Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 11 Chapter 11:32-46

Book 11: Chapter 11

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 11: Chapter 11: Verses 32-46 He (too) is (likewise) the best of (all) virtuous men, who-having completely neglected all his duties, though prescribed by Me, while knowing full well the virtues (resulting from the performance of duty) and sins (incurred by neglecting them)-worships Me (alone). They are considered by Me to be the foremost of (all) devotees, who worship Me with exclusive devotion, knowing in reality how great I am, what I am and what like I am, or (even) not knowing this.Devotion to Me consists, 0 Uddhava ! in beholding, touching and worshipping My representations of (in the form of images etc.) and people devoted to Me, rendering (bodily) service to them (such as kneading their feet), extolling them, bowing to them and repeatedly recounting My excellences and exploits; developing reverence for hearing My stories, practising contemplation on Me, offering all one's gains to Me, offering one's body (to me) for service; narrating the stories of My advent and recounting My deeds; celebrating festivals connected with Me (such as the Janmastami festival connected with My advent) and conducting festivities in My temples with vocal and instrumental music, dance and Puranic discourses; visiting holy places in procession and conducting (special) worship (with flowers etc.,) on all annual festive occasions (particularly on every Ekadasi during the four rainy months), initiating men into certain forms of Vedic and Tantrika worship etc., and undertaking vows sacred to Me (such as fasting on Ekadasi days); enthusiasm in installing My images (in temples specially built for the purpose) and individual as well as collective effort for laying out gardens, orchards and pleasances, erecting boundary walls round towns and constructing temples, keeping my temples tidy and clean after the manner of a servant by removing their dust and plastering their floor with cowdung etc., washing their floor and decorating it with ornamental designs and diagrams in a guileless way (without any expectation of return); absence of pride and hypocrisy and refraining from making known one's own services.* One should not uset (for one's own benefit) even the light of a lamp offered (by oneself or anyone else) to Me (or, to interpret it in another way, one should not offer to Me even the light of a lamp (already) offered (to Me or to any other deity).#. One should (on the other hand) offer to Me whatever is most favoured with the world as well as whatever is most liked by himself; for such an offering is capable of yielding immortality. The sun, fire, the Brahmana cows, a votary of Lord Visnu, the sky, the air, water, earth, one's own body and all living beings are the media of My worship, 0 good one In the sun one should worship Me by (waiting upon Me with) hymns forming part of the three Vedas; in (the sacred) fire, by (pouring) oblations; in a worthy Brahmana, through hospitality of course; and in cows, through green grass etc., 0 dear Uddhava; in a votary of Lord Visnu, through attentions due to a relation; in the cavity of one's heart, through fixity in meditation; in the air, through the thought that it is the life-giving principle running through the entire universe; in the water, through articles of worship followed by water (itself); in a raised ground Supreme i the Spirit, (duly) levelled and cleared (through consecration) by means of mystic formulas. In one's own body, one should propitiate the soul through amenities (permitted by the Sastras); and in all created beings one should worship Me as the conscious Self through undifferentiated vision. Through these media one should contemplate and worship with a concentrated mind in the aforesaid manner My serene and four-armed personality equipped with a conch, discus, mace and lotus.