tam — to Him; āha — she said; prema — of love; vaiklavya — due to the distress; ruddha — choking; kaṇṭhā — whose throat; aśru — (filled) with tears; locanā — whose eyes; smarantī — remembering; tān — those; bahūn — many; kleśān — pains; kleśa — of pain; apāya — for the dispelling; ātma — Himself; darśanam — who shows.
So overcome by love that her throat choked up and her eyes filled with tears, Queen Kunté remembered the many troubles she and her sons had endured. Thus she addressed Lord Kåñëa, who appears before His devotees to drive away their distress
tadā — at that time; eva — only; kuśalam — well-being; naḥ — our; abhūt — arose; sa — with; nāthāḥ — a protector; te — by You; kṛtāḥ — made; vayam — we; jñātīn — Your relatives; naḥ— us; smaratā — who remembered; kṛṣṇa — O Kṛṣṇa; bhrātā — brother (Akrūra); me — my; preṣitaḥ — sent; tvayā — by You.
[Queen Kunti said:] My dear Krsna, our welfare was assured only when You remembered us, Your relatives, and gave us Your protection by sending my brother to visit us.
na — not; te — for You; asti — there is; sva — of one’s own; para — and of others’; bhrāntiḥ — delusion; viśvasya — of the universe; suhṛt — for the well-wisher; ātmanaḥ — and Soul; tathāapi — nonetheless; smaratām — of those who remember; śaśvat — continuously; kleśān — the sufferings; haḿsi — You destroy; hṛdi — in the heart; sthitaḥ — situated.
For You, the well-wishing friend and Supreme Soul of the universe, there is never any illusion of “us” and “them.” Yet even so, residing within the hearts of all, You eradicate the sufferings of those who remember You constantly.
The intelligent Queen Kunté here points out that even though Lord Kåñëa is dealing with her affectionately as a relative, He is not compromising His position as the well-wishing Soul of the universe. In other words, the Lord doesn’t play favorites. As He says in the Bhagavad-gétä (9.29), samo ‘haà sarva-bhüteñu: “I am equal to everyone.” So while the Lord reciprocates with all souls, it is natural that those who love Him intensely receive His special attention, for they want Him and nothing else.
yudhiñöhiraù uväca—Yudhiñöhira said; kim—what; naù—by us; äcaritam—performed; çreyaù—pious work; na veda—do not know; aham—I; adhéçvara—O supreme controller; yoga—of mystic yoga; éçvaräëäm—by the masters; durdarçaù—rarely seen; yat—that; naù—by us; dåñöaù—seen; ku-medhasam—who are unintelligent.
King Yudhisthira said: O supreme controller, I do not know what pious deeds we fools have done so that we can see You, whom the masters of yogic perfection rarely see. Here again in this beautiful verses, Lord Sri Krsna is giving us the vision, of how He is captured within the hearts of His devotees. To the degree we really deeply understand the intense need that we have for Krsna in every phase of our life, to that degree Krsna manifests Himself in our lives. Krsna is everywhere. He is all pervasive. Nothing exists without the divine presence of Krsna. But through His material energies and through His various expansions such as the Paramatama and Vishnu, Krsna is all pervading in this creation. But as far as His own original personality of Shyam Sundar, Nanda Nandana, He only appears where there is pure sincere and humble bhakti devotion.
Arjuna, he was given witness to the Virat Rupa, the Universal Form of the Lord, in this most amazing and wonderful incarnation. Krsna revealed to us, how this whole creation and every universe within it, is nothing but His gigantic body and every aspect of the creation is a particular part of this wonderful transcendental body the Virat Rupa. The Sun and the Moon are his eyes, the trees are the hairs of his body, the rivers are His veins. And whatever functions that any of us have, they all originate in the Universal Form of the lord. When the Universal Form manifested eyes, through those eyes, he gave the power for all jivatamas to obtain bodies to see and from His eyes also manifested the particular demigod who was in control of the power of seeing. From the universal form came the tongue. It manifest in this Virat Rupa which is the origin of all tasting because Krsna tastes, you can taste and through the Universal form, the power to taste entered into the Universe, as well as the demigod that presides over that particular function. Similarly Srimad Bhagavatam explains that the Virat Rupa manifested the sexual organs and it is through the sexual organ on the Lord that all living beings within the creation are given the power to produce progeny. So whatever we can do, whatever functions are within our existence we should know that they manifested first in the Universe through the Universal Form and by that incredibly Supreme Being within this universe, we are all given all these facilities. But the Universal Form also is the manifestation of the Supreme Kala or time because everything within the creation is being destroyed by time
And Arjuna could witness how this Virat Rupa was devouring all living beings. Magnificent sight. Arjuna’s hairs were standing on end. He was trembling, his hands were folded and he was offering very reverential prayers to the Lord. Just a few minutes before, he told Krsna, “You are my chariot driver, please drive my chariot between the two armies. I want to see who have come.” Krsna said, “Yes. As you like.” Partha Sarthi became the humble servant of his own devotee Arjuna. So many times Krsna and Arjuna had loving pastimes because they were cousins and they were approximately the same age. Therefore they had such a friendly loving relationship. Sometimes they would sit together, they would joke together they would sleep next to each other. Sometimes without any sense of reverence, they would simply intimately exchange sweet words and Krsna showed how He was so obliged to the surrender of his devotees. He became his charioteer. Charioteer only has one business. Just to hear the orders of the chariot, of the warrior and carry out those orders.
