VedaVyasa
Praneetha
The Mad Bhagavatam
Chapter 85
Lord Krishna Instructs Vasudeva and Retrieves Devakî's Sons
This chapter relates how Lord Kṛṣṇa imparted divine knowledge to His father and, along with Lord Balarāma, retrieved His mother's dead sons.
Having heard the visiting sages glorify Kṛṣṇa, Vasudeva ceased to regard Him and Balarāma as his sons and began praising Their omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. After glorifying his sons, Vasudeva fell at Lord Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet and begged Him to drive away the conception that the Lord was his son. Instead, Lord Kṛṣṇa restored that conception by instructing Vasudeva in the science of Godhead, and upon hearing these instructions, Vasudeva became peaceful and free of doubt.
Then mother Devakī praised Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, reminding Them how They had retrieved the dead son of Their spiritual master. She said, "Please fulfill my desire in the same way. Please bring back my sons who were killed by Kaḿsa so I may see them once again." Entreated in this way by Their mother, the two Lords went to the subterranean planet of Sutala, where They approached Bali Mahārāja. King Bali greeted Them respectfully, offering Them seats of honor, worshiping Them and reciting prayers. Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma then requested Bali to return Devakī's dead sons. The Lords received the boys from Bali and returned them to Devakī who felt such a surge of affection for them that milk began spontaneously flowing from her breasts. Overjoyed, Devakī fed the children her breastmilk, and by drinking the remnants of milk once drunk by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, they regained their original forms as demigods and went back to heaven.
10.85.1
athaikadātmajau prāptau
kṛta-pādābhivandanau
vasudevo 'bhinandyāha
prītyā sańkarṣaṇācyutau
(1) The son of Vyâsa said: 'Then, one day, visited Sankarshana and Acyuta, the two sons of Vasudeva, Their father who, after They had honored his feet, welcomed Them affectionately and spoke to Them.
10.85.2
tad-vīryair jāta-viśrambhaḥ
paribhāṣyābhyabhāṣata
(2) Having heard the words of the sages referring to the powers of his two sons, got he also in regard of their valorous deeds convinced of Them and said he, addressing Them by name:
10.85.3
(3) 'Krishna, o Krishna, o greatest yogi, o eternal Sankarshana, I know You two are the direct representatives of the primary nature [or pradhâna] and male principle [the purusha or person] out here.
As taught in the Sāńkhya doctrine of Lord Kapiladeva, pradhāna is the creative energy of the puruṣa, the Supreme Person. Thus, of these two principles, the pradhāna is the predominated energy, female, incapable of independent action, while the puruṣa is the absolutely independent, primeval creator and enjoyer. Neither Kṛṣṇa nor His brother Balarāma belong to the category of subordinate energy; rather, both of Them together are the original puruṣa, who is always joined by His manifold potencies of pleasure, knowledge and creative emanation.
10.85.4
pradhāna-puruṣeśvaraḥ
(4) Whatever, however or whenever, in, by, from, of or unto this [universe] comes into existence, all represents directly the One Who Predominates, the Supreme Lord, the primary nature and person.
To casual observers the known world appears to be produced by many different agents. A good indication of this conception is language itself, which traditional Sanskrit grammarians explain as reflecting the visible diversity of nature. In the standard Sanskrit grammar taught by the sage Pāṇini, the verb, expressing action, is taken to be the essential core of a sentence, and all the other words function in relation to it. Nouns, for example, are put into any of several cases to show their particular relationship to the verb in a sentence. These relationships of noun to verb are called kārakas, namely the relations of subject (kartā, "who does"), object (karma, "what is done"), instrument (karaṇa, "by which"), recipient (sampradāna, "for or toward which"), source (apadāna, "from or because of which") and location (adhikaraṇa, "in which"). Apart from these kārakas, nouns may also sometimes point to other nouns in a possessive sense, and there are also various kinds of adverbs of time, place and manner. But although language thus seems to indicate the activity of many separate agents in the manifest creation, the deeper truth is that all grammatical forms refer first of all to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this verse Vasudeva makes this point by glorifying his two exalted sons in terms of the different grammatical forms
10.85.5
ātmanānupraviśyātman
prāṇo jīvo bibharṣy aja
(5) This variegated universe that You created from Yourself, o Lord of the Beyond, do You, o Unborn One, entering it by Yourself, maintain as the Supreme Soul and principle of vitality and individuality.
