Sri Krishna Madbhagavatam
83. Sacrificial Ceremonies
Performed by Vasudeva
While the women were engaged in conversations among themselves and the men were similarly engaged in conversation, there arrived almost all the important sages and ascetics from all directions, who had come for the purpose of seeing Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Chief among the sages were Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsa, the great sage Nārada, Cyavana, Devala, Asita, Viśvāmitra, Śatānanda, Bharadvāja, Gautama, and Lord Paraśurāma along with his disciples; Vasiṣṭha, Gālava, Bhṛgu, Pulastya, Kaśyapa, Atri, Mārkaṇḍeya, Bṛhaspati, Dvita, Trita, Ekata; the four Kumāra sons of Brahmā, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra; Aṅgira and Agastya, Yājñavalkya and Vāmadeva.
As soon as the sages and ascetics
arrived, all the kings, including Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira and the Pāṇḍavas and Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, immediately got up from their seats
and offered their respects by bowing down to the universally respected sages.
After this, the sages were properly welcomed by being offered seats and water
for washing their feet. Palatable fruits, garlands of flowers, incense, and
sandalwood pulp were presented, and all the kings, led by Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma,
worshiped the sages according to the Vedic rules and regulations. When all the
sages were comfortably seated, Lord Kṛṣṇa, who descended for the protection of religion,
began to address them on behalf of all the kings. When Kṛṣṇa began to
speak, all became silent, being eager to hear and understand His welcoming
words to the sages.
Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke thus: "All glories to the assembled
sages and ascetics! Today we are all feeling that our lives have become
successful. Today we have achieved the desired goal of life, because we are now
seeing face to face all the exalted liberated sages and ascetics whom even the
great demigods in the heavens desire to see. Persons who are neophytes in
devotional service and who simply offer their respectful obeisances to the
Deity in the temple but cannot realize that the Lord is situated in everyone's
heart, and those who simply worship different demigods for fulfillment of their
own lusty desires, are unable to understand the importance of these sages. They
cannot take advantage of receiving these sages by seeing them with their eyes,
by touching their lotus feet, by inquiring about their welfare or by diligently
worshiping them."
Neophyte devotees or religionists
cannot understand the importance of great mahātmās. They go to the temple as a
matter of formality and pay their respectful obeisances unto the Deity. But
when one is promoted to the next platform of transcendental consciousness, one
can understand the importance of mahātmās and devotees, and in that stage the
devotee tries to please them. Therefore, Lord Kṛṣṇa said that the neophyte cannot understand the
importance of great sages, devotees or ascetics.
Kṛṣṇa continued, "One cannot purify himself by
traveling to holy places of pilgrimage and taking bath there or by seeing the
Deities in the temples. But if one happens to meet a great devotee, a mahātmā
who is representative of the Personality of Godhead, one becomes immediately
purified. In order to become purified, there is the injunction to worship the
fire, the sun, the moon, the earth, the water, the air, the sky and the mind.
By worshiping all the elements and their predominating deities, one can become
free from the influence of envy, but all the sins of an envious person can be
nullified immediately simply by serving a great soul. My dear revered sages and
respectable kings, you can take it from Me that a person who accepts this
material body made of three elements--mucus, bile and air--as his own self, who
considers his family and relatives as his own, and who accepts material things
as worshipable, or who visits holy places of pilgrimage just to take a bath
there, but never associates with great personalities, sages and mahātmās--such
a person, even in the form of a human being, is nothing but an animal, like an
ass."
When the supreme authority, Lord Kṛṣṇa, was thus
speaking with great gravity, all the sages and ascetics remained in dead
silence. They became amazed upon hearing Him speaking the absolute philosophy
of life in such a concise way. Unless one is very much advanced in knowledge,
one thinks his body to be his self, his family members to be his kith and kin,
and the land of his birth to be worshipable. From this concept of life, the
modern ideology of nationalism has sprung up. Lord Kṛṣṇa condemned such
ideas, and He also condemned persons who take the trouble to go to holy places
of pilgrimage just to take a bath and come back without taking the opportunity
to associate with the great devotees and mahātmās living there. Such persons
are compared to the most foolish animal, the ass. All those who heard
considered the speech of Lord Kṛṣṇa for some time, and they concluded that Lord Kṛṣṇa was actually
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, playing the role of an ordinary human being
who is forced to take a certain type of body as a result of the reactions of
his past deeds. He was assuming this pastime as an ordinary human simply to
teach the people in general how they should live for perfection of the human
mission.
