• The Sixth Day: After praṇāmas to the guru-varga, Gurudeva opens the sixth day of the Bhāgavata-kathā, recalling kathā in London and the limits of time. Śukadeva told Parīkṣit the Tenth Canto pastimes in sequence: Pūtanā, who came with deceit yet received the destination of a nurse and mother, shows the Lord’s unmatched mercy (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.2.23); then Śakaṭāsura and Tṛṇāvarta, whose meanings Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains.
• The Donkey’s Labour: Like a donkey beaten while it carries its load, we labour for others in illusion (Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Kalyāṇa-kalpataru, Upalabdhi 2, song 4). A joke about a girl asking Ṭhākurajī for a sensible husband leads to Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, married by force yet renouncing, and to Śrīdhara Svāmī, who saw a fallen chick fed by a spider that dropped into its open mouth and so learned full surrender (Vaiṣṇava-tantra, quoted in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 22.100).
• The Name-giving and the Vrajavāsīs’ Love: At Kṛṣṇa’s name-giving Garga spoke of His three colours (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.8.13). The love we hold for sense objects should be offered to the Lord’s feet (Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Gītāvalī). The Vrajavāsīs know nothing but Kṛṣṇa; their natural, absorbing attachment is rāgātmikā bhakti (Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.272, 1.2.270), day and night thinking only of Rādhā-Govinda (‘Kothāy go premamayī’). The gopīs sing of Him while milking, churning and caring for their children (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.44.15); a sung clip is played.
• Mothers and the Home: Worldly happiness depends on the qualities of the wife, and children above all on their mothers; Prahlāda heard Nārada’s teachings in Kayādhu’s womb, so expectant mothers should hear scripture and keep sadācāra. In Vraja a new bride wakes her husband to sing of Hari; husband and wife are both Vrajavāsīs (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.44.15, recited again).
• Aghāsura and Brahmā: Aghāsura spread his jaws from earth to sky; the sakhās took him for a cave and walked in, fell senseless from the stench, and Kṛṣṇa expanded His body until the demon’s head burst. Seeing Kṛṣṇa eat the sakhās’ remnants at the forest picnic, Brahmā doubted. Nārada’s dance after receiving Nārāyaṇa’s remnants from Lakṣmī, and Rāma’s remnants taken by Sītā and His brothers, show the glory of prasāda; leave five morsels for others.
• Fathers, Wives and Vratas: Vyāsa said that in Kali-yuga women will do more bhakti, and a wife shares half her husband’s merit. Parama Gurudeva taught that the true father is Kṛṣṇa, and whoever does not worship Him suffers birth after birth (Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa 1.202; a popular verse on serving the father, source not verified). Do not unsettle those attached to vratas (Bhagavad-gītā 3.26): keep them, but connect them to the Supreme Husband. Tomorrow’s kathā is the rāsa-līlā.
• Brahmā’s Prayers and Navadvīpa: Brahmā offered some forty prayers (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.1), circumambulated hastily three times, and to remove his offence performed austerities in Navadvīpa, where Gaura told him that whoever worships Navadvīpa attains Vraja easily (Śrī Navadvīpa-śataka 78). Before the rāsa, Kṛṣṇa performed two pastimes impossible for any man; the section ends in kīrtana.
• Kāliya and Saubhari: After another Mahārāja’s Kāliya-damana kathā, Gurudeva praises the sweetness of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes (Madhurāṣṭaka 1; Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.19). Saubhari Ṛṣi, after ten thousand years of austerity in Vṛndāvana, cursed Garuḍa over a fish and through this offence to a Vaiṣṇava fell into lust and married Māndhātā’s fifty daughters. Kāliya took refuge there from Garuḍa; Kṛṣṇa sent him to Ramaṇaka-dvīpa, marked with His footprints. Coming to Gaurasundara’s shelter is His mercy.
• Kāliya’s Previous Life: A king with stomach pain was told to eat the flesh of two pigeons; dressed as a Vaiṣṇava to catch them, his heart changed and he would not kill, as even Rāvaṇa felt in a sādhu’s dress. The pigeons sent him to a sādhu in a tree hollow whose leprous foot dripped blood; the king put the caraṇāmṛta on his head instead of drinking it, and was cursed to be born a snake for his duplicity. The sādhu’s butter-soft heart then granted that in Dvāpara Kṛṣṇa would place His footprints on his head.
• Vraja and the Two Proofs: Vṛndāvana is the most blessed place on earth (Ādi Purāṇa, quoted in Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta 2.46). After the Veṇu-gīta, vastra-haraṇa and the mercy on the yājñika-patnīs, Kṛṣṇa danced on Kāliya and twice swallowed the forest fire to show He is no ordinary man before the rāsa. To Parīkṣit’s doubt about the rāsa Śukadeva answers that the powerful are not tainted, like all-devouring fire (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.33.29). Absorption in Him removes lust (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.22.26); the gopīs’ praise is the best of prayers (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.21.5).
– Putana-mokshana lila (in brief).
– Materialists in this world want more and more and suffer like donkeys.
– Sridhara Svami Maharaja leaves his 3 year old child and proceeds to Vrindavana.
– Lila: Krishna kills Aghasura.
– Females are more inclined to bhakti than males.
– Story: The King was not able to drink the footbathing water of a sadhu who had leprosy.
– Govardhana-dharana lila.