When creating the material universe, the Lord expands Himself as the Paramātmā, or Supersoul, and accepts the creation as His universal body. No material body has any reason for existing without some jīva soul desiring it for his enjoyment, and no jīva can independently maintain a body without the Paramātmā accompanying him there for guidance. The Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, in their commentaries on the Second Canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, explain that even before Brahmā is born from the lotus navel of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, he first accepts the whole material energy, the mahat-tattva, as his body. Thus Brahmā is the jīva embodied by the universe, and Viṣṇu is the Paramātmā who joins him. Brahmā must organize the specific manifestations of creation, but he cannot begin to do so until Lord Viṣṇu expands Himself again into the subtle energy of action — which is the sūtra-tattva, or original vital air — and also into the creative energy of consciousness, buddhi-tattva.
10.85.6
pāratantryād vaisādṛṣyād
dvayoś ceṣṭaiva ceṣṭatām
(6) Of both [the animate, and inanimate] entities which, different as they are and all belonging to the Supreme, are thus dependent, are You the One who constitutes the creative potency of the life air and the other basic elements of the universe [see also 2.5: 32-33].
Prāṇa is the vital air of life, a more subtle element than the ordinary air we can touch. And because prāṇa is so subtle — finer than the tangible manifestations of creation — it is sometimes considered the ultimate source of everything. But even subtle energies such as prāṇa depend for their functional capacity on the supremely subtle Paramātmā. That is the idea Vasudeva expresses here by the word pāratantryāt, "because of dependence." Just as the velocity of an arrow is derived from the strength of the bowman who shoots it, so all subordinate energies depend on the power of the Supreme Lord.
Furthermore, even when various subtle causes have been empowered with their capacity to act, they cannot act in concert without the Supersoul's coordinating direction. As Lord Brahmā states in his description of creation in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
yadaite 'sańgatā bhāvā
yadāyatana-nirmāṇe
bhagavac-chakti-coditāḥ
cobhayaḿ sasṛjur hy adaḥ
"O Nārada, best of the transcendentalists, the forms of the body cannot manifest as long as these created parts, namely the elements, senses, mind and modes of nature, are not assembled. Thus when all these became assembled by the force of the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this universe certainly came into being by accepting both the primary and secondary causes of creation." (Bhāg. 2.5.32-33)10.85.7
candrāgny-arkarkṣa-vidyutām
yat sthairyaḿ bhū-bhṛtāḿ bhūmer
vṛttir gandho 'rthato bhavān
(7) The glow, brilliance, luminosity, the particular of the moon, the fire, the sun, the stars and the lightning [B.G. 15: 12], the permanence of the mountains and the fragrance and sustaining power of the earth, are all You in fact.
Śrī Vasudeva, in telling Kṛṣṇa that He is the essence of the sun, moon, stars, lightning and fire, is only reiterating the opinion of scripture, both śruti and smṛti. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (6.14), for example, states,
na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakaḿ
"There [in the spiritual sky] the sun does not shine, nor does the moon, the stars or lightning as we know them, what to speak of ordinary fire. It is by the reflection of the spiritual sky's effulgence that everything else gives light, and thus through its radiance this entire universe becomes luminous." And in Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā (15.12), the Supreme Lord says,
yad āditya-gataḿ tejo
yac candramasi yac cāgnau
"The splendor of the sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, comes from Me. And the splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire also come from Me."10.85.8
gatir vāyos taveśvara
(8) The quenching, the vitalizing capacity of water as also the water itself and its taste are You o Lord. O Controller, of You is there on the basis of the air [so one says] the body heat, the mental and physical vigor, the endeavor and the movement [see also B.G. 11: 39].
10.85.9
(9) You are the directions and the spaces they describe, the omnipresent ether and the elemental sound belonging thereto. You are the primeval vibration that is the syllable AUM and its differentiation in particular forms [of language, see also B.G. 7: 8].
