When the Gopikas went to the Yamuna to bathe, they would take with them sticks of turmeric. But they had to check the quality of the turmeric. The only way of doing that, was to rub it against a stone, to see if the colour was a rich yellow. When a stone was not available, they would use Krishna’s back as a stone, and rub the turmeric on His back! Since all the Gopikas, one after another rubbed turmeric on His back, He would go home, with a yellow tinted back!
And yet it was this personification of simplicity who made possible the Pandava victory in the Kurukshetra war, said Kidambi Narayanan, in a discourse. After the war has been won, Arjuna one day fights with some hunters in a village, and Arjuna, the great warrior is defeated by the hunters! Arjuna is shocked. He goes to Sage Vyasa and asks him how he could have lost to the hunters, when he had won the Kurukshetra war. Sage Vyasa tells him that it is not he who has won the Kurukshetra war. It is Krishna who has won it for the Pandavas. The Pandavas have won only because Krishna has been on their side.
Where Krishna is, there is prosperity. Brindavan had once been an arid area. But the moment Krishna set foot there, the area became lush with vegetation. He comes to this world, to save those who are selfish and are without spiritual thoughts. Kunti is sorry to part from Krishna and says that without Him in their midst, the Pandavas will be like a body, from which the soul has exited. Kunti prays that just as the river Ganges flows towards the ocean, her mind should only think of Him, and not go in any other direction.
