Category:God Becomes
Theme Analysis
The concept of God "becoming" something does not imply a loss of His supreme status; rather, it highlights His boundless compassion and desire for loving reciprocation. According to Śrīla Prabhupāda, the foundational reason the Lord expands is for transcendental pleasure. As stated in the Vedic aphorisms, God is one, but He voluntarily becomes many (eko bahu-syām) to enhance His joy through loving relationships with the living entities. He does not become divided or lose His identity when He expands; He remains the absolute whole.
The most endearing aspect of the Supreme Lord is how He becomes completely conquered by the love of His pure devotees. Although He is the invincible creator of the universe, He willingly becomes subordinate to those who surrender to Him. By the influence of yogamāyā, Kṛṣṇa forgets His majestic opulence and becomes the dependent son of Mother Yaśodā, allowing her to scold Him when He becomes dirty from playing. For the Pāṇḍavas, He becomes a chariot driver, a messenger, and an intimate friend. In His incarnation as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the Lord becomes overwhelmed with ecstatic love, crying, dancing, and acting like a madman in separation from Kṛṣṇa.
While the Lord's manifestations of love are unlimited, Śrīla Prabhupāda fiercely rejects unauthorized Māyāvādī philosophies regarding what God becomes. The idea that Nārāyaṇa becomes poor (daridra-nārāyaṇa) or that God falls down and becomes an ordinary jīva is absolute nonsense. The Lord never falls down, nor is He ever subjected to poverty or material illusion. Whether He becomes the son of Devahūti, an angry avatāra to destroy demons, or the compassionate Lord Buddha to stop animal slaughter, the Supreme Personality of Godhead always maintains His perfect, transcendental, and infallible position.
- Expanding for Joy: The Supreme Lord, although one without a second, voluntarily becomes many to expand His transcendental pleasure.
- Conquered by Love: The invincible Lord willingly becomes subordinate, acting as a son, friend, or servant (like a chariot driver) for His pure devotees.
- Compassionate Descents: Out of immense compassion for the suffering of the world and innocent animals, the Lord becomes specific incarnations, such as Lord Buddha.
- Rejecting False Philosophies: It is a grave Māyāvādī illusion to claim that God becomes an ordinary living entity or that Nārāyaṇa becomes poverty-stricken (daridra).
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: God Becomes - The Supreme Controller Conquered by Love.
Subcategories
This category has the following 10 subcategories, out of 10 total.
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Pages in category "God Becomes"
The following 130 pages are in this category, out of 130 total.
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- A person who is constantly engaged in reading literature enunciating the cultivation of Vaisnava devotional service is always glorious in human society, and certainly Lord Krsna becomes pleased with him
- A pure devotee therefore never approaches the Lord directly, but tries to please the servant of the Lord's servants, and thus the Lord becomes pleased, and only then can the devotee relish the taste of the tulasi leaves stuck to His lotus feet
- After thus offering respect to each and every devotee, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became very jubilant. However, not seeing Haridasa Thakura, He inquired, "Where is Haridasa"
- All the devotees informed Lord Caitanya of Sacimata's decision. Hearing it, the Lord became very pleased
- Although He (the Supreme Personality of Godhead) is full in Himself, He nonetheless becomes pleased when His devotee offers Him patram puspam phalam toyam (BG 9.26) - a leaf, flower, fruit or water - in devotion
- Although He (the Supreme Personality of Godhead) is full in Himself, He nonetheless wants all the living entities to surrender unto Him so that they may engage in His service. Thus He becomes satisfied
- Although Krsna is always very satisfied by nature, when Maharaja Yudhisthira asked this question the Lord became even more satisfied because this question and its answer would bear a great meaning for the entire Krsna conscious society
- Although the Lord is the transcendental personification of the Vedic hymns, He has become more beautiful because of His appearance to sustain the earth
- Although the Lord is unlimited, by His causeless mercy He becomes visible to the devotee, who is then able to see Him. In our present position of conditioned life we cannot see or understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- An actual example (of by devotional service even God becomes subordinate to devotee) is that the Supreme Lord Krsna became the chariot driver of Arjuna, and when Arjuna asked Him to draw his chariot between the two armies, Krsna executed his order
- "As a result of this chanting," the Lord (Caitanya) said, "I sometimes become very impatient and cannot restrain Myself from dancing and laughing or crying and singing. Indeed, I become just like a madman
- As far as the saktyavesa-avataras are concerned, they include Kapila and Rsabha, Ananta, Brahma (sometimes the Lord Himself becomes Brahma), Catuhsana (the incarnation of knowledge), Narada (the incarnation of devotional service)
- As soon as He (Caitanya) became a faithful servant of His spiritual master and followed his instructions, He very easily saw the path of liberation
- At that time (of Buddha's appearance) it became so excessive, pasu-ghatam, animal slaughter, that the Lord became compassionate, and He appeared to stop this. He originated a new set of . . . set-up of religion: No more animal killing. No more