In accordance with the general process of creation, speech always becomes audible in stages, which proceed from subtle inner impulse to outward expression. These stages are mentioned in the mantras of the Ṛg Veda (1.164.45):
catvāri vāk-parimitā padāni
tāni vidur brāhmaṇā ye manīṣiṇaḥ
"Discriminating brāhmaṇas know of four progressive stages of language. Three of these remain hidden within the heart as imperceptible vibrations, while the fourth stage is what people ordinarily understand as speech."10.85.10
devāś ca tad-anugrahaḥ
avabodho bhavān buddher
jīvasyānusmṛtiḥ satī
(10) You are of the senses the power to perceive, You are their gods [see also 3.12: 26] and of them are You the mercy; You are of the intelligence the power to decide and of the living being the power to remember the things as they are [B.G. 7: 10 & 15: 15].
that whenever one of the material senses is involved with its object, the presiding demigod of that particular sense organ must give his sanction. Ācārya Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains the word anusmṛti in this verse in its higher sense, as one's recognition of himself as an eternal spirit soul.
10.85.11
vaikāriko vikalpānāḿ
(11) You, the primeval Cause of all Causes, are the source of the physical elements [tamas], the passions of the senses [rajas] and the stream of consciousness of the creative gods [sattva, see also B.G. 14].
10.85.12
(12) Of the entities that are subject to destruction in this world are You the indestructible being, the way the substance itself is relative to its transformations.
10.85.13
(13) The modes of goodness, passion and ignorance and their functions are this way within You, within the Supreme Absolute Truth, regulated by the internal potency [the yogamâyâ of Your pastimes].
Vasudeva's description of how the Supreme Lord expands Himself into the products of the three material modes may possibly be misunderstood to imply that He is touched by the modes, or even that He is subject to destruction. To negate these misunderstandings, Vasudeva states here that the three modes and their products function by the arrangement of the Lord's creative energy, Yogamāyā, who is always completely under His control. Thus the Lord is never tainted in the least by any material contact.
10.85.14
hy anyadāvyāvahārikaḥ
(14) On that account are these entities not [really] destroyed when they - at other times indeed being nonmaterial - conditioned within You as products of creation, also have You within them [as a believer, as the life force or caitanya, as a nitya-mukta, an eternally liberated, conscious soul or a jîvâtmâ, see B.G 2: 12, 9: 4-5 & 8: 19].
When the universe is wound up at the time of its periodic annihilation, all the inert objects and bodies of living beings that hitherto were manifested by the Lord's Māyā become disconnected from His sight. Then, since He maintains no association with them during the period of universal dissolution, they in fact no longer exist. In other words, material manifestations have real, functioning existence only when the Lord turns His attention to the creation and maintenance of the material cosmos. The Lord is never "within" these objects in any material sense, but He does mercifully pervade them all as the impersonal Brahman, and as the Paramātmā He enters within every atom and also accompanies the jīva souls in their individual embodiments. As the Lord describes in His own words in the verses of Bhagavad-gītā (9.4-5):
mayā tataḿ idaḿ sarvaḿ
na cāhaḿ teṣv avasthitaḥ
"By Me, in My unmanifest form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them. And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, I am not part of this cosmic manifestation, for My Self is the very source of creation."10.85.15
abudhās tv akhilātmanaḥ
saḿsarantīha karmabhiḥ
(15) Those then in this world are ignorant who, failing in understanding the destination that is the Soul of Everything, by their karma are impelled to move around in the flow of the material ocean.
A soul who forgets his true identity as a servant of God is sent to this world to be imprisoned in a succession of material bodies. Wrongly identifying himself with these bodies, such a conditioned soul suffers the consequent distress of karmic action and reaction. Vasudeva, as a compassionate Vaiṣṇava, laments for the suffering conditioned souls, whose unhappiness, the result of ignorance, can be remedied by knowledge of the principles of devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa.
