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KB 1970-2-30 / Spiritual Instruction for Vasudeva and
Return of the Six Dead Sons of Devaki by Lord Krsna
30 / Spiritual Instruction for Vasudeva and Return of the
Six Dead Sons of Devaki by Lord Krsna
It is a Vedic custom that the junior members of the family
should offer respects to the elderly persons every morning. The
children or the disciples especially should offer their
respects to the parents or the spiritual master in the
morning. In pursuance of this Vedic principle, Lord Krsna and
Balarama used to offer Their obeisances to Their father,
Vasudeva, along with his wives. One day, after having returned
from the sacrificial performances at Kuruksetra, when Lord
Krsna and Balarama went to offer Their respects to Vasudeva,
Vasudeva took the opportunity of appreciating the exalted
position of his two sons. Vasudeva had the opportunity to
understand the position of Krsna and Balarama from the great
sages who had assembled in the arena of the sacrifice. He not
only heard from the sages, but on many occasions he actually
experienced that Krsna and Balarama were not ordinary human
beings, but were very extraordinary. Thus he believed the words
of the sages that his sons Krsna and Balarama were the Supreme
Personality of Godhead.
With firm faith in his sons, he addressed them thus: "My dear
Krsna, You are the sac-cid-ananda-vigraha Supreme
Personality of Godhead, and my dear Balarama, You are
Sankarsana, the master of all mystic powers. I have
now understood that You are eternal. Both of You are
transcendental to this material manifestation and to its cause,
the Supreme Person Maha-Visnu. You are the original controller
of all. You are the rest of this cosmic manifestation.
You are its creator, and You are also its creative ingredients.
You are the master of this cosmic manifestation, and actually
this manifestation is created for Your pastimes only.
"The different material phases from the
beginning to the end of the cosmos manifest under different
time formulas are also Yourself, because You are
both the cause and effect of this manifestation. The two
features of this material world, the predominator and the
predominated, are also You, and You are the supreme
transcendental controller who stands above them. Therefore, You
are beyond the perception of our senses. You are the supreme
soul, unborn and unchanging. You are not affected by the six
kinds of transformations which occur in the material body. The
wonderful varieties of this material world are also created by
You, and You have entered as the Supersoul into each living
entity and even into the atom. You are the
maintainer of everything.
"The vital force which is acting as the life principle in
everything and the creative force derived from it are not
acting independently, but are dependent upon You, the Supreme
Person behind these forces. Without Your will, they cannot work.
Material energy has no cognizance. It cannot act
independently without being agitated by You. Because the
material nature is dependent upon You, the living entities can
only attempt to act. But without Your sanction and will they
cannot perform anything or achieve the result they desire.
"The original energy is only an emanation from You. My dear
Lord, the shining of the moon, the heat of the fire, the rays
of the sun, the glittering of the stars, and the electric
lightning which is manifested as very powerful, as well
as the gravity of the mountains, the energy of the earth and
the quality of its flavor -- all are different
manifestations of You. The pure taste of water
and the vital force which maintains all life are also
features of Your Lordship. The water and its taste are also
Yourself.
"My dear Lord, although the forces of the senses, the mental
power of thinking, willing and feeling, and the strength,
movement and growth of the body appear to be performed by
different movements of the airs within the body, they are all
ultimately manifestations of Your energy. The vast expanse of
outer space rests in Yourself. The vibration of the sky, its
thunder, the supreme sound omkara and the arrangement of
different words to distinguish one thing from the other are
symbolic representations of Yourself. Everything is
Yourself. The senses, the controllers of the senses, the
demigods, and the acquisition of knowledge which is the
purpose of the senses, as well as the subject matter of
knowledge -- all are Yourself. The resolution of intelligence
and the sharp memory of the living entity are also Yourself.
You are the egotistic principle in ignorance which is the
cause of this material world, the egotistic principle of
passion which is the cause of the senses, and the egotistic
principle of goodness which is the origin of the different
controlling deities of this material world. The illusory energy,
or maya, which is the cause of the conditioned soul's
perpetual transmigration from one form to another, is Yourself.
"My dear Supreme Personality of Godhead, You are the original
cause of all causes, exactly as the earth is the original cause
of different kinds of trees, plants and similar varieties of
manifestation. As the earth is represented in everything, so
You are present throughout this material manifestation as
Supersoul. You are the supreme cause of all causes, the eternal
principle. Everything is, in fact, a manifestation of Your
one energy. The three qualities of material nature -- sattva,
rajas and tamas -- and the result of their interaction, are
linked up with You by Your agency of yogamaya. They are
supposed to be independent, but actually the total material
energy is resting upon You, the Supersoul. Since You are the
supreme cause of everything, the interactions of material
manifestation -- birth, existence, growth, transformation,
deterioration and annihilation -- are all absent in Yourself.
Your supreme energy, yogamaya, is acting in variegated
manifestations, but because yogamaya is Your energy, You are
therefore present in everything."
In the Bhagavad-gita, this fact is very nicely explained in the
Ninth Chapter, wherein the Lord says, "In My impersonal form I
am spread all over the material energy; everything is resting
in Me, but I am not there." This very statement is also given
by Vasudeva. To say He is not present everywhere
means that He is aloof from everything, although His energy is
acting everywhere. This can be understood by a crude example:
In a big establishment, the energy, or the organization of the
supreme boss, is working in every nook and corner of the
business, but that does not mean that the original proprietor
is present there, although in every department and every
atmosphere the presence of the proprietor is felt by the
worker. The physical presence of the proprietor in every
department is formality only. Actually his energy is working
everywhere. Similarly, the omnipresence of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead is felt in the action of His energies.
