Bhagavatam tenth canto study 31 – 10.6.1-6 Sukadeva G reveals the spoiler to relieve Parikshit M anxiety

Hare Krishna. Nanda Maharaj, on his way back home after hearing the words of Shouri, that is Vasudev, a descendant of the Shouri dynasty, Vrusha is false. He says, oh, Nanda Maharaj, Vasudev is an expert.
Vasudev’s words can’t be false. So, he was contemplating, would there be any danger for him, for his son? So, now it’s interesting, his son is Hari, but he took shelter of Hari. Fearing that some utpata, some disruption, some destruction, some disturbance will come.
That was his doubt. That was his fear. So, in the previous chapter, it is described that Nanda Maharaj and Vasudev met each other.
At that time, Vasudev told Nanda Maharaj that, don’t stay away from Gokula for too long, because some danger may come over there. So, please go back early. And Nanda Maharaj rushed back, and rushing back was contemplating those words.
When there is love, there is constant concern for the object of our love. And that constant concern manifests in different ways, one of which is wanting to protect them from danger and feeling distressed or alarmed if we are not able to protect them from danger, if we are not available or we are not capable. Available means we are not there.
Capable means even if we are there, we are not able to do it. So, here Nanda Maharaj is worried, vichintayan, he is contemplating and he is rushing back from Mathura, where he had gone to pay taxes to Kamsa, he is rushing back to Vrindavan. Kamsena prahita ghora.
So, now the scene shifts over here from Nanda Maharaj return back to Gokula to another threat. So, whatever threat he was fearing would come there has already come. And he is contemplating that threat.
Kamsena prahita ghora. By Kamsa, she had been engaged earlier, ghora, she was fearsome. So, putana balaghatini, putana who is notorious as a killer of children.
Different people have different titles to them. Sports often players who perform well are given particular titles. So, those titles describe their actions.
A player who is very defensive may be called the wall. A player who is aggressive may be called the master blaster. So, like that, there are names.
And usually those names are laudatory. Sometimes some people who just fail at critical moments we call as chokers. So, we often get epithets, titles based on our actions.
And here putana has got a job because her action is so inglorious, so vicious, she has got a title by that action associated with that action. Putana balaghatini, balaghatini, she is the killer of children. Just to kill someone, to kill anyone, requires a certain level of, requires a huge level of cruelty, cruelty and brutality.
But to kill children requires it even more. And not just kill one child, but to kill many, many children. Putana balaghatini, so she was already infamous as the killer of children and now she has come here.
Shishums chachar nignanti. And she was, that was not just a name because of something which she had done in the past, but that was her active mission. She is searching around for children and killing them.
Shishums chachar. So, he is wandering around and she is nignanti, killing children. What a horrible mission to be on.
Pura grama vraja dishu. And she was going in the towns, the cities and the villages, everywhere. So, Kamsa had earlier been advised by his vicious advisors that he had better not trust Vishnu or trust any higher being and he should just, because the Goddess had said that your enemy has already been born elsewhere, already born.
So, therefore, you should arrange that, therefore, his advisors told him that you should arrange to kill all children who are nearby. And Putana had gone on this malicious mission. While she was on this mission, now it is described how she came to Krishna’s abode.
So, nayatra shravana dini, raksho gnani svakarmasu, kurvanti sattvatam bhartur, yathu dhanyasya tatrahi. So, nayatra shravana dini, wherever shravana, where hearing about Krishna happens, raksho gnani svakarmasu, raksho gnani. So, shravana dini is wherever the activities of bhakti yoga are centered on hearing about Krishna happen.
So, whatever demonic elements are there, raksho gnani. They can destroy all inauspiciousness while engaged in their own karma, svakarmasu. Kurvanti sattvatam bhartur.
So, kurvanti sattvatam bhartur, that Lord who is a protector of the devotees, yathu dhanyasya tatrahi. He disproves, He counters all inauspicious elements. Certainly, tatrahi.
So, if the Lord protects even those who engage in hearing about Him while doing their occupational duties, then why will that Lord not protect those who are His devotees, those who are devoted to Him? So, here, Vachar has described that, actually, Parishad Maharaj, when he heard that Putana Bal Ghati, Putana is the killer of children, has now come to kill Krishna. If she is on a mission to kill children, she may come to kill Krishna. He may, he becomes apprehensive, he becomes fearful.
