It requires serious mental adjustments to enter into "understanding" the pastimes of Krishna. This account of Satrajit, the Syamantaka jewel and Jambavan is one of the "mind bogglers." Actually anything to do with Krishna is a great challenge to the mind because He is beyond the limitations of gross and subtle energy and being the source of both He can do anything. When He appears as an ordinary human and does incredible things that no ordinary human could ever do the mind has to admit its limitations.
At least a couple of specific things here. First is how Krishna can speak the language of and communicate with all living entities. Jambavan is a devotee in the form of a gorilla. Krishna engages Jambavan in fighting with Him over retrieving the Syamantaka jewel.
Evidently Jambavan was the most powerful of all the jungle animals. Even the lion could not defeat Jambavan. Krishna addresses him as King Jambavan. He is a king. He is also a devotee of the Lord.
Jambavan offers his daughter, the princess of the King of the jungle to Krishna for marriage. This is so extraordinary. This is where the mind has to do a double take over and over again. If Jambavan is a Gorilla King then his daughter is a gorilla princess. How amazing is that?
No wonder only those who aspire for devotion to Krishna would ever even consider approaching Bhagavatam. How to deal with that? Are these myths? Are they codes where animals are given human characteristics in order to teach moral lessons? No. The devotee accepts that Krishna is not an ordinary human being. He can do anything and is in fact is doing everything. If He can lift Govardhana Hill on the little finger of His left and hold it there for seven days and nights with all the inhabitants of Vrndavana taking shelter under it from the incessant downpours of Indra and they do not see anything unbelievable we have to know something very, very unusual took place on this planet five thousand years ago when Krishna manifested personally.
"Lord Krishna then addressed him as King Jambavan, because he and not the lion was actually the king of the forest with his naked hand, without a weapon, Jambavan had killed the lion. Krishna informed Jambavan that He had come to him to ask for the Syamantaka jewel because since the Syamantaka jewel had been stolen His name had been defamed by the less intelligent. Krishna plainly informed him that he had come there to ask him for the jewel in order to be free from this defamation. Jambavan understood the whole situation, and to satisfy the Lord he not only immediately delivered the Syamantaka jewel, but he also brought his daughter Jambavati, who was of marriageable age, and presented her to Lord Krishna." KB 2.1
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