SB 10.7.1 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

श्रीराजोवाच येन येनावतारेण भगवान् हरिरीश्वर: । करोति कर्णरम्याणि मनोज्ञानि च न: प्रभो ॥ १ ॥ यच्छृण्वतोऽपैत्यरतिर्वितृष्णा सत्त्वं च शुद्ध्यत्यचिरेण पुंस: । भक्तिर्हरौ तत्पुरुषे च सख्यं तदेव हारं वद मन्यसे चेत् ॥ २ ॥

Verse text

śrī-rājovāca yena yenāvatāreṇa bhagavān harir īśvaraḥ karoti karṇa-ramyāṇi mano-jṣāni ca naḥ prabho yac-chṛṇvato ’paity aratir vitṛṣṇā sattvaṁ ca śuddhyaty acireṇa puṁsaḥ bhaktir harau tat-puruṣe ca sakhyaṁ tad eva hāraṁ vada manyase cet

Synonyms

śrī — rājā uvāca — the King inquired (from Śukadeva Gosvāmī) ; yena yena avatāreṇa — the pastimes exhibited by different varieties of incarnations ; bhagavān — the Supreme Personality of Godhead ; hariḥ — the Lord ; īśvaraḥ — the controller ; karoti — presents ; karṇa — ramyāṇi — were all very pleasing to the ear ; manaḥ — jṣāni — very attractive to the mind ; ca — also ; naḥ — of us ; prabho — my lord, Śukadeva Gosvāmī ; yat — śṛṇvataḥ — of anyone who simply hears these narrations ; apaiti — vanishes ; aratiḥ — unattractiveness ; vitṛṣṇā — dirty things within the mind that make us uninterested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness ; sattvam ca — the existential position in the core of the heart ; śuddhyati — becomes purified ; acireṇa — very soon ; puṁsaḥ — of any person ; bhaktiḥ harau — devotional attachment and service to the Lord ; tat — puruṣe — with Vaiṣṇavas ; ca — also ; sakhyam — attraction to association ; tat eva — that only ; hāram — the activities of the Lord, which should be heard and kept on the neck as a garland ; vada — kindly speak ; manyase — you think it fit ; cet — if .

Translation

King Parīkṣit said: My lord, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, all the various activities exhibited by the incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are certainly pleasing to the ear and to the mind. Simply by one’s hearing of these activities, the dirty things in one’s mind immediately vanish. Generally we are reluctant to hear about the activities of the Lord, but Kṛṣṇa’s childhood activities are so attractive that they are automatically pleasing to the mind and ear. Thus one’s attachment for hearing about material things, which is the root cause of material existence, vanishes, and one gradually develops devotional service to the Supreme Lord, attachment for Him, and friendship with devotees who give us the contribution of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If you think it fit, kindly speak about those activities of the Lord.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

King Parīkṣit said: My lord, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, all the various activities exhibited by the incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are certainly pleasing to the ear and to the mind. Simply by one's hearing of these activities, the dirty things in one's mind immediately vanish. Generally we are reluctant to hear about the activities of the Lord, but Kṛṣṇa's childhood activities are so attractive that they are automatically pleasing to the mind and ear. Thus one's attachment for hearing about material things, which is the root cause of material existence, vanishes, and one gradually develops devotional service to the Supreme Lord, attachment for Him, and friendship with devotees who give us the contribution of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If you think it fit, kindly speak about those activities of the Lord. KB 10.7.1-3 The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, is always full with six opulences—namely complete wealth, complete strength, complete fame, complete knowledge, complete beauty and complete renunciation. The Lord appears in different complete, eternal forms of incarnation. The conditioned soul has immense opportunity to hear about the transcendental activities of the Lord in these different incarnations. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, janma karma ca me divyam [Bg. 4.9]. The pastimes and activities of the Lord are not material—they are beyond the material conception—and the conditioned soul can benefit by hearing such uncommon activities. Hearing is an opportunity to associate with the Lord; to hear His activities is to evolve one's transcendental nature—simply by hearing. The conditioned soul has a natural aptitude to hear something about other conditioned souls in the form of fiction, drama and novel. That inclination to hear something about others may be utilized in hearing the pastimes of the Lord. Then one can immediately evolve his transcendental nature. Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes are not only beautiful; they are also very pleasing to the mind. If someone takes advantage of hearing the pastimes of the Lord, the material contamination of dust, accumulated in the heart due to long association with material nature, can be immediately cleansed. Lord Caitanya also instructed that simply by hearing the transcendental name of Lord Kṛṣṇa one can cleanse the heart of all material contamination. There are different processes for self-realization, but this process of devotional service—of which hearing is the most important function—when adopted by any conditioned soul, will automatically cleanse him of the material contamination and enable him to realize his real constitutional position. Conditional life is due to this contamination only, and as soon as it is cleared off, then naturally the dormant function of the living entity—rendering service to the Lord—awakens. By developing his eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord, one becomes eligible to create friendship with the devotees. Mahārāja Parīkṣit recommended, from practical experience, that everyone try to hear about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. This Kṛṣṇa treatise is meant for that purpose, and the reader may take advantage of it to attain the ultimate goal of human life. The Lord, out of His causeless mercy, descends to this material world and displays His activities just like an ordinary man. Unfortunately the impersonalists, or the atheistic class of men, consider Kṛṣṇa to be an ordinary man like themselves, and so they deride Him. This is condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā by the Lord Himself when He says, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ [Bg. 9.11]. The mūḍhas, or rascals, take Kṛṣṇa to be an ordinary man or a slightly more powerful man; out of their great misfortune, they cannot accept Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sometimes such unfortunate persons misrepresent themselves as incarnations of Kṛṣṇa without referring to the authorized scriptures.

