Bhagavatam tenth canto study 29 – 10.5.21-25 See adversities as actions of destiny to stay composed

Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10, Chapter 5, Entitled Meeting of Nanda Maharaj and Vasudeva text 21 onwards. So this is describing how Nanda Maharaj had come to Mathura to pay taxes to Kamsa. The time Vasudeva came to meet him.
On seeing him, Vasudeva had come to meet Nanda Maharaj and on seeing him Sahasrottaya He is caught up immediately. Sahasrottaya Deha pranam ivagatam Deha pranam It is as if life had come back to his body. Priyatamam Dorbhyam Priyatamam So pleased to see Priyatamam, the brother and friend who was very very dear to him.
Dorbhyam and with his two arms Sasvaje Prema Vibhala He embraced him being overwhelmed with affection. So actually speaking, Nanda Maharaj knew about the distresses that Vasudeva had been going through and in future verses he will speak about those distresses also. But he, of course, he had also wanted to help but he was not a Kshatriya and in Kshatriya political affairs he could not intervene but still that when Vasudeva had sent Rohini to his place he had immediately agreed to give her shelter a safe haven where she could live and take care of her child.
Vasudeva had been fearful that Kamsa might go after not just Devaki’s children but also the children of his other wives and he because Vasudeva had been jailed for a long time Nanda Maharaj, Varshikhyam, every year he would come to give the taxes but he was not able to meet Vasudeva so easily. Now when he saw Vasudeva coming to his place to meet him, he was so delighted and he immediately got up and embraced him. There are different ways in which people we may greet people.
When somebody comes up we may just sit at our place and nod, sit on our chair and nod. We may get up and shake hands. Sometimes we may get up and move forward and hug and sometimes we offer a tight long hug.
These are all indicative of different degrees of warmth in the relationship and different degrees of joy on the meeting. So here it is described as He not only expressed delight and the delight that he expressed was because of the joy in his, love in his heart and it’s described as if life had come back to him. Now why would he say such a thing or didn’t Nanda Maharaj have a life of his own in Gokulam? Wasn’t he already so happy because he had Krishna had a son? Yes all that is true.
At the same time he himself had been in great anxiety and distress seeing the plight of Vasudeva and seeing Vasudeva released and safe so in that particular relationship whatever distress might have been there, that distress went away and he felt great joy over there. Text 22 now Pujitah Sukham Asinah Pushtva Pushtvanan Mayam Adrutah Prasaktadhi Swat Majayor Idam Ah Vishampate Pujitah Sukham Asita Asinah After he was so joyously welcomed, worshipped and seated, then Prstva Anamayam, Prstva was asked about whether everything is auspicious, Adritah, he was honorably received and seated, Prasakta Dhi, Prasakta Dhi, so he, because his heart was very strongly attached, Svatmajayor, to his two sons, Krishna and Balaram, Idamaha Vishampate, he asked, Vishampate, this is again addressed to Parishad Maharaj, one who can master adversities, one who can live through and go through and grow through adversities. So, in Navasudev, although he was free, he away from him.
One, of course, Balaram, you know, for a father or parents to have a child and to not see that child at all, that is very painful, but to see the child for a few moments and then not to see him at all, that is also equally, if not more painful. So, Vasudev’s plight was so terrible that although he had a son whom he could acknowledge as his son, that is Balaram, he was his son through Rohi, but still he couldn’t go to Vrindavan because he did not want to draw any unwanted attention of Kamsa towards Vrindavan and thereby towards Krishna. So, one son, although he could acknowledge, but he couldn’t offer any affection personally to that child.
Another son, for whom he had done so much austerity, going through the heartbreak of seeing six of his sons killed, the seventh son apparently getting a heartbreak, getting a miscarriage. So, the eighth son having to be delivered in a great secrecy away from him for who knows how long. Throughout this, he was in a state of distress and naturally wanted to ask, what happened? How are these two children? So, he naturally wanted to meet and ask Nanda Maharaj about his well-being, but he also knew Nanda Maharaj had his two treasures with him.
So, Balaram was also a son of Devaki, but he had been transplanted, you could say, not transplanted in the modern sense, but in a mystical sense, that when people thought that she had a miscarriage, but Devaki was, Rohini had become, to her womb, the child had been transformed and thus that child was born over there. So, he asked them, what was there? How are they? He asked Nanda Maharaj about them. In text 23, Now, Vasudev couldn’t very well say that Krishna is actually my son.
