182 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

the very existence of the earth. AsI am Your eternal servant, kindly excuse
me.

“My dear Lord, You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I offer
my respectful obeisances unto You because You are the Supreme Person
and the Supreme Soul. You are the son of Vasudeva, and You are the
Supreme Lord, Krsna, the master of all pure devotees. Please accept my
prostrated obeisances. You are the personification of supreme knowledge.
You can appear anywhere according to Your desire in any one of Your
eternal forms. You are the root of all creation and the Supreme Soul of all
living entities. Due to my gross ignorance, I created great disturbance in
Vrndavana by sending torrents of rain and heavy hailstorm. I acted out of
severe anger caused by Your stopping the sacrifice which was to be held to
satisfy me. But my dear Lord, You are so kind to me that You have
bestowed Your mercy upon me by destroying all my false pride. I-therefore
take shelter unto Your lotus feet. My dear Lord, You are not only the
supreme controller, but also the spiritual master of all living entities.”

Thus praised by Indra, Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of God-
head, smiling beautifully, said, “My dear Indra, I have stopped your
sacrifice just to show My causeless mercy and to revive your memory that
I am your eternal master. I am not only your master, but I am the master
of all the other demigods as well. You should always remember that all
your material opulences are due to My mercy. Everyone should always
remember that I am the Supreme Lord. I can show anyone My favor, and
I can chastise anyone, because no one is superior to Me. If I find someone
overpowered by false pride, in order to show him My causeless mercy, I
withdraw all his opulences.”’

It is noteworthy that Krsna sometimes removes all opulences in order
to facilitate a rich man’s becoming a surrendered soul to Him. This is a
special favor of the Lord’s. Sometimes it is seen that a person is very
opulent materially, but due to his devotional service to the Lord, he may
be reduced to poverty. One should not think, however, that because he
worshiped the Supreme Lord he became poverty-stricken. The real pur-
port is that when a person is a pure devotee, but at the same time, by
miscalculation, he wants to lord it over material nature, the Lord shows
His special mercy by taking away all material opulences until at last he
surrenders unto the Supreme Lord.

After instructing Indra, Lord Krsna asked him to return to his kingdom
in the heavenly planet and to remember always that he is never the supreme
but is always subordinate to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He also
advised him to remain as King of heaven, but to be careful of false pride.

After this, the transcendental surabhi cow, who also came with Indra to
see Krsna, offered her respectful obeisances unto Him and worshiped Him.