Therefore the philosophy of inconceivable simultaneous oneness
with and difference from the Supreme Lord is confirmed
everywhere. The Lord is one, but His energies are diverse.
Vasudeva said, "This material world is like a great flowing
river, and its waves are the three material modes of nature --
goodness, passion and ignorance. This material body, as well as
the senses, the faculties of thinking, feeling and willing and
the stages of distress, happiness, attachment and lust -- are
all are different products of these three qualities of nature.
The foolish person who cannot realize Your transcendental
identity above all this material reaction continues to remain
in the entanglement of fruitive activity and is subjected to
the continuous process of birth and death without a chance of
being freed."
This is also confirmed in a different way by the Lord in the
Fourth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita. There it is said that
anyone who knows the appearance and activities of the Supreme
Lord Krsna becomes freed from the clutches of material nature
and goes back home, back to Godhead. Therefore Krsna's
transcendental name, form, activities and qualities are not
products of this material nature.
"My dear Lord," Vasudeva continued, "despite all these defects
of the conditioned soul, if someone somehow or other comes in
contact with devotional service, he achieves this civilized
human form of body with developed consciousness and thereby
becomes capable of executing further progress in devotional
service. And yet, illusioned by the external energy, people
generally do not utilize this advantage of the human form of
life. Thus they miss the chance of eternal freedom and
unnecessarily spoil the progress they have made after thousands
of births.
"In the bodily concept of life, one is
attached to the offspring of the body, due to false egotism,
and everyone in conditioned life is entrapped by false
relationships and false affection. The whole world is moving
under this false impression of material bondage. I
know that neither of You are my sons; You are the
original chief and progenitor, the Personalities of Godhead,
known as Pradhana and Purusa. But You have appeared on the
surface of this globe in order to minimize the burden of the
world by killing the ksatriya kings who are unnecessarily
increasing their military strength. You have already informed
me about this in the past. My dear Lord, You are the shelter of
the surrendered soul, the supreme well-wisher of the meek and
humble. I am therefore taking shelter of Your lotus feet, which
alone can give one liberation from the entanglement of material
existence.
"For a long time I have simply considered this body to be
myself, and although You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
I considered You to be my son. My dear Lord, at the very
moment when You first appeared in Kamsa's prison house, I was
informed that You were the Supreme Personality of Godhead
and that You had descended for the protection of the principles
of religion as well as the destruction of the unfaithful.
Although unborn, You descend in every millennium to execute
Your mission. My dear Lord, as in the sky there are many forms
appearing and disappearing, so You also appear and disappear in
many eternal forms. Who, therefore, can
understand Your pastimes or the mystery of Your appearance and
disappearance? Our only business should be to glorify Your
supreme greatness."
When Vasudeva was addressing his divine sons in that way, Lord
Krsna and Balarama were smiling. Because They are very
affectionate to Their devotees, They accepted all the
appreciation of Vasudeva with a kindly smiling attitude. Krsna
then began to confirm all Vasudeva's statements as
follows: "My dear father, whatever you may say, We are, after
all, your sons. What you have said about Us is certainly a
highly philosophical understanding of spiritual knowledge. I
accept it in total without exception."
Vasudeva was in the complete perfection of life in considering
Lord Krsna and Balarama to be his sons, but because the sages
assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kuruksetra had spoken
about the Lord as the supreme cause of everything, Vasudeva
simply repeated it out of his love for Krsna and Balarama. Lord
Krsna did not wish to detract from His relationship with
Vasudeva as father and son; therefore in the very beginning of
His reply He accepted the fact that He is the eternal son of
Vasudeva and that Vasudeva is the eternal father of Krsna.
After this, Lord Krsna informed His father of the spiritual
identity of all living entities. He continued, "My dear father,
everyone, including Myself and My brother
Balarama, as well as all the inhabitants of the city of Dvaraka
and the whole cosmic manifestation, is exactly as you have
already explained, but all of us are also qualitatively one."
Lord Krsna intended for Vasudeva to see everything in the
vision of a mahabhagavata, a first-class devotee. A
first-class devotee sees that all living entities are part and
parcel of the Supreme Lord and that the Supreme Lord is
situated in everyone's heart. In fact, every living entity has
spiritual identity, but in contact with material existence he
becomes influenced by the material modes of nature. He becomes
covered by the concept of bodily life, forgetting that his
spirit soul is of the same quality as the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. One mistakenly considers one individual to be
different from another simply because of their material bodily
coverings. Because of differences between bodies, the spirit
soul appears before us differently.
Lord Krsna then gave a nice example in terms of the five
material elements. The total material elements, namely, the sky,
the air, the fire, the water and the earth, are present in
everything in the material world, whether in an earthen pot or
in a mountain or in the trees or in an earring. These five
elements are present in everything, in different proportions
and quantities. A mountain is a gigantic form of the
combination of these five elements, and a small earthen pot is
of the same elements, but in a smaller quantity. Therefore
all material items, although in different shapes or different
quantities, are of the same ingredients. Similarly, the living
entities -- beginning from Lord Krsna and including the Visnu-
tattva and millions of Visnu forms, and then the living
entities in different forms, beginning from Lord Brahma down to
the small ant -- are all of the same quality in spirit.