Having concluded that Kṛṣṇa was the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, the sages began to address Him thus: "Dear
Lord, we, the leaders of human society, are supposed to possess the proper
philosophy of life, and yet we are becoming bewildered by the spell of Your
external energy. We are surprised to see Your behavior, which is just like that
of an ordinary human being and which conceals Your real identity as the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, and we therefore consider Your pastimes to be
all-wonderful.
"Our dear Lord, by Your own energy
You are creating, maintaining and annihilating the whole cosmic manifestation
of different names and forms, in the same way as the earth creates many forms
of stone, trees and other varieties of names and forms and yet remains the
same. Although You are creating varieties of manifestation through Your energy,
You are unaffected by all those actions. Our dear Lord, we remain simply
stunned by seeing Your wonderful actions. Although You are transcendental to
this entire material creation and are the Supreme Lord and the Supersoul of all
living entities, You nevertheless appear on this earth by Your internal potency
to protect Your devotees and destroy the miscreants. By such appearance You
reestablish the principles of eternal religion, which the human society forgets
by long association with the material energy. Our dear Lord, You are the
creator of the social orders and spiritual statuses of the human society
according to quality and work, and when these orders are misguided by
unscrupulous persons, You appear and set them right.
"Dear Lord, the Vedic knowledge is
the representation of Your pure heart. Austerities, study of the Vedas, and
meditative trances lead to different realizations of Your Self in Your
manifested and nonmanifested aspects. The entire phenomenal world is a
manifestation of Your impersonal energy, but You Yourself, as the original
Personality of Godhead, are nonmanifested there. You are the Supreme Soul, the
Supreme Brahman. Persons who are situated in brahminical culture, therefore,
can understand the truth about Your transcendental form. Thus You always hold
the brāhmaṇas
in respect, and thus You are considered to be the topmost of all followers of
brahminical culture. You are therefore known as brahmaṇya-deva. Our
dear Lord, You are the last word in good fortune and the last resort of all
saintly persons; therefore we all consider that we have achieved the perfection
of our life, education, austerity and acquisition of transcendental knowledge
by meeting You. Factually, You are the ultimate goal of all transcendental
achievements.
"Our dear Lord, there is no end to
Your unlimited knowledge. Your form is transcendental, eternally existing in
full bliss and knowledge. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the
Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Soul. Being covered by the spell of Your internal
potency, yogamāyā, You are now temporarily concealing Your unlimited potencies,
but still we can understand Your exalted position, and therefore all of us
offer You our respectful obeisances. Dear Lord, You are enjoying Your pastimes
in the role of a human being, concealing Your real character of transcendental
opulence; therefore, all the kings who are present here, even the members of
the Yadu dynasty who are constantly mingling with You, eating with You, and
sitting with You, cannot understand that You are the original cause of all
causes, the soul of everyone, the original cause of all creation."When a person dreams at night, hallucinatory figures created by the dream are accepted as real, and the imaginary dream body is accepted as one's real body. For the time being one forgets that besides the body created in hallucination, there is another, real body in his awakened state. Similarly, in the awakened state also, the bewildered conditioned soul considers sense enjoyment to be real happiness.