At that time, to help him deal with his apprehension, to allay his apprehension, Krishna, Shukadeva Swami tells him in advance itself, actually, no inauspiciousness can befall one who is the source of supreme auspiciousness for everyone. One, just the sound vibration of whom removes all auspiciousness, that Lord will protect all His devotees, that will protect that Lord, protects His, will protect all Jivasis, and certainly, the Lord who can protect others can also protect Himself. Whenever we are speaking, we need to be aware of our audience, not just as objects of our speech, but also subjects who are impacted by our speech.
So, sometimes, when we tell a story, we want to leave the suspenseful part, the climax, till the end, because then people will hear attentively. But if people are very emotionally involved in the story, they may want to know right in the beginning itself, is this a happily ever after kind of story, or is this a tragedy, where everyone ends up dying. So, similarly, although sometimes when reviews of movies come, they have a signal, they have some spoiler alert.
I mean, spoiler means sometimes people feel that the fun in a movie is in watching it till the end. But if somebody tells us already the result in advance, then the fun is spoiled. But here, what, it’s not exactly a spoiler alert, but what is being done is, he’s being told here that actually the Pandavas, sorry, that Krishna is actually safe.
Parishad Maharaj is being assured by Shukla Dev Goswami that Krishna is safe. If this very sound vibration of Krishna can protect people from inauspiciousness, then what to speak of Krishna’s personal presence. So, he is allaying the anxiety that might be there in Parishad Maharaj’s heart.
So, that demoness, she, not she, Kheri, Kheri means to move, Kheri is the sky. So, Kheri is one who moves through the sky. So, she had mystical powers by which she could move through the sky.
So, once she was flying from one place to another like that, searching for some new prey to devour, to destroy, to devour. So, then she had gone to various places, killed many children, but now she decided to come to Gokula. So, when she came to Gokula, she came to Nanda Maharaj’s Gokul club.
And Yoshitva, she took on the form of a beautiful woman, Mayayatmanam, by using her mystic powers. Pravishat Kamacharini, Kamacharini. So, she could move according to her desire.
She could move in the land, she could move in the air, she could change her form. So, she had great mystic powers. So, we see that here also, just as Putana disguised herself as a beautiful woman, we’ll see that even Shurpanakha, when she came to Krishna in the Ramlila, she also disguised herself as a very beautiful woman, Mayayatmanam.
So, maya refers to that which puts us in illusion or that which causes illusion. So, generally all living beings are in maya, but different living beings have different potencies to put others in maya. Those who are in maya can put others also in maya to different degrees.
For example, when we watch advertisements, many of the advertisements stimulate desires within us to buy this and buy that. And the advertisement is an illusion that, oh, when we see some person getting a particular product and becoming happy with that product, and we think if I get that product, I’ll also become happy. So, there what is happening, the people who are making the advertisements, they are illusion thinking that if we make money, if we can sell this product and we can make a lot of money from the sale of this product, then our ad campaign will be successful and we will also become happy by that.
And conversely, if people who are watching, they think that if I buy this product, I’ll become happy. So, those who are in maya put others in maya and depending on how much mayik shakti someone has, if ordinary people try to create an illusion to allure someone, they may or may not be able to make a very captivating illusion. But those who are experts, those who are very skilled, who have studied marketing advertisements, and they know how to manipulate people’s minds, they will be able to captivate people much more.
And similarly, mayayatmanam, those who are mystic powers, they are in deep illusion thinking that doing this or doing that will make me happy. I just need to do that, I need to get this material object, or I had to eliminate this material object. So, some people want to gain wealth and they want to eliminate their rivals who they feel will come in the way of their wealth.
So, yoshitvamayayatmanam, so here Putana was thinking that by killing children, I will become happy. My master comes out, he will reward me and I’ll become further happy. So, she had mystic powers, but her mystic powers did not bring any higher consciousness or higher disposition for her.
Actually, it simply brought a perpetuation of her normal way of functioning. And in fact, aggravated the way she functioned normally. So, she has now come on her demonic mission to Gokula.
So, text 5 and 6. So, her description is given now. Not the demonic form, but the form, the charming form that she has assumed. Visholasatkuntalam Mandithananam Valgusmitapangavisargakikshitair Manoharantim vanitam rajaukasam Asamsatam bhojakare rupinim Gopyashriyam drashtum ivagatampatim Tam keshbandhvitishaktamallikam So, she had beautiful hair and her hair was bound with a garland of mallika flowers.