Similarly for Yuddhistir, when there was some diplomatic negotiations between the Kurus and the Pandavas before the battle of Kurushetra, Lord Sri Krsna agreed to be the messenger, the courier for Yuddhistir, which is another very menial service, which only a very obedient person is allowed to take. Yuddhistir would send messages to Duryodhana through Krsna and it’s not an easy job because Duryodhana was not exactly very receptive. In fact one time Krsna came with a message from Yuddhistir and Duryodhana was so displeased by this message, so displeased with what Krsna was representing that he ordered Krsna to be arrested and put in prison. Duryodhana knew that Krsna was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But he was so covered over, that he just completely lost his intelligence due to envy. Sometimes even devotees, even though they know what is right even they know who Krsna is, event they know who vaisnavas are, when we become too clouded over by envy, by lust, or by pride or by greed or by anger or by illusion, we just lose our intelligence. Then we behave in such a way with no respect. So Duryodhana ordered his soldiers, “Arrest this man.” So they came to Krsna but Krsna manifested His Virat Rupa, Universal Form. This is before Arjuna. Duryodhana saw it’s unbelievable. He saw the whole universe within Krsna and naturally his command but still even after seeing all that because he was not a humble devotee, he was still against Krsna. He was still against Arjuna; he still was not willing to surrender. Even if God comes right in front of you, it doesn’t mean you will surrender. You have to be humble and pure. Mukunda Dutta prayed like this that just see, Duryodhana saw right before his own eyes the Universal Form of the lord but because He had no devotion, he would not surrender and ultimately he died a miserable painful death but Arjuna was seeing the same wonderful form similar but he understood this is Krsna, this is Bhagavan and with folded arms he in a trembling voice, he surrendered. But then he told Krsna, “This terrible form of Yours, I can’t bear seeing it. Please let me see You again in two handed form as my friend. This I desire.” And Krsna transformed Himself first through His form to four armed Narayan but Arjuna was not really not satisfied till he came to his two handed form of Dwarkadish Partha Sarthi. So you see the Universal Form of the Lord, the paramatma and the Lord these various wonderful wonderful expansions that pervade the entire universe. In this sense we can understand literally not figuratively literally everything is within Krsna. Krsna is within everything. Everything is within the Virat Rupa and Krsna as Paramatma is within each and every atom and within. So where is Krsna not existing. He is everywhere within and without. But as rasa raj Govinda or Dwarkadish Vasudev, in this beautiful form of Krsna, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, He only appears where there is pure unalloyed love and devotion. premanjana cchurita bhakti vilocanena santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti. The beautiful form of Shyam Sundar can only be witnessed by those whose eyes are anointed with the salve of unalloyed devotion bhakti. We have been reading about the glory of the bhakti of the Pandavas. We have heard the prayers of Queen Kunti. Even after going through so many tribulations and heart breaking experiences she was with her eyes filled with tears just praying to Krsna, “You are so kind, You are so merciful that whatever we go through when we remember you we become joyful, when we remember you we find the eternal shelter of Your Lotus feet and we transcend birth and death.” Therefore Queen Kunti, she only prayed for one benediction from Lord Sri Krsna.