Purport

As stated in the Prema-vivarta: kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha haiyā bhoga-vāṣchā kare nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare Our material existence is māyā, or illusion, in which we desire different varieties of material enjoyment and therefore change to different varieties of bodies ( bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā ). Asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ: as long as we have these temporary bodies, they give us many varieties of tribulation — ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika and ādhidaivika. This is the root cause of all suffering, but this root cause of suffering can be removed by revival of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. All the Vedic literatures presented by Vyāsadeva and other great sages are therefore intended to revive our Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which begins to revive with śravaṇa-kīrtanam: śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ ( Bhāg. 1.2.17 ). Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other Vedic literatures exist simply to give us a chance to hear about Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has different avatāras, or incarnations, all of which are wonderful and which arouse one’s inquisitiveness, but generally such avatāras as Matsya, Kūrma and Varāha are not as attractive as Kṛṣṇa. First of all, however, we have no attraction for hearing about Kṛṣṇa, and this is the root cause of our suffering. But Parīkṣit Mahārāja specifically mentions that the wonderful activities of baby Kṛṣṇa, which amazed mother Yaśodā and the other inhabitants of Vraja, are especially attractive. From the very beginning of His childhood, Kṛṣṇa killed Pūtanā, Tṛṇāvarta and Śakaṭāsura and showed the entire universe within His mouth. Thus the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, one after another, kept mother Yaśodā and all the inhabitants of Vraja in great astonishment. The process to revive one’s Kṛṣṇa consciousness is ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ ( Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.4.15). The pastimes of Kṛṣṇa can be properly received from devotees. If one has developed a little bit of Kṛṣṇa consciousness by hearing from Vaiṣṇavas about the activities of Kṛṣṇa, one becomes attached to Vaiṣṇavas who are interested only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore Parīkṣit Mahārāja recommends that one hear about Kṛṣṇa’s childhood activities, which are more attractive than the activities of other incarnations, such as Matsya, Kūrma and Varāha. Wanting to hear more and more from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit requested him to continue describing Kṛṣṇa’s childhood activities, which are especially easy to hear and which create more and more inquisitiveness.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The seventh chapter shows the aisvarya (display of power) aspect of Krsna’s childhood pastimes. After bathing and sleeping he broke the cart. He killed Trnavarta and showed his mother the universe. By chewing Putana’s breast he showed the power of his lips. In the cart pastime he showed the power of his feet, and killing Trnavarta he showed the power of his hands. In revealing the universe twice (in this and the next chapter) to his mother he showed all his powers. "My mind is attracted to all the pastimes of the Lord’s other avataras, but I am particularly greedy to hear Krsna’s childhood pastimes." With this intent, Pariksit speaks the verse. "I relish hearing all the pastimes of the avataras of the Lord and I become blissful. But, if you agree, please speak about those pastimes (like a necklace over the heart-haram) which destroy any human being’s apathy and distaste upon hearing them, which bring out a hankering for them, and which purify the mind of bad desires, like rock candy which first tastes bitter but then gives the ability to taste its sweetness, which quickly produce attachment (asakti), rati (bhava) and prema (bhakti), and brings about, even from the beginning, friendship with the devotees, and in prema causeless friendship with the devotees." Though hearing any the topics of the Lord gradually rids one of indifference to hearing about the Lord and makes it possible to attain prema, hearing the pastimes of Krsna’s childhood quickly bring about this prema.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

The previous chapter stated that hearing the childhood pastimes will produce rati. Hearing of this goal, the highest result for devotees continually practicing hearing and chanting, Parīkṣit became filled with bliss, realizing that the topics were a stimulus for himself. With great eagerness, fearing a change to other topics, in two verses he welcomes narrations of the unlimited pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in order to request Śukadeva to continue with more stories about Kṛṣṇa. Bhagavān indicates the Lord endowed with all powers and qualities. Hari indicates the Lord who takes away all suffering and faults. Īśvara indicates the Lord who attracts the internal and external senses. Thus a person must serve him, otherwise he should be punished. The words karṇa-ramyāṇi and manojñānī indicate the sweetness of the Lord. O master (prabho), endowed all powers, you know all the conditions of our senses! Bhakti or prema to the Lord, who attracts (harau) the people of Vraja and me, appears and friendship with the devotees (tat-puruṣe) also appears. He makes the request. The mind has no inclination to hearing about you, and even if it has, there are various other desires. But hearing about Kṛṣṇa vanquishes both disinclination and material desires. The heart (sattvam) becomes purified. When the heart becomes pure because of destruction of impure impressions, it becomes capable of comprehending rasa. This purification happens quickly by hearing all the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, but more slowly in the case of hearing the pastimes of the avatāras. Though I have little intelligence, this is what I think. This will become a conviction if you, who have the greatest intelligence, agree. This is the meaning of “If you think like this, then tell these stories.” This statement is made with great humility. Or the meaning can be “Now, do not hide these topics.” This is a statement of humility mixed with joking.