Some are great in quantity, and some are small, but
qualitatively they are of the same nature. It is therefore
confirmed in the Upanisads that Krsna, or the Supreme Lord, is
the chief among all living entities, and He maintains them
and supplies them with all necessities of life. Anyone who
knows this philosophy is in perfect knowledge. The Vedic
version tat tvam asi, "Thou art the same," does not mean that
everyone is God, but everyone is qualitatively of the same
nature as that of God.
After hearing Krsna speak the entire philosophy of spiritual
life in an abbreviated summation, Vasudeva was exceedingly
pleased with his son. Being thus elated, he could not speak,
but remained silent. In the meantime, Devaki, the mother of
Lord Krsna, sat by the side of her husband. Previously she had
heard that both Krsna and Balarama were so kind upon Their
teacher that They had brought back the teacher's dead sons from
the clutches of the superintendent of death, Yamaraja. Since
she had heard this incident, she had been also thinking
of her own sons who were killed by Kamsa, and while remembering
them she became overwhelmed with grief.
In compassion for her dead sons, Devaki began to appeal
to Lord Krsna and Balarama thus: "My dear Balarama, Your very
name suggests that You give all pleasure and all strength to
everyone. Your unlimited potency is beyond the reach of our
minds and words, and my dear Krsna, You are the master of all
mystic yogis. I also know that You are the master of the
Prajapatis like Brahma and his assistants, and You are the
original Personality of Godhead, Narayana. I also know for
certain that You have descended to annihilate all kinds of
miscreants who have been misled in the course of time. They
have lost control of their minds and senses, fallen from
the quality of goodness, and have deliberately neglected the
direction of the revealed scriptures by living a life of
extravagancy and impudency. You have descended on the earth to
minimize the burden of the world by killing such miscreant
rulers. My dear Krsna, I know that Maha-Visnu, who is lying in
the causal ocean of the cosmic manifestation and who is the
source of this whole creation, is simply an expansion of Your
plenary portion. Creation, maintenance and
annihilation of this cosmic manifestation are being effected
only by Your plenary portion. I am, therefore, taking shelter
of You without any reservation. I have heard that when You
wanted to reward Your teacher, Sandipani Muni, and he asked You
to bring back his dead son, You and Balarama immediately
brought him from the custody of Yamaraja, although he had been
dead for a very long time. By this act I understand You to be
the supreme master of all mystic yogis. I am, therefore, asking
You to fulfill my desire in the same way. In other words, I am
asking You to bring back all my sons who were killed by Kamsa;
upon Your bringing them back, my heart will be content, and it
will be a great pleasure for me just to see them once."
After hearing Their mother speak in this way, Lord Balarama and
Krsna immediately called for the assistance of yogamaya and
started for the lower planetary system known as Sutala.
Formerly, in His incarnation of Vamana, the Supreme Personality
of Godhead was satisfied by the King of the demons, Bali
Maharaja, who donated to Him everything he had. Bali Maharaja
was then given the whole of Sutala for his residence and
kingdom. Now when this great devotee, Bali Maharaja, saw that
Lord Balarama and Krsna had come to his planet, he immediately
merged in an ocean of happiness. As soon as he saw Lord Krsna
and Balarama in his presence, he and all his family members
stood up from their seats and bowed down at the lotus feet of
the Lord. Bali Maharaja offered Lord Krsna and Balarama the
best seat he had in his possession, and when both Lords were
seated comfortably, he began to wash Their lotus feet. He then
sprinkled the water on his head and on the heads of his family
members. The water used to wash the lotus feet of Krsna and
Balarama can purify even the greatest demigods, such as Lord
Brahma.
After this, Bali Maharaja brought valuable garments, ornaments,
sandalwood pulp, betel nuts, lamps and various nectarean
foodstuffs, and along with his family members he worshiped the
Lord according to the regulative principles and offered his
riches and body unto the lotus feet of the Lord. King Bali
was feeling such transcendental pleasure that he repeatedly
grabbed the lotus feet of the Lord and kept them on his
chest; and sometimes he put them on the top of his head, and in
this way he was feeling transcendental bliss. Tears of love
and affection began to flow down from his eyes, and all his
hairs stood on end. He began to offer prayers to the
Lords in a voice which choked up intermittently.
"My Lord Balarama, You are the original Anantadeva. You are so
great that Anantadeva Sesa and other transcendental forms have
originally emanated from You and Lord Krsna. You are the
original Personality of Godhead, and your eternal form is
all-blissful and full of complete knowledge. You are the
creator of the whole world. You are the original initiator and
propounder of the systems of jnana-yoga and bhakti-yoga. You
are the Supreme Brahman, the original Personality of Godhead. I
therefore with all respect offer my obeisances unto both of You.
My dear Lords, it is very difficult for the living entities to
get to see You, yet when You are merciful upon Your devotees
it becomes easy for them to see you. As such, only out of Your
causeless mercy have You agreed to come here and be visible to
us, who are generally influenced by the qualities of ignorance
and passion.
"My dear Lord, we belong to the daitya or demon category. The
demons or demonic persons -- the Gandharvas, the Siddhas, the
Vidyadharas, the Caranas, the Yaksas, the Raksasas, the Pisacas,
the ghosts and the hobgoblins -- are incapable, by nature,
of worshiping You or becoming Your devotees. Instead
of becoming Your devotees, they simply become impediments on
the path of devotion. But, opposed to them, You are the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, representing all the Vedas and
situated in the mode of uncontaminated goodness. Your position
is always transcendental. For this reason, some of us, although
born of the modes of passion and ignorance, have taken shelter
of Your lotus feet and become devotees. Some of us are
actually pure devotees, and some of us have taken shelter of
Your lotus feet, desiring to gain something from
devotion.
