Parikshit's Eagerness To Hear About Krsna's Pastimes

2011-06-26
Srimad Bhagavatam 10.01.01 - Parikshit's Eagerness To Hear About Krsna's Pastimes (download mp3)
by Madan Gopal Prabhu at ISKCON Chowpatty
www.iskcondesiretree.net





SB 10.1.1
sri-rajovaca
kathito vamsa-vistaro
bhavata soma-suryayoh
rajñam cobhaya-vamsyanam
caritam paramadbhutam

Translation: 
King Pariksit said: My dear lord, you have elaborately described the dynasties of both the moon-god and the sun-god, with the exalted and wonderful character of their kings.

Purport: 
At the end of the Ninth Canto, Twenty-fourth Chapter, Sukadeva Gosvami summarized the activities of Krsna. He spoke of how Krsna had personally appeared to reduce the burden on the earth, how He had manifested His pastimes as a householder, and how, soon after His birth, He had transferred Himself to His Vrajabhumi-lila. Pariksit Maharaja, being naturally a devotee of Krsna, wanted to hear more about Lord Krsna. Therefore, to encourage Sukadeva Gosvami to continue speaking about Krsna and give further details, he thanked Sukadeva Gosvami for having described the activities of Krsna in brief. Sukadeva Gosvami had said:

jato gatah pitr-grhad vrajam edhitartho
hatva ripun suta-satani krtorudarah
utpadya tesu purusah kratubhih samije
atmanam atma-nigamam prathayañ janesu

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, known as lila-purusottama, appeared as the son of Vasudeva but immediately left His father's home and went to Vrndavana to expand His loving relationships with His confidential devotees. In Vrndavana the Lord killed many demons, and afterward He returned to Dvaraka, where according to Vedic principles He married many wives who were the best of women, begot through them hundreds of sons, and performed sacrifices for His own worship to establish the principles of householder life." (SB 9.24.66)

The Yadu dynasty belonged to the family descending from Soma, the moon-god. Although the planetary systems are so arranged that the sun comes first, before the moon, Pariksit Maharaja gave more respect to the dynasty of the moon-god, the soma-vamsa, because in the Yadava dynasty, descending from the moon, Krsna had appeared. There are two different ksatriya families of the royal order, one descending from the king of the moon planet and the other descending from the king of the sun. When the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears, He generally appears in a ksatriya family because He comes to establish religious principles and the life of righteousness. According to the Vedic system, the ksatriya family is the protector of the human race. When the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as Lord Ramacandra, He appeared in the surya-vamsa, the family descending from the sun-god, and when He appeared as Lord Krsna, He did so in the Yadu dynasty, or yadu-vamsa, whose descent was from the moon-god. In the Ninth Canto, Twenty-fourth Chapter, of Srimad-Bhagavatam, there is a long list of the kings of the yadu-vamsa. All the kings in both the soma-vamsa and surya-vamsa were great and powerful, and Maharaja Pariksit praised them very highly (rajñam cobhaya-vamsyanam caritam paramadbhutam). Nonetheless, he wanted to hear more about the soma-vamsa because that was the dynasty in which Krsna had appeared.

The supreme abode of the Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is described in Brahma-samhita as the abode of cintamani: cintamani-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vrksa-laksavrtesu surabhir abhipalayantam [Bs. 5.29]. The Vrndavana-dhama on this earth is a replica of that same abode. As stated in Bhagavad-gita (8.20), in the spiritual sky there is another, eternal nature, transcendental to manifested and unmanifested matter. The manifested world can be seen in the form of many stars and planets such as the sun and moon, but beyond this is the unmanifested, which is imperceptible to those who are embodied. And beyond this unmanifested matter is the spiritual kingdom, which is described in Bhagavad-gita as supreme and eternal. That kingdom is never annihilated. Although material nature is subject to repeated creation and annihilation, that spiritual nature remains as it is eternally. In the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, that spiritual nature, the spiritual world, is described as Vrndavana, Goloka Vrndavana or Vraja-dhama. The elaborate description of the above-mentioned sloka from the Ninth Canto jato gatah pitr-grhad (SB 9.24.66) will be found here, in the Tenth Canto.