Dr. Ghosh: Why do we prefer pāda and not the head or the hands? What is the rationale?
Prabhupāda: That is impudency. That is impudency. The worship of the Deity should begin from the leg, from the feet. That is respect. Just like my disciples offer respect and touches my feet, not my head. That is impudency. You cannot touch head. Head is touched when I give him, "All right, be blessed." I shall touch his head, and he shall touch my feet. This is the process. You cannot touch the superior head. That is impudency. You cannot jump over like that.
Dr. Ghosh: It's a part of the body. It is only a part of the body . . .
Prabhupāda: That's all right. But that is the system. That is the system. You should begin. That . . . that is described in the Bhāgavatam. The First and Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are the two legs of Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). These professional reciters, they read Bhāgavata, they jump over immediately to the face. The Tenth Canto is described as the face of Kṛṣṇa. So you cannot go immediately to the face. You must begin from the feet—First Canto, Second Canto. Therefore there are nine cantos, and then Tenth Canto. And the Kṛṣṇa's rāsa dance, that is the smiling of Kṛṣṇa. So you cannot ask the superior to take the facility of his smiling. Smiling will be when he is pleased.
The difficulty is that the Māyāvādī philosophy, they do not accept the form of the Lord, and they do not know how to behave with the form. Of course, there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa's face and Kṛṣṇa's feet. There is no difference. But still, the system must be followed. Pāda-sevanam. It is very important verse. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). When one has heard, when one has properly chanted, he has little experience of the transcendental form of the Lord, then his service beginning. Just like I engage one servant. So gradually he is given, he is given service, "First of all this, first of all that, then . . ." Again and again, again, again. The same example can be given, that the husband and wife. Formerly, when I was married, my wife was eleven years old. So (laughing) an eleven-years-old girl, and I was at the same time twenty-one, twenty-two. One day I captured her hand. She began to cry. (laughs) A little girl, you see? So gradually, gradually. I know . . . when my brother-in-law, sister's husband, used to come . . . in the beginning, the girls were very . . . my sisters were same age.