Study a Verse

• The word kṣemam means actual prosperity, not merely the accumulation of money.
• Here Lord Kṛṣṇa boldly argues that just as a woman can never achieve actual dignity or enlightenment from an illicit lover, the residents of Vṛndāvana will never be happy by neglecting the real source of their prosperity and worshiping Indra instead.
• According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the audacity that child Kṛṣṇa displayed before His father and other elders should be understood as an exhibition of transcendental anger aroused when He saw His eternal devotees worshiping an insignificant demigod.

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

Attraction and threat → Joy and trust. The pastoral world becomes the setting for protection and love.

Chapters 20–28 of Canto 10: Forest seasons, flute and Govardhana. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 24: Worshiping Govardhana Hill

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

Kṛṣṇa responded, “It is because of karma alone that living entities take their birth in a certain body, experience varieties of happiness and suffering in that body, and then give it up as the karma pertaining to it runs out. Thus it is karma alone that is our enemy, our friend, our guru and our lord, and Indra can do nothing to alter the happiness and distress of anyone, for everyone is tightly bound by his karmic reactions.