"By the process of enjoyment of the senses of the material body, the spirit soul is covered, and his consciousness becomes materially contaminated. It is due to material consciousness that one cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. All great mystic yogīs endeavor to revive their Kṛṣṇa consciousness by mature practice of the yoga system and thus understand Your lotus feet and meditate upon Your transcendental form. In this way the accumulated result of sinful activities is counteracted. It is said that the water of the Ganges can vanquish volumes of a person's sinful actions, but the Ganges water is glorious only due to Your lotus feet. The Ganges water is flowing as perspiration from the lotus feet of Your Lordship. And we are all so fortunate that today we have been able to directly see Your lotus feet. Dear Lord, we are all surrendered souls, devotees of Your Lordship; therefore, please be kind and bestow Your causeless mercy upon us. We know well that persons who have become liberated by constant engagement in Your devotional service are no longer contaminated by the material modes of nature; thus they have become eligible to be promoted to the kingdom of God in the spiritual world."
After first offering prayers to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the assembled
sages wanted to take permission from King Dhṛtarāṣṭra and King Yudhiṣṭhira and then depart for their respective āśramas.
At that time, however, Vasudeva, the father of Lord Kṛṣṇa and the most
celebrated of all pious men, approached the sages and with great humility
offered his respects by falling down at their feet. Vasudeva said, "My
dear great sages, you are more respected than the demigods. I therefore offer
my respectful obeisances unto you. I wish that you will accept my one request,
if you so desire. I shall consider it a great blessing if you kindly explain
the supreme fruitive activity by which one can counteract the reactions of all
other activities."
The great sage Nārada was the leader of
all the sages present there. Therefore he began to speak. "My dear
sages," he said, "it is not very difficult to understand that because
of his great goodness and simplicity, Vasudeva, who has become the father of
the Personality of Godhead by accepting Kṛṣṇa as his son, is inclined to ask us about his
welfare. It is said that familiarity breeds contempt. As such, Vasudeva, having
Kṛṣṇa as
his son, does not regard Kṛṣṇa with awe and veneration. Sometimes it is seen
that persons who are living on the bank of the Ganges do not consider the
Ganges to be very important, and they go far away in order to take their baths
at a place of pilgrimage. Being that Lord Kṛṣṇa, whose knowledge is never second in any
circumstances, is personally present, there is no need of Vasudeva's asking us
for instruction.
Lord Kṛṣṇa is not affected by the process of creation,
maintenance and annihilation; His knowledge is never influenced by any agency
beyond Himself. He is not agitated by the interaction of the material
qualities, which changes things in the modes of time. His transcendental form
is full of knowledge which never becomes agitated by ignorance, pride,
attachment, envy or sense enjoyment. His knowledge is never subjected to the
laws of karma regarding pious or impious activities; nor is it influenced by
the three modes of material energy. No one is greater than or equal to Him,
because He is the supreme authority, the Personality of Godhead."The ordinary conditioned human being may think the conditioned soul, who is covered by his materialistic senses, mind and intelligence, to be equal to Kṛṣṇa, but Lord Kṛṣṇa is just like the sun, which, although it sometimes may appear to be so, is never covered by the cloud, snow or fog or by other planets. When the eyes of less intelligent men are covered by such influences, they think the sun to be invisible. Similarly, persons influenced by the senses and addicted to material enjoyment cannot have a clear vision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
The sages present then began to address Vasudeva in the presence of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and many other kings, and, as requested by him, they gave their instructions: "To counteract the reaction of karma, or desires impelling one to fruitive activities, one must execute the prescribed sacrifices which are meant for worshiping Lord Viṣṇu with faith and devotion. Lord Viṣṇu is the beneficiary of the results of all sacrificial performances. Great personalities and sages who are sufficiently experienced to possess vision of the three phases of the time element, namely past, present and future, and those who are able to see everything clearly through the eyes of revealed scriptures, have unanimously recommended that to purify the dust of material contamination accumulated in the heart and to clear the path of liberation and thereby achieve transcendental bliss, one must please Lord Viṣṇu. For everyone in the different social orders (brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya) who are living as householders, this worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Viṣṇu, who is known as Puruṣottama, the original person, is recommended as the only auspicious path.
"All conditioned souls within this material
world have deep-rooted desires to lord it over the resources of material
nature. Everyone wants to accumulate riches, everyone wants to enjoy life to
the greatest extent, everyone wants a wife, home and children, and everyone
wants to become happy in this world and be elevated to the heavenly planets in
the next life. But these desires are the causes of one's material bondage.
