das ,Vrndavan Das, Sivananda Das ,Narottama ,Acarya Srinivas, Chakravarthi ,Jagganath Das, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Gaura Kishore Das, Srila Dayita Das all these above  great pure devotees have to be glorified every day without fail. Without glorifying the Vaishnavas there is no question of glorifying the Supreme  Lord. Narottama das has specifically pointed out chaidiya vaishnava seva nistara peyache keva therefore it is our bounden duty to glorify the spiritual master and the pure devotees at the start. We have to be careful that in the place of pure devotees we do not glorify non devotees for that will influence us to their bad association where the end result will be the dwindling of our devotional creeper. The method of glorification has been described by SrilaKrishna Das Kaviraja as vande ham sri gurum sri yuta kamalam sri gurun vaishnavanscsha

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