"By Your causeless mercy only we demons in direct contact
with Your personality. This contact is not possible even for
the great demigods. No one knows how You act through Your
yogamaya potency. Even demigods cannot calculate the expanse of
the activities of Your internal potency, so how is it possible
for us to know it? I therefore place my humble prayers before
You: please be kind to me, who am fully surrendered unto You,
and favor me with Your causeless mercy so that I may simply
remember Your lotus feet birth after birth. My only ambition
is that I may live alone just like the paramahamsas who,
traveling alone here and there in great peace of mind,
depend simply upon Your lotus feet. I also desire that if I
have to associate with anyone, they may be only
Your pure devotees and no one else, because Your pure devotees
are always well-wishers of all living entities.
"My dear Lord, You are the supreme master and director of the
whole world. Please, therefore, engage me in Your service and
let me thus become freed from all material contaminations. You
can purify me in that way because if someone engages himself in
the loving service of Your Lordship, he immediately becomes
free from all kinds of regulative principles enjoined in the
Vedas."
The word paramahamsa mentioned here means the supreme swan.
It is said that the swan can draw milk out from a reservoir of
water; it can take only the milk portion and reject
the watery portion. Similarly, a person who can draw out the
spiritual portion from this material world and who can live
alone, depending only on the Supreme Spirit, not on the
material world, is called paramahamsa. When one achieves the
paramahamsa platform, he is no longer under the regulative
principles of the Vedic injunctions. A paramahamsa accepts only
the association of pure devotees and rejects others who are
too much materially addicted. In other words, those who are
materially addicted cannot understand the value of the
paramahamsa, but those who are fortunately advanced
in spiritual sense take shelter of the paramahamsa and
thus successfully complete the mission of human life.
After Lord Krsna heard the prayers of Bali Maharaja, He spoke
as follows: "My dear King of the demons, in the millennium of
the Svayambhuva Manu, the Prajapati known as Marici begot six
sons, all demigods, in the womb of his wife, Urna. Once upon a
time, Lord Brahma became captivated by the beauty of his
daughter and was following her, impelled by sex desire. At that
time, these six demigods looked at the action of Lord Brahma
with abhorrence. This criticism of Brahma's action by the
demigods constituted a great offense on their part, and for
this reason they were condemned to take birth as the sons of
the demon Hiranyakasipu. These sons of Hiranyakasipu were
thereafter put in the womb of mother Devaki, and as soon as
they took their birth, Kamsa killed them one after another. My
dear King of the demons, mother Devaki is very anxious to see
these six dead sons again, and she is very much aggrieved on
account of their early death at the hand of Kamsa. I know that
all of them are living with you. I have decided to take them
with Me in order to pacify My mother Devaki. After seeing My
mother, all these six conditioned souls will be
liberated, and thus in great pleasure they will be transferred
to their original planet. The names of these six conditioned
souls are as follows: Smara, Udgitha, Parisvanga, Patanga,
Ksudrabhrt and Ghrni. They will be again reinstated in their
former position as demigods."
After thus informing the King of the demons, Krsna stopped
speaking, and Bali Maharaja understood the Lord's purpose. He
worshiped Him sufficiently, and thereafter Lord Krsna and
Lord Balarama took away the six conditioned souls and returned
to the city of Dvaraka, where He presented them as
little babies before His mother, Devaki. Mother Devaki became
overwhelmed with joy and was so ecstatic in motherly feeling
that immediately milk began to flow from her
breasts, and she fed the babies with great satisfaction. She
began to take them on her lap again and again, smelling their
heads and thinking, "He has gotten my lost children back!" For
the time being she became overpowered by the energy of Visnu,
and in great motherly affection she began to enjoy the
company of her lost children.
The milk from the breasts of Devaki was transcendental nectar
because the same milk had been sucked by Lord Krsna. As such,
the babies who sucked the breasts of Devakiji, which had
touched the body of Lord Krsna, immediately became self-
realized persons. The babies therefore began to offer their
obeisances unto Lord Krsna, Balarama, their father Vasudeva,
and mother Devaki. After this, they were immediately
transferred to their respective heavenly planets.
After they departed, Devaki became stunned with wonder that her
dead children had come back and had again been transferred to
their respective planets. She could adjust the events only by
thinking of Lord Krsna's pastimes,
in which, because Lord Krsna's potencies are all
inconceivable, anything wonderful can be performed. Without
accepting the inconceivable, unlimited potencies of the Lord,
one cannot understand that Lord Krsna is the Supreme Soul. By
His unlimited potencies, He performs unlimited pastimes also,
and no one can describe them in full nor can anyone know them
all. Suta Gosvami, speaking Srimad-Bhagavatam before the sages
of Naimisaranya, headed by Saunaka Rsi, gave his verdict in
this connection as follows.
"Great sages, please understand that the transcendental
pastimes of Lord Krsna are all eternal. They are not ordinary
narrations of historical incidences. Such narrations are
identical with the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.
Anyone, therefore, who hears such narrations of the Lord's
pastimes becomes immediately freed from the contamination of
material existence. And those who are pure devotees enjoy these
narrations as nectar entering into their ears." Such narrations
were described by Sukadeva Gosvami, the exalted son of
Vyasadeva, and anyone who hears them, as well as anyone who
describes them for the hearing of others, becomes Krsna
conscious. And it is only the Krsna conscious persons who
become eligible for going back home, back to Godhead.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Second Volume,
Thirtieth Chapter, of Krsna, "Spiritual Instruction for
Vasudeva and Return of the Six Dead Sons of Devaki by Lord
Krsna."