Therefore, to get liberation from this bondage, one has to sacrifice his
honestly earned riches for the satisfaction of Lord Viṣṇu.
"The only process to counteract
all sorts of material desire is to engage oneself in the devotional service of
Lord Viṣṇu. In this way a self-controlled
person, even while remaining in householder life, should give up the three
kinds of material desires, namely desire for the acquisition of material
opulences, the enjoyment of wife and children, and elevation to higher planets.
Eventually he may give up householder life and accept the renounced order of
life, engaging himself completely in the devotional service of the Lord.
Everyone, even if born in a higher status of life as brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, or vaiśya, is certainly indebted to the
demigods, to the sages, to the forefathers, to living entities and so on, and
in order to liquidate all these debts, one has to perform sacrifices, study the
Vedic literature and generate children in religious householder life. If
somehow one accepts the renounced order of life without fulfilling this debt,
certainly he falls down from his position. Today you have already liquidated
your debts to your forefathers and the sages. Now, by performing sacrifices,
you can free yourself from indebtedness to the demigods and thus take complete shelter
of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. My dear Vasudeva, certainly you have
already performed many pious activities in your previous lives. Otherwise, how
could you be the father of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead?"
Saintly Vasudeva, after hearing all the
sages, offered his respectful obeisances unto their lotus feet. In this way he
pleased the sages, and then he elected for them to perform the yajñas. When the
sages were elected as priests of the sacrifices, they also in turn induced
Vasudeva to collect the required paraphernalia for executing the yajñas in that
place of pilgrimage. Thus Vasudeva was persuaded to start to perform the
yajñas, and all the members of the Yadu dynasty took their baths, dressed
themselves very nicely, and decorated themselves beautifully and garlanded
themselves with lotus flowers. Vasudeva's wives, dressed with nice garments and
ornaments and golden necklaces, approached the arena of sacrifice carrying in
their hands the required articles to offer in the sacrifice.
When everything was complete, there was
heard the vibration of mṛdaṅgas,
conchshells, kettledrums and other musical instruments. Professional dancers,
both male and female, began to dance. The sūtas and māgadhas, who were
professional singers, began to offer prayers by singing. The Gandharvas and
their wives, whose voices were very sweet, began to sing many auspicious songs.
Vasudeva anointed his eyes with collyrium, smeared butter over his body, and
then, along with his eighteen wives, headed by Devakī, sat before the priests
to be purified by the abhiṣeka ceremony. All such ceremonies were observed
strictly according to the principles of scriptures, as was done formerly in the
case of the moon with the stars. Vasudeva, because he was being initiated for
the sacrifice, was dressed in deerskin, but all his wives were dressed with
very nice saris, bangles, necklaces, ankle bells, earrings and many other
ornaments. Vasudeva looked very beautiful surrounded by his wives, exactly like
the King of heaven when he performs such sacrifices.
At that time, when Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord
Balarāma, along with Their wives, children and relatives, sat down in that
great sacrificial arena, it appeared that the Supreme Personality of Godhead
was present along with all His part and parcel living entities and
multi-energies. We have heard from the śāstras that Lord Kṛṣṇa has
multi-energies and parts and parcels, but now in that sacrificial arena all
could actually experience how the Supreme Personality of Godhead eternally
exists along with His different energies. At that time, Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared as
Lord Nārāyaṇa,
and Lord Balarāma appeared as Saṅkarṣaṇa, the reservoir of all living entities.
Vasudeva satisfied Lord Viṣṇu by performing
different kinds of sacrifices, such as jyotiṣṭoma, darṣa and pūrṇamāsa. Some of these yajñas are called prākṛta, and some of
them are known as sauryasatra or vaikṛta. Thereafter, the other sacrifices, known as
agnihotra, were also performed, and the prescribed articles were offered in the
proper way. In this way Lord Viṣṇu became pleased. The ultimate purpose of offering
oblations in sacrifice is to please Lord Viṣṇu. But in this age of Kali it is very difficult to
collect the different articles required for offering sacrifices. People have
neither the means to collect the required paraphernalia nor the necessary
knowledge or tendency to offer such sacrifices. Therefore, in this age of Kali,
when people are mostly unfortunate, full of anxieties and disturbed by various
kinds of calamities, the only sacrifice recommended is the performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña.