That would blow up the cover, which was the protection for Krishna from Kamsa’s atrocious eyes and hands. So, he felicitated Nanda Maharaj on having Krishna as a child. Although he knew that Krishna was his own child, but he had to contain the joy and agony associated with having a child and not being able to be with the child and he had to actually congratulate Nanda Maharaj.
He also had to play around acting as if this was the son of Nanda Maharaj. And then he spoke to him, It is by good fortune, by destiny, by providence. Oh brother, now that your age is advanced, that now at this moment, you have got a son, although you did not have a son for a long time.
In fact, you had almost become hopeless about having a son, but then you got a child. You got this, this is so wonderful. I mean, today’s culture to tell someone that you have become quite old now that is not considered to be sensitive.
It can offend people, it can alienate people. But especially in the context of having children, people do have anxieties. Nowadays, people marry late and because of that, they do not have that much of a window of opportunity when they can get a child.
And generally, once one goes beyond a particular age, then getting children becomes quite difficult. So for Nanda Maharaj, because of his advanced age, whether he would be able to have a child, he had almost given up that hope. But now he had a child and this was the good fortune, this is providence.
Having a child is a standard example of how what we want is not in our control to get. Even if a couple is married and they want to have a child, they may unite, but even despite their union, conception may not happen. So sometimes, biologically, there may be no problems at all.
Both of them may be perfectly healthy, but still conception will not happen. So destiny plays a role. And by the will of destiny, the child is born.
So that, Nanda Maharaj, that Vasudev was pointing out and acknowledging Nanda Maharaj that you are very fortunate that at this age, you could have a child. So generally, telling people about their age is not considered very good. But in this context, when he is appreciating the good fortune, then telling somebody about their age is not considered wrong.
A negative fact, if it is told to highlight something positive, and the highlight in the positive is very clear, then the negative fact actually indicates that, stating the negative fact indicates that we understand the situation, we understand the pain of the other person, and then we understand the joy that has emerged from that pain. Any parent on getting a child becomes joyous. But a parent who has tried to have a child for a long time, and has not succeeded and finally gets to have a child, that parent is going to be much more joyful.
That is conveyed here by Nanda Maharaj to Vasudev, when he says that, so this negative fact is quoted, not to be mean, but to highlight the positive that has happened. So somebody who has been very poor in the past, and they become wealthy. Now, if we tell them, if you mention to them, you know, from that level, you rose to this level.
So we may mention that level, that is not to demean them, that is to appreciate the level to which they have risen now. So if a negative fact is quoted for a positive purpose, then the fact no longer stays negative. The negative fact becomes positive when quoted for a positive purpose.
Now, text 24. It is also, now, when he looks at, normally when we interact with people, when we see others going through certain situations, we are by nature self-reflective and autobiographical. So autobiographical can be in a narcissistic sense, but it can just be in a sense of human connection.
If we see that somebody else is fortunate, then we may naturally compare, okay, how am I faring in comparison? Am I also doing well? Am I not doing well? So he says that, oh, Maharaj, you are fortunate that you have a child, and I am also fortunate. So he gives us, he starts with the big picture, that actually samsara chakra, we are going through the cycle of birth and death, asmin, and we are trapped in the cycle of birth and death. So while I was going through the cycle of material existence, although just going through it, I was barely existing, but my meeting with you is like another birth.
In fact, I feel like I have got another birth. Why? Upalabdho bhavanadya upalabdho. My meeting with you is like a second birth that I have obtained.
Durlabham priyadarshanam. Durlabham, that is very difficult to happen. In fact, I thought it may never happen.
Priyadarshanam, you who are very dear to me, I was able to see you. I am able to see you now. When Vasudeva had been imprisoned by Kamsa, at that time, Kamsa was so suspicious and malicious that he did not give any chance for Vasudeva to do anything which he suspected might be a conspiracy against him.
So he cut Vasudeva off even from his loved ones. He just kept Vasudeva in incarceration, separated, alienated, distanced from everyone else. And Vasudeva felt very aggrieved and just as if somebody is in a coma for a long time and then they come back to consciousness, coming back to consciousness, they move forwards, they resume their life, they meet their relatives, they meet their loved ones, and thus their life begins again.
