At first glance the 9th canto of "Srimad-Bhagavatam" looks like a kaleidoscope of completely different stories. Actually this canto has a very deep, important and merciful message for all of us, we will be benefited if we carefully read it.
This material world is created by the Lord for the suffering of the souls, to teach us a very important lesson, to make us apathetic to the enjoyments of this world, to help us to get free from greed. "Srimad-Bhagavatam" is describing the gradual progression of the conditioned soul, while reading it, gross anarthas will be deactivated by the mercy of Sukadeva Gosvami.
The essential message of the 9th canto is bhajana-kriya. By engaging all our senses in the service to the Lord we want to achieve the state when our heart is attached to the Lord.
According to the krama-theory 9th canto is isanukatha, or science of God. Ninth canto is describing isanukatha by describing the stories of different devotees of the Lord. It is about devotional service and the main part of it is to hear about the Lord and about devotees of the Lord.
All the scandals, which are described in this canto, are described so that we could make conclusions and not commit the same mistakes, and to understand that whoever is engaged in devotional service, despite all the difficulties which he has on the way, should be considered as mahatma. If we read these stories properly, they are supposed to create bhakti within ourselves. They are supposed to give us vijnana or experience, and vairagya or detachment.
The message of the second part of the 9th canto is not to underestimate the power of lust. The main difficulty in devotional service is kama, it will be conquered by the power of devotional service, but we should not be over-confident that we will be able to do it very quickly. The proper association with devotees can help us to overcome lust.
By describing the stories of the 9th canto of "Srimad-Bhagavatam" Sukadeva Gosvami shows the problems we encounter while engaging in the devotional service because there are many karma vasanas, which are hidden within our heart, they will surface one after another in the process of the devotional service, so the obstacles will be there. But there is a beautiful and the only way to overcome all these problems: just to eagerly hear the pastimes of the Lord, described in the 10th canto. That is why the Lord came – to give us hope. Ninth canto is about the process of anartha nivritti, and hearing about Krisna's lilas is the way to overcome our problems.