Bruhannitambastanakruchyamadhyamam So, she had attractive bodily features where her bosom was well-endowed and it was quite contrasted with her thin waist adding to the curves that made her so attractive. Suvasam kalpita karanabhushana Suvasasam Suvasasam means she was very attractively dressed. Kalpita karanabhushana, dressed and decorated.
So, she had earrings in her ears. Visholasatkuntalam Mandithananam Visholasatkuntalam Mandithananam Visholasatkuntalam And the shining earrings added to the beauty of her beautiful face which was Kuntalamandithananam which was surrounded by black hair. The hair of people, often people go to a lot of extremes to try to make their hair more and more attractive because they feel that the hair, especially how the air gels with or contrasts with the body, it determines the beauty of a person.
Valgusmitapangavisaravikshitairvalgu So, she was smiling at everyone very attractively, smiling, her glance was smiling. There was a smile on her face. There was, she was glancing at everyone and sometimes there’s a smile in people’s face but their eyes may be cold and sometimes there is a smile in a person’s eyes.
That’s even more attractive. So, valgusmitapangavisaravikshitair She was looking at everyone with her attractive eyes. So, her plan was she was captivating everyone so that nobody would not be caught by her spell and nobody would stop her from approaching Krishna.
asamsatam bhojakare narupinim So, manoharantim vanitam vajokasam Manoharantim, she captured the minds of everyone, vanitam. It’s interesting. Vajokasam, the women of Vrindavan, their minds were captivated.
Normally, women often have competition about who is more beautiful and if somebody is excessively attractive, other women often become jealous. Oh, you’re getting all the attention. I’m not getting any attention.
But she was so, so attractive and so sweetly attractive that actually everybody’s attention was captured by her, even especially the women’s. It’s interesting. It’s manoharantim vanitam vajokasam.
Normally, it’s described that the men and the women, everyone were attracted. So, the men were attracted naturally because she was so beautiful and the women were attracted from a different conception. So, here the attraction of the women is described.
That they thought that she was the goddess of fortune. Asamatam bhojakare narupinim kare narupinim. In her hands, when she had a lotus flower, carrying it, gopyashriyam drashtumivagatampatim, they thought, the gopis thought that the Lord, Shri, goddess of fortune has come here to see her husband.
Drashtumivagatampatim. It’s interesting that sometimes the gopis exhibit knowledge about Krishna’s omnipotence and sometimes they don’t, or Krishna’s supreme position. So, here they understand that Krishna is the lord of the goddess of fortune and the goddess of fortune is his consort.
So, although Krishna is in the form of a small baby, but is it that they understand that she has come to see Krishna? Well, that could be one thing. But she has come to see Krishna and she knows Krishna is her lord and the rajoasis also know that Krishna is her lord. So, that could be one understanding.
Another understanding here could also be that in traditional culture, a woman dresses very beautifully to, when she is about to see her husband, because she feels her beauty is for her husband. And thus, it is understood that if a woman is very beautifully decorated, that means she is soon going to see the husband. So, similarly here, simply the beautiful decoration of the beautiful way in which this woman was decorated, they felt that she is just like the goddess of fortune about to meet her husband, about to go and have darshan of her husband.
Normally, the culture, traditional culture is such that everybody naturally is pleasure-seeking, love-seeking, security-seeking, but the love should be sought, the pleasure should be sought in a way that is according to dharma. So, a woman in the absence of her husband does not dress very attractively because she does not want to agitate other men’s minds, she does not want any unwanted male attention. But when her husband is there, she wants to attract her husband.
She doesn’t want her husband to get attracted to show any other female unwanted attention, and she wants that their relationship should be sweet and mutually fulfilling. So, everyone wants to look good, especially women want to dress and look good, and that natural human desire to look good is not suppressed, but it is channeled within the boundaries of dharma. So, of course, in today’s world, sometimes with many people averse to commitments, with marriages not staying for long, so people have to stay, we could say, figuratively in the marriage mart long after their prime, their youth is over.
And that’s why many women not sure whether their man will be with them for long or throughout, they tend to want to dress themselves very attractively, even seductively, constantly, so that they can always have other options. If somehow things don’t work out with their husband or their husband feels nothing is working out with them, and this often leads to an aggravation of unwanted liaisons. So, if we understand that our normal human tendencies, such as wanting people to be attracted to us, wanting to ask us to dress in an attractive way, these are not to be rejected, but they are to be conducted within the precincts of dharma.
Then we can ensure that we don’t function, we don’t do anything in a socially disharmonious way. So, what happens when