In the presence of the great sage Närada and all the other associates of Lord Krishna, Uddhava considered the situation and then spoke as follows: “My dear Lord, first of all let me say that the great sage Närada Muni has requested You to go to Hastinäpura to satisfy King Yudhiñöhira, Your cousin, who is making arrangements to perform the great sacrifice known as Räjasüya. I think, therefore, that Your Lordship should immediately go there to help the King in this great adventure. However, although to accept the invitation offered by the sage Närada as primary is quite appropriate, at the same time, my Lord, it is Your duty to give protection to the surrendered souls. Both purposes can be served if we understand the whole situation. Unless we are victorious over all the kings, no one can perform this Räjasüya sacrifice. In other words, it is to be understood that King Yudhiñöhira cannot perform this great sacrifice without gaining victory over the belligerent King Jaräsandha. The Räjasüya sacrifice can be performed only by one who has gained victory over all directions. Therefore, to execute both purposes, we first have to kill Jaräsandha. I think that if we can somehow or other gain victory over Jaräsandha, all our purposes will automatically be served. The imprisoned kings will be released, and with great pleasure we shall enjoy the spread of Your transcendental fame for having saved the innocent kings whom Jaräsandha has imprisoned.

“But King Jaräsandha is not an ordinary man. He has proved a stumbling block even to great warriors because his bodily strength is equal to the strength of ten thousand elephants. If there is anyone who can conquer this king, he is none other than Bhémasena because he also possesses the strength of ten thousand elephants. The best thing would be for Bhémasena to fight alone with him. Then there would be no unnecessary killing of many soldiers. In fact, Jaräsandha will be very difficult to conquer when he stands with his akñauhiëé divisions of soldiers. We may therefore adopt a policy more favorable to the situation. We know that King Jaräsandha is very much devoted to the brähmaëas and very charitably disposed towards them; he never refuses any request from a brähmaëa. I think, therefore, that Bhémasena should approach Jaräsandha in the dress of a brähmaëa, beg charity from him and then personally engage in fighting him. And in order to assure Bhémasena’s victory, I think that Your Lordship should accompany him. If the fighting takes place in Your presence, I am sure Bhémasena will emerge victorious, for Your presence makes everything impossible possible. Indeed, Lord Brahmä creates this universe and Lord Çiva destroys it simply through Your influence.

From the Vedic mantras we learn that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has nothing to do: na tasya käryaà karaëaà ca vidyate. But if the Supreme Lord has nothing to do, how can we speak of the activities of the Supreme Lord? From the previous chapter it is clear that no one can act the way Lord Krishna does. We should clearly note this fact: the activities of the Lord should be followed, but they cannot be imitated. For example, Krishna’s ideal life as a householder can be followed, but if one wants to imitate Krishna by expanding into many forms, that is not possible. We should always remember, therefore, that Lord Krishna, although playing the part of a human being, simultaneously maintains the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We can follow Lord Krishna’s dealings with His wives as an ordinary human being, but His dealings with more than sixteen thousand wives at one time cannot be imitated. The conclusion is that to become ideal householders we should follow in the footsteps of Lord Krishna as He displayed His daily activities, but we cannot imitate Him at any stage of our life.

Lord Krishna used to lie down with His sixteen thousand wives, but He would also rise from bed very early in the morning, three hours before sunrise. By nature’s arrangement the crowing of the cocks warns of the brähma-muhürta hour. There is no need of alarm clocks: as soon as the cocks crow early in the morning, it is to be understood that it is time to rise from bed. Hearing that sound, Krishna would get up from bed, but His rising early was not very much to the liking of His wives. The wives of Krishna were so much attached to Him that they would lie in bed embracing Him, and as soon as the cocks crowed, Krishna’s wives would be very sorry and would immediately condemn the crowing.

