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KB 1970-1-3 / Birth of Lord Krsna
3 / Birth of Lord Krsna
As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, the Lord says that His
appearance, birth, and activities, are all transcendental, and
one who understands them factually becomes immediately
eligible to be transferred to the spiritual world. The Lord's
appearance or birth is not like that of an ordinary man who is
forced to accept a material body according to his past deeds.
The Lord's appearance is explained in the Second Chapter: He
appears out of His own sweet pleasure. When the time was mature
for the appearance of the Lord, the constellations became very
auspicious. The astrological influence of the star known as
Rohini was also predominant because this star is considered to
be very auspicious. Rohini is under the direct supervision of
Brahma. According to the astrological conclusion, besides the
proper situation of the stars, there are auspicious and
inauspicious moments due to the different situations of the
different planetary systems. At the time of Krsna's birth, the
planetary systems were automatically adjusted so that
everything became auspicious.
At that time, in all directions, east, west, south, north,
everywhere, there was an atmosphere of peace and prosperity.
There were auspicious stars visible in the sky, and on the
surface in all towns and villages or pasturing grounds and
within the minds of everyone there were signs of good fortune.
The rivers were flowing full of waters, and lakes were
beautifully decorated with lotus flowers. The forests were full
with beautiful birds and peacocks. All the birds within the
forests began to sing with sweet voices, and the peacocks began
to dance along with their consorts. The wind blew very
pleasantly, carrying the aroma of different flowers, and the
sensation of bodily touch was very pleasing. At home, the
brahmanas, who were accustomed to offer sacrifices in the
fire, found their homes very pleasant for offerings. Due to
disturbances created by the demoniac kings, the sacrificial
fire alter had been almost stopped in the houses of brahmanas,
but now they could find the opportunity to start the fire
peacefully. Being forbidden to offer sacrifices, the brahmanas
were very distressed in mind, intelligence and
activities, but just on the point of Krsna's appearance,
automatically their minds became full of joy because they could
hear loud vibrations in the sky of transcendental
sounds proclaiming the appearance of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.
The denizens of the Gandharva and Kinnara planets began to sing,
and the denizens of Siddhaloka and the planets of the Caranas
began to offer prayers in the service of the Personality of
Godhead. In the heavenly planets, the angels along with their
wives, accompanied by the Apsaras, began
to dance.
The great sages and the demigods, being pleased, began to
shower flowers. At the seashore, there was the sound of mild
waves, and above the sea there were clouds in the sky which
began to thunder very pleasingly.
When things were adjusted like this, Lord Visnu, who is
residing within the heart of every living entity, appeared in
the darkness of night as the Supreme Personality of Godhead
before Devaki, who also appeared as one of the demigoddesses.
The appearance of Lord Visnu at that time could be compared
with the full moon in the sky as it rises on the eastern
horizon. The objection may be raised that, since Lord Krsna
appeared on the eighth day of the waning moon, there could be
no rising of the full moon. In answer to this it may be said
that Lord Krsna appeared in the dynasty which is in the
hierarchy of the moon; therefore, although the moon was
incomplete on that night, because of the Lord's appearance in
the dynasty wherein the moon is himself the original person,
the moon was in an overjoyous condition, so by the grace of
Krsna he could appear just as a full moon.
In an astronomical treatise by the name Khamanikya, the
constellations at the time of the appearance of Lord Krsna are
very nicely described. It is confirmed that the child born at
that auspicious moment was the Supreme Brahman or the Absolute
Truth.
Vasudeva saw that wonderful child born as a baby with four
hands, holding conchshell, club, disc, and lotus flower,
decorated with the mark of Srivatsa, wearing the jeweled
necklace of kaustubha stone, dressed in yellow silk, appearing
dazzling like a bright blackish cloud, wearing a helmet
bedecked with the vaidurya stone, valuable bracelets, earrings
and similar other ornaments all over His body and
an abundance of hair on His head. Due to the extraordinary
features of the child, Vasudeva was struck with wonder. How
could a newly born child be so decorated? He could
therefore understand that Lord Krsna had now appeared, and he
became overpowered by the occasion. Vasudeva very humbly
wondered that although he was an ordinary living entity
conditioned by material nature and was externally imprisoned by
Kamsa, the all-pervading Personality of Godhead, Visnu or
Krsna, was appearing as a child in his home, exactly in His
original position. No earthly child is born with four hands
decorated with ornaments and nice clothing, fully equipped with
all the signs of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Over and
over again, Vasudeva glanced at his child, and he considered
how to celebrate this auspicious moment: "Generally, when a
male child is born," he thought, "people observe the occasion
with jubilant celebrations, and in my home, although I am
imprisoned, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has taken birth.
How many millions of millions of times should I be prepared to
observe this auspicious ceremony!"
