Srimad Bhagavatam : 10.52.19 by HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj on Nov 30, 2024 @ ISKCON Japan
ŚB 10.52.19
bhagavan śrotum icchāmi
kṛṣṇasyāmita-tejasaḥ
yathā māgadha-śālvādīn
jitvā kanyām upāharat
Translation
My lord, I wish to hear how the immeasurably powerful Lord Kṛṣṇa took away His bride while defeating such kings as Māgadha and Sālva.
Purport
We should not think that Śrī Kṛṣṇa was actually afraid of Jarāsandha. In the very next chapter we will find that Śrī Kṛṣṇa easily defeats Jarāsandha and his soldiers. Thus we should never doubt the supreme prowess of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :
So this chapter begins of series of chapters describing the marriage of Krishna to Rukmini. Now, of course, Rukmini was the first queen he married in Dwaraka, and later on he married 16,108. And as this verse says, it shows the unlimited power of Krishna.
Here we have the words “amita tejasah”. So tejasah means power, and amita means immeasurable, we cannot measure it. Mita means to measure, amita means cannot be measured.
This is one of the natural qualities of the Supreme Lord. If we speak of Supreme Lord, supreme means he’s the topmost person. It also implies that he has many qualities which are topmost. So many people may have intelligence, powers, etc., but then Supreme Lord will have the greatest powers, the greatest intelligence. And then the Supreme Lord will have qualities that nobody has also. Krishna will also have qualities which nobody can understand.
So we call this acintya, inconceivable qualities. So no matter what conception we have of God in any religion around the world, it will include many of these common qualities. So one of the common qualities would be power. God has most power. This is also quite natural in the material world. Anyone who is in a number one position will have more power.
And we’ll see that many religions in the world will emphasize this, God is the most powerful. And then there will be many illustrations of the power of God. And we’ll see this also in the Vedic scriptures. How does God illustrate his power? He kills demons. In fact, we’ll see that’s one of the major pastimes of the Lord, Varaha kills Hiranyaksha, Nrsimhadeva kills Hiranyakasipu, Rama kills Ravana, Krishna kills Kamsa.
So the common quality of God is power, but that’s not the only quality. However, many religions emphasize this power aspect. And it also has a negative side to it. And that is, we begin to fear God, because he’s all-powerful and he will punish us. And we see that reflected also with devatas like Indra, we don’t worship Indra, he will punish us by not giving rain.
Or he’ll give too much rain. If we don’t worship the sun, then we’ll get too much heat. So as well as illustrating the power of God, we also get a fear of God.
However, there’s another side of God, another personality of God, not just a fearful person. And that is a loving God, an affectionate God. So this is also emphasized in some religions.
And of course, in the Vedic literature we have, in Bhakti, the loving side of the Supreme Lord is emphasized. However, with many forms of worship and many forms of the Lord, we’ll find that still this power aspect is also emphasized. But we’ll find in Krishna that it is the affectionate side which is more emphasized.
And he will illustrate that throughout his various pastimes. Of course, even in Krishna’s pastimes, the pastimes in Vrindavan will emphasize more the affectionate qualities of Krishna. And though Krishna kills many demons in Vrindavan, everything is covered by this affectionate relationship with Krishna.
When Krishna goes to Mathura and then to Dwarka, he illustrates more of the powerful aspect. But even there, this is mixed with the affectionate aspect. So in Dwarka, Krishna married 16,108 queens.
So this does illustrate his power. So his unlimited power is illustrated by the fact that he could counteract and fight with great kings like Jarasandha and Salva and others, defeat them, and then marry the different queens. And this illustrates that he can kill all these different demons.
However, the other aspect is that in marrying these queens, he’s illustrating his affection for his devotees. And that is illustrated in this story of Rukmini. And throughout the story we’ll see descriptions of Rukmini’s great love for Krishna.
And also an illustration of Krishna’s love for his devotee. But not only Krishna married Rukmini, he married so many other thousands of queens to illustrate the great affection that Krishna has for his devotees. So we may wonder, Supreme Lord, Why does he have to marry so many queens? We will find, historically, in the material world, there are kings that also had hundreds of wives. And when we examine that critic, we say, oh, that’s not such a great thing. He’s just a very lusty person. But it illustrates the unlimited affection the Lord has for his devotees.
So why should it be limited to 16,108 queens? So in Vrindavan, Krishna had Rasalila with three billion Gopis. And he had the Rasalila every night. So this again is to illustrate the unlimited powers of Krishna and the unlimited affection of Krishna. So there’s no exaggeration in describing the wonderful qualities of the Supreme Lord. So Supreme Lord is so powerful, he can do what cannot be done. He can do the impossible. He is free to do anything. He can do, he cannot do, he can do something impossible.
Of course, for the devotees, we always emphasize the affectionate side of the Supreme Lord. And whether it’s in Vrindavan or Dwaraka or Mathura, we appreciate the affectionate side of Krishna. And the devotees will always desire to hear about these affectionate qualities of the Supreme Lord. So here in the first line of this verse, Parikshit is addressing Sukadeva Goswami, he says, I desire to hear about the wonderful, immeasurable powers of Krishna, and also about the marriage.
Hare Krishna.
Q & A
1) He wants to hear about the difference between the pastimes in material world and the spiritual world.
Yeah. Particularly, of course, we don’t find so many demons in the spiritual world. It’s impossible for demons to exist there. So therefore that idea of killing demons and showing power that way wouldn’t exist.
