Spiritual Instruction for Vasudeva, and Return of Six Dead Sons to Devakī by Lord Kṛṣṇa

Next, Chapter Eighty-five. Subject: "Spiritual Instruction for Vasudeva, and Return of Six Dead Sons to Devaki by Lord Krsna."

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It is a Vedic custom that the junior members of the family should offer respects to the elderly persons every morning. Especially the children or the disciples 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 parents, Vasudeva along with his wife.

So after returned from Kuruksetra performing the sacrifices, one day when Lord Krsna and Balarama went to offer Their respect to Vasudeva, he took the opportunity of appreciating the exalted position of his sons Krsna and Balarama. Vasudeva had the opportunity to understand about Krsna and Balarama from the great sages who assembled in the arena of the sacrifice. Not only he heard from the sages, but in many occasions he actually experienced that Krsna and Balarama were not ordinary human being but were something very, very extraordinary. Thus, he believed the words of the sages that his sons Krsna and Balarama were the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So on this firm faith on his sons, he began to address Them as follows: [within quotation] "My dear Krsna, You are the sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs 5.1], Supreme Personality of Godhead.

And my dear Balarama, You are Sahkarsana, the master of all mystic powers. Therefore, I have now understood that You are eternal. Both of You are transcendental to the cause of this material manifestation said to be the material nature, and Supreme Person, Maha-Visnu. You are the original controller of all of them. You are the rest of this cosmic manifestation, You are the creator, and You are also the creative ingredients of this cosmic manifestation. You are the master of this cosmic manifestation, and practically this manifestation is for Your pastimes only.

"Different phases of this cosmic manifestation under different time formula from the beginning to the end are also Yourself because You are both the cause and the effects of this manifestation. The two features of this material world, namely the predominator and the predominated, are also You, and above them the supreme transcendental controller are also You. Therefore, both of You are beyond the perception of our senses. You are the Supreme Soul, unborn and unchanged. The six kinds of transformation of the material body has nothing to do with You. The wonderful varieties of this material world are also created by You, and as the Supersoul You have entered in each of them, even within the atom. You are the vital force of all these manifestation and the supreme cognition of all of them. As such, You are the maintainer of everything.

"The vital force which is acting as life principle in everything-and the creative force derived out of it-are not acting independently, but behind all these forces You are the Supreme Person. Without Your will, they cannot work. Material energy has no cognizance. It cannot act independently, without being agitated by You. Therefore, material nature is dependent upon You. As such, all endeavors made by any living entity can be attempted by them only; but without Your sanction and will, they cannot be performed or achieve the desired result. As such, the original energy is emanation from You only.

"My dear Lord, the shining of the moon, the heat of the fire, the rays of the sun, the glittering of the stars, the lightning of electricity, which are manifested as very powerful, the gravity of the mountains, the energy of the earth, its quality as flavor-all of them are Your different manifestation. The satiating taste of water, the vital force for maintaining the life are also Your features. The water and its taste are also Yourself.

"My dear Lord, the forces of the senses, the power of thinking, willing and feeling of the mind, strength of the body, movement of the body, growth of the body, although apparently being performed by different kinds of ventilation of the air, ultimately they are all manifestation of Your energy. The outer space and its vast expansion and rest is Yourself. The vibration of the sky, its roaring, its expression, and the supreme sound omkara and the arrangement of different words to distinguish one matter from the other, they are symbolic representation. Everything is Yourself.

"The senses and to..., the purpose of the senses to acquire knowledge, its subject matter and its controller, the demigods, all of them are Yourself. The resolution of intelligence and sharp memory of the living entity are also Yourself. The egoistic principle in 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 cause of different controlling deities of this material world; as well as the illusory energy, or maya, which is the cause of manifestation of the conditioned souls whereby the conditioned soul is perpetually transmigrating from one form to another-all of them in total is Yourself.

"My dear Supreme Personality of Godhead, You are the original cause of all causes, exactly like the earth is the original cause of different kinds of pots, trees, plants or similar varieties of manifestation. As in everything the earth is represented, similarly, in everything of this material manifestation You are also present there as Supersoul. As such, You are the supreme cause or cause of all causes, eternal principle. In fact, they are all manifestation of Your one energy.