10.85.16
svārthe pramattasya vayo
gataḿ tvan-māyayeśvara
(16) Somehow or other with this life having obtained the most desirable status of a human being - a status that is so difficult to achieve -, may someone deluded by the material energy [like me], o Controller, [still] have spent his entire life in confusion about his own best interest.
10.85.17
asāv aham mamaivaite
dehe cāsyānvayādiṣu
sneha-pāśair nibadhnāti
(17) With You who in this world ties everyone together with the ropes of affection is there with the body and the progeny and other relations the 'this I am' and 'these are mine' to it [see also e.g. 2.9: 2, 4.28: 17, 4.29: 5, 5.5: 8 and 6.16: 41].
10.85.18
pradhāna-puruṣeśvarau
avatīrṇau tathāttha ha
(18) The two of You are not our sons but evidently the Controllers of pradhâna and purusha that descended to remove the burden of rulers from the earth, as You Yourselves have said [10.50: 7-10]. Vasudeva offers himself and his wife as excellent examples of those who are materially deluded. Although at the time of His birth in Kaḿsa's prison Lord Kṛṣṇa told Vasudeva and Devakī that His mission was to rid the earth of unwanted kṣatriyas, still His two parents could not avoid thinking of Him as their helpless son who needed protection from King Kaḿsa. In reality, of course, both Vasudeva and Devakī were participating in the divine pastime of the Lord's birth under the perfect direction of His internal energy; only out of transcendental humility does Vasudeva criticize himself in this way.
10.85.19
(19) Therefore do I today seek Your shelter, Your lotusfeet which, with the surrendered, the distressed, take away the fear of being entangled, o Friend, and that is all. Enough, I have enough of that hankering for sense enjoyment which binds me to the mortal frame and makes me think of You, the One Supreme, as being my child.
that Vasudeva condemns himself here for thinking of trying to gain special opulences because he is the father of the Supreme Lord. Thus Vasudeva contrasts himself with Nanda, the King of Vraja, who was satisfied with pure love of God and nothing else.
10.85.20
(20) In the maternity room You indeed said [see 10.3: 44] that You, taking birth with us, were the Unborn One who that way age after age operates in defense of Your dharma and as a cloud therewith assume and relinquish various bodies [see B.G. 4: 8]; o, who can understand the mystic potency and manifold of You, the all-pervading, most glorified Lord?'
Lord Kṛṣṇa was first born to Vasudeva and Devakī in their previous lives as Sutapā and Pṛśni. Later they again became His parents as Kaśyapa and Aditi. This, then, was the third time He had appeared as their son.
10.85.21
ākarṇyetthaḿ pitur vākyaḿ
bhagavān sātvatarṣabhaḥ
pratyāha praśrayānamraḥ
(21) S'rî S'uka said: 'Having heard what His father thus said replied the Supreme Lord, the best of the Sâtvatas, broadly smiling with a gentle voice after with humility having bowed down.
yhat Lord Kṛṣṇa thought after hearing His father glorify Him: "Vasudeva has been honored with the eternal role of My father, something even demigods like Brahma cannot aspire for. Therefore he shouldn't be absorbed in thinking of My godly aspects. Moreover, his reverence greatly embarrasses Me. It was to avoid this very situation that, after killing Kaḿsa, I made a special effort to reinforce their pure parental love for Me and Balarāma. But now, unfortunately, the statements of these sages threaten to revive some of Vasudeva's and Devakī's previous awareness of My majesty."
10.85.22
vaco vaḥ samavetārthaḿ
tātaitad upamanmahe
(22) The Supreme Lord said: 'I consider these words of you appropriate, o father, since by referring to Us, your Sons, you have expressed the complete of reality.
10.85.23
vimṛgyāḥ sa-carācaram
(23) I, you, He, My brother, and these residents of Dvârakâ, must together with everything that moves and not moves, all be considered the same way [as expansions of Me], o best of the Yadus [B.G. 9: 5 & 15 and the siddhânta].
To protect His parents' intimate relationship with Him, Lord Kṛṣṇa stresses the oneness of all existence in this statement to His father, Vasudeva. Vasudeva had been reminded of his sons' greatness by hearing the sages gathered at Kurukṣetra. But his sense of awe was ruining his intimate parental relationship with Kṛṣṇa, and therefore Kṛṣṇa wanted to dispel it.
