Associating With The Lord Through His Divine Plays - Cont.

A concise summary of Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3 Chapter 3

Part I

Uddhava continued to describe the divine plays of the Supreme Lord to Vidura:

Lord after spending his initial 11 years with Yashoda and Nanda Maharaj, he along with Balaram went to Mathura to pull down Kamsa and free his parents from the prison.

The Lord learned Vedas from Sage Sandipani in Ujjain. The Lord himself is the object of the Vedas and the source of the Vedas, and yet to teach by example that everyone must go to learn the Vedas from a teacher and must satisfy the teacher by service and reward, he himself adopted this system. The Lord became well versed in the Vedas just by hearing once from his teacher. Sage Sandipani recognized the Supreme Lord and he requested his dead son to be brought back from Lord Yama and Lord Krishna fulfilled his teacher’s request.

The Lord married Rukmini who is none other than Lakshmi Devi. Sisupala was selected as her bridegroom by Rukmini’s elder brother, although King Bhismaka wanted his daughter to be married to the Lord. Rukmini invited Krishna to take her away from the clutches of Sisupala, so when the bridegroom, Sisupala, came there with his party with the desire to marry Rukmini, Krishna all of a sudden swept her from the scene, stepping over the heads of all the princes there.

The Lord once went to the heavenly planet to present an earring to Aditi, the mother of the demigods, and His wife Satyabhama also went with Him. There is a special flowering tree called the parijata, which grows only in the heavenly planets, and Satyabhama wanted this tree. Just to please His wife, which is the duty of a husband, the Lord brought back the tree after defeating Indra in a fight.

The Lord killed Narakasura who abducted the princesses of several kings. Back then, girls were transferred from the custody of the father to the custody of the husband. Since these princesses had already been taken away from the custody of their fathers by Narakasura, it would have been difficult for them to have any husband. So, the Lord married all those princesses simultaneously in different places using his Maya shakti.

The Lord, who is none other than the Super Soul (Paramatma) along with his consort Sri Lakshmi enjoyed the luxuries of the city of Dwaraka. However, he was completely unattached to those luxuries and to the queens of Dwaraka although he pleased them as a husband is expected to do.

When the Lord himself, who is the controller of fate, exhibited detachment to worldly pleasures, who would want to put faith in such pleasures, who gets easily controlled by fate? A wise person should learn to detach oneself from worldly pleasures following the example set by the Lord. The Lord says in Bhagavad Gita that a lotus flower is immersed in the water but not a droplet of water can wet the flower. Similarly, a wise person while living in the midst of worldly pleasures can remain detached.

The Lord encouraged the princes of Dwarka to protect Brahmanas and cows. It is the duty of leaders to protect spiritually learned men and cows for the gradual upliftment of the human consciousness in society.