Canto Ten - Chapter 83

Śrī Śuka said: After thus favoring the gopīs, the Supreme Lord, their teacher and ultimate refuge, asked Yudhiṣṭhira and all His well-wishing friends about their welfare.

Thus questioned and most respectfully honored by the Lord of the worlds, they replied with joyful hearts, their sins destroyed by seeing His feet.

Lord, how could any misfortune remain for those who drink through the cups of their ears the nectar of Your lotus feet, which sometimes flows from the mouths of great souls and is fully sufficient to cut away the embodied being's forgetfulness of his true self, born from identification with the body?

We bow to You, the destination of the paramahaṃsas. In Your self-luminous nature the three conditions fashioned by the material self are dispelled; You are an undivided flood of bliss whose awareness is never obstructed. To protect the Vedas when they are threatened by time, You assume a form through Yogamāyā.

The sage said: While the people were thus praising the crown jewel of those celebrated in exalted verse, the women of the Andhakas and Kauravas gathered together and recounted among themselves the deeds of Govinda, which are sung throughout the three worlds. Listen as I describe them to you.

Draupadī said: O Vaidarbhī, gentle Jāmbavatī, Kauśalā, Satyabhāmā, Kālindī, Śaibyā, Rohiṇī, and Lakṣmaṇā!

O wives of Kṛṣṇa, please tell us how the Supreme Lord Himself married each of you, imitating the ways of the world through His own māyā.

Rukmiṇī said: When the kings had raised their bows to hand me over to the ruler of Cedi, He whose foot-dust crowns the heads of unconquerable warriors carried me away like a lion taking its share from a flock of goats and sheep. May those feet, the abode of Śrī, ever be the object of my worship.

Satyabhāmā said: My father, his heart anguished by his brother's death, had stained the Lord with an accusation. To remove that charge, the Lord defeated the king of the bears and brought back the jewel. Frightened, my father then presented both the jewel and me to the Lord, although I had already been promised to Him.

Jāmbavatī said: My father did not recognize that the maker of his body was his own master and worshipable Lord, the husband of Sītā, and so he fought with Him for twenty-seven days. When at last he recognized the Lord who had tested him, he clasped His feet and offered Him the jewel together with me as a tribute. I am now His maidservant.

Kālindī said: Learning that I was practicing austerities in the hope of touching His feet, He came with His friend and took my hand. I am the sweeper of His house.

Mitravindā said: Coming to my svayaṃvara and defeating the kings, He carried me away as a lion takes its own prey from a pack of dogs. He also subdued my brothers, who had offended Him, and brought me to His opulent city. May I have the privilege, birth after birth, of washing His feet.

Satyā said: To test the valor of the kings, my father had set seven bulls of immense strength and prowess, armed with exceedingly sharp horns. The Lord, who crushes the pride of warriors, swiftly subdued and playfully bound them as children bind young goats.

Having thus won me by the price of His valor, together with my maidservants and a fourfold army, He defeated the kings along the road and took me away. May I always have the privilege of serving Him.

Bhadrā said: My father summoned his sister's son Kṛṣṇa and personally gave me to Him, for my heart was fixed upon Kṛṣṇa. He sent me with an akṣauhiṇī of troops and my companions.

May I touch His feet in every birth as my karma causes me to wander, for that alone is the supreme good of the soul.

Lakṣmaṇā said: O queen, I repeatedly heard Nārada sing of Acyuta's birth and deeds, and my heart became fixed upon Mukunda. After careful reflection, I chose Him with my lotus hand and rejected the guardians of the worlds.

Virtuous lady, when my father, the renowned Bṛhatsena, who dearly loved his daughter, understood my desire, he devised a means to fulfill it.

O queen, just as a fish had been arranged at Draupadī's svayaṃvara for Arjuna to pierce, another fish was prepared here. This one, however, was concealed outside and could be seen only as a reflection in water.

Hearing of this, thousands of kings came from every direction to my father's city, accompanied by their teachers and fully versed in every kind of weapon and missile.

My father honored them all according to their valor and age. In the assembly, those intent on winning me took up the bow and arrows to strike the target.

Some lifted the bow but could not even string it. Others pulled the string as far as their shoulders, only to be struck down by the bow itself.

Other heroes managed to string it, including the rulers of Magadha, Ambaṣṭha, and Cedi, as well as Bhīma, Duryodhana, and Karṇa, but they could not discern the target's position.

Arjuna carefully studied the fish's reflection in the water and understood its position. He released an arrow that touched the fish but did not pierce it.

When the proud kings had withdrawn with their pride broken, the Supreme Lord picked up the bow and playfully strung it.

He set an arrow upon the bow, glanced only once at the fish in the water, severed it with the shaft, and brought it down while the sun stood at the auspicious Abhijit hour.

Kettledrums sounded in heaven, cries of victory rang upon the earth, and the gods, overwhelmed with joy, released showers of flowers.

I then entered the arena, my graceful feet adorned with tinkling anklets and my hands holding a jeweled garland brilliant with gold. I wore a fresh silk garment of the finest quality; a garland rested in my hair, and my face bore a shy smile.

Lifting my face, whose cheeks shone with the radiance of my abundant curls and earrings, I slowly looked around at the kings, casting cool smiles and sidelong glances. My heart devoted to Murāri, I placed my garland upon His shoulder.

At that moment mṛdaṅgas, paṭahas, conches, kettle-drums, and other instruments resounded. Actors and dancers danced, and singers sang.

O daughter of Yajñasena, when I had thus chosen the Supreme Lord, the master of māyā, the assembled kings could not tolerate it. Inflamed with desire, they challenged Him.

He placed me upon His chariot, drawn by four superb horses, raised His Śārṅga bow, donned His armor, and stood upon the battlefield with four arms.

Dāruka drove the golden-fitted chariot away before the eyes of the kings, O queen, as a lion carries off its prize before a herd of deer.

Some of the kings pursued Him along the road and tried to stop Him. Armed and with bows raised, they were like village dogs attacking a lion.

Struck by torrents of arrows released from Śārṅga, some fell upon the battlefield with arms, legs, and necks severed, while others abandoned the fight and fled.

The Lord of the Yadus then entered Kuśasthalī, His own city, like the sun entering its abode. The city was splendidly decorated with sunshades, flags, banners, and painted gateways, and was praised both in heaven and on earth.

My father worshiped His friends, relations, and kinsmen with costly garments and ornaments, beds, seats, and furnishings.

Out of devotion to the all-perfect Lord, he gave maidservants endowed with every accomplishment, soldiers, elephants, chariots, horses, and priceless weapons.

We became the household maidservants of that self-satisfied Lord by completely giving up all other attachments and practicing austerity.

The other queens said: After killing Bhauma and his followers in battle, the self-fulfilled Lord learned that we were princesses captured during Bhauma's conquest of the earth. He freed us, who had been confined and who remembered His lotus feet as the means of liberation from worldly existence, and then He married us.

Virtuous lady, we do not desire imperial sovereignty, independent dominion, supreme enjoyment, universal rule, Brahmā's station, immortality, or even the abode of Hari.

We desire only to bear upon our heads the glorious dust of the club-bearing Lord's feet, enriched by the fragrance of the kuṅkuma from Śrī's breasts.

That is what the women of Vraja desire, as do the Pulinda women, the grasses and vines, the cows, and the cowherds who tend them: the touch of the great Lord's feet.