"The three qualities of material nature-sattva, raja and tama-and the result of their interaction are linked up with You by Your agency, the yogamaya. They are supposed to be so, but actually the total material energy is resting upon You, the Supersoul. You being the supreme cause of everything, the interaction of material manifestation-as birth, existence, growth, transformation, deterioration and annihilation-are all absent in Yourself. Actually, Your supreme energy, yogamaya, is acting in such variegated manifestation, but because yogamaya is Your energy, therefore it is to be supposed that You are present in everything." [quotation close]

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In the Bhagavad-gita, this fact is very nicely explained in the Ninth Chapter, wherein the Lord says that "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 repeated in this connection spoken by Vasudeva. The fact is the all-pervasive nature of Krsna and His presence as Supreme Soul is more or less imagination of understanding. He is not present everywhere means His energy is acting everywhere, whereas He is aloof from everything.

This can be understood by a crude example that 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 and every atmosphere the presence of the proprietor is felt by the workers, the presence of the proprietor in every department is formal 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 and difference from the Supreme Lord is confirmed everywhere. The unity is the Lord, and the diversities are His energies, and the divers…

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"This material world is a big river, flowing as the waves of three material modes of nature, namely goodness, passion and ignorance. This material body, senses, thinking, feeling, willing, distress, happiness, attachment, lust-all of them are different products of these three qualities of nature. The foolish person, who cannot realize Your transcendental identity above all these material reaction, continues to remain in the entanglement of fruitive activities, subjected to the continuous process of birth and death, without being freed from the clutches." [quotation close]

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In the Bhagavad-gita also this very thing is confirmed by the Lord in the Fourth Chapter in a different way, that anyone who knows the appearance and activities of the Supreme Lord Krsna becomes freed from this material clutches and goes back to home, back to Godhead. Krsna is not, therefore, by His transcendental name, form, activities, quality, products of this material nature.

"My dear Lord, despite all these defects of the conditioned soul, somehow or other if somebody comes in contact with devotional service, he achieves this human form of body with developed consciousness of civilization and thereby capable senses to execute further progress of devotional service. And still they do not utilize this advantage of human form of life, illusioned by the external energy, and thus misses the chance of eternal freedom and unnecessarily spoils the advancement of ages.

"The bodily concept of life, and thus being attached to the offsprings from the body, based on false egotism, everyone in this conditioned life is entrapped by a false relationship and affection. The whole world is moving under this false impression of material bondage. So I know from the very beginning that both of You are not my sons, but You are the original chief and progenitor, Personalities of Godhead, known as pradhana and purusa. But You have appeared on this surface of this globe in order to minimize the burden of the world by killing the ksatriya kings because of their unnecessarily increasing military strength. In the past, You have already informed me about this. 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 the lotus feet, which alone can give one liberation from the entanglement of material existence.

"So long I simply consider this body as myself, and although You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, still I considered You as my son. My dear Lord, when You first appeared in the maternity home, at that very moment I was informed that You were the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but You had descended for protection of the principles of religiosity as well as for the destruction of the unfaithful. And as such, although unborn, You descend in every millennium for serving Your mission. My dear Lord, as in the sky there are many forms, appearing and disappearing, similarly, You also appear and disappear in so many eternal forms. Who can therefore understand about Your pastimes the mystery of such appearance and disappearance? Our only business should be therefore to glorify Your supreme greatness."

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When Vasudeva was speaking like that, addressing his divine sons, Lord Krsna and Balarama were smiling, and because They are very much affectionate to Their devotees, they accepted all the appreciation of Vasudeva in a kindly, smiling attitude. Now He began to confirm all the statements as follows: "My dear Father, whatever you may speak, after all, We are your sons. Whatever you have spoken aiming at Us is certainly highly philosophical understanding of spiritual knowledge. I accept them in total, without any exception." [quotation close]

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Vasudeva was in complete perfection of life considering Lord Krsna and Balarama as his sons, but because the sages assembled in the pilgrimage of Kuruksetra had spoken about the Lord as the supreme cause of everything, Vasudeva simply repeated them in connection of his love with Krsna and Balarama. Lord Krsna also did not wish to disturb His relationship with Vasudeva as father and son. Therefore, in the very beginning of His reply, He accepted the fact that He is eternal son of Vasudeva, and Vasudeva is eternal father of Krsna.

