Text 51]
Purañjana Becomes a Woman in the Next Life
1345
tatra pūrvataraḥ kaścit sakhā brāhmaṇa ātmavān sāntvayan valgunā sāmnā tām āha rudatīm prabho
tatra —in that place;  pūrvataraḥ —previous;  kaścit —someone;  sakhā —friend;  brāhmaṇaḥ —a  brāhmaṇa ;  ātmavān —very learned scholar;  sāntvayan —pacifying;  valgunā —by very nice;  sāmnā —mitigating words;  tām —unto her;  āha —he said;  rudatīm —while she was crying;  prabho —my dear King.
TRANSLATION
My dear King, one  brāhmaṇa , who was an old friend of King Purañjana, came to that place and began to pacify the Queen with sweet words.
PURPORT
The appearance of an old friend in the form of a  brāhmaṇa  is very significant. In His Paramātmā feature, Kṛṣṇa is the old friend of everyone. According to Vedic injunction, Kṛṣṇa is sitting with the living entity side by side. According to the  śruti-mantra  ( dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā ), the Lord is sitting within the heart of every living entity as  suhṛt , the best friend. The Lord is always eager to have the living entity come home, back to Godhead. Sitting with the living entity as witness, the Lord gives him all chances to enjoy himself materially, but whenever there is an opportunity, the Lord gives good counsel and advises the living entity to abandon trying to become happy through material adjustment and instead turn his face toward the Supreme Personality of Godhead and surrender unto Him. When one becomes serious to follow the mission of the spiritual master, his resolution is tantamount to seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As explained before, this means meeting the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the instruction of the spiritual master. This is technically called  vāṇī-sevā . Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākurastates in his  Bhagavad-gītā  commentary on the verse  vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kuru-nardana  (Bg. 2.41) that one should serve the words of the spiritual master. The disciple must stick to whatever the spiritual master orders. Simply by following on that line, one sees the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramātmā, appeared before the Queen as a  brāhmaṇa , but why didn't He appear in His original form as Śrī Kṛṣṇa? Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura remarks that unless one is very highly elevated in loving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one cannot