The Kidnapping of Subhadra 229

Lord Krsna was in favor of Arjuna; therefore, along with other members
of the family, He tried to pacify Balarama by falling at His feet and beg-
ging Him to pardon Arjuna. Lord Balarama was then convinced that
Subhadra was attached to Arjuna, and He became pleased to know that
she wanted Arjuna as her husband. The matter was settled, and in order
to please the newly married couple, Lord Balarama arranged to send a
dowry, consisting of an abundance of riches, elephants, chariots, horses,
servants and maidservants.

Maharaja Pariksit was very anxious to hear more about Krsna, and so,
after finishing the narration of Arjuna’s kidnapping Subhadra, Sukadeva
Gosvami began to narrate another story, as follows.

There was a householder brahmana in the city of Mithila, the capital of
the kingdom of Videha. This brahmana, whose name was Srutadeva, was a
great devotee of Lord Krsna. Due to his being fully Krsna conscious and
always engaged in the service of the Lord, he was completely peaceful in
mind and detached from all material attraction. He was very learned and
had no other desire than to be fully situated in Krsna consciousness. Al-
though in the order of householder life, he never took great pains to earn
anything for his livelihood; he was satisfied with whatever he could achieve
without much endeavor, and somehow or other he lived in that way. Every
day he would get necessities for life in just the quantity required, and not
more. That was his destiny. The brahmana had no desire to get more than
what he needed, and thus he was peacefully executing the regulative
principles of a brahmana’s life, as enjoined in the revealed scriptures.

Fortunately, the King of Mithila was as good a devotee as the brahmana.
The name of this famous King was Bahulagva. He was very well established
in his reputation as a good king, and he was not at all ambitious to extend
his kingdom for the sake of sense gratification. As such, both the brahmana
and King Bahulasgva remained pure devotees of Lord Krsna in Mithila.

Since Lord Krsna was very merciful upon these two devotees, King
Bahulagva and the braéhmana, Srutadeva, He one day asked His driver,
Daruka, to take His chariot into the capital city of Mithila. Lord Krsna
was accompanied by the great sages Narada, Vamadeva, Atri, Vyasadeva,
Paragurama, Asita, Aruni, Brhaspati, Kanva, Maitreya, Cyavana and others.
Lord Krsna and the sages were passing through many villages and towns,
and everywhere the citizens would receive them with great respect and
offer them articles in worship. When the citizens came to see the Lord and
all of them assembled together in one place, it seemed that the sun was
present along with his various satellite planets. In that journey, Lord
Krsna and the sages passed through the kingdoms of Anarta, Dhanva,