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- Because Krsna sometimes appears like an ordinary man, people sometimes cannot believe or understand His activities. They wonder, - How can God become an ordinary person like us
- Becoming pacified, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu began to caress the cows, and the cows, being unable to give up His company, went with Him
- By such transcendental activities the Lord simultaneously becomes free from the charge of partiality and exhibits His pleasure with the devotees
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- Devahuti was not an ordinary woman. She was the wife of Kardama Muni, a great yogi. She had obviously learned something from her husband, for had she not been very exalted, how could Bhagavan Kapiladeva have become her son
- Dhruva Maharaja realized that the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, acts through His different energies, not that He becomes void or impersonal and thus becomes all-pervading
- During the period of annihilation, at the end of each millennium, the Lord becomes angry, and the part of anger is played by Lord Siva, who is therefore called Rudra
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- First of all you begin, try to learn how to love God. And when you are actually on the platform of love, prema, you will see God always in His form. He becomes revealed. You haven't got to try to see, but He will reveal
- From the description of the Lord's birth in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, we learn that the Lord appeared before Vasudeva and Devaki as Narayana, with four hands. But when they prayed to Him to conceal His divinity, the Lord became a small baby with two hands
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- God became many for His enjoyment, and thus our position is that of the enjoyed. That is our constitutional position and the purpose for our creation
- God became very much compassionate. When people were too much addicted in killing animals unnecessarily, He appeared as Lord Buddha. Sadaya-hrdaya darsita-pasu-ghatam. Pasu-ghatam
- God is not conquerable, but He becomes conquerable, He is conquered, by a devotee who gives up this nonsense process of understanding Him by his limited knowledge and becomes submissive
- God is one. There cannot be two. So if I think I am God, then everyone is also God, so God becomes plural, so there is not God. God is one. Therefore, God is great, we are small. In quality we are one
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- Having lost His acquired gem, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became overwhelmed with lamentation by remembering its attributes
- He (Krsna) is compassionate always; He becomes so compassionate that He comes to stop this nonsense. That is buddha-sarira. Lord Buddha appeared when there was too much animal slaughter
- He (Krsna) is the supreme proprietor; therefore He does not become divided by protecting the different individual souls. He remains one and the same
- He (Lord Buddha) became very compassionate that, "All these poor animals are being killed unnecessarily." So he promulgamated a new type of religion - Don't commit violence. If I pinch your body, you feel pain. You should not pinch others
- His (God's) becoming the associate neighbor of the inhabitants of Vrndavana, as the son of Nanda-Yasoda, the friend of Sudama, Sridama and Madhumangala, or the lover of the damsels of Vrajabhumi, etc. That is part of His personal features
- His (The Supreme Lord's) position of eka-rasa does not change in the slightest when He becomes a witness and advisor to the individual soul in each individual body
- How can He (Narayana) become daridra-narayana? Poverty is found within this material world, but in the spiritual world, there is no such thing as poverty. Therefore the idea of daridra-narayana is merely a concoction
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- I chant, you hear, and you chant, I hear. So by this process, the transcendental name, the sound incarnation of the Supreme Lord, becomes manifest, manifest so that we can realize God simply by chanting and hearing
- If someone considers the Supreme Personality - Krsna or Lord Ramacandra - to be an ordinary human being, this does not mean that the Lord becomes an ordinary human being
- If you please God's representative, then automatically God becomes pleased, and thus you can directly see Him
- If you take to the devotional service submissively, if you become submissive, surrendered, and you render service to the Lord, then, by His causeless mercy, He becomes revealed
- In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated that no one can conquer Him or approach Him, but He becomes conquered. How? Let people remain in their own positions, but let them give up nonsense speculation through volumes of books
- In this way, the Lord's restlessness was awakened by ecstatic feelings, and His mind became agitated. No one could understand what course such ecstasy would take
- Instead of desiring to have the Lord come here and become one's son, one should desire to become free from all material desires (anyabhilasita-sunyam (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.11)) and go back home, back to Godhead
- It is confirmed by the Sruti-mantra that the Absolute is one alone, and yet He becomes many as soon as He so desires. These manifold expansions of the Supreme Lord are manifested as plenary and separated portions
