Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.16.22
Poṣaṇa· The Lord's protectionBalarāma Restrains the Devoted Cowherd Men
“Lord Balarāma then saw that Nanda Mahārāja and the other cowherd men, who had dedicated their very lives to Kṛṣṇa, were beginning to enter the serpent’s lake. As the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Balarāma fully knew Lord Kṛṣṇa’s actual power, and therefore He restrained them.”
What the purport teaches
- Nanda Mahārāja and the other cowherd men had dedicated their very lives to Kṛṣṇa. Distraught, they were prepared to give up their lives by entering the serpent’s lake.
- Lord Balarāma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, fully knew Kṛṣṇa’s actual power. He therefore restrained the men from entering.
- Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī explains that Balarāma stopped some by speaking, others by physically holding them and still others with His potent smiling glance.
Try this today
Pause for one minute today to remember Kṛṣṇa’s power and Balarāma’s restraint of the distressed cowherd men.
Ask yourself
How does Balarāma’s knowledge of Kṛṣṇa’s power shape His response to the cowherd men?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
From Canto 10, chapter 14 onward, the translation and purports were completed by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples after his departure, and published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.