|| Om Namo Bhagavathe Vasudevaya||

Chapter – 257 – The legend of Lord Krishna -  108

Shuka Bhramam speaks “ Oh! Rajan, thus Krishna released sixteen thousand women from the prison of Pragjyothishapuram, and asked them to return to their homes safely.  The women were in a dilemma, cried before Krishna and revealed their pathetic situation, they have been under the custodian of Baumasura for a long time, and if they go back to their homes they will not receive with respect, none of the youth will accept them as their wives, therefore they begged Krishna not to leave and accept them as his wives. Thus, Krishna accepted the sixteen thousand women as his wife and elevated them from ill-fortune and ill-fame.  Krishna returned to Dwaraka and married to all those sixteen thousand women, he assumed sixteen thousand forms and lived in their homes, relentlessly serving them and made them happy.”

In this legend, Krishna married to sixteen thousand women who were imprisoned by Baumasura, and gave them a decent status in the society.   If not, these women would become destitute, the society would force them to engage in various immoral deeds and manipulate them, it may result in large number of orphans appear in society.   In order to avoid the depraved act in the society, Krishna gave shelter to all those women, receiving them as wedded wife. He was neither bothered about the past history of the women in the prison of Baumasura or the society he was living in, his sole purpose was to give them a respectable position in society.

The eight wives/Ashtasakhi of Krishna represents the five elements known as Air, Water, Ether, Earth, and Fire,/Sthoola and Buddhi, Manas, Ahamkara/Sookshma.  He is Purusha who resides as a soul in living beings; he is the protector of the five elements, and the source of functioning of mind and intellect.  The sixteen thousands of wives of Krishna represents sixteen types of emotions, such as five Karmendhriyas and  Gnanedhriyas, Pancha Pranas, and Manas, therefore the supreme Lord is Purusha who is eternal and all-pervading controls the  Prakrithi which has a multifaceted nature.  Hence, the supreme Lord resides as a soul in living beings and controls the functioning of Sthoola as well as the Sookshma Shareera, once the supreme soul leaves the Sthoola Shareera is declared as a corpse.