Once,while working as a hospital PCA, one devotee friend had a humorous encounter.
Sitting with an elderly patient who was a cattle farmer, he began a conversation by telling him how he knew a man in India who owned 900,000 cows. The farmer took interest and asked for this person’s name.
“ Mr Madhav” was the reply.
The elderly gentleman took this information very seriously, asking his son if he had heard of Mr Madhav, or read about him in any farm journals. Then together they began to discuss how many acres of land he would need to run so much livestock. He had his son bring a calculator for more accurate calculations.
As the conversation continued, the playful devotee told the farmer that Mr Madhav, also had a large family who helped him in his “business”. The farmer’s interest increased, until he was introduced to the fact that besides having enormous wealth, land and livestock, Mr Madhav, was married to 16,000 wives!!
Now that was too much!!
Cows? Well, maybe, it's possible.
But wives? 16,000? That's too much.
"Impossible!! Son, now I know you're pulling my leg!!!"
Yes - for a farmer to have almost a million cows might be possible - but for a man to have so many wives is totally unbelievable - Mr Madhav.
Madhava is a name for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He's the Supreme Person, so He is unlimited. He is God.
This is the message of the Srimad Bhagavatam - the cream of all Vedic spiritual literatures. There, in the tenth canto, we read about the activities [pastimes] of the Supreme Lord.
Like our simple farmer we may also have concluded that God can or cannot "do or possess" such and such. We may choose to "limit the unlimited" by our calculations. But the Srimad Bhagavatam can enlighten us.
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Once Narada Muni decided to visit Dwaraka.
He had heard that Krishna [also known as Madhava] had married many thousands of queens and was now living in Dwarka, in more than 16,000 different palaces simultanoeusly perfoming His various daily activites. He wanted to see this wonder for himself.
When he arrived, he entered one of those palaces, which was opulent with beauty beyond our imagination. There he found Krishna [Madhava] with His queen Rukmini. Within a moment Krishna rose from His seat and worshiped Narada showing him all respect as a sadhu. Narada was not confused by this, for he knew that the Lord was teaching human kind by His activities.
Then Narada visited many different palaces and in each one he found Krishna interacting with another wife and family. In each palace something different was taking place. Somewhere Krishna was perfoming His morning duties, such as preparing to take His bath. Somewhere He was playing with His children. Somewhere He was riding on a chariot, somewhere else He was hearing the Puranas or ancient Vedic histories.
In the Srimad Bhagavatam fortyone descriptions are given of Krishna's different daily affairs which were being conducted simultaneously.
Narada visited all the palaces.Then he spoke as follows.
"My Lord no one can understand the extent of Your power. You have kindly revealed this to me. Now please give me the blessing to travel and sing of Your wonderful activites where ever I may go"
So here we see that our Mr Madhav with His nine lacs of cows, can perform activities that no ordinary person can. Some might conjecture wrongly that such pastimes are merely mythology, but those who are more fortunate, hear with a little faith, and understand that the unlimited Supreme Personality of Godhead can perform unlimitedly wonderful activities.
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