Why Worship the Guru?

Since Krishna is the God of the demigods, who are the departmental heads within this universe, we worship only Krishna and do not worship the demigods. This is just like our paying of taxes to the central government without our having to separately pay tax to each governmental department. This is Krishna's instruction to us in the Bhagavad-gita that we should exclusively worship Him only and not worship the demigods or anyone else. Therefore on His order all of our devotion goes only the Krishna.

In this connection sometimes people become confused when they see that we are worshipping the spiritual master. They find this to be a contradiction. But actually it is not a contradiction. Surrender to only Krishna means to follow the instructions of Krishna and not the instructions of anyone who instructs us differently than what Krishna instructs us. So when Krishna instructs us to become the devotees of the spiritual master by doing so we are doing nothing more than surrendering ourselves to Krishna. In fact if we do not worship the spiritual master, we are not surrendering to Krishna.

Answers According to the Vedic Version

Question: Is Krishna a Form of Vishnu or Vishnu a Form of Krishna?

I have a question about something you said the other day in your "Thought for the Day" Q&A section. You quoted the following verse:

"Those who are actually learned in the Absolute Truth look to the abode of and worship only the Vishnu form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in any of His various forms such as Krishna, Rama, etc."--Rig Veda (1.22.20)

This verse states that Krishna is a form of Vishnu. I don't understand how this verse supports Krishna as the original Personality of Godhead. This verse seems to disagree with Krishna's own statements in the Bhagavad-gita. I am very perplexed by this. How can I know if Vishnu is a form of Krishna or Krishna is a form of Vishnu? Please help me understand. Thank you very much.

Humbly,

C.B.

Answer: Since Krishna is the Original Vishnu, Both Are Correct.

Srila Prabhupada explains Rig Veda (1.22.20) in his Srimad Bhagavatam purport to SB 3.16.4 that the qualified brahmanas worship only the Vishnu form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which means Krishna, Rama and all Vishnu expansions.

What is confusing you is that the term Vishnu is used in two different ways. Sometimes Vishnu is used as the name of the category of the Supreme Lord in any one of His unlimited forms. And sometimes it used for a specific four-armed form of the Supreme Lord such as Maha-Vishnu. When we speak of the Vishnu category of beings we understand that the original Vishnu is Krishna and that all the other Vishnu category personalities are emanating from Him. This is why devotees of Krishna are known as Vaisnavas, which means "devotees of Vishnu."

So in summary, since Krishna is the original Vishnu from whom all other Vishnus expand, we can say both that Vishnu is a form of Krishna and that Krishna is a form of Vishnu.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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