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KB 85: Spiritual Instruction for Vasudeva, and the
Return of the Six Dead Sons of Devaki by Lord Krsna
CHAPTER EIGHTY–FIVE
Spiritual Instruction for Vasudeva, and the Return of the
Six Dead Sons of Devaki by Lord Krsna
It is a Vedic custom that the junior members of the family
should offer respects to the elders every morning. The
children or disciples especially should offer their
respects to their parents or spiritual master in the
morning. In pursuance of this Vedic principle, Lord Krsna and
Balarama used to offer Their obeisances to Their parents,
Vasudeva
and Devaki
.
One day, after having returned from the sacrificial
performances at Kuruksetra, when Lord Krsna and Balarama went
to offer Their respects to Vasudeva, Vasudeva took the
opportunity to appreciate the exalted position of his two sons.
Vasudeva had the opportunity to understand the position of
Krsna and Balarama from the great sages who had assembled in
the arena of the sacrifice. Not only did he hear from the sages,
but on many occasions he actually experienced that Krsna and
Balarama were not ordinary human beings but were very
extraordinary. Thus he believed the words of the sages that his
sons Krsna and Balarama were the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
With firm faith in his sons, he addressed Them thus: "My dear
Krsna, You are the sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1] Supreme
Personality of Godhead. And my dear Balarama, You are
Sankarsana, the master of all mystic powers; therefore I have
now understood that You are eternal. Both of You are
transcendental to this material manifestation and to its cause,
the Supreme Person, Maha-Visnu. You are the original controller
of all. You are the resting place of this cosmic manifestation.
You are its creator, and You are also its creative ingredients.
You are the master of this cosmic manifestation, and actually
this manifestation is created for Your pastimes only.
"The different material phases that are manifest from the
beginning to the end of the cosmos under different
formulas of time are also Your Self because You are
both the cause and effect of this manifestation. The two
features of this material world, the predominator and the
predominated, are also You, and You are the supreme
transcendental controller who stands above them. Therefore, You
are beyond the perception of our senses. You are the Supreme
Soul, unborn and unchanging. You are not affected by the six
kinds of transformations which occur in the material body. The
wonderful varieties of this material world are also created by
You, and You have entered as the Supersoul into all of
them, down to the atom. You are the vital force of all
these manifestations and also their supreme cognition. As such,
You are the maintainer of everything.
"The vital force -- the life principle in
everything -- and the creative force derived from it are not
acting independently but are dependent upon You, the Supreme
Person behind these forces. Without Your will, they cannot work.
Material energy has no cognizance. It cannot act independently,
without being agitated by You. Because the material nature is
dependent upon You, the living entities can only attempt to act.
But without Your sanction and will they cannot perform
anything or achieve the results they desire.
"The original energy is only an emanation from You. My dear
Lord, the shining of the moon, the heat of fire, the rays
of the sun, the glittering of the stars, and the electric
lightning, which are all manifested as very powerful, as well
as the gravity of the mountains and the energy and
fragrance of the earth -- all are different
manifestations of You. The pure taste of water, the water
itself and the vital force which maintains all life are also
features of Your Lordship.
"My dear Lord, although the forces of the senses, the mental
power of thinking, willing and feeling, and the strength,
movement and growth of the body appear to be performed by
different movements of the airs within the body, they are all
ultimately manifestations of Your energy. The vast expanse of
outer space rests in You. The vibration of the sky (its
thunder), the supreme sound (omkara) and the arrangement of
different words to distinguish one thing from another are
all symbolic representations of You
. The senses, the controllers of the senses (the
demigods) and the acquisition of knowledge, which is the
purpose of the senses, as well as the subject matter of
knowledge -- all are You. The resolution of intelligence
and the sharp memory of the living entity are also You.
You are the egoistic principle of ignorance, which is the
cause of this material world, the egoistic principle of
passion, which is the cause of the senses, and the egoistic
principle of goodness, which is the origin of the different
controlling deities of this material world. The illusory energy,
or maya, which is the cause of the conditioned soul's
perpetual transmigration from one form to another, is You.
"My dear Supreme Personality of Godhead, You are the original
cause of all causes, exactly as the earth is the original cause
of different kinds of trees, plants and similar varieties of
manifestation. As the earth is present in everything, so
You are present throughout this material manifestation as the
Supersoul. You are the supreme cause of all causes, the eternal
principle. Everything, in fact, is a manifestation of Your
one energy. The three qualities of material nature -- sattva,
rajas and tamas -- and the result of their interaction are
linked up with You by Your agency of yogamaya. They are
supposed to be independent, but actually the total material
energy rests upon You, the Supersoul. Since You are the
supreme cause of everything, the interactions of the material
manifestation -- birth, growth, existence, transformation,
deterioration and annihilation -- are all absent in You.
Your supreme energy, yogamaya, is acting in variegated
manifestations, but because yogamaya is Your energy, You are
therefore present in everything."
In the Bhagavad-gita, this fact is very nicely explained in the
Ninth Chapter, wherein the Lord says, "In My impersonal form I
am spread all over the material energy; everything is resting
in Me, but I am not there." This very statement is also given
by Vasudeva. To say that the Lord is not present everywhere
means that He is aloof from everything, although His energy is
acting everywhere. This can be understood by a crude example:
In a big establishment, the energy, or the organization of the
supreme boss, is working in every nook and corner of the
business, but that does not mean the original proprietor
is present there. Although in every department
the presence of the proprietor is felt by the
workers, the physical presence of the proprietor in every
department is a formality only. Actually his energy is working
everywhere. Similarly, the omnipresence of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead is felt in the action of His energies.
