Mercy of a devotee...

Verse 1.15.8 (Mohan Prji):

* This is a nice chapter where Arjuna is expressing his gratitude to Krishna.
* Arjuna was grief-stricken and overwhelmed and is now thinking of the so many ways how Krishna was always giving them all strength.
* He is saying that whatever amazing things he did, he did only because Krishna had empowered him to do so.
* SP is giving a amazing purport to this verse. He is talking about how the demons have amazing powers. However all such power should be utilized in service of the Lord.
* SP: Those who worship Vishnu is a devotee, those who do not worship Vishnu is a demon. Anybody not worshiping Vishnu, but worships demigods, is also demon.
* Eg: Hiranyakashipu or Ravana, they are demons, cause they were not worshiping or favorable to Vishnu.
* The demons possess wonderful and supernatural powers to create material wonders. But they are always disturbing elements of the society. The modern demons are the harmful material scientists who create some material wonders for disturbance in the society. For example, the creation of nuclear weapons has caused some panic in human society.
* For the common man, when they see that scientists perform such wonders, it is making the common ppl lose their belief in God. The consciousness of the general mass of ppl has changed a lot.
* Further in the purport, the solution is given. It is the devotee of Lord. Here, Maya dhanava could not save himself from the forest fire. He therefore took the shelter of Arjuna, a devotee.
* So SP is saying, taking shelter of the devotee is the best way out for all of us, in the conditioned state of the fire of material existence.
* Devotees are therefore more merciful than the Lord, and in devotional service the mercy of a devotee is more valuable than the mercy of the Lord.
* The process is that by the grace of the devotee the mercy of the Lord is obtained, and by the mercy of the Lord a chance to serve the Lord's devotee is obtained.
* It is a cyclic process. Then where is the starting point. By praying to the Supreme Lord for showing us a bona fide spiritual master, Krishna will surely guide us to a starting point.
* Eg: Srila Prabhupada (SP), who wrote all Vedic scriptures in English, because of which we are today getting a chance to read Srimad Bhagavatam.