When Vasudeva, who is also called Anakadundubhi, was looking at
his newborn baby, he was so happy that he wanted to give many
thousands of cows in charity to the brahmanas. According to the
Vedic system, whenever there is an auspicious ceremony in the
ksatriya king's palace, the king gives many things
in charity. Cows decorated with golden ornaments are delivered
to the brahmanas and sages. Vasudeva wanted to perform a
charitable ceremony to celebrate Krsna's appearance, but
because he was shackled within the walls of Kamsa's prison,
this was not possible. Instead, within his mind he gave
thousands of cows to the brahmanas.
When Vasudeva was convinced that the newborn child was the
Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, he bowed down with
folded hands and began to offer Him prayers. At that time
Vasudeva was in the transcendental position, and he became
completely free from all fear of Kamsa. The newborn baby was
also flashing His effulgence within the room in which He
appeared.
Vasudeva then began to offer his prayers. "My dear Lord, I can
understand who You are. You are the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, the Supersoul of all living entities and the Absolute
Truth. You have appeared in Your own eternal form which is
directly perceived by us. I understand that because I am afraid
of Kamsa, You have appeared just to deliver me from that fear.
You do not belong to this material world; You are the same
person who brings about the cosmic manifestation simply by
glancing over material nature."
One may argue that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who
creates the whole cosmic manifestation simply by His glance,
cannot come within the womb of Devaki, the wife of Vasudeva. To
eradicate this argument, Vasudeva said, "My dear Lord, it is
not a very wonderful thing that You appear within the
womb of Devaki because the creation was also made in that way.
You were lying in the Causal Ocean as Maha-Visnu, and by Your
breathing process, innumerable universes came into existence.
Then You entered into each of the universes as Garbhodakasayi
Visnu. Then again You expanded Yourself as Ksirodakasayi Visnu
and entered into the hearts of all living entities and entered
even within the atoms. Therefore Your entrance in the womb of
Devaki is understandable in the same way. You appear to have
entered, but You are simultaneously all-pervading. We can
understand Your entrance and nonentrance from material examples.
The total material energy remains intact even after being
divided into sixteen elements. The material body is nothing but
the combination of the five gross elements -- namely earth,
water, fire, air and ether. Whenever there is a material body,
it appears that such elements are newly created, but actually
the elements are always existing outside of the body. Similarly,
although You appear as a child in the womb of Devaki,
You are also existing outside. You are always in Your abode,
but still You can simultaneously expand Yourself into millions
of forms.
"One has to understand Your appearance with great intelligence
because the material energy is also emanating from You. You are
the original source of the material energy, just as the sun is
the source of the sunshine. The sunshine cannot cover the sun
globe, nor can the material energy -- being an emanation from
You -- cover You. You appear to be in the three modes of
material energy, but actually the three modes of material
energy cannot cover You. This is understood by the highly
intellectual philosophers. In other words, although You appear
to be within the material energy, You are never covered by it."
We hear from the Vedic version that the Supreme Brahman
exhibits His effulgence, and therefore everything becomes
illuminated. We can understand from Brahma-samhita that the
brahmajyoti, or the Brahman effulgence, emanates from the
body of the Supreme Lord. And from the Brahman effulgence, all
creation takes place. It is further stated in the Bhagavad-gita
that the Lord is also the support of the Brahman effulgence.
Originally He is the root cause of everything. But
persons who are less intelligent think that when the Supreme
Personality of Godhead comes within this material world, He
accepts the material qualities. Such conclusions are not very
mature, but are made by the less intelligent.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is directly and indirectly
existing everywhere; He is outside this material creation, and
He is also within it. He is within this material creation not
only as Garbhodakasayi Visnu; He is also within the atom.
Existence is due to His presence. Nothing
can be separated from His existence. In the Vedic injunction
we find that the Supreme Soul or the root cause of everything
has to be searched out because nothing exists independent of
the Supreme Soul. Therefore the material manifestation is also
a transformation of His potency. Both inert matter and the
living force -- soul -- are emanations from Him. Only the
foolish conclude that when the Supreme Lord appears He accepts
the conditions of matter. Even if He appears to have accepted
the material body, He is still not subjected to any material
condition. Krsna has therefore appeared and defeated all
imperfect conclusions about the appearance and disappearance of
the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
"My Lord, Your appearance, existence and disappearance are
beyond the influence of the material qualities. Because Your
Lordship is the controller of everything and the resting
place of the Supreme Brahman, there is nothing
inconceivable or contradictory in You. As You have said,
material nature works under Your superintendence. It is just
like government officers working under the orders of the
chief executive. The influence of subordinate activities cannot
affect You. The Supreme Brahman and all
phenomena are existing within You, and all the
activities of material nature are controlled by Your Lordship.
"You are called suklam. Suklam, or 'whiteness' is the symbolic
representation of the Absolute Truth because it is unaffected
by the material qualities. Lord Brahma is called rakta, or red,
because Brahma represents the qualities of passion for creation.