- It is stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.65.25-30, 33) that Lord Baladeva asked the Yamuna to come near, and when the river disobeyed the order of the Lord, He became angry and thus wanted to snatch her near to Him with His plow
- It is the beautiful and exalted nature of devotional service that the infinite Lord becomes submissive to the infinitesimal living entity because of it
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- Just like Vivekananda did, daridra-narayana-seva. Is there any such word in our Vedic sastras, daridra-narayana? Narayana has become daridra? One has to worship daridra-narayana
- Just like we become devoted, similarly, God also becomes devoted to us. You don't think that one-sided devotion. No. Just like love is never one-sided. Love is reciprocation
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- Krsna is pleased when a Vaisnava is rendered service. Because the younger brahmana served the older one, Lord Gopala agreed to become a witness of the marriage negotiation in order to maintain the prestige of both devotees
- Krsna is situated in both the boy's and the girl's heart. So Krsna is giving, "You wanted to enjoy. Now here is opportunity, you take it." Then Krsna becomes the cause. Mattah smrtir jnanam. "You wanted. You have got, here is
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- Lord Ramacandra became King during Treta-yuga, but because of His good government, the age was like Satya-yuga. Everyone was religious and completely happy
- Lord Ramacandra, Laksmana, Bharata and Satrughna, who, being visnu-tattva, are all equally powerful, became the sons of Maharaja Dasaratha in response to prayers by the demigods
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- Mayavadi will think, "What is this? The God has become a cowherd boy? How it is? He must be very exalted. How it is that He is cowherd boy?" But he does not know the nature of the Lord. He's free. He loves everyone
- Missing Srimati Radharani's presence, Krsna became very unhappy and began to lament and wander throughout the forest to search Her out
- Mother Yasoda told Krsna, "My dear Krsna, do You think that You are a street boy? You have no home? Please come back to Your home! I see that Your body has become very dirty from playing since early morning. Now come home and take Your bath"
- Mother Yasoda told Krsna: My dear son, because of playing all day, Your body has become covered with dust and sand. Therefore, come back, take Your bath and cleanse Yourself - SB 10.11.18
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- O my Lord, Supreme Personality and eternal friend, although You are full of bliss and knowledge, You have become the friend of the residents of Vrndavana. How fortunate are these devotees
- On account of the Pandavas' faithful devotion to the Lord, He agreed to become their charioteer, their advisor, their friend, their messenger and sometimes their bodyguard. Such is an example of the result of devotional service towards Visnu
- One may ask why Narayana has created us, why it is we are part and parcel of Narayana. Eko bahu-syam. Why has Narayana become many
- One must understand Krsna in tattva (truth). One should use his common sense and consider that if simply by chanting Krsna's holy name one is purified, how then can the person Krsna be immoral
- Our business is to please guru. If he is satisfied, then Krsna immediately becomes satisfied, because he is the agent. That is very easy to understand
- Out of His supreme good will, the Lord became his son & dealt with everyone as if He were an ordinary human being. Thus King Nabhi began to raise his transcendental son with great affection, & he was overwhelmed with transcendental bliss, joy & devotion
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- Sadyo hrdy avarudhyate, susrusubhis tat-ksanat. Susrusubhih, those who are serious about understanding about the Supreme Absolute Truth, so for him, immediately God becomes entrapped within the heart
- She (Devahuti) was very submissive, and when Kapiladeva saw this, He became very compassionate. He saw that she was eager to know about the Absolute Truth, and He considered that, after all, He had received His body from her
- She (Yasoda) forgets that only one Lord is supplying the necessities of all the living entities. This same Personality of Godhead has become the son of Yasoda, and she is thinking, "If I do not feed Him nicely, He will die." This is love
- Someone has invented the word daridra-narayana, trying to show that Narayana has become poor and that the beggar who comes to my door to beg is also Narayana. This is not authorized in the Vedic literature
- Sometimes people question that, "Why God should come?" So our answer is, "Why God should not come?" If He is all-powerful, who can check Him to come here? If we say that God cannot come, that means God becomes under our rules and regulation
- Sometimes the Lord becomes angry. As He says in Bhagavad-gita (BG 16.19): Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life
- Srila Bilvamangala Thakura prayed in his Krsna-karnamrta: "My dear Lord, if I have unflinching devotion to You, You become manifest before me personally
- Such (God becomes subordinate to His devotees) is the relationship between the SG & a devotee that although the Lord is greater than the greatest, He is prepared to render service to the insignificant devotee by dint of his sincere and unalloyed DS
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- That Vivekananda's policy, daridra-narayana-seva. Why not seva-narayana? Why He should become daridra? Why not engage in? That he does not know. "He becomes a daridra-narayana, and I become his servant." Foolish rascal
