Krsna Book Audio Dictation - Chapter 03
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Third Chapter, "Birth of Lord Kṛṣṇa."
As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that His appearance, birth, activities are all transcendental. One who understands them factually, he becomes immediately eligible to be transferred to the spiritual world. So the Lord's appearance or birth is not like ordinary man, who is forced to accept a material body according to his past deeds. The Lord appears, as explained in the Second Chapter, that there is no argument except that He appears out of His own pleasure, out of His sweet will. So when the mature time was there for the appearance of the Lord, at that time the constellation of the stars and planets became very auspicious. The astrologic influence of the star known as Rohiṇī was also there, because this constellation is considered to be very auspicious, besides the proper situation of other planetary system. According to astrological conclusion, there are auspicious and inauspicious moments due to different situation of different planetary system. So at the time of Kṛṣṇa's birth, the planetary system was so automatically adjusted that the whole thing became auspicious. The star Rohiṇī is considered to be under the direct supervision of Brahmā. Brahmā is also called unborn, because he is generated from the lotus stem out of the abdomen of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu.
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At that time, all the direction, namely east, west, south, north, everywhere there was an atmosphere of peace and prosperity. In the sky there were auspicious stars visible, and on the surface in all towns and villages or pasturing ground or within the minds, everywhere there were signs of auspiciosities. The rivers were flowing full of water, the lakes were beautifully decorated with lotus flowers in the water, and the forests were full with beautiful birds and peacocks. All the birds within the forests began to sing in their sweet voice, and the peacocks began to dance, along with their consorts. The wind was blowing very pleasantly, carrying the flavor of different flowers, and the touch sensation to the body was very much pleasing. The brāhmaṇas at home, who were accustomed to offer sacrifices in the fire, found their homes very pleasant to offer sacrifices. On account of disturbances created by the demonic kings, the sacrificial fire altar was almost stopped in the house of brāhmaṇas. Now they could find opportunity to reignite the fire peacefully. The brāhmaṇas were practically very much distressed in their mind, intelligence and activities, being forbidden to offer sacrifices. But just on the point of Kṛṣṇa's appearance, automatically their mind become full of joy because they could hear that in the sky there was vibration of transcendental sounds, signaling the appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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The denizens of the Gandharva planets and residents of Kinnara planets began to sing, and similarly, the denizens of Siddhaloka and the planets of the Cāraṇa began to offer nice prayer to the service of the Personality of Godhead. And the angels, along with their wives in the heavenly planets, accompanied by the denizens known as Vidyādharas along with their wives, began to dance.
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The great sages and the demigods, being pleased within themselves, began to shower rains of flower. In the seashore, along with the sound of the mild waves in the sea, there was cloud on the sky; they also began to thunder very pleasingly.
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When things were adjusted like this, at that time Lord Viṣṇu, who is residing within the heart of every living entity, appeared in that darkness of night as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu before Devakī, who also appeared as one of the demigoddess. The appearance of Lord Viṣṇu at that time could only be compared with the full moon on the sky as it rises on the eastern horizon. The question may be raised that Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared on the eighth day of waning moon: How on the eighth day of waning moon there could be rising of the full moon? The answer to this, it can be said that Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared in the dynasty which is hierarchy of the moon. Therefore, although the moon was on that night incomplete, on account of his Lord's appearance in the dynasty wherein moon is himself the original person, out of his overjoyous condition of mind, and by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, he could appear just like as full moon.
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There is an astronomical brochure with the name Khamāṇikya. In this book the constellation of stars at the time of appearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa is very nicely described, and it is confirmed there that the child born in that auspicious moment is the Supreme Brahman, or the Absolute Truth.
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When Vasudeva saw that wonderful child born, he began to see the baby with four hands, clutching conchshell, club, disc and lotus flower, decorated with the mark of Śrīvatsa jewel, necklace of kaustubha stone, dressed in yellow silk, dazzling like bright blackish cloud, with helmet bedecked with vaidūrya stone, valuable bracelet, earrings and similar other ornaments all over the body, with bunch of hair on the head. It was extraordinary features of the child. So naturally Vasudeva was struck with wonder how a newly born child could be so decorated.