Darkness is entrusted to Lord Siva because he annihilates the
cosmos. The creation, annihilation and maintenance of this
cosmic manifestation is conducted by Your potencies, yet You
are always unaffected by those qualities. As confirmed in the
Vedas, Harir hi nirgunah saksat: the Supreme Personality of
Godhead is always free from all material qualities. It is also
said that the qualities of passion and ignorance are
nonexistent in the person of the Supreme Lord.
"My Lord, You are the supreme controller, the Personality of
Godhead, the supreme great, maintaining the order of this
cosmic manifestation. And in spite of Your being the supreme
controller, You have so kindly appeared in my home. The purpose
of Your appearance is to kill the followers of the demonic
rulers of the world who are in the dress of royal princes but
are actually demons. I am sure that You will kill all of them
and their followers and soldiers.
"I understand that You have appeared to kill the
uncivilized Kamsa and his followers. But knowing that You were
to appear to kill him and his followers, he has
already killed so many of Your predecessors, elder
brothers. Now he is simply awaiting the news of Your birth. As
soon as he hears about it, he will immediately appear with all
kinds of weapons to kill You."
After this prayer of Vasudeva, Devaki, the mother of Krsna,
offered her prayers. She was very frightened because of her
brother's atrocities. Devaki said, "My dear Lord, Your eternal
forms, like Narayana, Lord Rama, Sesa, Varaha, Nrsimha,
Vamana, Baladeva, and millions of similar incarnations
emanating from Visnu, are described in the Vedic literature as
original. You are original because all Your forms as
incarnations are outside of this material creation. Your form
was existing before this cosmic manifestation was created. Your
forms are eternal and all-pervading. They are self-effulgent,
changeless and uncontaminated by the material qualities. Such
eternal forms are ever-cognizant and full of bliss;
they are situated in transcendental goodness and are always
engaged in different pastimes. You are not limited to a
particular form only; all such transcendental eternal forms
are self-sufficient. I can understand that You are the Supreme
Lord Visnu.
"After many millions of years, when Lord Brahma comes to the
end of his life, the annihilation of the cosmic manifestation
takes place. At that time the five elements -- namely earth,
water, fire, air and ether -- enter into the mahat-tattva. The
mahat-tattva again enters, by the force of time, into the
nonmanifested total material energy; the total material energy
enters into the energetic pradhana, and the pradhana enters
into You. Therefore after the annihilation of the whole cosmic
manifestation, You alone remain with Your transcendental name,
form, quality and paraphernalia.
"My Lord, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You because You
are the director of the unmanifested total energy, and the
ultimate reservoir of the material nature. My Lord, the whole
cosmic manifestation is under the influence of time, beginning
from the moment up to the duration of the year. All act under
Your direction. You are the original director of everything and
the reservoir of all potent energies.
"Therefore my Lord, I request You to save me from the cruel
hands of the son of Ugrasena, Kamsa. I am praying to
Your Lordship to please rescue me from this fearful condition
because You are always ready to give protection to Your
servitors." The Lord has confirmed this statement in the
Bhagavad-gita by assuring Arjuna, "You may declare to the world,
My devotee shall never be vanquished."
While thus praying to the Lord for rescue, mother Devaki
expressed her motherly affection: "I understand
that this transcendental form is generally perceived in
meditation by the great sages, but I am still afraid because as
soon as Kamsa understands that You have appeared, he might harm
You. So I request that for the time being You become invisible
to our material eyes." In other words, she requested the Lord
to assume the form of an ordinary child. "My only cause of fear
from my brother Kamsa is due to Your appearance. My Lord
Madhusudana, Kamsa may know that You are already born.
Therefore I request You to conceal this four-armed form of Your
Lordship which holds the four symbols of Visnu -- namely the
conchshell, the disc, the club and the lotus flower. My dear
Lord, at the end of the annihilation of the cosmic
manifestation, You put the whole universe within Your abdomen;
still by Your unalloyed mercy You have appeared in my womb. I
am surprised that You imitate the activities of ordinary human
beings just to please Your devotee."
On hearing the prayers of Devaki, the Lord replied, "My dear
mother, in the millennium of Svayambhuva Manu, My father
Vasudeva was living as one of the Prajapatis, and his name at
that time was Sutapa, and you were his wife named Prsni. At
that time, when Lord Brahma was desiring to increase the
population, he requested you to generate offspring. You
controlled your senses and performed severe austerities. By
practicing the breathing exercise of the yoga system, both you
and your husband could tolerate all the influences of the
material laws: the rainy season, the onslaught of the wind, and
the scorching heat of the sunshine. You also executed all
religious principles. In this way you were able to cleanse your
heart and control the influence of material law. In
executing your austerity, you used to eat only the leaves of
the trees which fell to the ground. Then with steady mind and
controlled sex drive, you worshiped Me, desiring some wonderful
benediction from Me. Both of you practiced severe austerities
for 12,000 years, by the calculation of the
demigods. During that time, your mind was always absorbed in Me.