So it’s punarbhava, it’s like a second birth we have got. So just as a person who was near death may feel that I have got a second birth, similarly a person who was in jail for a long time with no guarantee that they will ever come out of the jail, for such a person also it’s like a second birth to have an opportunity to again come out of the jail and to meet loved ones. So durlabham priyadarshanam, he is also expressing his good fortune to Nanda Maharaj and he is saying that just as you are fortunate, I am also fortunate that I am able to meet you now.
So why does he talk about samsara chakra which is the big picture? He wants to convey a cautionary note to Nanda Maharaj. So text 25, naikatra priya sambhasa surdhan chitra karmanam oghena vyuhamananam plavanam surotasoyatha So naikatra priya sambhasa, that naikatra, we cannot stay with our loved ones for a very long time, priya sambhasa, that staying with our loved ones cannot last for long, surdhan chitra karmanam, with our friend chitra karmanam. Now chitra is used for attractive, variegated, but here in this case it is used for variegated, chitra karmanam, that we all have our particular karmas.
Because of these karmas, we cannot stay together for long. Oghena vyuhamananam oghena, by the force of their vyuhamananam, they are carried, got carried away, plavanam surotasoyatha, plavanam, that which is float, that which is floating in a water body, which is a river or a sea, that is swept away, surotasoyatha, by the waves. So the remains of a ship for example, those which float on the surface are called as float sam, those which sink down are called jet sam.
Now something which is floating along, it may be together for some time, but if a strong wave comes, a wave, if you see huge waves like tsunamis or even waves, non-tsunami waves, also giant waves, we may be in a huge ship, can carry hundreds of people, but that ship is an ocean and the wave can be much much bigger than the ship and the ship can shake violently, tilt dangerously and sometimes even overturn because of the power of the wave. So waves can cause even huge ships to capsize. What then to speak of small small things such as say sticks, which are floating on the water, they just be swept away in one moment.
You know we all form relationships in this world, but we do not know what a wave of time is going to hit us when and when a wave of time hits us, we can get separated at any moment. Separation can happen because of misunderstandings internally, separation can happen because of suddenly some people have to relocate because of a new job or whatever, separation can happen because suddenly somebody might get a disease and die. In the world that we live in, actually the turbulence can happen in many many ways.
So while we have the relationship with us, we cherish them, we connect as well as we can, at the same time we also use those connections to intensive, to inspire ourselves to connect with Krishna. This person can offer me so much affection and connection and how much more affection and connection can Krishna offer me. Thinking thus, we can connect with Krishna.
So recognizing the temporality and the vulnerability of our situation in this world can bring gravity for us that whatever relationships we have, whatever situation we are in, we are actually floating on water and when a giant wave can hit us and how it can sweep us from one direction to another entirely in one moment, we just cannot know. Our life may just be thrown apart in one irreversible, unpredictable moment. So Vasudev is expressing in one sense his own life story.
A marriage is a happy moment for a person and just at that moment of marriage suddenly everything changed for him and he was put in jail with mortal fear that his sons may die and eventually his sons died one after another and then the eighth son came and suddenly he was released. So he was reunited again with Vasudev. So we need to see our predicament in this world and have the due amount of gravity by which we can interact with each other in a mature way, a way that reflects gravity and responsibility.
So the fact that our loving relationships are temporary doesn’t mean that love is temporary. The principle of love is eternal provided it is directed towards an eternal object of love. When we direct our loving relationship towards Krishna who is the supreme, then we connect with him and therein we can have eternal security.
So while we are in this ocean of material existence at that time if we learn to develop our relationship with Krishna, connect with Krishna with our whole heart and stabilize ourselves in that connection with Krishna, then that will enable us to face life’s stormy waves with greater strength and stability. The horizontal relationships which we have with each other, those may be separated, broken apart at any moment but the eternal relationship that we have with Krishna that is something that can continue eternally. And Krishna is like the anchor that extends from the ocean all the way to the land.
So Krishna, normally an anchor stabilizes a wave, a floating object. But the anchor is not the land. Going to the land is a supreme security but if there is an anchor that actually stabilizes and extends all the way to the land, then that anchor can be an enormous security for us.
So similarly for all of us that anchor is Krishna. He is present in our hearts with us. At the same time he is also eternal and he exists in the transcendental world.
So if we connect with him, he can help us tolerate the stormy waves of material existence and at the same time move onwards towards the shore of immortality, towards the shore of eternity. Such is the wonderful potency of Krishna and it is due him we are all meant to take shelter of. The purpose of studying the Bhagavatam