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He could therefore understand that Lord Kṛṣṇa has now appeared, and he became too much overpowered from the occasion. Vasudeva very humbly thought of himself that he was ordinary living entities conditioned by the material nature, and over and above that he was imprisoned by Kaṁsa externally. But still, the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa, could appear 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 significance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, over and over again, he began to glance over his child and thought how to celebrate this auspicious ceremony. "Generally, when a male child is born, people observe so many celebrations in jubilation, and in my home, although I am imprisoned, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has taken His birth. So how many millions upon millions times I should be prepared to observe this auspicious ceremony!"
2:09 Tape number six, Kṛṣṇa.
Ānakadundubhi, which is another name of Vasudeva, father of Kṛṣṇa, when he was looking on his newly born baby, he was certainly so much engladdened that he wanted to give in charity many thousands of cows to the brāhmaṇas. That is the system of kṣatriya kings. Whenever there is some auspicious ceremony in the king's palace, the king would give in charity so many things. Out of those, cows decorated and with golden ornaments would be delivered to the brāhmaṇas and sages. So he wanted to perform the charitable ceremony on account of Kṛṣṇa's appearance, but because he was imprisoned within the prison walls of Kaṁsa, he could not actually go out; but from within his mind he gave those thousands of cows to the brāhmaṇas.
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After this, Vasudeva, when he was convinced that the newly born child was the Supreme Personality of God Himself, he bowed down himself with folded hands and began to offer Him prayers. At that time Vasudeva was in a transcendental position of thinking, and as such he became completely free from all fears out of Kaṁsa. The newborn baby was also flashing His effulgences within the room in which He appeared.
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Vasudeva then began to offer his prayer as follows: "My dear Lord, I can understand who are You. 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, directly perceived by us. And I can understand that because I am afraid of Kaṁsa, therefore I can understand that You have appeared just to deliver me from that position. You do not belong to this material world, but You are the same person who, simply by glancing over the material nature, there is cosmic manifestation."
If somebody argues how the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who creates simply by His glance the whole cosmic manifestation, come within the womb of Devakī, wife of Vasudeva, to eradicate this argument Vasudeva said, "My dear Lord, it is not very wonderful thing to appear Yourself within the womb of Devakī, because the creation was also made in that way. You were lying in the Causal Ocean as Mahā-Viṣṇu, and by Your breathing process, innumerable universes came into existence. Then You entered in each of the universes as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Then again You expanded Himself as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and entered into the heart of all living entities; and not only in the heart of all living entities, You entered even within the atom. So therefore Your entrance in the womb of Devakī is like that. You appear to have entered, but You are all-pervading simultaneously.
"In this connection, we can understand Your entrance and not-entrance from material examples. Just like the total material energy remains intact, even though after being divided into sixteen elements, the total material element creates this cosmic manifestation. The material body is nothing but combination of the five elements, namely air…, earth, water, fire, air and ether. As such, whenever there is any material body, it appears that such elements are created newly, but actually such elements are always existing outside the body. Similarly, when You appear as a child in the womb of Devakī, it does not mean that You are not existing outside. You are always in Your abode, but still, You can expand Yourself in millions of appearing forms simultaneously.
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"One has to understand Your appearance with great intelligence, because material energy is also emanation from You. You are the original source of material energy, just like the sunshine is emanation from the sun globe. Therefore sunshine cannot be a covering influence of the sun globe. Similarly, the material energy being emanation from You, or being Your energy, material energy cannot 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 to be understood by high intellectual philosopher. In other words, although You appear to be within the material energy, You are always uncovered by the material energy."