Worshiping Lord Caitanya by this saṅkīrtana-yajña is the only recommended process in
this age.
After the performance of the different
sacrifices, Vasudeva offered ample riches, clothing, ornaments, cows, land and
maidservants to the priests. Thereafter, all the wives of Vasudeva took their
avabhṛtha
baths and performed the part of the sacrificial duties known as patnīsaṁyāja. After
finishing the offering with all the required paraphernalia, they all took their
baths together in the lakes constructed by Paraśurāma, which are known as the
Rāma-hrada. After Vasudeva and his wives took their baths, all the garments and
ornaments which they wore were distributed to the subordinate persons who were
engaged in singing, dancing and similar activities. We may note that the
performance of sacrifice necessitates the profuse distribution of riches.
Charity is offered to the priests and the brāhmaṇas in the beginning, and used garments and ornaments
are offered in charity to the subordinate assistants after the performance of
the sacrifice.
After offering the used articles to the
singers and reciters, Vasudeva and his wives, dressed with new ornaments and
dresses, fed everyone very sumptuously, beginning from the brāhmaṇas down to the
dogs. After this, all the friends, family members, wives and children of
Vasudeva, along with all the kings and members of the Vidarbha, Kośala, Kuru,
Kāśī, Kekaya and Sṛñjaya
dynasties, assembled together. The priests, the demigods, the people in
general, the forefathers, the ghosts and the Cāraṇas were all sufficiently remunerated by being
offered ample gifts and respectful honor. Then all the persons assembled there
took permission from Lord Kṛṣṇa, the husband of the goddess of fortune, and while
glorifying the perfection of the sacrifice made by Vasudeva, they departed to
their respective homes.
At that time, when King Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Vidura,
Yudhiṣṭhira,
Bhīma, Arjuna, Bhīṣmadeva,
Droṇācārya,
Kuntī, Nakula, Sahadeva, Nārada, Lord Vyāsadeva and many other relatives and
kinsmen were about to part, they felt separation and therefore embraced each
and every member of the Yadu dynasty with great feeling. Many others who were
assembled in that sacrificial arena also departed. After this, Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord
Balarāma, along with King Ugrasena, satisfied the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, headed
by Mahārāja Nanda and the cowherd men, by profusely offering all kinds of gifts
in order to worship them and please them. Out of their great feelings of
friendship, the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana remained there for a considerable time
along with the members of the Yadu dynasty.
After performing this sacrifice,
Vasudeva felt so satisfied that there was no limit to his happiness. All the
members of his family were with him, and in their presence he caught hold of
the hands of Nanda Mahārāja and addressed him thus: "My dear brother, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead has created a great tie of bondage which is
known as the bondage of love and affection. I think it is a very difficult job
for even the great sages and saintly persons to cut such a tie of love. My dear
brother, you have exhibited feelings of love for me, which I was not able to
return. I think, therefore, that I am ungrateful. You have behaved exactly as
is characteristic of saintly persons, but I shall never be able to repay you. I
have no means to repay you for your friendly dealings. Nevertheless I am
confident that our tie of love will never break. Our relationship of friendship
must ever continue, in spite of my inability to repay you. I hope you will
excuse me for this inability.
"My dear brother, in the
beginning, due to my being imprisoned, I could never serve you as a friend, and
although at the present moment I am very opulent, because of my material
prosperity I have become blind. I therefore cannot satisfy you properly even at
this time. My dear brother, you are so nice and gentle that you offer all
respect to others, but you don't care for any respect for yourself. A person
seeking for auspicious progress in life must not possess too much material
opulence with which to become blind and puffed up, but he should take care of
his friends and relatives."
