Lord's Stealing and Rewarding

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Krishna Janmastami, evening, Tarakeswar
23 August 2019, part 4, translated from Bengali

[His Divine Grace instructs Sripad Paramarthik Maharaj to prepare everything for the abhisekh of Gopal at night and remembers the pastimes of Srila Madhavendra Puripad:]

When Madhavendra Puri got Govardhan-dhari Gopal, Gopal gave him a dream saying, "Go to Odisha and bring some sandalwood and camphor. I have fever in My body, and only bathing will not help it." Then, Madhavendra Puri tried so hard to arrange for sandalwood and camphor, and he was going to carry it on his head despite his old age all the way from Odisha—you know that Odisha is very far from Vrindavan. But then Gopal again gave Him a dream saying, "You do not have to carry the sandalwood all the way from Odisha. Offer it to Gopinath in Remuna, My body is non-different from Gopinath's body, so if you apply the sandalwood to His body, My fever will go down." It was the same Gopinath who stole ksir for Madhavendra Puri... We have been there a few times before. When we go to Puri by train, the train stops in Remuna, and also you can get there from Puri by bus.

Anyhow, one time, a fruit seller came to the house of Mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaj. Krishna came to her and said, "Give me some fruit!" Then Madhumangal and other boys also came—they ended up finishing all the fruit that the seller had in her basket! The seller was so upset, "Oh no, all my fruit is gone now!" Very sad, she went back home with her empty basket thinking, "The boys have eaten all my fruit, what am I going to do now?" However, when she woke up in the morning, she saw her basket was filled with a heap of gold. In exchange for fruit, the Lord gave her gold. The Lord is the owner of everything...

There are many other pastimes that Lord Sri Krishna performed. There was also a funny pastime at Chir Ghat. This pastime has a deep meaning. One day, Vraja gopis kept their clothes on a tree and went bathing in the Yamuna. While they were bathing, Krishna came and took all their clothes away. Many think this is funny, but actually it is not—this pastime is all about self-surrender (atma-samarpan, saranagati). Vraja gopis place everything at the feet of the Lord.

There is also another pastime showing the importance of complete surrender. When demons tried to disrobe Draupadi, were they able to do it? At first, she tried to appeal to her husbands, Yudhisthir, Bhima, Arjun, Sahadev, and Nakul, "There are so many of you, you are all my husbands—can you not see that they are insulting me so much?" The Pandavas put their heads down. The Lord gives all power and the Lord also takes it away. That day, the great Pancha Pandavas had lost all their power and became beggars. Then Bhima said, "If I ever get my power back, I will drink Duhsasan's blood!" Hearing this, Duhsasan became very angry and ordered his men to disrobe Draupadi. His men came to Draupadi and started taking her clothes off. Helpless, Draupadi started calling out to the Lord with one hand while holding onto her cloth with her other hand trying to resist. Then, she felt she could no longer help it—her cloth had been almost all taken off, then she left her cloth and started calling to the Lord with both arms upraised, "O Lord! I have no one except You!" Then, Lord Krishna Himself appeared as her cloth and no matter how much the demons pulled Draupadi's cloth, there was no end of it—soon the entire royal hall was full of cloth, there was no place to keep it. They had to give up on it and admit that they could not disrobe her.

It shows that one must not fight against the Lord.

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