We hear from Vedic version that…, that the Supreme Brahma exhibits His effulgence, and therefore everything becomes illuminated. Similarly, we can understand from Brahma-saṁhitāthat the brahmajyoti, or the Brahma effulgence, is emanation from the body of the Supreme Lord. And out of the Brahma effulgence, all creation takes place. And as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord is also support of the Brahma effulgence. Therefore originally He is the root cause of everything. As such, persons who are less intelligent, they think that when the Supreme Personality of Godhead comes within this material world, He accepts the material qualities. Such conclusion is not very mature. Such conclusions are made by less intelligent class of men, without knowing that the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly and indirectly is existing everywhere. He is without this material creation and He is within this material creation. He is within this material creation not only as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, but also He is within the atom also. The existence of atom also depends due to His presence. Nothing can be separated from His existence.
In the Vedic injunction we find it that the Supreme Soul, or the root cause of everything, has to be searched out, because nothing exists without the Supreme Soul. Therefore the material manifestation is also transformation of His potency. The inert matter and the living force—soul—both of them are emanation from Him. Therefore the conclusion that the Supreme Lord, when He appears, accepts as separate thing which is known as matter is supposition of the childish, less intelligent class of men. Actually, even if He appears to have accepted the material body, still He is not subjected to any material condition. Kṛṣṇa has therefore appeared, defeating all such imperfect conclusion about the appearance and disappearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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"My Lord, Your appearance, existence and disappearance are without any influence of the material qualities, because Your Lordship being the controller of everything and the Supreme Brahma, there is nothing inconceivable and contradictory in You. As You have said it, that the material nature works under Your superintendence. It is just like government officers are working under the order of the supreme executive. Therefore, the influence of such subordinate activities cannot affect You. Your Lordship being the Supreme Brahma, everything is existing within You, and all the activities of material natures being controlled by You, You are not affected by such qualities.
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"You are always unaffected by the material qualities, therefore You are called śuklam. Śuklam, or 'whiteness,' is the symbolic representation of the Absolute Truth on account of being unaffected by the material qualities, whereas Brahmā is called rakta, or the Brahmā's color is red, on account of representation of the quality of passion for creation. And the quality of darkness entrusted to Lord Śiva is meant for annihilation of the creation. Therefore the creation, annihilation and maintenance of this cosmic manifestation is conducted by Your potencies. But still, You are always unaffected by such qualities, as it is confirmed in the Vedas, harir hi nirguṇaḥ sākṣāt (SB 10.88.5), which means the Supreme Personality of Godhead is always freed from all material qualities.
It is also said that two qualities, namely the passion and ignorance, are nonexistent in the person of the Supreme Lord. Although You are the living force of maintenance, still You are not affected by the qualities of material nature.
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"Therefore, my Lord, You are the supreme controller, Personality of Godhead, the supreme great. In order to maintain the order of this cosmic manifestation, 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 demon rulers of the world who are in the dress of royal prince but they are actually demons. I am sure that You will kill all of them and their followers and soldiers.
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"Although I understand that You have appeared to kill this uncivilized Kaṁsa and his followers, still I may inform You that knowing that You are appearing to kill him and his followers, he has already killed so many of Your predecessors, elder brothers, and my Lord, he is simply awaiting the news of Your birth, and as soon as he hears about this, he will immediately appear with all kinds of weapons to kill You."
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After this prayer of Vasudeva, Devakī, the mother of Kṛṣṇa, offered her prayers also in the following words. She was very much frightened on account of his (her) brother's atrocities. Devakī said, "My dear Lord, Your eternal forms like Nārāyaṇa, Lord Rāma, Hayaśīrṣa, Varāha, Nṛsiṁha, Vāmana, Baladeva and millions of such incarnation emanating from Viṣṇu, as they are described in the Vedic literature as original. You are original, because all Your forms as incarnation, They are not within this material creation. Your forms existed before this cosmic manifestation was in creation. Such forms are eternal and all-pervading. Such forms are self-effulgent, without any change and without being contaminated by the material qualities. Such eternal forms are ever-cognizant and full of bliss. Situated in transcendental goodness and being always engaged in different pastimes, You are not limited to a particular form only, but all such transcendental, eternal forms are self-sufficient, and I can understand that You are the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu.
