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Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.8.46
śrī-rājovāca
SYNONYMS
śrī-rājā uvāca — Mahārāja Parīkshit further inquired (from Śukadeva Gosvāmī); nandah — Mahārāja Nanda; kim — what; akarot — performed; brahman — O learned brāhmana; śreyah — auspicious activities, like performing penances and austerities; evam — as exhibited by him; mahā-udayam — from which they achieved the greatest perfection; yaśodā — mother Yaśodā; ca — also; mahā-bhāgā — most fortunate; papau — drank; yasyāh — of whom; stanam — the breast milk; harih — the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
TRANSLATION
Having heard of the great fortune of mother Yaśodā, Parīkshit Mahārāja inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī: O learned brāhmana, mother Yaśodā's breast milk was sucked by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. What past auspicious activities did she and Nanda Mahārāja perform to achieve such perfection in ecstatic love?
PURPORT
As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (7.16), catur-vidhā bhajante mām janāh sukritino 'rjuna. Without sukriti, or pious activities, no one can come to the shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord is approached by four kinds of pious men (ārto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī ca), but here we see that Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodā surpassed all of them. Therefore Parīkshit Mahārāja naturally inquired, "What kind of pious activities did they perform in their past lives by which they achieved such a stage of perfection?" Of course, Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodā are accepted as the father and mother of Krishna, yet mother Yaśodā was more fortunate than Nanda Mahārāja, Krishna's father, because Nanda Mahārāja was sometimes separated from Krishna whereas Yaśodā, Krishna's mother, was not separated from Krishna at any moment. From Krishna's babyhood to His childhood and from His childhood to His youth, mother Yaśodā was always in association with Krishna. Even when Krishna was grown up, He would go to Vrindāvana and sit on the lap of mother Yaśodā. Therefore there is no comparison to the fortune of mother Yaśodā, and Parīkshit Mahārāja naturally inquired, yaśodā ca mahā-bhāgā.
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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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