When you were executing devotional service and always thinking
of Me within your heart, I was very much pleased with you. O
sinless mother, your heart is therefore always pure. At that
time also I appeared before you in this form just to fulfill
your desire, and I asked you to ask whatever you desired. At
that time you wished to have Me born as your son. Although you
saw Me personally, instead of asking for your complete
liberation from the material bondage, under the influence of My
energy, you asked Me to become your son."
In other words, the Lord
selected His mother and father -- namely Prsni and Sutapa --
specifically to appear in the material world. Whenever
the Lord comes as a human being, He must have someone as a
mother and father, so He selected Prsni and Sutapa
perpetually as His mother and father. And on account of this,
both Prsni and Sutapa could not ask the Lord for liberation.
Liberation is not so important as the transcendental loving
service of the Lord. The Lord could have awarded Prsni and
Sutapa immediate liberation, but He preferred to keep them
within this material world for His different appearances, as
will be explained in the following verses. On receiving the
benediction from the Lord to become His father and mother, both
Prsni and Sutapa returned from the activities of austerity and
lived as husband and wife in order to beget a child who was the
Supreme Lord Himself.
In due course of time Prsni became pregnant and gave birth to
the child. The Lord spoke to Devaki and Vasudeva: "At that time
My name was Prsnigarbha. In the next millennium also you took
birth as Aditi and Kasyapa, and I became your child of the name
Upendra. At that time My form was just like a dwarf, and for
this reason I was known as Vamanadeva. I gave you the
benediction that I would take birth as your son three times.
The first time I was known as Prsnigarbha, born of Prsni and
Sutapa, the next birth I was Upendra born of Aditi and
Kasyapa, and now for the third time I am born as Krsna from you,
Devaki and Vasudeva. I appeared in this Visnu form just
to convince you that I am the same Supreme Personality of
Godhead again taken birth. I could have appeared just like an
ordinary child, but in that way you would not believe that
I, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, have taken birth in
your womb. My dear father and mother, you have therefore raised
Me many times as your child, with great affection and love, and
I am therefore very pleased and obliged to you. And I
assure you that this time you shall go back to home, back to
Godhead, on account of your perfection in your mission. I know
you are very concerned about Me and afraid of Kamsa. Therefore
I order you to take Me immediately to Gokula and replace Me
with the daughter who has just been born to Yasoda."
Having spoken thus in the presence of His father and mother,
the Lord turned Himself into an ordinary child
and remained silent.
Being ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva
attempted to take his son from the delivery room, and exactly
at that time, a daughter was born of Nanda and Yasoda. She was
Yogamaya, the internal potency of the Lord. By the influence of
this internal potency, Yogamaya, all the residents of Kamsa's
palace, especially the doorkeepers, were overwhelmed with deep
sleep, and all the palace doors opened, although they were
barred and shackled with iron chains. The night was very dark,
but as soon as Vasudeva took Krsna on his lap and went out, he
could see everything just as in the sunlight.
In the Caitanya-caritamrta it is said that Krsna is just like
sunlight, and wherever there is Krsna, the illusory energy,
which is compared to darkness, cannot remain. When Vasudeva
was carrying Krsna, the darkness of the night disappeared. All
the prison doors automatically opened. At the same time there
was a thunder in the sky and severe rainfall. While Vasudeva
was carrying his son Krsna in the falling rain, Lord Sesa in
the shape of a serpent spread His hood over the head of
Vasudeva so that he would not be hampered by the rainfall.
Vasudeva came onto the bank of the Yamuna and saw that the
water of the Yamuna was roaring with waves and that the whole
span was full of foam. Still, in that furious feature, the
river gave passage to Vasudeva to cross, just as the great
Indian Ocean gave a path to Lord Rama when He was bridging over
the gulf. In this way Vasudeva crossed the river Yamuna. On the
other side, he went to the place of Nanda Maharaja situated in
Gokula, where he saw that all the cowherd men were fast asleep.
He took the opportunity of silently entering into the house of
Yasoda, and without difficulty he replaced his son, taking
away the baby girl newly born in the house of Yasoda. Then,
after entering the house very silently and exchanging the boy
with the girl, he again returned to the prison of Kamsa and
silently put the girl on the lap of Devaki. He again clamped
the shackles on himself so that Kamsa could not recognize that
so many things had happened.
Mother Yasoda understood that a child was born of her, but
because she was very tired from the labor of childbirth, she
was fast asleep. When she awoke, she could not remember
whether she had given birth to a male or female child.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Third Chapter of
Krsna, "Birth of Lord Krsna."
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KB 3: The Birth of Lord Krsna
CHAPTER THREE
The Birth of Lord Krsna
In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that His
appearance, birth and activities are all transcendental and
that one who understands them factually becomes immediately
eligible to be transferred to the spiritual world. The Lord's
appearance or birth is not like that of an ordinary man, who is
forced to accept a material body according to his past deeds.
