(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 February 2016, Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, UK, Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.21)
After the Govardhana pastime, Krsna went to Govardhana Hill to inspect the damage done by Indra’s thunderbolts. During the seven days that Krsna held Govardhana Hill on his little finger like an umbrella, Indra, out of being disturbed, battered Govardhana Hill with thunderbolts. These thunderbolts were very serious and could smash mountains. So Krsna was concerned about Govardhana. But when Krsna went to check out the damage done to Govardhana Hill, Indra also appeared there.
When Krsna saw Indra, he said, “Indra, you are supposed to be a devotee. How could you act in such a demoniac way? That you were ready to kill. This is the behaviour of demons. If you are supposed to be a devotee, Indra, how could you come to this demoniac point of acting?”
Indra replied, “It is because I was proud.”
Krsna continued, “Yes, but Indra, a devotee is meant to curb pride with intelligence.”
Indra said, “Krsna, I was angry. So angry, that I lost my intelligence. Therefore, I was unable to curb my pride.”
So this is interesting. Sometimes, we may look at the sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita which describes the divine and the demoniac qualities, and think to ourselves upon reading the first part of the chapter (which describes the divine qualities) that, “This is us devotees!” And then we read the second part of the chapter (which describes the demoniac qualities) and think, “This is the neighbours.” (laughter) It is very easy to read this chapter and think in such a way, but actually, we need to consider how much of Kamsa there is in ourselves; how much of Kamsa is living in us. In that way, we can read the Srimad Bhagavatam in a more engaged way.