When Vasudeva was speaking to Nanda Mahārāja in
this way, he was influenced by a great feeling for the friendship of Nanda
Mahārāja and the beneficial activities executed by King Nanda on his behalf. As
such, his eyes filled with tears, and he began to cry. Desiring to please his
friend Vasudeva and being affectionately bound with love for Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma,
Nanda Mahārāja passed three months in their association. At the end of this
time, all the members of the Yadu dynasty tried to please the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana to their
hearts' content. The members of the Yadu dynasty tried to satisfy Nanda
Mahārāja and his associates by offering them clothing, ornaments, and many
other valuable articles, and they all became fully satisfied. Vasudeva,
Ugrasena, Lord Kṛṣṇa,
Lord Balarāma, Uddhava and all other members of the Yadu dynasty presented
their individual gifts to Nanda Mahārāja and his associates. After Nanda
Mahārāja received these farewell presentations, he, along with his associates,
started for Vrajabhūmi, Vṛndāvana.
The minds of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana remained, however, with Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma,
and therefore all of them started for Vṛndāvana without their minds. When the members of the Vṛṣṇi family saw all their friends and visitors departing, they observed that the rainy season was approaching, and thus they decided to return to Dvārakā. They were fully satisfied, for they regarded Kṛṣṇa as everything. When they returned to Dvārakā, they began with great satisfaction to describe the sacrifice performed by Vasudeva, their meeting with various friends and well-wishers, and various other incidents which occurred during their travels in the places of pilgrimage
84. Spiritual Instruction for
Vasudeva and Return of the Six Dead Sons of Devakī by Lord Kṛṣṇa
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 Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma used to offer Their obeisances to Their father,
Vasudeva, along with his wives. One day, after having returned from the
sacrificial performances at Kurukṣetra, when Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma 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 Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma 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 Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were not ordinary human
beings, but were very extraordinary. Thus he believed the words of the sages
that his sons Kṛṣṇa
and Balarāma were the Supreme Personality of Godhead
"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 omkāra 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
māyā, 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 yogamāyā. 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, yogamāyā, is acting in variegated manifestations, but because yogamāyā is Your energy, You are therefore present in everything."
In the
Bhagavad-gītā, 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-gītā. There it is said that anyone who knows the appearance and
activities of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa becomes freed from the clutches of material nature and goes back
home, back to Godhead. Therefore Kṛṣṇa'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 Pradhāna and Puruṣa. But You have appeared on the surface of this globe in order to minimize the burden of the world by killing the kṣatriya 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 Kaṁsa'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 Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were smiling. Because
They are very affectionate to Their devotees, They accepted all the
appreciation of Vasudeva with a kindly smiling attitude. Kṛṣṇa 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 Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma to be his sons, but
because the sages assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukṣetra had spoken about the Lord as the
supreme cause of everything, Vasudeva simply repeated it out of his love for Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Lord Kṛṣṇa 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 Kṛṣṇa. After this, Lord Kṛṣṇa informed His father of the spiritual identity of all living
entities. He continued, "My dear father, everyone, including Myself and My
brother Balarāma, as well as all the inhabitants of the city of Dvārakā and the
whole cosmic manifestation, is exactly as you have already explained, but all
of us are also qualitatively one."
Lord Kṛṣṇa intended for Vasudeva to see
everything in the vision of a mahābhāgavata, 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 Kṛṣṇa 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 Kṛṣṇa and including the Viṣṇu-tattva and millions of Viṣṇu forms, and then the living entities in different forms,
beginning from Lord Brahmā 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 Upaniṣads that Kṛṣṇa, 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 Kṛṣṇa 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, Devakī, the mother of Lord Kṛṣṇa, sat by the side of her husband. Previously she had heard that
both Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were so kind upon Their
teacher that They had brought back the teacher's dead sons from the clutches of
the superintendent of death, Yamarāja. Since she had heard this incident, she
had been also thinking of her own sons who were killed by Kaṁsa, and while remembering them she
became overwhelmed with grief.