The Lord's appearance is explained in the Second Chapter: He
appears out of His own sweet pleasure. When the time was mature
for the appearance of the Lord, the constellations became very
auspicious. The astrological influence of the star known as
Rohini was predominant. This star is considered to
be very auspicious and is under the direct supervision of
Brahma. According to the astrological conclusion, besides the
proper situation of the stars, there are auspicious and
inauspicious moments due to the different situations of the
different planetary systems. At the time of Krsna's birth, the
planetary systems were automatically adjusted so that
everything became auspicious.
At that time, in all directions -- east, west, south, north,
everywhere -- there was an atmosphere of peace and prosperity.
There were auspicious stars visible in the sky, and on the
surface in all towns and villages and pasturing grounds and
within the minds of everyone there were signs of good fortune.
The rivers were flowing full of waters, and lakes were
beautifully decorated with lotus flowers. The forests were full
with beautiful birds and peacocks. All the birds within the
forests began to sing with sweet voices, and the peacocks began
to dance along with their consorts. The wind blew very
pleasantly, carrying the aroma of different flowers, and the
sensation of bodily touch was very pleasing. At home, the
brahmanas, who were accustomed to offering sacrifices in the
fire, found their homes very pleasant for offerings. Due to
disturbances created by the demoniac kings, the sacrificial
fire had been almost stopped in the houses of brahmanas,
but now they could find the opportunity to start the fire
peacefully. Being forbidden to offer sacrifices, the brahmanas
had been very much distressed in mind, intelligence and
activities, but just on the point of Krsna's appearance,
automatically their minds became full of joy because they could
hear transcendental vibrations in the sky
proclaiming the appearance of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.
The denizens of the Gandharva and Kinnara planets began to sing,
and the denizens of Siddhaloka and the planets of the Caranas
began to offer prayers in the service of the Personality of
Godhead. In the heavenly planets, the angels and their
wives, along with the Vidyadharas and their wives, began
to dance.
The great sages and the demigods, being pleased, began to
shower flowers. At the seashore there was the sound of mild
waves, and above the sea there were clouds in the sky which
began to thunder very pleasingly.
When things were adjusted like this, Lord Visnu, who is
residing within the heart of every living entity, appeared in
the darkness of night as the Supreme Personality of Godhead
before Devaki, who appeared as one of the demigoddesses.
The appearance of Lord Visnu at that time could be compared
to the rising of the full moon over the eastern
horizon. The objection may be raised that since Lord Krsna
appeared on the eighth day of the waning moon, there could be
no rising of the full moon. In answer to this it may be said
that Lord Krsna appeared in the dynasty which is in the
hierarchy of the moon; therefore, although the moon was
incomplete on that night, because of the Lord's appearance in
the dynasty wherein the moon is himself the original person,
the moon was in an overjoyous condition, so by the grace of
Krsna he could appear just like a full moon.
In an astronomical treatise by the name Khamanikya, the
constellations at the time of the appearance of Lord Krsna are
very nicely described. It is confirmed that the child born at
that auspicious moment was the Supreme Brahman, or the Absolute
Truth.
Vasudeva saw that wonderful child born as a baby with four
hands, holding conchshell, club, disc and lotus flower,
decorated with the mark of Srivatsa, wearing the jeweled
necklace of kaustubha stone, dressed in yellow silk, appearing
dazzling like a bright blackish cloud, wearing a helmet
bedecked with the vaidurya stone, valuable bracelets, earrings
and similar other ornaments all over His body, and beautified
by an abundance of hair on His head. Due to the extraordinary
features of the child, Vasudeva was struck with wonder. How
could a newly born child be so decorated? Vasudeva could
therefore understand that Lord Krsna had now appeared, and he
became overpowered by the occasion. Vasudeva very humbly
wondered that although he was an ordinary living entity
conditioned by material nature and was externally imprisoned by
Kamsa, the all-pervading Personality of Godhead, Visnu, or
Krsna, was appearing as a child in his home, exactly in His
original position. No earthly child is born with four hands,
decorated with ornaments and nice clothing, fully equipped with
all the signs of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Over and
over again Vasudeva glanced at his child, and he considered
how to celebrate this auspicious moment: "Generally, when a
male child is born," he thought, "people observe the occasion
with jubilant celebrations, and in my home, although I am
imprisoned, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has taken birth.
How many millions and millions of times should I be prepared to
observe this auspicious ceremony!"
When Vasudeva, who is also called Anakadundubhi, was looking at
his newborn baby, he was so happy that he wanted to give many
thousands of cows in charity to the brahmanas. According to the
Vedic system, whenever there is an auspicious ceremony in the
ksatriya king's palace, out of joy the king gives many things
in charity. Cows decorated with golden ornaments are delivered
to the brahmanas and sages. Vasudeva wanted to perform a
charitable ceremony to celebrate Krsna's appearance, but
because he was shackled within the walls of Kamsa's prison,
this was not possible. Instead, within his mind he gave
thousands of cows to the brahmanas.
