Namaskar, dandavats&pranam.
I have hard time tu understand that king Nagnajit gave to Lord Krisna in dowry 9 billion
(9.000.000.000) soldiers !?
Thank you in advance for any help.
Ys. Vikrama Kesari das
You need to be a member of ISKCON Desire Tree | IDT to add comments!
Replies
Hare Krishna prabhu,
To become wife of Lord Krishna one needs to atleast have the status of being Laxmi or Laxmi's ansha. The ashtabharya are none other than ashta laxmi avatars or each one having Laxmi's ansh in them.
To be wealthy is not a sin. To be a wealthy and yet be miser and not able to give away wealth to get a son- in law like Lord Sri Krishna is called real poverty.
When you are willingly giving up your wealth for Lord it means you are NOT giving it out of pain. You giving up your wealth because you find Krishna is real gem. What wealth can measure that gem? One who gets Krishna as son inlaw does he need material wealth anymore?
So King of Kosala Nagnajit was so overwehlmed and so much happy and contended that he gave up all his wealth to Krishna. If the son inlaw is so capable why to even feel pride in stupid material wealth when you are getting so much support of Lord
Lord married all those girls who fell in love with HIM and seeked Only HIM As theri Pati dev. Additionally, those who kings who wanted to take shelter of Dwaraka came forwards and gifted all their wealth along with their daughter to take shelter of Lord.
See kingdoms like Kosala, Avanti, Vidharba, and Samantha Rajyas like Madra, who paid taxes to Dwarka all were actually seeking shelter of the Kingdom of Dwarka for protection and support. If Lord Sri Krishna Himself comes to Swamyavar won the Swayamvara and seeked the hand of Nagnajit the King of Kosala Nagnajit completely surrendered himself to Him he gave up his wealth ( whatever he had) and his daughter and he was at peace because.. Those who are surrendered totally are under protection of Lord then there is no fear anymore?
Why does one accumulate wealth??
One accumulates wealth thinking that when bad time comes, when the kingdom is attacked by some opponent kingdom, there should be some wealth to survive the war. If the King feels he is totally protected by Sri Krishna than what is the need for the wealth anymore?
So he gave it to Krishna as Krishna will take care of all these small kingdoms and reign over them as HE IS MOST Capable.
One mistake Satrajit Maharaj did he didn't give up that Shamatak mani ( which yeilded) daily tonns of gold. He wanted to keep it with himself. Even when Krishna asked to give up that Shamantaka mani that king didn't want to give up. Sri Krishna would have used that Mani for better purposes and for humanity. It was simply treasured by Satrajit Maharaj and later it was stolen and Satrajit was killed while stealing the gem.
So, one who gives importance to wealth and gets attached to wealth and cannot use the wealth for humanity sake is a miser and his end is seen in Satrajit's murder case. Krishna must have knows this end would happen to Satrajit so, Lord asked him to give up that gem stone to Ugrasen maharaja's custody, and it would be used for humanity sake.
King of Kosala on other hand happily gave up all his wealth and surrendered completely and taken shelter of Lord, and gave his daughter also.
This is not dowry actually. It is infact freeing one self from the burden of wealth and problems attached with attachment to wealth and children.
Infact Nagnajit, King of Kosala got freedom from all kinds of attachments by givin up to Lord everything he owned and seeked complete shleter thereby he saved not only himself, he saved all his subjects also.
When a King feels old and is overwehlmed by attacks and threats from all sides. He will seek shelter of a more powerful kingdom and what is more better If Lord Himself who is the protector is going to be on his side. Does he need to withhold of any wealth anymore. Simply he can give up all that he has ( wealth, daughter, soliders) and become free of these burdens. Isn't it.
So one way I see this is not dowry infact relief of all burdens.
Hare Krishna
Dear Gayatri, pamho. Namaskar and thanku you for your kind letter.
Your servant, Vikrama Kesari das
Hare Krsna
The 9 billion figure is of servants not soldiers.
In ideal society The ratio of different Varnas is as follows
1 Brahmana , 9 Kshatriya , 90 Vaishyas, 900 Shudras = 1000 males.
Also the word used is naran, to refer to humans rather than gender. In other words that 9 billion includes male and female servants practically speaking. Also when it is said that they were given it does NOT necessarily mean that they migrated from Kingdom of Nagnajit to Dwarka. Some would have actually migrated with the bride, but not the majority. Most people lived in villages and Kings ruled villages. SO when it is mentioned they were given it would mean that Lord Krsna now would rule over thise villages and collect taxes etc. This was a common practice even during reign of Akbar Shivaji etc in India.
Now coming to the numbers of 9 billion, it appears large because current estimate of pupulation is 6.3 billion. In modern media or text books it is shown as very high. But it is not.
There 3 main ways in which population is controlled in Kali yuga
1. Abortion
2. Contraception during sex
3. Increased age for marriage
Population increases exponentially. Imagine if these methods were not used, population could rapidly grow in a matter of decades. The controllers in Kali yuga cannot control people in such large numbers, so they artificially try to keep population under control. When we go in flight or travel long distance in trains we can practically see that there so much of uncultivated/unpopulated land acres and acres of it in India, what to speak of rest of the world. Srila Prabhupada said if the administrators are dharmic, then earth can provided for 100 times more.
Also the duration of life in Dwapara yuga was higher. In kaliyuga it is hard to see 4 generations together, but in Dwapar yuga, there were 6 gnererations that were ready to participate in the battle of Mahabharat
1. Bhishma/ Vyasa 2.Vichitravirya 3.Pandu 4.Bhima 5.Ghatotkacha 6.Barbarik. (Technically Bhishma and Vichitravirya belong to same genertion but there was huge age gap since Bhishma arranged for the marriage of his father when he himself was of marriagable age and he did not marry). This is not common nowadays but we do have rare 5 generations
I can see that the numbers given in Bhagavtam as reasonable because during that time Lord Krishna and pandavas ruled the earth accroding to dharma. The population number in kali yuga are low because of artificial way of lifestyle.
Hare Krsna
Dear Bharat, thank you very much for your letter. It was wery helpful.
Namaskar and pranams.
Ys Vikrama Kesari das
Ps. In the verse it is stadet 9 bil. manservant and horses and Srila Visvanatha Cakrawarti Thakura coments 9 bilion soldiers.
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
Do you know that the number of cows that Nanda Maharaj had was 9 lakhs. OUt of these, there were various varieties of cows. The number of gopis who participated in raas lila exceeds 1 crore. Then what is the surprise that 9 crore soldiers were given in dowry to Nagnajiti.
Krsna had what is known as Narayani Sena - His army was huge, not sure - maybe 9 akshauhini battalions.
He married 16,100 princesses at one time. Everything about Krsna is extra ordinary - cannot be understood with our material senses.
These are the figures quoted in our scriptures and we believe them.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
Dear Radha Rasamayi mataji, pamho.
Thank you for your letter.
Since i am neophyte dvotee my fate is weak but i noticed that as i am learning more abhout Lord and His pastimes my fate grows.
Yours servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada ,
Vikrama Kesari das