- The devotees could not understand why Nityananda Prabhu broke the staff, why Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu permitted Him to do so, or why, after permitting Him, Caitanya Mahaprabhu became angry
- The devotional service of the Lord is so auspicious that all demigods and sages, up to the Lord Himself, became pleased with the devotee, and therefore the devotee finds everything auspicious
- The impersonalist sometimes accepts a poor individual soul as being daridra-narayana, meaning that Narayana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has become poor. This is a contradiction
- The Lord became the son of the great sage Atri and became known as Dattatreya
- The Lord has no need to sustain the earth on His tusks, but when He does so the world becomes beautiful, just as the Lord becomes more beautiful because of His pure devotees on the earth
- The Lord is always perfect in Himself, and thus He has no hankering for Himself. He, however, becomes a master, a friend, a son or a husband to fulfill the intense love of the devotee concerned
- The Lord is situated in everyone's heart as the Supersoul. Does that mean that He has become divided? No. Actually, He is one. BG 1972 purports
- The Lord manifests Himself before the devotee in the form in which the devotee likes to worship Him indicates that the Lord becomes subordinate to the desire of the devotee
- The Mandaracala Hill was used as the churning rod, and the shell of Lord Tortoise, the incarnation of Godhead, became the resting place (pivot) of the hill in the seawater
- The Mayavadi philosopher thinks that if Krsna has become everything, then where is the possibility of Krsna here, apart? This is complete rascaldom because it is thinking in a material way. There is no spiritual knowledge
- The Mayavadi philosophers say that if Krsna has become everything, there is no question of Krsna as an entity or a person. This is a materialistic idea
- The more he advances in sevonmukha, by service, God becomes revealed to him. And then buddhi-yogam dadami tam. Then as he becomes more confidential, then he is imparted buddhi-yogam, means bhakti-yoga
- The most wonderful manifestation of the Lord's power is exhibited when the infinite Lord becomes visible to our eyes as one of us. Yet His activities are different from those of the finite beings
- The next morning, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu got up early. After taking His bath, He became ecstatic with love, knowing that He now had to leave Vrndavana
- The Pandavas, by their unalloyed devotional service and full surrender unto the Lord, made it possible for the Lord to become a chariot driver or sometimes their letter messenger
- The Personality of Godhead appeared as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki because for a very long time they performed severe austerities to have the Supreme Lord as their son. Satisfied by their penance and determination, the Lord agreed to become their son
- The principle of creation is that the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, is by nature joyful, and He becomes many in order to enhance His transcendental joy
- The Supreme Lord became too much compassionate when He saw that people are unnecessarily killing animals, as it is going on still. Instead of . . . at least those who are claiming Buddhist, they are killing animals
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes dependent on His devotee. The Lord is invincible, yet He is conquered by His pure devotee. He enjoys being dependent on His devotee, just as Krsna enjoyed being dependent on the mercy of mother Yasoda
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead does not, however, require to be under disciplinary action to become leader, as we see in the activities of Lord Krsna
- The unhappiness of separation from Krsna exhausted the Lord's mind and reduced the structure of His body, but when He felt emotions of ecstatic love, He again became developed and healthy
- The word anavasara is used when Sri Jagannathaji cannot be seen in the temple. After the bathing ceremony (snana-yatra), Lord Jagannatha apparently becomes sick. He is therefore removed to His private apartment, where no one can see Him
- The yogesvara, or the master of mystic powers, can exhibit eight kinds of wonders of perfection by becoming smaller than the atom or lighter than a feather, getting anything and everything he desires, going anywhere and everywhere he likes
- There was a tumultuous noise as they all chanted the holy names "Hari" and "Krsna." Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became overwhelmed with ecstatic love
- These societies, those who are claiming that "I am God. You are God. Everyone God" - God has become so cheap that everyone is God - you immediately should know he's a rascal number one. Immediately
- They (Demigods) are very peaceful by nature. But by Your this fierceful appearance, they have become fearful. So because Your incarnation is for them, now You become pacified so that they may also become pacified
- They had spontaneous love for the Lord, and thus He became their heart and soul, and the gopis also became the heart and soul of the Lord
- This is a false theory that when God falls down He becomes a jiva, and when He is again revived in His original position, He becomes God. This is nonsense theory. It has no meaning. God never falls down
- This should not be misunderstood (the Lord entering the womb of Aditi). One should not think that the Lord became the son of Aditi the way an ordinary child is born because of sexual intercourse between man and woman