Generally when good person is in terrible pain or distress, before going to next stage of, we want is higher as far as higher consciousness first we want relief from the agony. Devotees you have experiences, sometimes you are terribly sick or some terrible crisis comes into your life, painful condition and you know what ultimately to ask from Krsna is pure devotion. na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagad isa kamaye mama janmani janmani bhavatd bhaktir ahaituki tvayi. My Lord I do really, I do not want wealth I do not want beautiful forms of sense gratification to enjoy, nor do I want followers, respect, prestige. I do not even want liberation. I only want Your causeless devotional service birth after birth after birth. As Gaudiya vaisnavas, this really is the prayer that is prominent in our minds and we know nothing else but this prayer will fulfill the needs of the soul. But when we are in the terrible suffering condition, we put that prayer aside. Krsna we say please relieve my suffering then I will say na dhanam na janam, but right now do the needful, intolerable. That is our condition. But those you are truly serious in Krsna Consciousness they follow in the footsteps of Queen Kunti. Even amidst the greatest tribulations she wants only one benediction “Krsna, please just allow me to remember You constantly. Do as you like. Let the material nature do whatever is in store for us. Whatever our destiny may behold let me simply constantly remember you in every situation.” Krsnaya vasudevaya Devkinandanay ca nandagopakumaraya govindaya namo namah. This is the prayer of Queen Kunti. She simply wants to always remember Krsna by remembering His beautiful names. And in each name, Krsna is revealing a particular, wonderful, transcendental attribute of His personality. Krsnaya- He is the all attractive, all pleasing reservoir of all joy and bliss. Vasudevaya – He is the all pervading Supreme Master of everything that exist. krsnaya Vasudevaya Devakinandanay ca. He has appeared so wonderfully in Mathura as the son of Devaki. Nandagopakumaraya. He is the beautiful little boy who is herding the cows of Nanada Maharaj. Govindaya namo namah. I offer obeisances to that Govinda who gives pleasure to the cows, to the lands, to the senses and all of those who take shelter of Him. In this ways through Queen Kunti’s prayers we learn the most sweet and beautiful process in which she was always remembering Krsna through every kind of situation of life.
And this is the prayer of all the great devotees. “My dear Lord Let me never forget You let me always remember You and let me always in any condition be favourably disposed towards surrendering my life in your loving service and in the loving service of Your devotees.” Krsna is here leaving with Maharaj Yudhistira and see how He is presenting Himself. At this particular time, He is acting as the king of Indraprastha and yet is presenting himself before Krsna as a fool, not only himself but he is calling his whole family fools. Kunti, Arjuna bhima, Nakul, Sahadev everyone. He is not saying He is saying I do not know what pious deeds we fools have done. The great vaisnavas acharyas they explain how it’s a very difficult type of humility to even see the family members like this. Sanatan Goswami had this humility. He not only said that he was fallen but he said that he was from a family of completely fallen souls, very rare because you see these two types of material attachments -I and mine, I am this body and those things in relationship to this body are mine. So it’s one thing to be humble about yourself about I, but very rarely are people going to be humble about what’s mine. If you think about it’s a very extreme form of humility.
And Yuddhistir Maharaj has also exhibited this most magnanimous and rare quality. He is not in any way claiming any qualification or right to be in the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But he is so humble, he is saying, “I do not know what pious deeds we fools have done so that we can see you for even the masters of yogic perfection rarely see You.” But we can realize it is this very consciousness of humility that is his qualification. Duryodhana did not consider himself a fool. He considered himself very clever. But Yuddhistir although he was of most brilliant intelligence. Before God how could we be anything, but fools ? It is a fact what is the depth of our intelligence, of our abilities, of our purity, of our anything, before Krsna. Krsna is the Supreme pure. He is the Supreme Powerful. He is the knower of everything -Past, Present and Future.
Before Krsna nobody can be anything but a fool. And a devotee, he doesn’t compare himself to other human beings because if he compare yourself with other human being, you get a inferior complex or you get a false pride complex. Somebody is doing something better than you, you are thinking juh! Not good. I have to work harder I have to out do him somehow or other or it is useless. I tried tried so hard but he is still better than me. I am just useless. That useless is not humility that useless is simply defeat. You want to be better but you just can’t, so you feel yourself useless. 2 Humility is a positive thing, it’s not a negative thing. And if you are better than somebody or anything, then you know you are trying to be humble, still at the back of your mind you know I am best. I will present myself very humble but let everybody know indirectly that I am the best. They have to know this. However humble I appear still somehow or the other they must know what I have done and what I can do and what they cannot do. Maybe I’ll have somebody else tell them. I will say actually I am the most fallen, I am foolish, but I will have somebody to tell them what I have already done, what I have accomplished, so they will know not only that am I very expert and I am also very humble. So we should not compare ourselves to others in this way.