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"After many millions of years, when Lord Brahmā comes to the end of his duration of life, the annihilation of the cosmic manifestation takes place. At that time the five elements, namely earth, water, fire, air, sky, enters into the mahat-tattva. The mahat-tattva again enters, by the force of time, into the nonmanifested total material energy. At last the total material energy enters into the energetic pradhāna. The pradhāna also the..., enters into You. Therefore after the annihilation of the whole cosmic manifestation, You alone remain with Your transcendental name, form, quality and paraphernalia.
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"My Lord, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You because You are the director of the unmanifested total energy, and You are the ultimate reservoir of the material nature. My Lord, the whole cosmic manifestation is under the influence of time, beginning from moment up to the end of the duration of year, and all of them act under Your direction. Therefore, You are the original director of everything and the reservoir of all potent energies.
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"All the conditioned souls, they are fleeing from one body to another or one planet to another continually. Still, they are not freed from the onslaught of birth and death. But when one comes under the shelter of Your lotus feet, such fearful living entity can lie down without any anxiety of being attacked by the formidable death." This statement of Devakī is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā by Lord Himself, that even after traveling all over the universes, beginning from the Brahmaloka down to the Pātālaloka, nobody can escape the attack of birth, death, old age and disease. But anyone who enters in the kingdom of God has no more any obligation to come to this material world.
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"Therefore, my Lord, I request You to save me from the cruel hands of the son of Ugrasena, Kaṁsa. I am praying to Your Lordship to 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-gītā, assuring Arjuna that "Arjuna, you may declare in the world that My devotee shall never be vanquished." Mother Devakī, while thus praying to the Lord for being rescued from the fearful condition, still, out of motherly affection, she requested the Lord that "Your this transcendental form is generally perceived by meditation of the great sages, but I am still afraid, because as soon as Kaṁsa will understand that You have appeared, he might do some harm to You. I therefore request You that for the time being You may not be visible to our material eyes." In other words, she requested the Lord to assume the form of ordinary child.
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"My only cause of fearfulness from my brother Kaṁsa is due to Your appearance. Therefore, my Lord Madhusūdana, I request You that Kaṁsa may not know that You are already born. Lord, I therefore request You to conceal this form of Your Lordship appearing with the four symbols of Viṣṇu, namely the conch shell, the disc, the club and the lotus flower with Your four hands. My dear Lord, at the end of the annihilation of the cosmic manifestation, You put the whole universe within Your abdomen. But still, by Your unalloyed mercy You have appeared in my abdomen. I am therefore surprised how You can imitate the activities of ordinary human being just to please Your devotee."
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On hearing the prayers of Devakī, the Lord replied, "My dear mother, in the millennium of Svāyambhuva Manu, My father, Vasudeva, was living as one of the Prajāpatis, and his name was at that time Sutapā, and you remained as his wife of the name Pṛśni. At that time, when Lord Brahmā, desiring to increase the population, requested you to generate offsprings, you controlled your senses and performed severe austerities. When both of you, by practicing the breathing exercise of yoga system, you could tolerate the all influence of material laws—during the time of rainy season, the onslaught of the wind, scorching heat of the sunshine—and you executed all religious principles. In this way you were able to cleanse your heart as well as you could control the influence of material laws. For executing your austerity, you used to eat only leaves of the trees which are fallen on the ground. Thus, in steady mind and control your sex, you severely worshiped Me, just desiring some wonderful benediction from Me.
"Both of you practiced this severe austerities for 12,000’s of years in the calculation of the demigods. During that time your mind was always absorbed in Me when you were executing such devotional service, always thinking of Me within your heart. At that time I was very much pleased upon you and, O the 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 take from you whatever you desire. At that time you wished to have a son like Me born of you. At that time, although you saw Me personally, instead of asking from Me 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 Pṛśni and Sutapā respectively, to appear in the material world. Because whenever the Lord comes as a human being, He must have somebody as mother and father, so He selected Pṛśni and Sutapā perpetually as His mother and father. And on account of this, both Pṛśni and Sutapā could not ask from the Lord liberation. In other words, to a devotee liberation is not so important as the transcendental loving service of the Lord. The Lord could have award that Pṛśni and Sutapā immediate liberation, but the Lord preferred to keep them within this material world for His different appearances, as it will be explained in the following verses. On that occasion, after receiving the benediction from the Lord to become His father and mother, both Pṛśni and Sutapā returned from the activities of austerity and lived as husband and wife to get a child who was the Supreme Lord Himself.