In compassion
for her dead sons, Devakī began to appeal to Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma thus: "My dear
Balarāma, 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 Kṛṣṇa,
You are the master of all mystic yogīs. I also know that You are the master of
the Prajāpatis like Brahmā and his assistants, and You are the original
Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa. 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 Kṛṣṇa, I know that Mahā-Viṣṇu, 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,
Sāndīpani Muni, and he asked You to bring back his dead son, You and Balarāma
immediately brought him from the custody of Yamarāja, although he had been dead
for a very long time. By this act I understand You to be the supreme master of
all mystic yogīs. 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 Kaṁsa; 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 Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa immediately
called for the assistance of yogamāyā and started for the lower planetary
system known as Sutala. Formerly, in His incarnation of Vāmana, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead was satisfied by the King of the demons, Bali Mahārāja,
who donated to Him everything he had. Bali Mahārāja was then given the whole of
Sutala for his residence and kingdom. Now when this great devotee, Bali
Mahārāja, saw that Lord Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa had come to his planet, he immediately merged in
an ocean of happiness. As soon as he saw Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma 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 Mahārāja offered Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma 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 Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma can purify even the greatest demigods,
such as Lord Brahmā. |
After this, Bali Mahārāja 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 Balarāma, You are the original
Anantadeva. You are so great that Anantadeva Seṣa and other transcendental forms have originally
emanated from You and Lord Kṛṣṇa. 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 jñāna-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 Vidyādharas, the Cāraṇas, the Yakṣas, the Rākṣasas, the Piśācas, 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 yogamāyā 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 paramahaṁsas 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 paramahaṁsa 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 paramahaṁsa. When one achieves the paramahaṁsa platform,
he is no longer under the regulative principles of the Vedic injunctions. A
paramahaṁsa
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 paramahaṁsa, but those who are fortunately advanced in
spiritual sense take shelter of the paramahaṁsa and thus successfully complete the mission of
human life.
After Lord Kṛṣṇa
heard the prayers of Bali Mahārāja, He spoke as follows: "My dear King
of the demons, in the millennium of the Svāyambhuva Manu, the Prajāpati known
as Marīci begot six sons, all demigods, in the womb of his wife, Ūrṇā. Once upon a
time, Lord Brahmā 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 Brahmā with abhorrence. This criticism of
Brahmā'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 Hiraṇyakaśipu.
These sons of Hiraṇyakaśipu
were thereafter put in the womb of mother Devakī, and as soon as they took
their birth, Kaṁsa
killed them one after another. My dear King of the demons, mother Devakī 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 Kaṁsa. I know
that all of them are living with you. I have decided to take them with Me in
order to pacify My mother Devakī. 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, Udgītha, Pariṣvaṅga, Pataṅga, Kṣudrabhṛt and Ghṛṇī. They will be again reinstated in their former
position as demigods."
After thus informing the King of the
demons, Kṛṣṇa
stopped speaking, and Bali Mahārāja understood the Lord's purpose. He
worshiped Him sufficiently, and thereafter Lord Kṛṣṇa
and Lord Balarāma took away the six conditioned souls and returned to the
city of Dvārakā, where He presented them as little babies before His mother,
Devakī. Mother Devakī 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 Viṣṇu,
and in great motherly affection she began to enjoy the company of her lost
children.
|
After they departed, Devakī 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 Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, in which, because Lord Kṛṣṇa's potencies are all inconceivable, anything wonderful can be performed. Without accepting the inconceivable, unlimited potencies of the Lord, one cannot understand that Lord Kṛṣṇa 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. Sūta Gosvāmī, speaking Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam before the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya, headed by Śaunaka Ṛṣi, gave his verdict in this connection as follows.
"Great sages, please understand that the transcendental pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa 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 Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the exalted son of Vyāsadeva, and anyone who hears them, as well as anyone who describes them for the hearing of others, becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious. And it is only the Kṛṣṇa conscious persons who become eligible for going back home, back to Godhead.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations H H Swami Sri Prabhupada ji, Sri Krishnalilas
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