Study a Verse

• It is understood that Mathurā City is the transcendental abode of Lord Kṛṣṇa; it is not an ordinary material city, for it is eternally connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
• The Lord has made it convenient for the conditioned soul to live in Mathurā, Vṛndāvana and Navadvīpa and thus be directly connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
• Therefore although Mathurā and Vṛndāvana are situated on this planet earth, they are transcendental abodes of the Lord.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Terror → Wonder and relief. The threat of destruction yields to divine appearance.

Chapters 1–4 of Canto 10: Threat from Kaṁsa and Kṛṣṇa's birth. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 1: The Advent of Lord Kṛṣṇa: Introduction

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

Once when the entire world was overburdened by the increasing military power of demons in the form of kings, mother earth assumed the shape of a cow and approached Lord Brahmā for relief. Sympathetic to mother earth’s lamentation, Brahmā, accompanied by Lord Śiva and other demigods, took the cow-shaped mother earth to the shore of the Milk Ocean, where he offered prayers to please Lord Viṣṇu, who lay there on an island in transcendental ecstasy.