Prayers Offered by Lord Brahma to Lord Krsna 111

red dyes, and Krsna and His friends painted their bodies with them. Each
of them had a bugle made of buffalo horn and a stick and a flute, and
each called his respective calves by their particular names. They were so
proud of Krsna’s wonderful activities that, while entering the village, they
all sang His glories. All the gopis in Vrndavana saw beautiful Krsna entering
the village. The boys composed nice songs describing how they were saved
from being swallowed by the great serpent and how the serpent was killed.
Some described Krsna asthe son of Yasoda, and others as the son of Nanda
Maharaja. ‘“‘He is so wonderful that He saved us from the clutches of the
great serpent and killed him,” they said. But little did they know that one
year had passed since the killing of Aghasura.

In this regard, Maharaja Partksit asked Sukadeva Gosvami how the
inhabitants of Vrndavana suddenly developed so much love for Krsna,
although Krsna was not a member of any of their families. Maharaja
Pariksit enquired, “During the absence of the original cowherd boys, when
Krsna expanded Himself, why is it that the boys’ parents became more
loving toward Him than toward their own sons? Also, why did the cows
become so loving toward the calves, more than toward their own calves?”

Sukadeva Gosvami told Maharaja Pariksit that every living entity is
actually most attached to his own self. Outward paraphernalia such as
home, family, friends, country, society, wealth, opulence, reputation, etc.,
are all only secondary in pleasing the living entity. They please only
because they bring pleasure to the self. For this reason, one is self-centered
and is attached to his body and self more than he is to relatives like wife,
children, and friends. If there is some immediate danger to one’s own
person, he first of all takes care of himself, then others. That is natural.
That means, more than anything else, he loves his own self. The next im-
portant object of affection, after his own self, is his material body. A
person who has no information of the spirit soul is very much attached to
his material body, so much so that even in old age he wants to preserve the
body in so many artificial ways, thinking that his old and broken body can
be saved. Everyone is working hard day and night just to give pleasure to
his own self, under either the bodily or spiritual concept of life. We are
attached to material possessions because they give pleasure to the senses
or to the body. The attachment to the body is there only because the “I,”
the spirit soul, is within the body. Similarly, when one is further advanced,
he knows that the spirit soul is pleasing because it is part and parcel of
Krsna. Ultimately, it is Krsna who is pleasing and all-attractive. He is the
Supersoul of everything. And in order to give us this information, Krsna
descends and tells us that the all-attractive center is He Himself. Without