We should not misunderstand the "oneness" Lord Kṛṣṇa speaks of here. The subtle words of the Upaniṣads often mislead impersonalists into believing that all existence is ineffably one, without any variety in the ultimate issue. Some Upaniṣadic mantras emphasize the sameness of God and His creation, while others speak about their difference. Tat tvam asi śvetaketo ("You are that, O Śvetaketu"), for example, is an abheda-vākya, a mantra affirming that all things are one with God, being His dependent expansions. But the Upaniṣads also contain many bheda-vākyas, statements that affirm the unique, distinguishing qualities of the Supreme, such as this statement: ka evānyāt kaḥ prāṇyād yady eṣa ākāśa ānando na syāt, eṣa evānandayati. "Who would there be to activate the creation and give life to all beings if this infinite Supreme were not the original enjoyer? Indeed, He alone is the source of all pleasure." (Taittirīya Upaniṣad. 2.7.1) By the influence of the Supreme Lord's bewildering Māyā, envious impersonalists read the abheda-vākyas literally and accept the bheda-vākyas only in a figurative way. Authoritative Vaiṣṇava commentators, on the other hand, carefully reconcile the apparent contradictions in accordance with the interpretive principles of Vedic Mīmāḿsā and the logically established conclusions of Vedānta.
10.85.24
nityo 'nyo nirguṇo guṇaiḥ
bhūteṣu bahudheyate
(24) The Supreme Soul indeed is one, self-luminous, eternal and distinct; being free from the modes is He seen as many, in His by the modes from Himself having created the material entities that belong to those modes.
The supreme spirit, Paramātmā, is indeed one. He is self-luminous and eternal, transcendental and devoid of material qualities. But through the agency of the very modes He has created, the one Supreme Truth manifests as many among the expansions of those modes.
10.85.25
āvis-tiro-'lpa-bhūry eko
(25) It is as with the ether, the air, the fire, the water and the earth that, being single elements, depending their locations, in their products, whether they are manifest or unmanifest, small or large, appear as many [see also B.G. 13: 31].'
this and the previous verse as follows: The one Paramātmā appears to be many by the influence of the modes of nature that He Himself creates. How is that? Because although in truth the Paramātmā is self-illuminating, eternal, aloof from everything, and free of the modes of nature, when He appears as His manifestations He seems to be just the opposite — a multiplicity of temporary objects saturated with the modes of nature. Just as the elements of ether and so on, when manifesting in pots and other things, seem to appear and disappear, so the Paramātmā seems to appear and disappear in His various manifestations.
10.85.26
(26) S'rî S'uka said: 'Vasudeva who thus was addressed by the Supreme Lord, o King, was freed from his thinking in opposites and became silent, being satisfied within.
10.85.27-28
SYNONYMS
(27-28) Then at that place, o best of the Kurus, asked loudly and clear Devakî, the worshipable goddess of all who to her utter amazement had heard of [the retrieval of] the son of Their guru [10.45], Krishna and Râma to bring back her own sons who were murdered by Kamsa; and looking back with that in mind she was sad and spoke she distraught with tears in her eyes.
PURPORT
Vasudeva's love for Kṛṣṇa had been disturbed because his awareness of Kṛṣṇa's opulences conflicted with seeing Him as his son. In a different way, Devakī's love was somewhat distracted by her lamentation for her dead sons. So Kṛṣṇa arranged to relieve her of the mistaken idea that anyone else but Him was actually her son. Since Devakī is known to be worshiped by all great souls, her show of maternal affection must actually have been an effect of the Lord's Yogamāyā, who increases the pleasure of His pastimes. Thus in Text 54 Devakī will be described as mohitā māyayā viṣṇoḥ, "bewildered by the internal energy of Lord Viṣṇu."10.85.29
rāma rāmāprameyātman
kṛṣṇa yogeśvareśvara
(29) S'rî Devakî said: 'Râma, o Râma, o Immeasurable Soul; o Krishna, Master of the Yoga Masters, I know You both are the Original Personalities, the Lords of the Creators of the Universe [see also catur-vyûha].
