Srimad Bhagavatam — Dashama Skandha, Shloka 7
Draupadī Meets Kṛṣṇa’s Queens — Narratives of the Lord’s Marriages and the Queens’ Bhakti
श्रीद्रौपद्युवाच हे वैदर्भ्यच्युतो भद्रे हे जाम्बवति कौशले । हे सत्यभामे कालिन्दि शैब्ये रोहिणि लक्ष्मणे ॥ ६ ॥ हे कृष्णपत्न्य एतन्नो ब्रूते वो भगवान् स्वयम् । उपयेमे यथा लोकमनुकुर्वन् स्वमायया ॥ ७ ॥
śrī-draupady uvāca he vaidarbhy acyuto bhadre he jāmbavati kauśale he satyabhāme kālindi śaibye rohiṇi lakṣmaṇe
Śrī Draupadī said: O Vaidarbhī, Bhadrā and Jāmbavatī, O Kauśalā, Satyabhāmā and Kālindī, O Śaibyā, Rohiṇī, Lakṣmaṇā and other wives of Lord Kṛṣṇa, please tell me how the Supreme Lord Acyuta, imitating the ways of this world by His mystic power, came to marry each of you.
The Rohiṇī addressed here by Draupadī is not Lord Balarāma’s mother but another Rohiṇī, the foremost of the sixteen thousand princesses Lord Kṛṣṇa rescued from the prison of Bhaumāsura. Draupadī turns to her as the representative of all sixteen thousand, and as a virtual equal to Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eight chief queens.
FAQs
In this verse, Draupadī asks Kṛṣṇa’s queens to narrate how the Lord Himself married them, showing that He can follow worldly social customs while remaining the Supreme, acting through His own divine potency (sva-māyā).
At Kurukṣetra, Draupadī meets Kṛṣṇa’s queens and, out of devotion and curiosity about the Lord’s līlā, requests them to describe the personal ways the Supreme Lord accepted each of them in marriage.
The verse teaches that spiritual life does not require rejecting social duties; one can honor proper conduct while keeping devotion central—seeing daily roles as opportunities to serve God.