Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.16.35

tapaḥ sutaptaḿ kim anena pūrvaḿ

nirasta-mānena ca māna-dena

dharmo 'tha vā sarva-janānukampayā

yato bhavāḿs tuṣyati sarva-jīvaḥ

SYNONYMS

tapaḥ — austerity; su-taptam — properly performed; kim — what; anena — by this Kāliya; pūrvam — in previous lives; nirasta-mānena — being free from false pride; ca — and; māna-dena — giving respect to others; dharmaḥ — religious duty; atha vā — or else; sarva-jana — to all persons; anukampayā — with compassion; yataḥ — by which; bhavān — Your good self; tuṣyati — is satisfied; sarva-jīvaḥ — the source of life for all beings.

TRANSLATION

Did our husband carefully perform austerities in a previous life, with his mind free of pride and full of respect for others? Is that why You are pleased with him? Or did he in some previous existence carefully execute religious duties with compassion for all living beings, and is that why You, the life of all living beings, are now satisfied with Him?

PURPORT

In this regard Śrīla Prabhupāda comments in his Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Volume 1, Chapter Sixteen: "The Nāga-patnīs confirm that one cannot come in contact with Kṛṣṇa without having executed pious activities in devotional service in one's previous lives. As Lord Caitanya advised in His Śikṣāṣṭaka, one has to execute devotional service by humbly chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street and not expecting honor for oneself but offering all kinds of honor to others. The Nāga-patnīs were astonished that, although Kāliya had the body of a serpent as the result of grievous sinful activities, at the same time he was in contact with the Lord to the extent that the Lord's lotus feet were touching his hoods. Certainly this was not the ordinary result of pious activities. These two contradictory facts astonished them."

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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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