When Vasudeva was convinced that the newborn child was the
Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, he bowed down with
folded hands and began to offer Him prayers. At that time
Vasudeva was in the transcendental position, and he became
completely free from all fear of Kamsa. The newborn baby was
also flashing His effulgence within the room in which He
appeared.
Vasudeva then began to offer his prayers. "My dear Lord, I can
understand who You are. You are the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, the Supersoul of all living entities and the Absolute
Truth. You have appeared in Your own eternal form, which is
directly perceived by us. I understand that because I am afraid
of Kamsa You have appeared just to deliver me from that fear.
You do not belong to this material world; You are the same
person who brings about the cosmic manifestation simply by
glancing over material nature."
One may argue that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who
creates the whole cosmic manifestation simply by His glance,
cannot come within the womb of Devaki, the wife of Vasudeva. To
eradicate this argument, Vasudeva said, "My dear Lord, it is
not a very wonderful thing that You have appeared within the
womb of Devaki, because the creation was also made in that way.
You were lying in the Causal Ocean as Maha-Visnu, and by Your
breathing process, innumerable universes came into existence.
Then You entered into each of the universes as Garbhodakasayi
Visnu. Then again You expanded Yourself as Ksirodakasayi Visnu
and entered into the hearts of all living entities and
even within the atoms. Therefore Your entrance into the womb of
Devaki is understandable in the same way. You appear to have
entered, but You are simultaneously all-pervading. We can
understand Your entrance and nonentrance from material examples.
The total material energy remains intact even after being
divided into sixteen elements. The material body is nothing but
the combination of the five gross elements -- namely earth,
water, fire, air and ether. Whenever there is a material body,
it appears that such elements are newly created, but actually
the elements are always existing outside of the body. Similarly,
although You have appeared as a child in the womb of Devaki,
You are also existing outside. You are always in Your abode,
but still You can simultaneously expand Yourself into millions
of forms.
"One has to understand Your appearance with great intelligence
because the material energy is also emanating from You. You are
the original source of the material energy, just as the sun is
the source of the sunshine. The sunshine cannot cover the sun
globe, nor can the material energy -- being an emanation from
You -- cover You. You appear to be in the three modes of
material energy, but actually the three modes of material
energy cannot cover You. This is understood by the highly
intellectual philosophers. In other words, although You appear
to be within the material energy, You are never covered by it."
We hear from the Vedic version that the Supreme Brahman
exhibits His effulgence and therefore everything becomes
illuminated. We can understand from the Brahma-samhita that the
brahma-jyoti, or the Brahman effulgence, emanates from the
body of the Supreme Lord. And from the Brahman effulgence, all
creation takes place. It is also stated in the Bhagavad-gita
that the Lord is the support of the Brahman effulgence.
Therefore, originally He is the root cause of everything. But
persons who are less intelligent think that when the Supreme
Personality of Godhead comes within this material world He
accepts the material qualities. Such conclusions are not very
mature but are made by the less intelligent.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is directly and indirectly
existing everywhere; He is outside this material creation, and
He is also within it. He is within this material creation not
only as Garbhodakasayi Visnu; He is also within the atom.
The existence of the atom is due to His presence. Nothing
can be separated from His existence. In the Vedic injunctions
we find that the Supreme Soul, or the root cause of everything,
has to be searched out because nothing exists independently of
the Supreme Soul. Therefore the material manifestation is also
a transformation of His potency. Both inert matter and the
living force -- the soul -- are emanations from Him. Only the
foolish conclude that when the Supreme Lord appears He accepts
the conditions of matter. Even if He appears to have accepted
a material body, He is still not subjected to any material
condition. Krsna has therefore appeared and defeated all
imperfect conclusions about the appearance and disappearance of
the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
"My Lord, Your appearance, existence and disappearance are
beyond the influence of the material qualities. Because Your
Lordship is the Supreme Brahman and the controller
of everything, there is nothing
inconceivable or contradictory in You. As You have said,
material nature works under Your superintendence, just
like a government officer working under the orders of the
chief executive. The influence of subordinate activities cannot
affect You. Since You are the Supreme Brahman,
everything is existing within You, and since all the
activities of material nature are controlled by Your Lordship,
none of these activities affect You.
"You are called suklam. Suklam, or "whiteness," is the symbolic
representation of the Absolute Truth because it is unaffected
by the material qualities. Lord Brahma is called rakta, or red,
because Brahma represents the quality of passion for creation.
Darkness is entrusted to Lord Siva because he annihilates the
cosmos. The creation, annihilation and maintenance of this
cosmic manifestation are conducted by Your potencies, yet You
are always unaffected by those qualities. As confirmed in the
Vedas, harir hi nirgunah saksat: "The Supreme Personality of
Godhead is always free from all material qualities." It is also
said that the qualities of passion and ignorance are
nonexistent in the person of the Supreme Lord.