After this, Lord Krsna informed His father about the spiritual identity of all living entities. He continued to say, [within quotation] "My dear father, all of you, including Myself and My brother Balarama and all the inhabitants of this city of Dvaraka, and all the cosmic manifestation are exactly like what you have already explained, that all of us living entities are qualitatively one." [quotation close]

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Lord Krsna intended Vasudeva to see everything in the vision of a maha-bhagavata, means the first-class devotee, because a first-class devotee sees all living entities as part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and the Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart. In fact, every living entity is 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 the spirit soul is of the same quality as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This spirit soul is illuminating all of them of the same quality. When attached by the material modes of nature and simply being covered by the material body, one misconsiders one individual is different from another, or because of difference of bodies, the spirit soul appears before us differently.

Lord Krsna gave in this connection a nice example of the five material elements. Total material elements, namely the sky, the air, the fire, the water and the earth, are present in everything in the material world, either in a earthen pot or in the mountain or in the trees or in the earring. Everything, these five elements are present in different proportion only. My..., mountain is a gigantic form of these five elements, and a small earthen pot is of the same elements but in a proportionately smaller scale. Therefore all material items, either a different shape or different quantity, they are of the same ingredient.

Similarly, the living entities-beginning from Lord Krsna, including the visnu-tattva, millions of Visnu forms; then the living entities in different forms, beginning from Lord Brahma down to the small ant-all of them are of the same quality, spirit, somewhere represented a greater quantity and somewhere represented a smaller quantity, but qualitatively they are of the same nature.

It is therefore confirmed in the Upanisads that Krsna, or the Supreme Lord, is the chief of all living entities. He is the maintainer and supplier of all necessities of life to all other living entities. Anyone who knows this philosophy is in perfect knowledge. The Vedic version tat tvam asi [Chandogya Upanisad 6.8.7], "Thou art the same," does not mean, however, that everyone is God, but everyone is qualitatively of the same nature as that of God.

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Vasudeva, after hearing Krsna speaking the whole philosophy of spiritual life in a very shortcut nutshell, was exceedingly pleased upon his son, and being too much engladdened he could not speak anything but remained silent. In the meantime, Devaki, mother of Lord Krsna, who was sitting by the side of her husband and who had heard before that both Krsna and Balarama were so kind upon His teacher that He brought back the teacher's dead sons from the clutches of the superintendent of death, Yamaraja, since she heard this incident, she was also thinking of her own sons who were killed by Kamsa, and while remembering them, she became overwhelmed with grief and began to request her sons as follows.

Very feelingly in compassion with her dead sons, she began to appeal to Lord Krsna and Balarama as follows: "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 mind and words. And my dear Krsna, You are master of all mystic yogis. I also know it very certainly 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 it as certainly that You have descended to annihilate all kinds of miscreants who have been misled in course of time, therefore have lost patience, control of the mind and senses, fallen from the platform of the quality of goodness and deliberately have neglected the direction of the revealed scriptures by living a life of extravagancy and impudency. You have descended to minimize the burden of the world by killing such rulers of people on the earth.

"My dear Krsna, I know that Maha-Visnu, who is lying in the ocean of causal origin of cosmic manifestation and this whole creation, has been possible by simply expansion of Your plenary portion, through the exigency of the material energy. The creation, maintenance and annihilation of this cosmic manifestation is being effected only by Your plenary portion. I am therefore taking shelter of You without any reservation. I have heard it that Your teacher, Sandipani Muni, lost his son, and he was dead since a very long time. But when You wanted to reward Your teacher, he asked You to bring back his dead son, and both You and Balarama immediately brought him from the custody of Yamaraja. Therefore, I take You as 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, and upon Your bringing them back, it will be a great pleasure for me to see them once with my heart's contentment." [quotation close]

Lord Balarama and Krsna, after hearing Their mother speaking like that, immediately called for the assistance of yogamaya and started for the lower planetary system known as Sutala-loka. Formerly, in His incarnation of Vamana, the king of the demons Bali Maharaja satisfied the Supreme Personality of Godhead by donating Him everything he had. The king of the demons Bali Maharaja was given the whole of Sutala-loka for his residence and kingdom. Now, when Bali Maharaja saw that Lord Balarama and Krsna had gone there, as a great devotee he became immediately too much engladdened and merged in the ocean of happiness.

As soon as he saw Lord Krsna and Balarama in his presence, immediately he, along with all his family members, stood up from their seat and all to all bowed down on the lotus feet of the Lord. King Bali Maharaja offered Lord Krsna and Balarama the best seat he had in his possession, and when both of Them were seated comfortably on the seat, then he began to wash the lotus feet of the Lords, and the washed water was taken by him along with his family member on the head. The water washed up of the lotus feet of Krsna and Balarama can purify even the greatest demigods like Lord Brahma.