In the garden within the compound of each palace there were pärijäta flowers. Pärijäta is not an artificial flower. We remember that Krishna brought the pärijäta trees from heaven and implanted them in all His palaces. Early in the morning, a mild breeze would carry the aroma of the pärijäta flower, and Krishna would smell it just after rising from bed. Due to this aroma, the honeybees would begin their humming vibration, and the birds also would begin their sweet chirping sounds. All together it would sound like the singing of professional chanters engaged in offering prayers to Krishna. Although Çrématé Rukmiëédevé, the first queen of Lord Krishna, knew that brähma-muhürta is the most auspicious time in the entire day, she would feel disgusted at the appearance of brähma-muhürta because she was not very happy to have Krishna leave her side in bed. Despite Çrématé Rukmiëédevé’s disgust, Lord Krishna would immediately get up from bed exactly on the appearance of brähma-muhürta. An ideal householder should learn from the behavior of Lord Krishna how to rise early in the morning, however comfortably he may be lying in bed embraced by his wife.

When the great sage Närada heard that Lord Krishna had married sixteen thousand wives after He had killed the demon Narakäsura, sometimes called Bhaumäsura, he was astonished that Lord Krishna had expanded Himself into sixteen thousand forms and married these wives simultaneously in different palaces. Being inquisitive as to how Krishna was managing His household affairs with so many wives, Närada, desiring to see these pastimes, set out to visit Krishna’s different homes. When Närada arrived in Dvärakä, he saw gardens and parks full of various flowers of different colors and orchards overloaded with a variety of fruits. Beautiful birds were chirping, and peacocks crowed delightfully. There were ponds full of blue and red lotus flowers, and some of these tanks were filled with varieties of lilies. The lakes were full of nice swans and cranes, and the voices of these birds resounded everywhere. In the city there were as many as 900,000 great palaces built of first-class marble, with gates and doors made of silver. The pillars of the houses and palaces were bedecked with jewels such as touchstone, sapphires and emeralds, and the floors gave off a beautiful luster. The highways, lanes, streets, crossings and marketplaces were all beautifully decorated. The whole city was full of residential homes, assembly houses and temples, all of different architectural beauty. All of this made Dvärakä a glowing city. The big avenues, crossings, lanes and streets, and also the thresholds of every residential house, were very clean. On both sides of every path there were bushes, and at regular intervals there were large trees that shaded the avenues so that the sunshine would not bother the passersby.

Duryodhana, the son of Dhåtaräñöra, had a marriageable daughter by the name of Lakñmaëä. She was a very highly qualified girl of the Kuru dynasty, and many princes wanted to marry her. In such cases, the svayaàvara ceremony is held, so that the girl may select her husband according to her own choice. In Lakñmaëä’s svayaàvara assembly, when the girl was to select her husband, Sämba appeared. He was a son of Krishna’s by Jämbavaté, one of Lord Krishna’s chief wives. This son Sämba was so named because be was a pet child and always lived close to his mother. The name Sämba indicates a son who is very much his mother’s pet. Ambä means “mother,” and sa means “with.” So this special name was given to him because he always remained with his mother. He was also known as Jämbavaté-suta for the same reason. As previously explained, all the sons of Krishna were as qualified as their great father. Sämba wanted Duryodhana’s daughter, Lakñmaëä, although she was not inclined to have him. Therefore Sämba kidnapped Lakñmaëä by force from the svayaàvara assembly.

Because Sämba took Lakñmaëä away from the assembly by force, all the members of the Kuru dynasty, such as Dhåtaräñöra, Bhéñma, Vidura and Arjuna, thought it an insult to their family tradition that the boy, Sämba, could possibly have kidnapped their daughter. All of them knew that Lakñmaëä was not at all inclined to select him as her husband and that she was not given the chance to select her own husband; instead she was forcibly taken away by this boy. Therefore, they decided that he must be punished. They unanimously declared that he was most impudent and had degraded the Kurus’ family tradition. Therefore, all of them, under the counsel of the elderly members of the Kuru family, decided to arrest the boy but not kill him. They concluded that the girl could not be married to any boy other than Sämba, since she had already been touched by him. (According to the Vedic system, once being touched by some boy, a girl cannot be married or given to any other boy. Nor would anyone agree to marry a girl who had already thus associated with another boy.) The elderly members of the family, such as Bhéñma, wanted to arrest him. All the members of the Kuru dynasty, especially the great fighters, joined together just to teach him a lesson, and Karëa was made the commander in chief for this small battle.