"My Lord, You are the supreme controller, the Personality of
Godhead, the supreme great, maintaining the order of this
cosmic manifestation. Yet in spite of Your being the supreme
controller, You have so kindly appeared in my home. The purpose
of Your appearance is to kill the followers of the demoniac
rulers of the world, who are in the dress of royal princes but
are actually demons. I am sure that You will kill all of them
and their followers and soldiers.
"I understand that You have appeared in order to kill the
uncivilized Kamsa and his followers. But knowing that You were
to appear in order to kill him and his followers, he has
already killed so many of Your predecessors, Your elder
brothers. Now he is simply awaiting the news of Your birth. As
soon as he hears about it, he will immediately appear with all
kinds of weapons to kill You."
After this prayer of Vasudeva, Devaki, the mother of Krsna,
offered her prayers. She was very frightened because of her
brother's atrocities. Devaki said, "My dear Lord, Your eternal
forms, like Narayana, Lord Rama, Hayasirsa, Varaha, Nrsimha,
Vamana, Baladeva and millions of similar incarnations
emanating from Visnu, are described in the Vedic literature as
original. You are original because all Your forms as
incarnations are outside of this material creation. Your form
was existing before this cosmic manifestation was created. Your
forms are eternal and all-pervading. They are self-effulgent,
changeless and uncontaminated by the material qualities. Such
eternal forms are evercognizant and full of bliss;
they are situated in transcendental goodness and are always
engaged in different pastimes. You are not limited to a
particular form only; all such transcendental, eternal forms
are self-sufficient. I can understand that You are the Supreme
Lord Visnu.
"After many millions of years, when Lord Brahma comes to the
end of his life, the annihilation of the cosmic manifestation
takes place. At that time the five elements -- namely earth,
water, fire, air and ether -- enter into the mahat-tattva. The
mahat-tattva then enters, by the force of time, into the
nonmanifested total material energy, the total material energy
enters into the energetic pradhana, and the pradhana enters
into You. Therefore after the annihilation of the whole cosmic
manifestation, You alone remain with Your transcendental name,
form, qualities and paraphernalia.
"My Lord, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You because You
are the director of the unmanifested total energy and the
ultimate reservoir of the material nature. My Lord, the whole
cosmic manifestation is under the influence of time, beginning
from the moment up to the duration of the year. All act under
Your direction. You are the original director of everything and
the reservoir of all potent energies.
"All the conditioned souls are continually fleeing from one
body to another and one planet to another, yet they do not get
free from the onslaught of birth and death. But when one of
these fearful living entities comes under the shelter of Your
lotus feet, he can lie down without anxiety of being attacked
by formidable death." This statement by Devaki is confirmed in
the Bhagavad-gita by the Lord Himself. There the Lord says that
even after traveling all over the universe, from Brahmaloka to
Patalaloka, one cannot escape the attack of birth, death,
disease and old age. But one who enters the kingdom of God, the
Lord says, is never again obliged to come to the material world.
"Therefore, my Lord, I request You to save me from the cruel
hands of Kamsa, the son of Ugrasena. I am praying to
Your Lordship to please rescue me from this fearful condition
because You are always ready to give protection to Your
servitors." The Lord has confirmed this statement in the
Bhagavad-gita by assuring Arjuna, "You may declare to the world,
My devotee shall never be vanquished."
While thus praying to the Lord for rescue, Mother Devaki
nonetheless expressed her motherly affection: "I understand
that this transcendental form is generally perceived in
meditation by the great sages, but I am still afraid because as
soon as Kamsa understands that You have appeared, he might harm
You. So I request that for the time being You become invisible
to our material eyes." In other words, she requested the Lord
to assume the form of an ordinary child. "My only cause of fear
from my brother Kamsa is due to Your appearance. My Lord
Madhusudana, Kamsa may not know that You are already born.
Therefore I request You to conceal this four-armed form of Your
Lordship, which holds the four symbols of Visnu -- namely the
conchshell, the disc, the club and the lotus flower. My dear
Lord, at the end of the annihilation of the cosmic
manifestation, You put the whole universe within Your abdomen;
still, by Your unalloyed mercy You have appeared in my womb. I
am surprised that You imitate the activities of ordinary human
beings just to please Your devotee."
On hearing the prayers of Devaki, the Lord replied, "My dear
mother, in the millennium of Svayambhuva Manu, My father
Vasudeva was living as one of the Prajapatis. His name at
that time was Sutapa, and you were his wife named Prsni. At
that time, when Lord Brahma was desiring to increase the
population, he requested you to generate offspring. You
controlled your senses and performed severe austerities. By
practicing the breathing exercises of the yoga system, both you
and your husband could tolerate all the influences of the
material laws: the rainy season, the onslaught of the wind, and
the scorching heat of the sunshine. You also executed all
religious principles. In this way you were able to cleanse your
heart and control the influences of the material laws. In
executing your austerity, you used to eat only the leaves of
the trees which fell to the ground. Then with a steady mind and
controlled sex drive, you worshiped Me, desiring some wonderful
benediction from Me. Both of you practiced severe austerities
for twelve thousand years by the calculation of the
demigods. During that time, your mind was always absorbed in Me.