However, we’ll find in Brhad Bhagvatmrta, where Gopa Kumara goes there, he explains that sometimes there are what looks like demons come, and then Krishna conquers them and they become devotees of sorts.
However, in Vrindavan, whether material world or the spiritual world, the emphasis in Vrindavan or Goloka is not the power. So we’ll see when Krishna kills a demon like Aghasura or Keshi, etc., he kills the demon, but we don’t quite see, how he does it. So often there will be descriptions of how the demon died, but then they (the people of Vrindavan), don’t quite know how he died. They attributed, well, Vishnu is protecting Krishna. So, somehow Putana happened to die, they don’t quiet know, how Putana died. Of course, we know that Krishna sucked out her life air, but they don’t see that. Or Trinavarta comes and takes Krishna out of the air and suddenly he falls down. We don’t see how Krishna became heavy. Suddenly the demon dropped Krishna and he also fell on earth and died.
So often, we say, in killing these demons in Vrindavan, it illustrates the love of the devotees because they see Krishna in danger. And thus, it increases their love. And the other factor is, that they regard Krishna as their protector, because he’s able to somehow vanquish all these demons. They take Krishna as their protector.
2) In this world, Krishna tries to run away from Jarasandha. He pretends like a normal human being, then what about the spiritual world ? He never shows this kind of behaviour?
Well, this whole thing with Jarasandha attacking Krishna and all of this, that won’t take place in the spiritual world.
So, in the material world, He has certain motives in doing so. He wanted to get Jarasandha away from Mathura. Now, of course, to run away from battle, looks contradictory to the nature of supreme Lord and even nature of a king in material world.
However, as I mentioned, Supreme Lord does things which looks impossible or contradictory. And thus, even devotees will be puzzled by the some of the activities of the Supreme Lord. So, even great devotees like Bhishma, say we cannot understand why the Lord does certain things. However, all of this is there to finally, all these different puzzling path signs will finally be resolved. And then we’ll understand the plan of Krishna, after everything happens.
And this will illustrate at once the perfection of the Lord and also the inability of the Jiva to understand everything about the Lord. So, in this way, we can see the perfection of the Supreme Lord and the limitation of the Jiva.
3) Maharaj you have mentioned that, Krishna is showing affection to so many devotees like more than 10,000 marriages and a billion number of gopis, he’s showing that affection. On one side, we can appreciate his affection by numbers, so many numbers. Similarly, we can see that he’s not showing by a number of devotees, but showing only one devotee in particular, very personally, individually, isn’t ?
So, numbers is not everything. We always think that Krishna marries so many queens and has so many relations, so many gopis. Well, then it becomes impersonal because how can one person have relationships with thousands and millions of people? So, such a problem will exist in the material world.
But with Krishna, it does not exist, because Krishna expands himself to be with each devotee. Krishna marries so many queens and dances with so many gopis. So, Krishna was with each individual queen, always. He was in each palace simultaneously and was always with the queens. So, it seemed each queen thought that Krishna never leaves me. And in the Rasalila, Krishna expanded himself with each of the 3 billion gopis. So, each gopi thought, oh, Krishna is only with me.
And Krishna sat down to eat lunch with all the cowherd boys in the forest. Each cowherd boy thought, Krishna is eating with me. But there were millions and millions of cowherd boys. So, Krishna expanded himself to be with each cowherd boy. But none of the cowherd boys could see that Krishna was expanding himself.
4) He is asking about the Rakshasa style of marriage.
Of course, in the material world, it encourages people to be violent or steal other people’s wives or whatever.
So this is Krishna conforming to Kshatriya rules within this material world. So this is one type of, many types of marriages. Another type of marriage is a love marriage. And another type of marriage is where the father gives the bride to the groom.
So the Rakshasa style was common among Kshatriyas. But definitely not among Brahmins. So, of course, Krishna is playing the role of Kshatriya in Dwaraka, so therefore he follows those particular rules. And, of course, even in the Kshatriya rules within this Rakshasa marriage, there are also rules they have to follow.
5) What is the rule of the Rakshasa marriage?
Well, one, of course is that, the woman herself will also have to agree finally. If she doesn’t, then that is not accepted. So it is functionally good in one sense, because it shows that the most qualified person gets the bride. In Kshatriya language, the most powerful expert fighter is the one who gets the bride.
Of course, all the types of marriage will have plus points and minus points. So if we take the marriage, the common type of marriage where the parents give the bride to the groom, then people will protest, Well, again, it’s forced. The bride and groom don’t have any say in the whole matter, so you’re forcing them into a marriage that the parents are arranging. And if we take the love marriage, then the minus point would be, it’s all based upon physical attraction, whatever. And then it often ends in failure as well. So there are pluses and minuses in all types of marriage.
6) Because in the material world, that’s why the both sides (in marriage) have dualities?
Yes, and as a consequence of that, some people say, I’m not going to get married at all. It’s too complicated.
7) Live in relationship / living together without marriage, what is that?
So, this again is a result of, because the problems with marriage. Because legal obligations in the marriage and then it often leads to a lot of problems if they particularly if they separate the legal problems become much more, so the laws of the country itself are there to protect the marriage, but then it creates a problem also so that’s why people don’t want to get married even if they want to live together, so then this is another type of marriage we could say, which maybe not perfect.
So I would think that many of the rules are there, legal rules are there, in order to prolong the marriage and protect the family. The hesitation to actually get legally married is that, they fear that the marriage won’t last, and then there will be a lot of problems. So this, of course, also stems from the idea in the modern world that the marriages are breakable, whereas in the past it wasn’t. The marriage was permanent.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki.. Jai !!