Question: Lord Balarāma especially favors Duryodhana. Yet Duryodhana mistreated the five Pāṇḍavas, the devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Lord Balarāma even wanted his sister Subhadrā to marry Duryodhana. Yet Kṛṣṇa encouraged Arjuna to marry Subhadrā by forcibly taking her away on the occasion of her intended marriage to Duryodhana. What inspiration and instruction do these pastimes of Lord Balarāma provide us?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
There is nothing but love between Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.
Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure is full of variety.
Sometimes, Kṛṣṇa likes submission, while sometimes Kṛṣṇa likes the opposite from His devotees.
For example, sometimes Rādhārani and Her gopi friends would speak harsh things to Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa likes that kind of loving exchange, even more than the total submissiveness of Candrāvalī and her group of gopis. This special kind of exchange with Rādhā and Her friends is called vāmya, or quarrelsomeness, arising from their intense love for Krsna.
Similarly, Kṛṣṇa liked very much when grandfather Bhīṣma had taken a vow that he would kill Arjuna with a specific intention of forcing Krsna to break His vow to not fight during the battle. To protect His dear devotee Arjuna is more important to Krsna than anything else, due to His quality of bhakta-vatsala, i.e. kindness to his devotees. When Bhisma created a big fight to kill Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa enjoyed the service of protecting him.
Very intimate devotees may do something which may appear to us that their behavior is in opposition to what Kṛṣṇa wants. When this is done by a devotee who has an intimate relationship with Kṛṣṇa, He likes it. We must never imitate this, however, because we do not have the spiritual qualification.
The lesson is this: Very intimate loving associates of Kṛṣṇa please Kṛṣṇa in some amazing ways. Be prepared that sometimes their loving exchange may appear to us to be something contradictory to what Kṛṣṇa wants.
Lesson: Fix your heart on wanting to please Kṛṣṇa, and in the mature stage of bhakti be ready to do whatever Kṛṣṇa wants.