When you were executing devotional service and always thinking
of Me within your heart, I was very much pleased with you. O
sinless mother, your heart is therefore always pure. At that
time also I appeared before you in this form just to fulfill
your desire, and I asked you to ask whatever you desired. At
that time you wished to have Me born as your son. Although you
saw Me personally, instead of asking for your complete
liberation from material bondage, under the influence of My
energy you asked Me to become your son."
In other words, to appear in the material world the Lord
selected His mother and father -- namely Prsni and Sutapa,
respectively. Whenever
the Lord comes as a human being, He must have a
mother and a father, so He selected Prsni and Sutapa
perpetually as His mother and father. And on account of this,
neither Prsni nor Sutapa could ask the Lord for liberation.
Liberation is not so important as the transcendental loving
service of the Lord. The Lord could have awarded Prsni and
Sutapa immediate liberation, but He preferred to keep them
within this material world for His different appearances, as
will be explained in the following verses. On receiving the
benediction from the Lord to become His father and mother,
Prsni and Sutapa retired from the activities of austerity and
lived as husband and wife in order to beget a child who was the
Supreme Lord Himself.
In due course of time Prsni became pregnant and gave birth to
the child. The Lord spoke to Devaki and Vasudeva: "At that time
My name was Prsnigarbha. In the next millennium you took
birth as Aditi and Kasyapa, and I became your child of the name
Upendra. At that time My form was just like a dwarf, and for
this reason I was known as Vamanadeva. I gave you the
benediction that I would take birth as your son three times.
The first time I was known as Prsnigarbha, born of Prsni and
Sutapa, in the next birth I was Upendra, born of Aditi and
Kasyapa, and now for the third time I am born as Krsna from you,
Devaki and Vasudeva. I have appeared in this Visnu form just
to convince you that I am the same Supreme Personality of
Godhead again taken birth. I could have appeared just like an
ordinary child, but in that way you would not have believed
that the Supreme Personality of Godhead had taken birth in
your womb. My dear father and mother, you have therefore raised
Me many times as your child, with great affection and love, and
I am therefore very much pleased and obliged to you. And I
assure you that this time you shall go back home, back to
Godhead, on account of your perfection in your mission. I know
you are very concerned about Me and afraid of Kamsa. Therefore
I order you to take Me immediately to Gokula and exchange Me
for the daughter who has just been born to Yasoda."
Having spoken thus to His father and mother,
the Lord turned Himself into an ordinary child in their
presence and remained silent.
Being ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva
prepared to take his son from the delivery room, and exactly
at that time, a daughter was born to Nanda and Yasoda. She was
Yogamaya, the internal potency of the Lord. By the influence of
this internal potency, Yogamaya, all the residents of Kamsa's
palace, especially the doorkeepers, were overwhelmed with deep
sleep, and all the palace doors opened, although they were
barred and shackled with iron chains. The night was very dark,
but as soon as Vasudeva took Krsna on his lap and went out, he
could see everything just as in the sunlight.
In the Caitanya-caritamrta it is said that Krsna is just like
sunlight and that wherever there is Krsna, the illusory energy,
which is compared to darkness, cannot remain. When Vasudeva
was carrying Krsna, the darkness of the night disappeared. All
the prison doors automatically opened. At the same time there
was thunder in the sky and severe rainfall. While Vasudeva
was carrying his son Krsna in the falling rain, Lord Sesa in
the shape of a serpent spread His hood over the head of
Vasudeva so that he would not be hampered by the rainfall.
Vasudeva came onto the bank of the Yamuna and saw that the
water of the Yamuna was roaring with waves and that the whole
span was full of foam. Still, in that furious feature, the
river gave passage to Vasudeva to cross, just as the great
Indian Ocean gave a path to Lord Rama when He was bridging over
the gulf. In this way Vasudeva crossed the river Yamuna. On the
other side, he went to the place of Nanda Maharaja, situated in
Gokula, where he saw that all the cowherd men were fast asleep.
He took the opportunity to silently enter the house of
Yasoda, and without difficulty he exchanged his son
for the baby girl newly born there. Then,
after entering the house very silently and exchanging the boy
for the girl, he returned to the prison of Kamsa and
silently put the girl on the lap of Devaki. He again clamped
the shackles on himself so that Kamsa could not recognize that
so many things had happened.
Mother Yasoda understood that a child had been born to her, but
because she was very tired from the labor of childbirth, she
fell fast asleep. When she awoke, she could not remember
whether she had given birth to a male or a female child.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Third Chapter of
Krsna, "The Birth of Lord Krsna."
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