Why does Arjuna brag that he is greater than Dwarkavasis in the brahmana son’s stealing pastime?
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Transcript
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thank you Hare Krishna the question is that why does Arjuna brag that I am having the Pashupatastra of Shiva and I am greater than the Dwarkavasis when the Brahmana son is stolen and he claims that he will get it back so why does Arjuna brag at that time is he not a pure devotee answer yes Arjuna is a pure devotee no doubt at the same time scripture presents us different things to teach specific lessons so that means in this particular pastime every pastime has a purpose and you have to see that pastime from the context of that purpose so the purpose of this pastime is to demonstrate how Krishna is the absolute supreme lord so for example in the pastime of this Brahmana son dying Krishna and Arjuna eventually go to Vishnu and Mahavishnu says I also wanted to take darshan of Krishna so that means Krishna is greater than Mahavishnu also that Mahavishnu wants to take darshan of Krishna so this pastime is orchestrated in such a way to demonstrate the absolute supremacy of Krishna and for that purpose Krishna’s potency Yogamaya potency appears to delude even his devotees so just like Prabhupada says that Arjuna how could he have been overwhelmed by the bodily conception at the start of the Bhagavad Gita you know he is he not an exalted soul how can he start identifying with the body and become overwhelmed by material lamentation but we understand that this was arranged by the lord so that he could speak the Bhagavad Gita’s message and enlighten the whole world so similarly in this particular pastime to demonstrate the supremacy of Krishna and to demonstrate the inadequacy of all other shelters the Arjuna is arranged by Krishna’s will through Yogamaya to act in a particular way so in this pastime at one level it is shown as if Krishna and Dwarkavasis can’t protect the Brahmin so sometime in the world it may seem that we take shelter of Krishna and Krishna’s others seem to be offering shelter and then somebody else thinks that something else will give me shelter so Arjuna he sees Krishna is not able to protect, Balram is not able to protect so then he says I have got Shiva’s weapon, I will protect but then that shelter doesn’t work and still the child gets stolen then again Arjuna comes to his senses and he takes shelter of Krishna and then when they go to Mahavishnu and Mahavishnu says that I actually took away the sons so that I could have darshan of Krishna so that means rather than Krishna failing to give shelter to the Brahmana’s sons there was a higher plan going on over there which was not known to Arjuna and which was not known to the other people in that Brahmana so what this pastime demonstrates is the absolute supremacy of Krishna and the ultimate infallibility of Krishna’s shelter so when pure devotees behave in ways that seem to be not devotional at that time we need to understand that they are orchestrated by the lord for teaching particular lessons and we need to focus on those lessons and we need to see their behavior not as a blemish on their character but as orchestration by the lord for instructing us