TEXT 23
anyani ceha dvija-deva-devaih
krtani nanayatanani visnoh
pratyanga-mukhyankita-mandirani
yad-darsanat krsnam anusmaranti
SYNONYMS
anyaniothers; caalso; ihahere; dvija-devaby the great sages; devaihand the demigods; krtaniestablished by; nanavarious; ayatananivarious forms; visnohof the Supreme Personality of Godhead; pratieach and every; angapart; mukhyathe chief; ankitamarked; mandiranitemple s; yatwhich; darsanatby seeing from a distance; krsnamthe original Personality of Godhead; anusmaranticonstantly remembers.
TRANSLATION
There were also many other temples of various forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Visnu, established by great sages and demigods. These temples were marked with the chief emblems of the Lord, and they reminded one always of the original Personality of Godhead, Lord Krsna.
PURPORT
Human society is divided into four social orders of life and four spiritual divisions, applying to each and every individual person. This system is called varnasrama-dharma and has already been discussed in many places in this great literature. The sages, or persons who completely devoted themselves to the spiritual upliftment of the entire human society, were known as dvija-deva, the best amongst the twice-born. The denizens of superior planets, from the moon planet and upwards, were known as devas. Both the dvija-devas and the devas always establish temples of Lord Visnu in His various forms, such as Govinda, Madhusudana, Nrsimha, Madhava, Kesava, Narayana, Padmanabha, Partha-sarathi and many others. The Lord expands Himself in innumerable forms, but all of them are nondifferent from one another. Lord Visnu has four hands, and each hand holds a particular itemeither a conchshell, wheel, club or lotus flower. Of these four emblems, the cakra, or wheel, is the chief. Lord Krsna, being the original Visnu form, has only one emblem, namely the wheel, and therefore He is sometimes called the Cakri. The Lords cakra is the symbol of the power by which the Lord controls the whole manifestation. The tops of Visnu temples are marked with the symbol of the wheel so that people may have the chance to see the symbol from a very long distance and at once remember Lord Krsna. The purpose of building very high temples is to give people a chance to see them from a distant place. This system is carried on in India whenever a new temple is constructed, and it appears that it is coming down from a time before recorded history. The foolish propaganda by atheists that temples were constructed only in later days is refuted here because Vidura visited these temples at least five thousand years ago, and the temples of Visnu were in existence long, long before Vidura visited them. The great sages and demigods never established statues of men or demigods, but they established temples of Visnu for the benefit of common men, to raise them to the platform of God consciousness.

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