Therefore the philosophy of inconceivable simultaneous oneness
with and difference from the Supreme Lord is confirmed
everywhere. The Lord is one, but His energies are diverse.
Vasudeva said, "This material world is like a great flowing
river, and its waves are the three material modes of nature --
goodness, passion and ignorance. This material body, as well as
the senses, the faculties of thinking, feeling and willing and
the stages of distress, happiness, attachment and lust --
all are different products of these three qualities of nature.
The foolish person who cannot realize Your transcendental
identity above all these material reactions continues
in the entanglement of fruitive activity and is subjected to
the continuous process of birth and death, without a chance of
being freed."
This is confirmed in a different way by the Lord in the
Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. There it is said that
anyone who knows the appearance and activities of the Supreme
Lord Krsna is freed from the clutches of material nature
and goes back home, back to Godhead. Therefore Krsna's
transcendental name, form, activities and qualities are not
products of this material nature.
"My dear Lord," Vasudeva continued, "despite all these defects
of the conditioned soul, if someone somehow or other comes in
contact with devotional service, he achieves the civilized
human form of body with developed consciousness and thereby
becomes capable of executing further progress in devotional
service. And yet, illusioned by the external energy, people
generally do not utilize this advantage of the human form of
life. Thus they miss the chance of eternal freedom and
unnecessarily spoil the progress they have made after thousands
of births.
"In the bodily concept of life, due to false egotism one is
attached to the offspring of the body,
and thus everyone in conditioned life is entrapped by false
relationships and false affection. The whole world is moving
under this false impression and suffering material bondage. I
know that neither of You is my son; both of You are the
original chief and progenitor, the Personality of Godhead,
the Purusa with pradhana. But You have appeared on the
surface of this globe to minimize the burden of the
world by killing the ksatriya kings who are unnecessarily
increasing their military strength. You have already informed
me about this in the past. My dear Lord, You are the shelter of
the surrendered souls, the supreme well-wisher of the meek and
humble. I am therefore taking shelter of Your lotus feet, which
alone can give one liberation from the entanglement of material
existence.
"For a long time I have simply considered this body to be
myself, and although You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
I have considered You my son. My dear Lord, at the very
moment when You first appeared in Kamsa's prison house, You
informed me that You were the Supreme Personality of Godhead
and that You had descended for the protection of the principles
of religion as well as the destruction of the unfaithful.
Although unborn, You descend in every millennium to execute
Your mission. My dear Lord, as in the sky there are many forms,
appearing and disappearing, You also appear in
many eternal forms and then disappear. Who, therefore, can
understand Your pastimes or the mystery of Your appearance and
disappearance? Our only business should be to glorify Your
supreme greatness."
When Vasudeva was addressing his divine sons in that way, Lord
Krsna and Balarama were smiling. Because They are very
affectionate to Their devotees, They accepted all the
appreciation of Vasudeva with a kindly, smiling attitude. Krsna
then confirmed all of Vasudeva's statements as
follows: "My dear Father, whatever you may say, We are, after
all, your sons. What you have said about Us is certainly a
highly philosophical understanding of spiritual knowledge. I
accept it in toto, without exception."
Vasudeva was in the complete perfection of life in considering
Lord Krsna and Balarama to be his sons, but because the sages
assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kuruksetra had spoken
about the Lord as the supreme cause of everything, Vasudeva
simply repeated it out of his love for Krsna and Balarama. Lord
Krsna did not wish to detract from His relationship with
Vasudeva as father and son; therefore in the very beginning of
His reply He accepted the fact that He is the eternal son of
Vasudeva and that Vasudeva is the eternal father of Krsna.
After this, Lord Krsna informed His father of the spiritual
identity of all living entities. He continued: "My dear Father,
everyone and everything, including Me and My brother
Balarama, as well as all the inhabitants of the city of Dvaraka
and the whole cosmic manifestation, are exactly as you have
already explained, but all of us are also qualitatively one."
Lord Krsna intended for Vasudeva to see everything with the
vision of a maha-bhagavata, a first-class devotee,
who sees that all living entities are part and
parcel of the Supreme Lord and that the Supreme Lord is
situated in everyone's heart. In fact, every living entity has
a spiritual identity, but in contact with material existence he
becomes influenced by the material modes of nature. He becomes
covered by the concept of bodily life, forgetting that his
spirit soul is of the same quality as the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. One mistakenly considers one individual to be
different from another simply because of their material bodily
coverings. Because of differences between bodies, the spirit
soul appears before us differently.
Lord Krsna then gave a nice example in terms of the five
material elements. The total material elements, namely the sky,
air, fire, water and earth, are present in
everything in the material world, whether in an earthen pot or
in a mountain or in the trees or in an earring. These five
elements are present in everything, in different proportions
and quantities. A mountain is a gigantic form of the
combination of these five elements, and a small earthen pot is
made of the same elements, but in a smaller quantity. Therefore
all material items, although in different shapes or different
quantities, are of the same ingredients. Similarly, the living
entities -- beginning from Lord Krsna and including
millions of Visnu forms, and also the living
entities in different forms, from Lord Brahma down to
the small ant -- are all of the same spiritual quality.