Because ultimately we have to see our relationship to Krsna. Before Krsna we are insignificant. One time a devotee said to Srila Prabhupada, he made some mistake and Srila Prabhupada chastised him for making a mistake and this devotee with great sincerity he said Prabhupada, “I am sorry. I am the most fallen.” He was thinking Prabhupada would appreciate that but Prabhupada chastised him again. He said you are not the most anything. You are insignificant. That is our position before Krsna. We may be a big book distributor or we may be a good preacher or we may sing wonderful kirtan or we may dress the deites in such a way that everybody just say nobody does like this or we may cook preparation that everyone praises and glorifies during prasad or we may be so austere that we are becoming emaciated that we hardly eat. We hardly sleep. We can do all these things. But before Krsna what is it? Nara Narayan rishi, when they wanted to show what tapasya is they showed what tapasya really is and no jivatma could compare. We are just insignificant part and parcels of the Lord. Therefore devotees are conscious of this.
Now if we have a material mind this is really terrible complex. In the western world I am sure among the westernized people in India they say, “Why you are all saying you are insignificant and you are nothing? what type of mentality is this? You have to have pride in yourself.” Because from the material point of view, to just think yourself as an insignificant useless fool, factually is not a very happy lifestyle. But because devotees are thinking like this way in remembrance of Krsna that, “Krsna You are so great that I am insignificant. Therefore I find my pleasure not in my significance but in Your significance. You are so learned and so wise Krsna the knower of everything then why should I bother myself in taking pride in my insignificant intelligence. I will take pride in glorifying Your Supreme Intelligence by reading Your book, Bhagavad Gita and explaining Your words, not my words.” The mundane philosophers love to explain things in their own ways. The shastra says that a muni must be unique, he must contradict all other munis to present his own ideas. But a devotee just presents Krsna’s ideas. He just hears and delivers the message. “Why should I manufacture anything? why should I concoct anything? Krsna is perfect. I am nothing. I will just repeat what he has spoken in the Gita and I will repeat the previous acharyas who are all in that humble state of mind simply giving us Krsna’s words.” This is humility. So to a degree a devotee considers himself an insignificant useless fool, to that degree he is actually completely immersed in tasting the sweetest nectar of Krsna’s transcendental Name, Krsna’s transcendental quality and Krsna’s wonderful pastime. In this way the humility of a devotee is positive because his humility is actually born of completely absorption in the remembrance in the greatness of God.
And as far as other vaisnavas, a devotee sees Krsna manifesting through them. That’s why a devotee doesn’t say to another devotee, “You are an insignificant useless fool.” Sometimes we do say actually but this is not. “vancha kalpatarubhyas cha krpa sindhubhya eva cha patitanam pavanebhyo namo namah” because we see all glorious, all powerful, all beautiful mercy of Krsna coming through the devotees. Therefore we see Krsna in the devotees, we respect we honour, we glorify, we worship because we see Krsna in them. Krsna is manifesting Himself. But for ourselves, we are not supposed to say this prayer to ourselves. When you stand in front of the mirror, in the morning after you put on your tilak “vancha kalpatarubhyas ca” not like this. We should recognize that whatever good we do is Krsna working through us. Therefore we should give the credit to Krsna, not to ourselves. This is the nature of a vaisnava and for such a devotee like Maharaj Yuddhistir who is the embodiment of all wonderful qualities but who really considered himself a fool, due to the positive consciousness of true humility, Krsna became obliged to fulfill his order or let us say his desire. Although Krsna is very busy in Dwarka, Krsna says in Gita if I fail to work then everyone will follow my path then whole world will be destroyed.
So in Dwarka, Krsna was taking care of 16108 households. Some of our Grihasthas have one wife may be one, two, three children and they are so busy take so much time. Can you imagine if you had 16108 wives and each one of them had 10 children and each one of them had 10 grand children? That’s how Krsna was living. He was a busy man. But and plus He was Dwarkadish, He was in charge of the whole Dwarka city which is millions and millions and millions of people- the population. Everyday He would go to the Sudama house- assembly house and He would perform His work. It is explained that He would come out of each of palaces, that means there would be 16108 Krsnas, coming out of different palaces saying goodbye to His wives, to His Queens, saying, smelling the heads of His children and giving them encouragement, showing love to everyone. And then all 16108 started going to Sudama Assembly which was actually presented by Indra. But somehow or other they all at the time, all 16108 Krsna that came to Assembly house they all merged into one and Krsna would preside over all the affairs of Dwarka. After His day’s work, He would leave the assembly house, He would start walking and He then start expanding to all the forms and going to all the palaces and individually in the most unique and wonderful way. He would meet with all His precious Queens who are all expansions of Goddess of Fortune. So Krsna was very busy. And the residents of Dwarka, for them a moment without Krsna seems like years and years and years. They were so attached to Krsna and only Krsna. He was their life, their soul, their everything.