- To destroy the demons, the Lord becomes angry, and therefore He assumes the form of Lord Siva. In summary, the SP of Godhead is always beyond the material qualities, and we should not be misled into thinking otherwise simply because of sense perception
- To glorify Maharaja Nabhi, the sages composed two verses. One of them is this: Who can attain the perfection of Maharaja Nabhi? Who can attain his activities? Because of his devotional service, the Supreme Personality of God agreed to become his son
- To support a theory that Narayana (God Himself) becomes a daridra-narayana, a poor man, they (the froggish philosophers) propose that the material energy overcomes God. Jiva Gosvami & Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura offer a very nice example in explanation
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- Upon hearing from the Kurma Purana how Ravana had kidnapped a false form of mother Sita, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became very satisfied
- Upon reaching the temple of Bindu Madhava, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, seeing the beauty of Lord Bindu Madhava, became overwhelmed in ecstatic love. He then began to dance in the courtyard of the temple
- Upon seeing the bathing ceremony of Lord Jagannatha, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became very happy. But when Lord Jagannatha retired after the ceremony, Lord Caitanya became very unhappy because He could not see Him
- Upon seeing the ecstatic loving symptoms manifest in Madhavendra Puri, the priest was struck with wonder. He could understand why Krsna had become so much obliged to him, and he saw that Krsna's action was befitting
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- Vasudeva was not in ignorance, thinking that because the SG had appeared as his son, the Lord had become limited. The Lord is unlimitedly existing and all-pervading, inside and outside. Thus there is no question of His appearance or disappearance
- Very much pleased by the sound of other people's ankle bells, They (Krsna and Balarama) used to follow them as if going to Their mothers, but when They saw that these were other people, They became afraid and returned to Their real mothers - SB 10.8.22
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- When He answered this question, He became even more beautiful, and He smiled because He was pleased at His mother's question
- When Krsna sees that both Radharani and Her associates are pleased by His association, He becomes more satisfied
- When Lord Nrsimhadeva saw the small boy Prahlada Maharaja prostrated at the soles of His lotus feet, He became most ecstatic in affection toward His devotee
- When Narayana is living in the heart of a hog, He does not become a hog-Narayana. He is always Narayana and is unaffected by the body of the hog
- When Rukmini was very much perturbed, she fell down on the ground, and Lord Krsna immediately became compassionate and agreed not to kill the foolish Rukmi
- When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His devotees approached him, they saw that he was covered with a deerskin. Seeing this, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became very unhappy
- When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw the King engaged in menial service for Lord Jagannatha, He became very happy. Thus the King became eligible to receive Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy
- When Sri Gopala fainted, Advaita Acarya hastily took him upon His lap. Seeing that he was not breathing, He became very much agitated
- When the cause of all causes becomes known, then everything knowable becomes known, and nothing remains unknown. The Vedas say, "yasmin vijnate sarvam eva vijnatam bhavanti." BG 1972 purports
- When the Lord appeared before Kardama Muni after his mature yoga practice, He promised that He would become Kardama's son
- When the Lord saw that His beloved mother was very compassionate towards the fallen souls, He was pleased, and He also became compassionate towards her
- When there is need to manifest the cosmic world, it is done by His will: "Although I am one, I shall become many." This is the Vedic aphorism. BG 1972 purports
- When there is reciprocation of transcendental dealings with Krsna, Krsna gradually becomes a personal associate of the devotee. Then the devotee eternally enjoys blissful life
- When you have the service attitude, then Krsna becomes pleased. Whole process is service, according to one's capacity
- When you have the service attitude, then Krsna becomes pleased. Whole process is service, according to one's capacity. So it is not required in that one has to serve in this way or that way. No. The spirit should be service to the best capacity
- While describing all this, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became a little overwhelmed, but just to finish bidding farewell to the devotees, He remained patient
- Who can be equal to Him? He wanted, "I want son like You." So where is another person like Him? So He said: I shall become. I am your son
- Why He (Krsna) accepted buddha-sarira? Sadaya-hrdaya darsita-pasu-ghatam. He was very much compassionate to see unnecessarily animal slaughter. Krsna, God, is always kind. So when unnecessarily animal slaughter is done, He also becomes compassionate
- Why He becomes many? God is one without second, but He, out of His own sweet will, He becomes many
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- Yogamaya is the name of the internal potency that makes the Lord forget Himself and become an object of love for His pure devotee in different transcendental mellows
- You should be very, very careful to avoid these Mayavadi rascals. There cannot be such thing as "Narayana has become daridra." It is impossible