Some are great in quantity, and some are small, but
qualitatively they are of the same nature. It is therefore
confirmed in the Upanisads that Krsna, or the Supreme Lord, is
the chief among all living entities and that He maintains them
and supplies them with all necessities of life. Anyone who
knows this philosophy is in perfect knowledge. The Vedic
version tat tvam asi, "Thou art the same," means not that
everyone is God but that everyone is qualitatively of the same
nature as God.
After hearing Krsna speak the entire philosophy of spiritual
life in an abbreviated summation, Vasudeva was exceedingly
pleased with his son. Being thus elated, he could not speak
but remained silent. In the meantime, Devaki, the mother of
Lord Krsna, sat by the side of her husband. Previously she had
heard that Krsna and Balarama were so kind to Their
teacher that They had brought back the teacher's dead son from
the clutches of the superintendent of death, Yamaraja. Since
she had heard of this incident, she had also been thinking
of her own sons who were killed by Kamsa, and while remembering
them she was overwhelmed with grief.
Out of compassion for her dead sons, Devaki appealed
to Lord Krsna and Balarama thus: "My dear Balarama, Your very
name suggests that You give all pleasure and all strength to
everyone. Your unlimited potency is beyond the reach of our
minds and words. And, my dear Krsna, You are the master of all
mystic yogis. I know that You are the master of the
Prajapatis like Brahma and his assistants, and You are the
original Personality of Godhead, Narayana. I also know for
certain that You have descended to annihilate all kinds of
miscreants who have been misled in the course of time. They
have lost control of their minds and senses, have fallen from
the quality of goodness and have deliberately neglected the
direction of the revealed scriptures by living a life of
extravagance and impudence. You have descended on the earth to
minimize the burden of the world by killing such miscreant
rulers. My dear Krsna, I know that Maha-Visnu, who is lying in
the Causal Ocean of the cosmic manifestation and who is the
source of this whole creation, is simply an expansion of Your
plenary portion. The creation, maintenance and
annihilation of this cosmic manifestation are effected
only by Your plenary portion. I therefore take shelter
of You without reservation. I have heard that when You
wanted to reward Your teacher, Sandipani Muni, and he asked You
to bring back his dead son, You and Balarama immediately
brought him from the custody of Yamaraja, although he had been
dead for a very long time. By this act I understand You to be
the supreme master of all mystic yogis. I therefore ask
You to fulfill my desire in the same way. In other words, I am
asking You to bring back all my sons who were killed by Kamsa;
upon Your bringing them back, my heart will be content, and it
will be a great pleasure for me just to see them once."
After hearing Their mother speak in this way, Lord Balarama and
Krsna immediately called for the assistance of yogamaya and
started for the lower planetary system known as Sutala.
Formerly, in His incarnation of Vamana, the Supreme Personality
of Godhead had been satisfied by the King of the demons, Bali
Maharaja, who donated to Him everything he had. Bali Maharaja
was then given the whole of Sutala for his residence and
kingdom. Now when this great devotee, Bali Maharaja, saw that
Lord Balarama and Krsna had come to his planet, he immediately
merged in an ocean of happiness. As soon as he saw Lord Krsna
and Balarama in his presence, he and all his family members
stood up from their seats and bowed down at the lotus feet of
the Lords. Bali Maharaja offered Lord Krsna and Balarama the
best seat he had in his possession, and when both Lords were
seated comfortably, he began to wash Their lotus feet. He then
sprinkled the water on his head and on the heads of his family
members. The water used to wash the lotus feet of Krsna and
Balarama can purify even the greatest demigods, such as Lord
Brahma.
After this, Bali Maharaja brought valuable garments, ornaments,
sandalwood pulp, betel nuts, lamps and various nectarean
foods, and along with his family members he worshiped the
Lords according to the regulative principles and offered his
riches and body unto Their lotus feet. King Bali
was feeling such transcendental pleasure that he repeatedly
grasped the Lords' lotus feet and kept them on his
chest, and sometimes he put them on the top of his head. In
this way he felt transcendental bliss. Tears of love
and affection began to flow from his eyes, and all his
bodily hairs stood on end. He began to offer prayers to the
Lords in a voice which choked up intermittently.
"My Lord Balarama, You are the original Anantadeva. You are so
great that Anantadeva Sesa and other transcendental forms have
originally emanated from You. And You, Lord Krsna, are the
original Personality of Godhead, with an eternal form that is
all-blissful and full of complete knowledge. You are the
creator of the whole world. You are the original initiator and
propounder of the systems of jnana-yoga and bhakti-yoga. You
are the Supreme Brahman, the original Personality of Godhead. I
therefore with all respect offer my obeisances unto both of You.
My dear Lords, it is very difficult for the living entities to
get to see You, yet when You are merciful upon Your devotees
You are easy for them to see. As such, only out of Your
causeless mercy have You agreed to come here and be visible to
us, who are generally influenced by the qualities of ignorance
and passion.
"My dear Lord, we belong to the daitya, or demon, category. The
demons or demoniac persons -- the Gandharvas, the Siddhas, the
Vidyadharas, the Caranas, the Yaksas, the Raksasas, the Pisacas,
the ghosts and the hobgoblins -- are by nature
incapable of worshiping You or becoming Your devotees. Instead
of becoming Your devotees, they are simply impediments on
the path of devotion. But You are the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, representing all the Vedas, and are
situated in the mode of uncontaminated goodness. Your position
is always transcendental. For this reason, some of us, although
born of the modes of passion and ignorance, have taken shelter
of Your lotus feet and have become devotees. Some of us are
actually pure devotees, and some of us have taken shelter of
Your lotus feet because we desire to gain something from
devotion.