So Yuddhistir Maharaj is humbly requesting Krsna to stay during the rainy season. We can understand that this most probably means the Catur Masya. He is asking Krsna to remain with them for four months and not go to Dwarka. He is requesting and because of the love and devotion of Kunti, Arjuna, Yuddhistir because of their humility and their great desire to remember Krsna constantly and do whatever Krsna want to do exclusively depending on Him and Him only, Krsna agreed and He remained in Indraprastha for four full months simply to give pleasure to His devotees. Requested by the King to stay with them, the Almighty Lord stayed in Indraprastha during the four months of the rainy season, giving joy to the eyes to city’s residents.
Maharaj Yudddhistir was so selfless. He was not asking Krsna to stay in Indraprastha only for his own spiritual welfare. But because he was the leader of all the citizens, he understood that his supreme obligation to all the citizens was to give all of them the opportunity to surrender to Krsna and to receive Krsna’s precious mercy. Yuddhistir was like a father to all of his praja, to all of his citizens in his kingdom. And we see here that his greatest desire was that everyone of his citizens experience the blessings and association of Krsna’s love, of Krsna’s mercy. This should be the prominent desire of every father, every mother – the supreme bliss and the supreme fortune of having Krsna’s mercy and Krsna’s love. That is what I really want. “guru na sasyat svajani na sasyat” . When the Spiritual Master comes before the deity with all of the disciples, the Spiritual Master is simply so happy so pleased, “sri vigrahara dhana nitya nana sringara tan mandira marjanadau”, to see all of the devotees so wonderfully dancing, chanting and worshipping the Supreme Personality of Godhead and he is simply praying to Krsna, “Please accept them as Your own. They are Yours. Please protect them. Please give them Your love. Please let them never, for even a moment, leave your beautiful merciful Lotus Feet.”
Question: Maharaj you explained that it is not a good thing to compare ourselves with other but is it not a good thing to see the good qualities and pray to Krsna that by the mercy of guru, we can imbibe similar qualities? Answer: Yes but that is not exactly comparing yourself. We shouldn’t compare ourselves in a competitive way. We should always see the good qualities in vaisnavas and we should always look for the insignificant in ourselves. “amanina mana dena Kirtanya sada harih” We should always offer all respects to others and expect none in return. We should not be competitive in the sense that but for the pleasure of Krsna sometimes there may be some competition just to encourage one another for more and more and more sevas for guru and Krsna that is ok. But it’s a fine line because when the ego when the false ego, enters into that competition, it becomes a battle of egos rather than a mutual process of encouraging one another to do more services, more sevas, so we have to be very careful about such transcendental competition that we keep it transcendental. Yes we should see good qualities in every vaisnavas. We should see no faults unless it is for the purpose of preaching and protecting other devotees, for helping that devotee, should never be done with negativity. When we see that they are doing, we glorify it because we understand that how wonderful they are acting as instruments for Krsna. He is giving that freedom. My guru maharaj, he is representing the mercy of Krsna. Therefore we should worship the vaisnavas like we worship Krsna. Therefore we see Krsna’s mercy manifesting through him in such a wonderful way and Yes we want to follow in his footsteps when we follow in somebody’s footsteps that means we are always giving him honour above your own and above all honour for yourself. Trying to be what another person does, could mean you like to be better than him or equal to him. But when you are following in a person’s footsteps that means you are accepting he is always in a superior position so let me be inspired by what he is saying and let me imbibe those qualities myself. So we don’t want to compete with anyone. We want to follow in the footsteps of the great mahajanas and those who are nicely representing them. We want to follow in their footsteps , be inspired by those followers and try to imbibe the principles of how they are teaching us by examples. This is how we should see all good vaisnavas. If you look carefully you will find in every devotee there are some wonderful qualities that can improve your own devotional service. Devotee always see vaisnavas in this way.
Prabhupada said the honey bee could be in a terrible heap of garbage but if there is one flower he disregard the whole garbage all round, acres and acres, hectares of land of stool and urine and everything else rubbish. You don’t want to even look at it and the honey bee go right to that flower and drink the honey. A devotee should be like that honey bee in regard to other vaisnavas. But the fly in a beautiful garden of fragrant roses and there is one piece of stool, it will completely disregard the roses and it would drink the juices of that stool. So we want to become honey bees for Krsna, always looking for the nectar of devotion in others. Thank you very much. Haribol.
