Section 77
A Devotee's Greatest Desire:  To Be With the Servants of the Lord

Therefore the associates of the Lord are not influenced by time and  the greatest desire of the best of the devotees, is to be in their proximity. Prahläd Mahäräja prayed for this to Lord Nåsiàha (7.9.24):

           "My dear Lord, now I have complete experience concerning the worldly opulence, mystic power, longevity and other material pleasures enjoyed by all living entities, from Lord Brahmä down to the ant. As powerful time, You destroyed them all. Therefore, because of my experience, I do not wish to possess them. My dear Lord, I request You to place me in touch with Your pure devotee and let me serve him as a sincere servant."

 The meaning is clear.

 PURPORT

           After explaining that the associates of the Lord are transcendental, Çréla Jéva Gosvämé makes this same point in a different way.  The devotees of the Lord do not desire anything material--even liberation (S.B. 11.14.14):

"One who has fixed his consciousness on Me desires neither the position or abode of Lord Brahmä or Lord Indra, nor an empire on the earth, nor sovereignty in the lower planetary systems, nor the eight-fold perfection of yoga, nor liberation from birth and death.  Such a person desires Me alone."

          But these devotees certainly desire the company of the associates of the Lord.  This means that the Lord's associates are supremely transcendental, otherwise the devotees will have no desire to associate with them.

          Such a desire was cherished by Bhakta Prahläda.  One should not think that Prahläda Maharaja desired to get relief from material suffering.  His desire is to serve the Lord and because he faced difficulty performing devotional service in the association of demons, he desired to have saintly association.  The words nijbhåtya pärñvam are important.  Bhåtya means servant.  Prahläda is desiring to be with the servants of the Lord, which implies that he wishes to be their servant.  Otherwise he would have prayed to be relieved from material misery.  He had no material desire, however, as became apparent when the Lord tried to entice him with a boon apart from pure bhakti (S.B. 7.10.6,7):

"O my Lord, I am Your unmotivated servant, and You are my eternal master. There is no need of our being anything other than master and servant. You are naturally my master, and I am naturally Your servant. We have no other relationship."

"O my Lord, best of the givers of benediction, if You at all want to bestow a desirable benediction upon me, then I pray from Your Lordship that within the core of my heart there be no material desires."

          He has no material desires and prays not to have them in future. Yet he yearned for the association of the Lord's associates.  This indirectly proves that Lord's associates are not material. Therefore Çréla Jéva Gosvämé says that they are beyond the influence of time kälätétäù. Moreover Prahläda Mahäräja is not an ordinary devotee. And even he desires to serve the associates of the Lord. Therefore association with Lord's eternal associates is called here as parama-puruñärtha.

          In the next Text the transcendental nature of Lord's abode and His associates is shown simultaneously.