Verse 1.2.65

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.2.65:

দম্ভ করি’ বিষহরি পূজে কোন জন পুত্তলি করযে কেহো দিযা বহু-ধন ॥ ৬৫ ॥

दम्भ करि’ विषहरि पूजे कोन जन पुत्तलि करये केहो दिया बहु-धन ॥ ६५ ॥

dambha kari’ viṣahari pūje kona jana puttali karaye keho diyā bahu-dhana || 65 ||

dambha kari’ visahari puje kona jana puttali karaye keho diya bahu-dhana (65)

English translation:

(65) Some people proudly worshiped Viṣahari, the goddess of snakes, and others spent great wealth on idol worship.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

Ordinary people, particularly the rich mercantile community, lavishly spent money for the worship of Manasādevī [another name of Viṣahari]. They purchased the entire brāhmaṇa and paṇḍita communities and kept them under their control. They had various idols and deities of demigods and goddesses made, and they donated large sums of money in charity.

Even today the practice of making various kinds of idols is current at the time of rāsa-yātrā. Instead of serving the Deity of the Supreme Lord on the spiritual platform, they followed the system of idol worship and spent huge amounts of money on festivals. Later, they immersed those idols in the water and proved the flickering nature of their worship and their object of worship. Because they spent large amounts of money on useless purposes, the worship of Deities such as Śrī Jagannāthadeva was rarely found in Bengal.

Another reading of the second line is puttali vibhā dite deya bahu-dhana, which indicates that people who were maddened with material enjoyment uselessly and proudly spent money in marriage ceremonies between male and female monkeys, cats, and dolls. In this way they increased their aversion to the Lord.