After this, Bali Maharaja brought many valuable garments, ornaments, sandalwood pulp, betel nuts...

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…started for the lower planetary system known as Sutala-loka. Formerly, in His incarnation of Vamana, the king of the demons Bali Maharaja satisfied the Supreme Personality of Godhead by donating Him everything he had. The king of the demon Bali Maharaja was given the whole of Sutala-loka for his residence and kingdom. Now, when Bali Maharaja saw that Lord Balarama and Krsna had gone there, as a great devotee he became immedi ately too much engladdened and merged in the ocean of happiness.

As soon as he saw Lord Krsna and Balarama in his presence, immediately he, along with all his family members, stood up from their seat and all to all bowed down on the lotus feet of the Lord. King Bali Maharaja offered Lord Krsna and Balarama the best seat he had in his possession, and when both of Them were seated comfortably on the seat, then he began to wash the lotus feet of the Lords, and the washed water was taken by him along with his family member on the head. The water washed up of the lotus feet of Krsna and Balarama can purify even the greatest demigods like Lord Brahma.

After this, Bali Maharaja brought many valuable garments, ornaments, sandalwood pulp, betel nuts, lamps and various kinds of foodstuff tasting like nectarean, and along with his family members he worshiped the Lord, just in the regulative principle, and immediately offered his riches and body unto the lotus feet of the Lord.

King Bali was feeling so much transcendental pleasure that he began to catch the lotus feet of the Lord and keep them on his chest repeatedly, and sometimes he kept them on his top of the head, and in this way he was feeling transcendental bliss. On account of this, tears of love and affection began to flow down from his eyes, and all the holes of his hair became erupted. Now he began to offer prayer to the Lords in a voice which was being choked up at intervals.

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[within quotation] "My Lord Balarama, You are the original Anantadeva. You are so great that originally Anantadeva Sesa and other similar transcendental forms of Yourself have emanated from You. And Lord Krsna, You are the original Personality of Godhead, having Your eternal form all-blissful and full of complete knowledge. You are the creator of the whole world. You are the original initiator and propounder of the system of jnana-yoga and bhakti-yoga. You are the Supreme Brahma, original Personality of Godhead. I therefore, with all respect, offer my obeisances unto both of You. My dear Lords, for the living entities it is very difficult to have the opportunity of seeing You, but still, when You are merciful upon some of Your devotees, it is not at all difficult to see You. As such, out of Your causeless mercy only You have agreed to come here and be visible by us, who are generally influenced by the qualities of ignorance and passion.

"My dear Lord, we belong to the daitya, or demon, categories. As such, all the demons or demoniac persons-the Gandharvas, the Siddhas, the Vidyadharas, the Caranas, the Yaksas, the Raksasas, the Pisacas, the ghost and the hobgoblins-are incapable by nature to worship You or to become Your devotees. On the contrary, instead of becoming Your devotees, all of them simply impediments on the path of devotion. But just opposite them, You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, representing all the Vedas and situated in the uncontaminated modes of goodness. Your position is always transcendental. For this reason, some of us, although born of the modes of passion and ignorance, have taken the shelter of Your lotus feet and become devotees. Some of them are actually pure devotees, and some of them, being desirous of gaining something out of Your devotion, taken shelter of Your lotus feet.

"So by Your causeless mercy only, we demons are in direct contact with Your personality, which is not possible even by the great demigods. Therefore, nobody knows how You act through Your yogamaya potency. Even great demigods cannot calculate about the expansive activities of Your internal potency, and how it is possible for us to know it? I therefore, I place my humble prayers to You that You may be kind enough upon me, who is 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 depend simply upon Your lotus feet and travel alone here and there in great peace of mind. I also desire that if I have to associate with somebody else, they may be only Your pure devotees and nobody else, because Your pure devotees are always well-wisher of all people and living entities.

