SB 1.11.31 (1964)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 31
Patnya patim prosya grihanupagatam Vilokya samjata manomahatsabha. Uttasthur arat sahasa asanat asayat Sakam bratair bridita lochana ananah.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Patnya—the ladies, wives of Lord Sri Krishna, Patim—husband, Protya—who was away from home, Grihanupagatam—now returned at home, Vilokya—thus seeing, Samjata—having developed, Manomahatsabah—sense of joyful ceremony within the mind, Uttasthur—got up, Arat—from distance, Sahasa—all of a sudden, Asanat—from the seats, Asayat—from the state of meditation, Sskam—along with, Brataih—the vow, Bridita—looking stealthily, lochwns—eyes, Ananah—with such faces.
TRANSLATION
The queens of Lord Sri Krishna developed a sense of joyful ceremony within the mind by seeing their husband back to home after a long period of absence abroad. They got up at once from their seats and meditation of being separated along with a vow of social custom and for doing so they covered their face with shyness as if looking stealthily.
PURPORT
As mentioned above the Lord entered at His home palaces occupied by the family of sixteen thousand one hundred and eight queens. This means the Lord at once expanded Himself in as many plenary expansions as there were queens and palaces and entered in each and everyone of them simultaneously and separately. Here is another manifestation of the feature of His internal potency that He can expand Himself in as many Forms of spiritual identity as He desires, even though He is one without a Second. It is confirmed by the Sruti Mantra that the Absolute one is One Alone and yet He becomes many as soon as He so desires. These many-fold expansions of the Supreme Lord is manifested as plenary and separated portions. The separated portions are representations of His energy and the plenary portions are manifestations of His Personality. As such the Personality of Godhead manifested Himself in sixteen thousand one hundred and eight plenary expansions and simultaneously entered in each and everyone of the palaces of the queens! This is called Baibhav or transcendental potency of the Lord. And because He can do so He is also known as Yogeswara. Oridinarily a Yogi or mystic living being is able to expand himself utmost to tenfold expansions of his body but the Lord can do so to the extent of as many thousands or crores as He likes. Unbelievers become astonished to learn that Lord Krishna had married sixteen thousands of queens and more than that because they think of Lord Krishna as one of them; and measure the potency of the Lord by comparison of his own limited potency. One should know, therefore, that the Lord is never on the level of the living beings who are but expansions of His marginal potency and one should never equalise the Potent and the potency on the same level although there is very little difference of quality between the potent and the potency. The queens were also expansions of His internal potency and thus the Potent and Potencies are perpetually at exchange of transcendental humour known as the pastimes of the Lord. One should not, therefore, become astonished to learn how the Lord married sixteen thonsands of wives: but on the contrary they should affirm it that even if the Lord marries sixteen thousand millions of wives, still it is not a complete manifestation of His unlimited and inexhaustible potency. He married only sixteen thousands of wives and entered in each and everyone of the different palaces just to make it a record in the history of the human beings on the surface of the earth that the Lord is never equal to or lesser than anyone of the human being however powerful one may be. Nobody is, therefore, either equal or greater than the Lord. The Lord is always Great in all respects. "God is Great' is eternal truth.
The queens, therefore, as soon as they saw their husband from a distance, Who was away from home for a long period due to the battle of Kurukshetra, all of them in their respective palaces got up from the slumber of meditation and became prepared to receive the most beloved. According to Yajnabalka's religious injunctions a woman whose husband is away from home, shall not take part in any social functions, shall not decorate her body, shall not laugh and shall not go to any relative's house at all circumstances. This is the vow of the ladies whose husbands are away from home. At the same time, it is also enjoined that a wife should never present herself before the husband in unclean state of the body. She must decorate herself by ornaments and good dress and shall always be present before the husband in happy and joyous mood. The queens of Lord Krishna were all in meditation thinking of the Lord's absence and therefore always meditating upon Him. The Lord's devotees cannot live for a moment without meditation on the Lord and what to speak of the queens who were all Goddesses of Fortune incarnated as queens in the pastimes of the Lord at Dwarka. They can never be separated from the Lord either by presence or by trance. The Gopis also at Vrindaban could not separate the Lord from their mind when the Lord was away in the forest for cow herding. When the Lord boy Krishna was absent from the village the Gopis at home used to think of Him as to how Krishna is traversing on the rough ground by His soft lotus feet. By thinking this they were sometimes overwhelmed in trance and mortified by the heart. Such is the condition of the pure associates of the Lord. They were always in trance and so the queens also were observed in trance during the absence of the Lord. Presently having seen the Lord from distance at once they gave up their all engagements including the vow of a woman as described above. According to Shri Vishwanath Chakravarty Thakur, there was a regular psychological reaction on the occasion. First of all rising from their seats, although they wanted to see the husband, at once there was some sort of psychological barrier on account of faminine shyness. But due to strong ecstasy they overcame that stage of heartly weakness and they were caught up with the idea of embracing the Lord and the thought factually made them unconscious of the surrounding environment. This prime state of ecstasy annihilated all other formalities and social convention and thus they escaped everything that was a stumbling block in the path of meeting the Lord. And that is the perfect stage of meeting the Lord of the soul Shri Krishna.