Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.15 at Damodar’s birthday celebration.
sa vai bhagavato raja
pandaveyo maha-rathah
bala-kridanakaih kridan
krana-kridam ya adade
TRANSLATION
Maharaja Pariksit, the grandson of the Pandavas, was from his very childhood a great devotee of the Lord. Even while playing with dolls, he used to worship Lord Krsna by imitating the worship of the family Deity.
COMMENT by Giriraj Swami
Birth in a good family is a facility, but it is no guarantee of anything. If you read the stories of the lives of many of Srila Prabhupada’s early disciples, there is a symmetry—they were all seeking spiritual life and ultimately came to Srila Prabhupada. I heard that Srila Prabhupada said that Lord Chaitanya placed these devotees in different families in different parts of the world so they could spread Lord Chaitanya’s movement in different countries. So we find devotees taking birth everywhere—in Africa, in China, in Russia. In all sorts of places we find natural devotees taking birth and spreading Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission in those countries.