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In due course of time, Pṛśni became pregnant and gave birth to the child. "At that time My name was Pṛśnigarbha. In the next millennium also you took birth as Aditi and Kaśyapa, 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 Vāmanadeva." The Lord informed Devakī that "I gave you benediction that three times I shall take birth as your son. So the first I was known as Pṛśnigarbha, born of Pṛśni and Sutapā. Then next birth I was born as Upendra, born of Aditi and Kaśyapa. Now for the third time I am born as Kṛṣṇa from you, Devakī and Vasudeva. I have appeared in this Viṣṇu form just to convince you that I am the same Supreme Personality of Godhead taken birth this time also. I could have appeared just like ordinary child, but in that way you could not believe that I, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has taken birth in your abdomen.
"My dear father and mother, you have therefore many times raised Me as your child with great affection and love. I am therefore very much pleased and obliged to you and assure you that this time you shall now go back to home, back to Godhead, on account of your perfection of the mission. So far you are very much concerned about Me, being afraid of Kaṁsa, now I order you that you take Me immediately to Gokula and replace Me there with the daughter born of Yaśodā just at this time."
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While the Lord was speaking thus, immediately in the presence of His father and mother turned Himself just like an ordinary child and remained silent.
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Thus being ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, when Vasudeva was just attempting to go out, taking his son from the delivery room, exactly at that time, a daughter was born of Nanda and Yaśodā. She was Yogamāyā, the internal potency of Lord herself. By the influence of this internal potency, Yogamāyā, all the residents of Kaṁsa's palace, especially the doorkeepers, they were overwhelmed with fast sleep, and the high-grade palace doors became all opened, although they were shackled with iron chains and closing bars. Although the night was very dark, still, as soon as Vasudeva took Kṛṣṇa on his lap and was going out, he could see everything just like in the sunlight.
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that Kṛṣṇa is just like sunlight, and whenever…, wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the illusory energy, which is compared with darkness, cannot remain there. Therefore, when Vasudeva was carrying Lord Kṛṣṇa, the darkness of the night all disappeared. All the different doors became automatically opened. At the same time there was a roaring cloud on the sky and there was severe rainfall also. While Vasudeva was carrying his son, Kṛṣṇa, and there was rainfall, Lord Śeṣa, in the shape of serpent, spread His hood over the head of Vasudeva so that he could not appreciate the rainfall at that time.
When Vasudeva came on the bank of the Yamunā, he saw that the water of the Yamunā was roaring with waves, and the whole span of water was full with foams. Still, in that furious feature of the river it gave passage to Vasudeva to cross, as if great Indian Ocean gave path to Lord Rāma when He was bridging over the gulf. In this way Vasudeva crossed over the river Yamunā and on the other side reached the place of Nanda Mahārāja situated in Gokula, where he saw that all the cowherds men were fast sleeping. He took the opportunity of silently entering into the house of Yaśodā, and there was no difficulty in replacing his son and taking away the newly born girl baby born in the house of Yaśodā.
Vasudeva, after entering the house, very silently exchanged the boy with the girl. He again came back to the custody of Kaṁsa and silently kept the girl on the lap of Devakī and then dressed himself again with the shackles so that Kaṁsa could not recognize that so many things had happened in the meantime. Mother Yaśodā, she understood that some child has born of her. She did not know whether the child was male or female. She was very much tired out of the labor of childbirth, and so she was also fast asleep. And when she was awakened, she could not understand whether she give birth to a male child or female child.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta summary study of the Third Chapter, known as "Birth of Lord Kṛṣṇa."