The meeting of Aniruddha and Üñä, which caused a great fight between Lord Krishna and Lord Çiva, is very mysterious and interesting. Mahäräja Parikeshit was eager to hear the whole story from Çukadeva Gosvämé, and thus Çukadeva narrated it. “My dear King, you must have heard the name of King Bali. He was a great devotee who gave away in charity all that he had—namely, the whole world—to Lord Vämana, the incarnation of Vishnu as a dwarf brähmaëa. King Bali had one hundred sons, and the eldest of all of them was Bäëäsura.”

This great hero Bäëäsura, born of Mahäräja Bali, was a great devotee of Lord Çiva and was always ready to render service unto him. Because of his devotion, he achieved a great position in society, and he was honored in every respect. Actually, he was very intelligent and liberal also, and his activities are all praiseworthy because he never deviated from his promise and word of honor; he was very truthful and fixed in his vow. In those days, he was ruling over the city of Çoëitapura. By the grace of Lord Çiva, Bäëäsura had one thousand arms, and he became so powerful that even demigods like King Indra were serving him as most obedient servants.

Long ago, when Lord Çiva was dancing in his celebrated fashion called täëòava-nåtya, for which he is known as Naöaräja, Bäëäsura helped Lord Çiva in his dancing by rhythmically beating drums with his one thousand hands. Lord Çiva is well known as Äçutoña (“very easily pleased”), and he is also very affectionate to his devotees. He is a great protector for persons who take shelter of him and is the master of all living entities in this material world. Being pleased with Bäëäsura, he said, “Whatever you desire you can have from me, for I am very much pleased with you.” Bäëäsura replied, “My dear lord, if you please, you can remain in my city just to protect me from the hands of my enemies.”

Krishna had 16,108 wives, and in each of them He begot ten sons, all of them equal to their father in the opulences of strength, beauty, wisdom, fame, wealth and renunciation. “Like father like son.” All the 16,108 wives of Krishna were princesses, and when each saw that Krishna was always present in her respective palace and did not leave home, she considered Krishna a henpecked husband who was very much attached to her. Every one of them thought that Krishna was her very obedient husband, but actually Krishna had no attraction for any of them. Although each thought that she was the only wife of Krishna and was very, very dear to Him, Lord Krishna, being ätmäräma, self-sufficient, was neither dear nor inimical to any one of them; He was equal to all the wives and treated them as a perfect husband just to please them. For Him, there was no need for even a single wife. In fact, since they were women, the wives could not understand the exalted position of Krishna, nor the truths about Him.

All the princesses who were wives of Krishna were exquisitely beautiful, and each one of them was attracted by Krishna’s eyes, which were just like lotus petals, and by His beautiful face, long arms, beautiful ears, pleasing smile, humorous talk and sweet words. Influenced by these features of Krishna, they all used to dress themselves very attractively, desiring to attract Him by their feminine bodily appeal. They exhibited their feminine characteristics by smiling and moving their eyebrows, thus shooting sharp arrows of conjugal love just to awaken Krishna’s lusty desires for them. Still, they could not arouse Krishna’s mind or His sexual appetite. This means that Krishna never had any sexual relations with any of His many wives, save and except to beget children.

The queens of Dvärakä were so fortunate that they got Lord Çré Krishna as their husband and personal companion, although He is not approachable by exalted demigods like Brahmä. Lord Krishna and His queens remained together as husband and wife, and Krishna, as an ideal husband, treated them in such a way that at every moment there was an increase of transcendental bliss in their smiling exchanges, talking and mixing together. Each and every wife had hundreds and thousands of maidservants, yet when Krishna entered the palaces of His thousands of wives, each one of them used to receive Krishna personally by seating Him in a nice chair, worshiping Him with all requisite paraphernalia, personally washing His lotus feet, offering Him betel nuts, massaging His legs to relieve them from fatigue, fanning Him to make Him comfortable, offering all kinds of scented sandalwood pulp, oils and aromatics, putting flower garlands on His neck, dressing His hair, getting Him to lie down on the bed and assisting Him in taking His bath. Thus they served always in every respect, especially when Krishna was eating. They always engaged in the service of the Lord.

Once upon a time, Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the bestower of all knowledge upon all living entities, from Brahmä to the insignificant ant, was sitting in the bedroom of Rukmiëé, who was engaged in the service of the Lord along with her assistant maidservants. Krishna was sitting on the bedstead of Rukmiëé, and the maidservants were fanning Him with cämaras (yak-tail fly-whisks).

Lord Krishna’s dealings with Rukmiëé as a perfect husband are a perfect manifestation of the supreme perfection of the Personality of Godhead. There are many philosophers who propound a concept of the Absolute Truth in which God cannot do this or that. They deny the incarnation of God, or the Supreme Absolute Truth in human form. But actually the fact is different: God cannot be subject to our imperfect sensual activities. He is the all-powerful, omnipresent Personality of Godhead, and by His supreme will, not only can He create, maintain and annihilate the whole cosmic manifestation but can also descend as an ordinary human being to execute the highest mission. As stated in Bhagavad-gétä, whenever there are discrepancies in the discharge of human occupational duties, He descends. He is not forced to appear by any external agency, but He descends by His own internal potency in order to reestablish the standard functions of human activities and simultaneously to annihilate the disturbing elements in the progressive march of human civilization. In accordance with this principle of the transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He descended in His eternal form as Çré Krishna in the dynasty of the Yadus.

The story of Bhaumäsura—how he kidnapped and made captive sixteen thousand princesses by collecting them from the palaces of various kings and how he was killed by Krishna, the Supreme Lord of wonderful character—is all described by Çukadeva Gosvämé to King Parikeshit in Çrémad-Bhägavatam. Generally, the demons are always against the demigods. This demon, Bhaumäsura, having become very powerful, took by force the umbrella from the throne of the demigod Varuëa. He also took the earrings of Aditi, the mother of the demigods. He conquered a portion of heavenly Mount Meru and occupied the portion known as Maëi-parvata. The king of the heavenly planets, Indra, therefore came to Dvärakä to complain about Bhaumäsura before Lord Krishna.

Hearing this complaint by Indra, the King of heaven, Lord Krishna, accompanied by His wife Satyabhämä, immediately started for the abode of Bhaumäsura. Both of them rode on the back of Garuòa, who flew them to Prägjyotiña-pura, Bhaumäsura’s capital city. To enter the city of Prägjyotiña-pura was not a very easy task, because it was very well fortified. First of all, there were four strongholds guarding the four directions of the city, which was well protected on all sides by formidable military strength. The next boundary was a water canal all around the city, and in addition the whole city was surrounded by electric wires. The next fortification was of anila, a gaseous substance. After this, there was a network of barbed wiring constructed by a demon of the name Mura. The city appeared well protected even in terms of today’s scientific advancements.

When Krishna arrived, He broke all the strongholds to pieces by the strokes of His club and scattered the military strength here and there by the constant onslaught of His arrows. With His celebrated Sudarçana cakra He counteracted the electrified boundary, annihilated the channels of water and the gaseous boundary, and cut to pieces the electrified network fabricated by the demon Mura. By the vibration of His conchshell, He broke the hearts of the great fighters and also broke the fighting machines that were there. Similarly, He broke the walls around the city with His invincible club.