Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3 Chapter 3 Verse 21

Canto 3: The Status Quo | Chapter 3: The Lord's Pastimes Out of Vṛndāvana

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.3.21

imaḿ lokam amuḿ caiva

ramayan sutarāḿ yadūn

reme kṣaṇadayā datta-

kṣaṇa-strī-kṣaṇa-sauhṛdaḥ

SYNONYMS

imam — this; lokam — earth; amum — and the other worlds; ca — also; eva — certainly; ramayan — pleasing; sutarām — specifically; yadūn — the Yadus; reme — enjoyed; kṣaṇadayā — by night; datta — given by; kṣaṇa — leisure; strī — with women; kṣaṇa — conjugal love; sauhṛdaḥ — friendship.

TRANSLATION

The Lord enjoyed His pastimes, both in this world and in other worlds [higher planets], specifically in the association of the Yadu dynasty. At leisure hours offered by night, He enjoyed the friendship of conjugal love with women.

PURPORT

The Lord enjoyed in this world with His pure devotees. Although He is the Personality of Godhead and is transcendental to all material attachment, He nevertheless exhibited much attachment for His pure devotees on the earth, as well as for the demigods who engage in His service in the heavenly planets as powerful delegated directors in the management of all material activities. He displayed special attachment for His family members, the Yadus, as well as for His sixteen thousand wives, who had the opportunity to meet Him in the leisure hours of night. All these attachments of the Lord are manifestations of His internal potency, of which the external potency is only a shadow representation. In the Skanda Purāṇa, Prabhāsa-khaṇḍa, in the topics between Lord Śiva and Gaurī, there is confirmation of His internal potential manifestations. There is mention of the Lord's meeting with sixteen thousand cowherd damsels although He is the Haḿsa (transcendental) Supersoul and maintainer of all living entities. The sixteen thousand cowherd damsels are a display of sixteen varieties of internal potencies. This will be more elaborately explained in the Tenth Canto. It is said there that Lord Kṛṣṇa is just like the moon and the internal potential damsels are like the stars around the moon.

<<< >>>

Copyright © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness