Five Queens Married by Krsna 19
you if you pray to Lord Visnu to become pleased with me.” The girl
Yamuna knew it well that Arjuna was a great devotee of Lord Krsna and
that if he would pray, Krsna would never deny his request. To approach
Krsna directly may sometimes be futile, but to approach Krsna through
His devotee is sure to be successful. She further told Arjuna, “My name is
Kalindi, and I live within the water of the Yamuna. My father was kind
enough to construct a special house for me within the waters of the
Yamuna, and I have vowed to remain in the water as long as I cannot find
Lord Krsna.” The message of the girl Kalindi was duly carried to Krsna by
Arjuna although Krsna, as the Supersoul of everyone’s heart, knew every-
thing. Without further discussion, Krsna immediately accepted Kalindi and
asked her to sit down on the chariot. Then all of them approached King
Yudhisthira.

After this, Krsna was asked by King Yudhisthira to help in constructing
a suitable house to be planned by the great architect Visvakarma, the
celestial engineer in the heavenly kingdom. Krsna immediately called for
Visvakarma, and He made him construct a wonderful city according to
the desire of King Yudhisthira. When this city was constructed, Maharaja
Yudhisthira requested Krsna to live with them a few days more in order to
give them the pleasure of His association. Lord Krsna accepted the request
of Maharaja Yudhisthira and remained there for many days more.

In the meantime, Krsna engaged in the pastime of offering Khandava
Forest, which belonged to King Indra. Krsna wanted to give it to Agni, the
fire-god. Khandava Forest contained many varieties of drugs, and Agni
required to-eat them for rejuvenation. Agni, however, did not touch
Khandava Forest directly, but requested Krsna to help him. Agni knew
that Krsna was very much pleased with him because he had formerly given
Him the Sudargana disc. So in order to satisfy Agni, Krsna became the
chariot driver of Arjuna, and both went to the Khandava Forest. After
Agni had eaten up the Khandava Forest, he was very much pleased. This
time, he offered a specific bow known as Gandiva, four white horses, one
chariot, and an invincible quiver with two specific arrows considered to be
talismans, which had so much power that no warrior could counteract
them. When the Khandava Forest was being devoured by the fire-god,
Agni, there was a demon of the name Maya who was saved by Arjuna from
the devastating fire. For this reason, that former demon became a great
friend of Arjuna, and in order to please Arjuna he constructed a nice
assembly house within the city constructed by Visvakarma. This assembly
house had some corners so puzzling that when Duryodhana came to visit
this house he was misdirected, accepting water as land and land as water.
