The Lords exemplary behaviour is to teach us.
The Supreme Person is described herein as brahmanya-deva. Brahmanya refers to the brahmanas, the Vaisnavas or the brahminical culture, and deva means “worshipable Lord.” Therefore unless one is on the transcendental platform of being a Vaisnava or on the highest platform of material goodness (as a brahmana), he cannot appreciate the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the lower stages of ignorance and passion, it is difficult to appreciate or understand the Supreme Lord. Therefore the Lord is described herein as the worshipable Deity for persons in brahminical and Vaisnava culture.
namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca
jagad-dhitaya Krishnaya govindaya namo namah
(Vishnu Purana 1.19.65)
Lord Krishna, the Supreme personality of Godhead, is the prime protector of brahminical culture and the cow. Without knowing and respecting these, one cannot realize the science of God, and without this knowledge, any welfare activities or humanitarian propaganda cannot be successful. The Lord is purusa, or the supreme enjoyer. Not only is He the enjoyer when He appears as a manifested incarnation, but He is the enjoyer since time immemorial, from the very beginning (puratanah), and eternally (nityam). Yaccaranabhivandanat: Prthu Maharaja said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead attained this opulence of eternal fame simply by worshiping the lotus feet of the brahmanas. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that the Lord does not need to work to achieve material gain. Since He is perpetually supremely perfect, He does not need to obtain anything, but still it is said that He obtained His opulences by worshiping the lotus feet of the brahmanas. These are His exemplary actions. When Lord Shri Krishna was in Dvaraka, He offered His respects by bowing down at the lotus feet of Narada. When Sudama Vipra came to His house, Lord Krishna personally washed his feet and gave him a seat on His personal bed. Although He is the Supreme personality of Godhead, Lord Shri Krishna offered His respects to Maharaja Yudhisthira and Kunti. The Lord’s exemplary behavior is to teach us. We should learn from His personal behavior how to give protection to the cow, how to cultivate brahminical qualities and how to respect the brahmanas and the Vaisnavas. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (3.21), yad yad acarati sresthas tat tad evetaro janah: “If the leading personalities behave in a certain manner, others follow them automatically.” Who can be more of a leading personality than the Supreme personality of Godhead, and whose behavior could be more exemplary? It is not that He needed to do all these things to acquire material gain, but all of these acts were performed just to teach us how to behave in this material world.
Source: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (2014 edition), “Srimad Bhagavatam”, Fourth Canto, Chapter 21 – Text 38
