स वै भागवतो राजा पाण्डवेयो महारथः ।
बालक्रीडनकैः क्रीडन्कृष्णक्रीडां य आददे ॥१५॥

sa vai bhÄgavato rÄjÄ
pÄṇá¸aveyo mahÄ-rathaḥ
bÄla-krÄ«á¸anakaiḥ krÄ«á¸an
kṛṣṇa-krÄ«á¸Äá¹ ya Ädade

3 times this text was mentioned in purports to other texts: LSB(3)

 saḥ - he; vai - certainly; bhÄgavataḥ - a great devotee of the Lord; rÄjÄ - MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it; pÄṇá¸aveyaḥ - grandson of the PÄṇá¸avas; mahÄ-rathaḥ - a great fighter; bÄla - while a child; krÄ«á¸anakaiḥ - with play dolls; krÄ«á¸an - playing; kṛṣṇa - Lord Kṛṣṇa; krÄ«á¸Äm - activities; yaḥ - who; Ädade - accepted.


Text

MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it, the grandson of the PÄṇá¸avas, was from his very childhood a great devotee of the Lord. Even while playing with dolls, he used to worship Lord Kṛṣṇa by imitating the worship of the family Deity.

Purport

In the Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (6.41) it is stated that even a person who has failed in the proper discharge of yoga practice is given a chance to take birth in the house of devout brÄhmaṇas or in the houses of rich men like ká¹£atriya kings or rich merchants. But MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it was more than that because he had been a great devotee of the Lord since his previous birth, and as such he took his birth in an imperial family of the Kurus, and especially that of the PÄṇá¸avas. So from the very beginning of his childhood he had the chance to know intimately the devotional service of Lord Kṛṣṇa in his own family. The PÄṇá¸avas, all being devotees of the Lord, certainly venerated family Deities in the royal palace for worship. Children who appear in such families fortunately generally imitate such worship of the Deities, even in the way of childhood play. By the grace of Lord ÅšrÄ« Kṛṣṇa, we had the chance of being born in a Vaiṣṇava family, and in our childhood we imitated the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa by imitating our father. Our father encouraged us in all respects to observe all functions such as the Ratha-yÄtrÄ and Dola-yÄtrÄ ceremonies, and he used to spend money liberally for distributing prasÄda to us children and our friends. Our spiritual master, who also took his birth in a Vaiṣṇava family, got all inspirations from his great Vaiṣṇava father, ṬhÄkura Bhaktivinoda. That is the way of all lucky Vaiṣṇava families. The celebrated MÄ«rÄ BÄÄ« was a staunch devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa as the great lifter of Govardhana Hill.

The life history of many such devotees is almost the same because there is always symmetry between the early lives of all great devotees of the Lord. According to JÄ«va GosvÄmÄ«, MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it must have heard about the childhood pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa at Vá¹›ndÄvana, for he used to imitate the pastimes with his young playmates. According to ÅšrÄ«dhara SvÄmÄ«, MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it used to imitate the worship of the family Deity by elderly members. ÅšrÄ«la ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ« also confirms the viewpoint of JÄ«va GosvÄmÄ«. So accepting either of them, MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it was naturally inclined to Lord Kṛṣṇa from his very childhood. He might have imitated either of the above-mentioned activities, and all of them establish his great devotion from his very childhood, a symptom of a mahÄ-bhÄgavata. Such mahÄ-bhÄgavatas are called nitya-siddhas, or souls liberated from birth. But there are also others, who may not be liberated from birth but who develop a tendency for devotional service by association, and they are called sÄdhana-siddhas. There is no difference between the two in the ultimate issue, and so the conclusion is that everyone can become a sÄdhana-siddha, a devotee of the Lord, simply by association with the pure devotees. The concrete example is our great spiritual master ÅšrÄ« NÄrada Muni. In his previous life he was simply a boy of a maidservant, but through association with great devotees he became a devotee of the Lord of his own standard, unique in the history of devotional service.