SB 1.11.3 (1964)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 3
Tam upasrutyan inadam jagatbhaya bhayabaham Prati utryayuh prajah sarba bhartri darshana lalasah
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Tam—that, Upasrutya—having overhead, Ninadam—sound, Jagatbhayam—the fear of material existence, Bhayam—the treating principal, Prati—towards, Utyayu—fastely proceeded, Prajah—the citizens, Sarba—all, Bhartri—the protector, Darshana—audience, Lalasah—having so desired.
TRANSLATION
The citizens of Dwarka having heard that sound which threatens fear personified of the material existence, began to run fast towards Him just to have a long desired audience of the Lord who is the protector of all devotees.
PURPORT
As already informed the citizens of Dwarka who lived at the time of Lord Krishna's presence there, were all liberated souls who descended there along with the Lord as entourage, all were very much anxious to have an audience of the Lord although they were never separated from the Lord by spiritual contact. Just like the Gopis at Vrindaban used to think of Krishna while He was away from the village for cowherding engagement, so also the citizens of Dwarka were all compact in thought of the Lord while He was away from Dwarka to attend the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Some distinguished fiction writer in Bengal concluded that the Krishna of Vrindaban, that of Mathura and that of Dwarka were different personalities. Historically there is no truth in the conclusion of the big fiction writer. The Krishna of Kurukshetra and the Krishna of Dwarka is the same and one personality.
The citizens of Dwarka was thus in a state of melancholy on account of the Lord's absence from the transcendental city as much as we are put in a state of morose at night on account of absence of the Sun. The sound heralded by Lord Krishna was something like heralding the sunrise in the morning. So all the citizens of Dwarka awoke from a state of slumber on account of the sunrise of Krishna and they all hastend towards Him just to have an audience of their protector. The devotees of the Lord know nobody else as protector and as such they got back in life on the arrival-signal of the Lord represented by the sound of His conchshell. This sound of the Lord is identical with the Lord as we have tried to explain the non-dual position of the Lord. The material existence of our present status is full of fear. Out of the four problems of material existence namely the food problem, the shelter problem, the fear problem and the mating problem etc the fear problem gives us more trouble than the others. We are always fearful on account of our ignorance of the next problem. The whole material existence is full of problems and as such the fear problem is always prominent. This is due to our association of the illusory energy of the Lord known as Maya or external energy and the whole thing is vanished as soon as there is the sound of the Lord represented by His holy Name as it was sounded by Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the following sixteen words namely:-
- Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
- Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
We can take advantage of these sounds and be free from all threatening problems of material existence.