Text 15] Pure Devotional Service: The Change in Heart 145

sa vai bhagavato raja
pandaveyo mahda-rathah

bala-kridanakath kridan
krsna-kridam ya ddade

sah—he; vai—certainly; bhagavatah—great devotee of the Lord; raja—
Maharaja Partksit; pandaveyah—grandson of the Pandavas; maha-rathah—a
great fighter; bala—while a child; kridanakaih—with play dolls; kridan—
playing; krsna—Lord Krsna; kridam—activities; yah— whe; @dade—accepted.

TRANSLATION

Maharaja Pariksit, the grandson of the Pandavas, was from his very
childhood a great devotee of the Lord. Even while playing with dolls, he
used to worship Lord Krsna by imitating the worship of the family Deity.

PURPORT

In the Bhagavad-gita it is stated (Bg. 6.41) that even a person who has
failed in the proper discharge of the yoga practice is given a chance to
take birth in the house of devout brahmanas or in the houses of rich men
like the ksatriya kings or rich merchants. But Maharaja Pariksit was more
than that because he was a great devotee of the Lord since his previous birth,
and as such he took his birth in an imperial family of the Kurus, and
especially that of the Pandavas. So from the very beginning of his child-
hood he had the chance of knowing intimately the devotional service of
Lord Krsna in his own family. The Pandavas, all being devotees of the
Lord, certainly venerated family Deities in the royal palace for worship.
Children who appear in such families fortunately generally imitate such
worship of the Deities, even in the way of childhood play. By the grace of
Lord Sri Krsna, we had the chance of being born in a Vaisnava family, and
in our childhood we imitated the worship of Lord Krsna by imitating our
father, and our father encouraged us in all respects to observe all functions
such as the Ratha-yatra and Dola-yatra ceremonies, and he used to spend
money liberally for distributing prasadam to us children and our friends.
Our spiritual master, who also took his birth in a Vaisnava family, got all
inspirations from his great Vaisnava father Thakur Bhaktivinode. That is
the way of all lucky Vaisnava families. The celebrated Mirabai was a
staunch devotee of Lord Krsna as the great lifter of Govardhana Hill.
