730429SB.LA Lectures
Krsna is living everywhere–that is, that is the vision of the higher devotees.
Actually He’s living, but still, because we are in the lower
condition, we should know that here is Krsna in the temple. Krsna is
everywhere, but for us, because we have no such vision to see Krsna
anywhere and everywhere, therefore we should come here in the temple
and see Krsna, “Here is Krsna. Krsna has kindly appeared here in a
manner in which I can see Him. That is Krsna’s mercy.” That is temple.
We cannot see… Krsna has completely spiritual body, but we have no
eyes to see what is that spiritual body. Sac-cid-ananda-vigraha. We
are accustomed to see this material, jada, gross things. We can see
stone, we can see metal, we can see wood. We can see all these
material elements. But Krsna is everything. Therefore to be visible to
our imperfect eyes, Krsna has appeared in the stone form, but Krsna is
not stone. It is not that we are worshiping stone; we are worshiping
Krsna. But because we cannot see except stone, therefore Krsna has
kindly appeared in the form carved from the stone. This is the
conclusion.

68-07-29.Mad Letter: Madhusudana
Affection for God-brothers is nice, it is a good sign. Affection
for God-brothers as well as for all other living entities, even they
are not God-brothers, these signs are seen in the advanced devotees.

There are three kinds of devotees: The lower grade devotees, they have
high regard for the Deity in the temple, but not very much regard for
devotees or people in general. The second grade devotee takes
compassion with innocent non-devotees. In that stage, he has got 4
kinds of vision: one is that he always keeps Krishna as the most
Lovable Object, second is that he makes intimate friendship with his
devotee God-brothers [this means he does not take them for
granted]
or any other devotees, third is that he takes compassion with innocent non-devotees, and tries to convince them about the importance of Krishna Consciousness, and fourth is that he
does not take any serious interest for the atheist class of men. The
first grade devotee, of course, sees everyone in relationship with
Krishna and as such, he makes no distinction between a devotee or
non-devotee. His vision is high grade, because he sees that everyone
is engaged in Krishna’s service directly or indirectly. This position
of high-grade devotee should never be imitated. It was possible only
in Lord Caitanya or Lord Nityananda, or Haridasa Thakura.