Srimad Bhagavatham

After marrying Rukmini, Krishna married Satyaajit’s daughter Satyabhama and Jaambhavaan’s daughter Jaambhavathi. Krishna also married Kalindi, Mithravindha, Satyaa, Bhadraa and Lakshmanaa as per their wish and desire.

Explanation

It is a well known and famous fact about Lord Krishna that he had many wives (10008 to be precise). In fact many people try to explain their multiple wives by quoting Krishna’s life. But there is a huge difference between the Lord and us with respect to marriage. We marry many people because we want to marry them. When marriage with one person (which is what we desire – we don’t marry because our partner desires us but it is mutual desire) is shattered, we marry again. In some cases even if marriage with one person isn’t shattered, marriage happens multiple times.

But with the Lord, we find Bhagavatham explaining that the Lord married not because he had desires but because the women wanted to marry the Lord. The Lord says thus in Gita about his desires:

Na me parthaasthi karthavyam trishu lokeshu kinchana
Naanavaapthavyam avaapthavyam vartha eva cha karmani

O Arjuna! I don’t have any duty whatsoever in the entire three worlds. I don’t have anything to attain which I don’t currently possess; but still I engage in actions.

Gaudapada while explaining the state of a realized person says “aapthakaamasya kaa spriha” – what desire can be there for one whose all desires have been fulfilled. All desires are fulfilled when a person realizes that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the ultimate reality of Lord. After knowing the Lord, there remains nothing else to be known and hence all desires get fulfilled. If there are no desires at all, how can there be desires for marriage?

If that is so, then why does the Lord perform actions?
This is because of two reasons. First is the Lord’s own statement that not even for a single moment can a person live without doing actions – this is something that we all are proofs of. If we try to be without any activity (both external and internal/mental), we will find out that it is impossible. The age-old saying of “an idle mind is devil’s land” also explains the same only. Thus we don’t have any option of whether or not to do actions – but we do have an option of doing actions like an actor portraying his role in a movie. In such a case, the actor isn’t affected by whatever happens to his role – similarly we will not be affected by whatever happens in the world (as we are always immersed in contemplation of the non-dual reality of Lord as the substratum of the illusory world).

Second reason is because the Lord is a role-model for others. His actions and behavior will be imitated by others and hence the Lord performs actions. The Lord could have remained silent like Dakshinamurthy but since the Lord knew that people will try to follow him, therefore he does actions.

But it is not the actions of the Lord that makes him great but it is the state of the Lord wherein he is not affected by the actions or the fruits of the actions.

One of the main reason why the Lord married many women is because the women really sought the Lord. This is the Lord’s way of telling each and every seeker that if we really seek the Lord, then if it is against worldly norms still the Lord will fulfill all our desires and take us to the desire-less state.

Thus with eight wives, the Lord was living happily in Dwaraka. At that time, Indra came to Dwaraka and informed the Lord about the atrocity of Narakaasura. Naraka is the son of Earth. Therefore the asura also has the name of bhauma (bhoomi’s putra). After breaking into Svarga loka, the asura stole Indra’s umbrella as well as Indramaatha adithi’s kundalas (earrings). Not just that but he also overtook Mani Parvatha which is part of Meru parvatham. Indra narrated all of this to the Lord.

Explanation

We learnt yesterday that though the Lord indulges into worldly sensual pleausures yet he is not bound by those pleasures (we are bound by them). Hence he was living peacefully with eight wives in Dwaraka.

Living with one wife at home itself is really tough – so what to speak about eight wives? But still the Lord lived peacefully. This is because the Lord was a mere witness to whatever happened in the illusory world. We don’t necessarily need to implement witness-hood but the moment a seeker surrenders unto the ultimate reality of Lord considering everything as filled with the Lord and all happenings as a will of the Lord, we will automatically be living a peaceful life.

Witness-hood is something that is very essential for a seeker to lead a peaceful and blissful life at all times. The world is based on duality and hence worldly experiences cannot always be happy ones. Whenever we experience worldly happiness, we should remember that the happiness is short-lived and there will be an equal amount of sorrow that will come a little later. Unless we are aware of this, we will be happy as long as sorrow doesn’t come to us. When sorrow hits us, we will become very sad (not just because of the sorrow but brooding over the previous happiness that we enjoyed). This is shown in this part of Bhagavatham – the Lord lived a peaceful life and all of a sudden Indra comes with problemsJ thereby making the Lord to endure the problem. But what makes the Lord’s life always blissful is that he was able to smile even at his problems and troubles in the same way he smiled at happiness. Thus we should always remember that happy moments will always be followed by sad sorrows – this is a rule of the world (dual notions are like two tyres of a bicycle – one cannot exist without the other). We don’t have an option to always be happy with respect to external world but we definitely do have an option of being happy internally like the Lord irrespective of whether we face happiness or sorrow externally.

This is possible either through remembrance of the truth that this entire world is only an illusion like the dream world. Even as the dream world doesn’t affect the dreamer even the least as it is only an illusion, similarly this world that we are currently experiencing is a long dream world which is an illusion in the dreamer of Lord (who is our very Self pulsating each and every moment as “I-exist, I-exist”). If we are not able to remember this, at least we should remember that everything is pervaded in and out by the Lord. Hence whatever happens always happens for good. If something good happens to us, it is a blessing of the Lord. On the other hand if something bad happens, it is the will of the Lord. Either way, it is the Lord’s play and since we are one with the Lord (through our constant of the Lord as pervading the entire world) therefore these sorrows will not affect us. We will be able to smile at both happiness and sorrow as a result of remembrance that the entire world is the Lord and everything is a play of the Lord.

If we are able to always remain blissful remembering that the entire world is the Lord alone, then we also will be able to lead a peaceful life whether we are spending time with our kith & kin or we are facing our grave dangers in our life.

We will see the next day as to how to convert our problems into a blessing by seeking the ultimate reality of Lord.