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ŚB 3.3.5

Devanagari

प्रियं प्रभुर्ग्राम्य इव प्रियाया
विधित्सुरार्च्छद् द्युतरुं यदर्थे ।
वज्र्याद्रवत्तं सगणो रुषान्ध:
क्रीडामृगो नूनमयं वधूनाम् ॥ ५ ॥

Text

priyaṁ prabhur grāmya iva priyāyā
vidhitsur ārcchad dyutaruṁ yad-arthe
vajry ādravat taṁ sa-gaṇo ruṣāndhaḥ
krīḍā-mṛgo nūnam ayaṁ vadhūnām

Synonyms

priyam — of the dear wife; prabhuḥ — the Lord; grāmyaḥ — ordinary living being; iva — in the manner of; priyāyāḥ — just to please; vidhitsuḥ — wishing; ārcchat — brought about; dyutarum — the pārijāta flower tree; yat — for which; arthe — in the matter of; vajrī — Indra, the King of heaven; ādravat tam — went forward to fight with Him; sa-gaṇaḥ — with full strength; ruṣā — in anger; andhaḥ — blind; krīḍā-mṛgaḥ — henpecked; nūnam — of course; ayam — this; vadhūnām — of the wives.

Translation

Just to please His dear wife, the Lord brought back the pārijāta tree from heaven, just as an ordinary husband would do. But Indra, the King of heaven, induced by his wives (henpecked as he was), ran after the Lord with full force to fight Him.

Purport

The Lord once went to the heavenly planet to present an earring to Aditi, the mother of the demigods, and His wife Satyabhāmā also went with Him. There is a special flowering tree called the pārijāta, which grows only in the heavenly planets, and Satyabhāmā wanted this tree. Just to please His wife, like an ordinary husband, the Lord brought back the tree, and this enraged Vajrī, or the controller of the thunderbolt. Indra’s wives inspired him to run after the Lord to fight, and Indra, because he was a henpecked husband and also a fool, listened to them and dared to fight with Kṛṣṇa. He was a fool on this occasion because he forgot that everything belongs to the Lord.

There was no fault on the part of the Lord, even though He took away the tree from the heavenly kingdom, but because Indra was henpecked, dominated by his beautiful wives like Śacī, he became a fool, just as all persons who are dominated by their wives are generally foolish. Indra thought that Kṛṣṇa was a henpecked husband who only by the will of His wife Satyabhāmā took away the property of heaven, and therefore he thought that Kṛṣṇa could be punished. He forgot that the Lord is the proprietor of everything and cannot be henpecked. The Lord is fully independent, and by His will only He can have hundreds and thousands of wives like Satyabhāmā. He was not, therefore, attached to Satyabhāmā because she was a beautiful wife, but He was pleased with her devotional service and thus wanted to reciprocate the unalloyed devotion of His devotee.