Brajanath Das, 14 January 2016
Hare Krishna!
Please accept my humble obeisances!
All glories to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
How to understand the following sentence in SB 1.8.23 purport –
Krishna helped Kunti and Pandavas from a series of dangers because …
“Kuntidevi was a widow, and there was none to help her except
Krishna.”
Does it mean that the Lord helped mother Kunti and pandavas
out of sympathy (as a relative)?
your servant,
Brajanath Das
Mahabhagavat Das SDA, 15 January 2016
Dear Brajanath Prabhu,
Hare Krishna!
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Your question is relevant and you are in good company, because other great personalities (in this particular case, Maharaja Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna) have asked this question. I am quoting this from the synopsis of the first chapter of the seventh canto of Srimad Bhagavatam or
“In this chapter, in response to a question by Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Śukadeva Gosvāmī gives his conclusions concerning how the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although the Supersoul, friend and protector of everyone, killed the Daityas, the demons, for the sake of Indra, the King of heaven. In his statements, he totally refutes the arguments of people in general who accuse the Supreme Lord of partiality. Śukadeva Gosvāmī proves that because the body of the conditioned soul is infected by the three qualities of nature, dualities arise such as enmity and friendship, attachment and detachment. For the Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, there are no such dualities. Even eternal time cannot control the activities of the Lord. Eternal time is created by the Lord, and it acts under His control. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, therefore, is always transcendental to the influence of the modes of nature, māyā, the Lord’s external energy, which acts in creation and annihilation. Thus all the demons killed by the Supreme Lord attain salvation immediately.”
I request everyone to read at least the translations, if not the purports to that chapter (link above), to get a good understanding of this.
Generally, Krishna is impartial, but to a person who is devoted to Him, He becomes obliged in a certain way, this is not partiality but reciprocation of Love – anyone and everyone can access Krishna’s Love, but some choose not to. Krishna is very fair and discrete, He rewards everyone according to their own situation.
Krishna states His impartiality AND discretion openly:
samo ’haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu
na me dveṣyo ’sti na priyaḥ
ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā
mayi te teṣu cāpy aham
I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him. BG 9.29
The purport of Srila Prabhupada contains some very profound but also elegantly simple points
Now, in the specific case of Mother Kunti and the Pandavas, they are all exalted devotees to have the Lord appear like an ordinary relative in their family, but it is not that the Lord is bound by the familial relationship but He is attracted by their pure love.
In fact, pure Bhakti, especially the stage of Raganuga Bhakti teaches us how we can follow in the footsteps of such great devotees. But that is for someone who is already practically a pure devotee, no material contaminations – if anything else other than Krishna attracts us more than Krishna, then we are not pure devotees yet, even if the attraction is on a subtle level.
Krishna is sympathetic to every single living entity, therefore He comes to the material world even though the material world is as pleasurable to Him as a dirty toilet bowl is to you. In the toilet bowl, some cockroaches might like to live there, but a decent person does not want to linger there… imagine, the material world is such a dirty filthy place, but the Lord repeatedly comes, He sends His pure representatives like Lord Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed, Srila Prabhupada, Srila Gurudeva, He leaves behind His books, the pure devotees leave behind systems, societies, and projects to help us come back to Krishna, but still so many of us make no effort to leverage all these facilities and purify ourselves of material contamination!
Other perspectives are always welcome, of course, they all need to be in harmony with Guru, Sadhu, and Shastra. 🙂
Sincerely,
Mahabhagavat Das
Brajanath Das, 19 January 2016
Pranams Mahabhagavat Prabhu for your wonderful answer. Krishna is Bhavagrahi, yet He let His devotees suffer because “Devotees sufferings are for their glorification and conditioned souls sufferings are for purification”. Could you elaborate it, please?
your servant,
Brajanath Das
Mahabhagavat Das, 19 January 2016
Dear Brajanath Prabhu,
This has also been discussed before on this group but I can’t seem to get access to the link(s).
Because the pure devotee sees everything as Krishna’s mercy, changes of material condition don’t affect them, and this attracts sincere seekers to devotional service because they see how in extreme situations the devotees are not actually undergoing any suffering.
This is described by Srila Prabhupada in his purport to one of Queen Kunti’s prayers:
http://www.vedabase.io/en/sb/1/8/25
And even more elaborately in Srila Prabhupada’s book Teachings of Queen Kunti https://vedabase.io/en/library/tqk/
Even the highest suffering of being separated from the devotees, or the spiritual master, or Krishna, that is experienced by advanced devotees in “vipralambha seva” or service in separation, and a highest form of ecstasy. “The ecstasy exhibited before the lover and beloved meet, the ecstasy experienced between them after meeting, the state of mind experienced by not meeting, and the state of mind experienced after meeting but fearing separation are called vipralambha. That vipralambha serves as a nourishing element for future meetings.” This is described in Srila Prabhupada’s book Teachings of Lord Chaitanya https://vedabase.io/en/library/tlc/
For materially conditioned souls, yes, the material suffering is a means to vanquish material attachments.
There is a superlative description of this in Srila Prabhupada’s purport to https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/10/14/8/
In that description, Srila Prabhupada explains how Krishna uses this so-called suffering to draw a devotee closer to Himself.
Devotees, please do feel free to add or correct.
Sincerely,
Mahabhagavat Das
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