"By Your causeless mercy only are we demons in direct contact
with Your personality. This contact is not possible even for
the great demigods. No one knows how You act through Your
yogamaya potency. Even demigods cannot calculate the expanse of
the activities of Your internal potency, so how is it possible
for us to know it? I therefore place my humble prayers before
You: Please be kind to me, who am fully surrendered unto You,
and favor me with Your causeless mercy so that I may simply
remember Your lotus feet, birth after birth. My only ambition
is that I may live alone just like the paramahamsas who
travel alone here and there in great peace of mind,
depending simply upon Your lotus feet. I also desire that if I
have to associate with anyone, I may associate only with
Your pure devotees and no one else, for Your pure devotees
are always well-wishers of all living entities.
"My dear Lord, You are the supreme master and director of the
whole world. Please, therefore, engage me in Your service and
let me thus become free from all material contaminations. You
can purify me in that way because if someone engages himself in
the loving service of Your Lordship, he is immediately
freed from all kinds of regulative principles enjoined in the
Vedas."
The word paramahamsa mentioned here means "the supreme swan."
It is said that the swan can draw milk from a mixture of
milk and water; it can take only the milk portion and reject
the watery portion. Similarly, a person who can draw out the
spiritual portion from this material world and who can live
alone, depending only on the Supreme Spirit, not on the
material world, is called a paramahamsa. When one achieves the
paramahamsa platform, he is no longer under the regulative
principles of the Vedic injunctions. A paramahamsa accepts only
the association of pure devotees and rejects others, who are
too much materially addicted. In other words, those who are
materially addicted cannot understand the value of the
paramahamsa, but those who are fortunate -- who are advanced
in a spiritual sense -- take shelter of the paramahamsa and
successfully complete the mission of human life.
After Lord Krsna heard the prayers of Bali Maharaja, He spoke
as follows: "My dear King of the demons, in the millennium of
Svayambhuva Manu, the Prajapati known as Marici begot six
sons, all demigods, in the womb of his wife, Urna. Once upon a
time, Lord Brahma became captivated by the beauty of his
daughter and was following her, impelled by sex desire. At that
time, these six demigods looked at the action of Lord Brahma
with abhorrence. This criticism of Brahma's action by the
demigods constituted a great offense on their part, and for
this reason they were condemned to take birth as the sons of
the demon Hiranyakasipu. These sons of Hiranyakasipu were
thereafter put into the womb of Mother Devaki, and as soon as
they took their birth Kamsa killed them one after another. My
dear King of the demons, Mother Devaki is very anxious to see
these six dead sons again, and she is very much aggrieved on
account of their early death at the hand of Kamsa. I know that
all of them are living with you. I have decided to take them
with Me to pacify My mother, Devaki. After seeing My
mother, all six of these conditioned souls will be
liberated, and thus in great pleasure they will be transferred
to their original planet. The names of these six conditioned
souls are as follows: Smara, Udgitha, Parisvanga, Patanga,
Ksudrabhrt and Ghrni. They will be reinstated in their
former position as demigods."
After thus informing the King of the demons, Krsna stopped
speaking, and Bali Maharaja understood the Lord's purpose. He
duly worshiped the Lord, and thereafter Lord Krsna and
Lord Balarama took away the six conditioned souls and returned
to the city of Dvaraka, where Lord Krsna presented them as
little babies before His mother, Devaki. Mother Devaki was
overwhelmed with joy and was so ecstatic in motherly feeling
that milk immediately began to flow from her
breasts, and she fed the babies with great satisfaction. She
took them on her lap again and again, smelling their
heads and thinking, "I have gotten my lost children back!" For
the time being she was overpowered by the energy of Visnu,
and in great motherly affection she enjoyed the
company of her lost children.
The milk from the breasts of Devaki was transcendental nectar
because the same milk had been sucked by Lord Krsna. As such,
the babies who sucked the breasts of Devakiji, which had
touched the body of Lord Krsna, immediately became self-
realized persons. The babies therefore began to offer their
obeisances unto Lord Krsna, Balarama, their father Vasudeva
and their Mother Devaki. After this, they were immediately
transferred to their respective heavenly planets.
After they departed, Devaki was stunned with wonder that her
dead children had come back and had again been transferred to
their respective planets. She could adjust the events only by
thinking that Lord Krsna can perform anything wonderful
in His pastimes because His potencies are all
inconceivable. Without
accepting the inconceivable, unlimited potencies of the Lord,
one cannot understand that Lord Krsna is the Supreme Soul. By
His unlimited potencies He performs unlimited pastimes,
and no one can describe them in full, nor can anyone know them
all. Suta Gosvami, speaking Srimad-Bhagavatam before the sages
of Naimisaranya, headed by Saunaka Rsi, gave his verdict in
this connection as follows.
"Great sages, please understand that the transcendental
pastimes of Lord Krsna are all eternal. They are not ordinary
narrations of historical incidents. Such narrations are
identical with the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.
Anyone, therefore, who hears such narrations of the Lord's
pastimes is immediately freed from the contamination of
material existence. And those who are pure devotees enjoy these
narrations as nectar entering into their ears." Such narrations
were spoken by Sukadeva Gosvami, the exalted son of
Vyasadeva, and anyone who hears them, as well as anyone who
repeats them for the hearing of others, becomes Krsna
conscious. And only the Krsna conscious persons are
eligible to go back home, back to Godhead.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Eighty-fifth
Chapter of Krsna, "Spiritual Instruction for
Vasudeva, and the Return of the Six Dead Sons of Devaki by Lord
Krsna."
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