"My dear Lord, You are the supreme master and director of the whole world. Please, therefore, engage me in Your service, and thus let me become freed from all material contamination. You can purify me in that way because if someone engages himself in pure devotion through the loving service of Your Lordship, immediately he becomes free from all kinds of regulative principle enjoined in the Vedas." [quotation close]

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The word paramahamsa above mentioned means "the supreme swan." It is said that the swan can split up milk from its watery contents and takes only the milk portion and rejects the watery portion. Similarly, a person who can split up the spiritual portion of this material world and thus lives alone, depending on the Supreme Spirit, without any dependence on the material world, such person is called paramahamsa. When one achieves the stage of paramahamsa platform, he is no longer under the regulative principles of Vedic injunction. A paramahamsa accepts only the association of pure devotees and rejects others, who are too much materially addicted. Or in other words, those who are materially addicted, they cannot understand the value of paramahamsa. But those who are fortunate-advanced in spiritual sense-take shelter of such paramahamsa and thus successfully complete the mission of human life.

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When Lord Krsna heard the prayers of Bali Maharaja, He began to speak as follows: [within quotation] "My dear the king of the demons, in the millennium of the Svayambhuva Manu, the Prajapati known as Marici begot six sons in the womb of his wife called by the name urni. All of the six sons were demigods. Once upon a time, when 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 in abhorrence.

"This criticism of Brahma's action by the demigods was a great offense on their part, and for this reason they were condemned to take birth as the sons of demon Hiranyakasipu. All these sons of Hiranyakasipu were thereafter brought in the womb of the Mother Devaki, and as soon as they took their birth, Kamsa killed them one after another.

"My dear king of the demons, I may inform you that mother Devaki is very much anxious to see again these dead six sons, and she is very much aggrieved on account of their early death brought by Kamsa. I know all of them are living with you. I have decided to take all of them with Me in order to pacify My mother, Devaki. After seeing My mother, all these six conditioned souls will be liberated, and thus they will be transferred to their original planet in great pleasure. The names of these six conditioned souls are as follows: Smara, Udgitha, Parisvahga, Patahga, Ksudrabhrt and Ghrni. They will be again reinstated in their former position as demigods."

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Lord Krsna stopped speaking further. After informing the king of demons, Bali Maharaja understood the purpose of the Lord. He worshipped Him sufficiently, and thereafter Lord Krsna and Lord Balarama took away the six conditioned souls under Him and returned back in the city of Dvaraka and presented them before His mother, Devaki, as small little babies. Mother Devaki, just after seeing them, became overwhelmed with joy, and she was so much ecstatic in motherly feeling that immediately milk began to flow out of her breast, and she fed the babies with great satisfaction. She began to take them on her lap; again and again she was smelling their heads, thinking that she had got back her lost children. For the time being she became overpowered by the Visnu energy, and in great motherly affection began to enjoy the company of her lost children.

The milk out of the breast of Devaki was transcendental nectarean, because the same milk was sucked by Lord Krsna. As such, the babies who sucked the breast of Devakiji, who touched the body of Lord Krsna, become immediately self-realized persons. As such, immediately they began to offer their obeisances unto Lord Krsna, Balarama, their father Vasudeva and mother Devaki. After this, immediately they were transferred to their respective heavenly planets.

When they departed, Devaki became struck with wonder how her dead children came back and again were transferred to their respective planets. She could adjust the things only by thinking of Lord Krsna's pastimes, which can perform anything wonderful, because Lord Krsna's potencies are all inconceivable. Without accepting the inconceivable, unlimited potencies of the Lord, nobody can understand that Lord Krsna is the Supreme Soul, and His potencies are unlimited. By His unlimited potencies He has got unlimited pastimes also, and nobody can describe them in full, neither anyone can know all of them.

As such, Sūtaji (Sūta Gosvami) was speaking Srimad-Bhagavatam before the sages in Naimisaranya. He gave his verdict in this connection as follows. He addressed the great sages headed by Saunaka and said, "Great sages headed by Saunaka Rsi, please understand that transcendental pastimes of Lord Krsna are all eternal. They are not ordinary narration or historical incidences. The characteristic of such narrations are as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anyone, therefore, who hears such narrations of Lord's pastimes become immediately freed from the contamination of material existence. And what to speak of those who are pure devotees, because they enjoy such narration as if nectar entering through their aural reception."

Such narrations were described by Sukadeva Gosvami, the exalted son of Vyasadeva. Anyone who hears them or anyone who describes them for hearing by others, such person's consciousness becomes Krsna-ized, and all of them become Krsna conscious. Such Krsna conscious persons only become eligible for going back to home, back to Godhead. [quotation close]

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Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Chapter Eighty-five in the matter of "Spiritual Instruction for Vasudeva and Return of Six Dead Sons of Devaki by Lord Krsna."