10.85.30
bhūmer bhārāyamāṇānām
avatīrṇau kilādya me
(30) You have now descended taking birth from me because of the kings who, living in defiance of the scriptures and with their good qualities destroyed by the time [of Kali-yuga], became a burden to the earth.
10.85.31
yasyāḿśāḿśāḿśa-bhāgena
viśvotpatti-layodayāḥ
(31) O Soul of All that Be, today came I for my shelter to Him, to You, who by a partial expansion [the modes] of an expansion [the material energy] of an expansion [Nârâyana] gives rise to the generation, prospering and dissolution of the universe [see also 2.5].
0.85.32-33
cirān mṛta-sutādāne
āninyathuḥ pitṛ-sthānād
yuvāḿ yogeśvareśvarau
(32-33) One says that Your guru ordered You to retrieve his son wo had died a long time ago. You brought him from the place of the forefathers to Your spiritual master as a gift of gratitude to the teacher. Please, o You two Masters of the Yoga Masters, fulfill the same way my desire: I'd like to see my sons brought back who were killed by Kamsa [see 10.4].'
10.85.34
ṛṣir uvāca
sutalaḿ saḿviviśatur
(34) The rishi [S'uka] said: 'Thus entreated by Their mother, o descendant of Bharata entered Râma and Krishna utilizing Their internal potency the nether world of Sutala [see 5.24: 18].
10.85.35
tad-darśanāhlāda-pariplutāśayaḥ
sadyaḥ samutthāya nanāma sānvayaḥ
(35) Having entered there stood the daitya king [Bali] immediately up to bow to Them together with his entourage. He was overwhelmed with joy of seeing Them, the Supreme Soul and Godhead of the Universe who were his favorite divinity of worship.
10.85.36
(36) Bringing Them royal seats, was he, as They sat, happy to wash the two Great Souls Their feet, and together with his followers took he the water [upon their heads] that purifies up to Brahmâ.
10.85.37
samarhayām āsa sa tau vibhūtibhir
mahārha-vastrābharaṇānulepanaiḥ
tāmbūla-dīpāmṛta-bhakṣaṇādibhiḥ
sva-gotra-vittātma-samarpaṇena ca
(37) He, worshipping with all the wealth of himself and his family, thus offered Them the most valuable riches, garments, ornaments, fragrant pastes, bethel nut, lamps, nectarean food and so on [*].
Bali Mahārāja's devotional attitude is renowned as the perfect example of complete self-surrender. When Lord Viṣṇu in the guise of a young brāhmaṇa student approached him for charity, Bali offered all he possessed, and when he had nothing more to offer, he surrendered himself as the Supreme Lord's eternal servant.
There are nine standard processes of devotional service, and the last, ātma-samarpaṇam, as taught by Bali Daityarāja, is the culmination toward which every endeavor should aim. If one tries to impress the Lord with wealth, power, intelligence and so on but fails to humbly understand oneself to be His servant, one's so-called devotion is only a presumptuous show.
10.85.38
uvāca hānanda-jalākulekṣaṇaḥ
prahṛṣṭa-romā nṛpa gadgadākṣaram
(38) He who had conquered Indra [see 8.15] then spoke, over and over taking hold of the Supreme Lord's feet, with a heart melting of love, with tears in his eyes of ecstasy and with his hair standing on end o King, with a choked up voice.
"King Bali was feeling such transcendental pleasure that he repeatedly grasped 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."
10.85.39
balir uvāca
(39) Bali said: 'My respects for Ananta, the Greatest Being; my obeisances for Krishna, the Absolute Truth, the Supersoul, the Disseminator and Creator of the analytical knowledge [sânkhya, see 3.25-32] and science of [bhakti-] yoga.
the supreme Ananta named here as Lord Balarāma, from whom expands the divine serpent Ananta Śeṣa. Impersonal Brahman is the source of the texts belonging to the sāńkhya philosophers, while the personal representation of the Lord known as Paramātmā disseminates the textbooks of yoga.
10.85.40
duṣprāpaḿ cāpy adurlabham
rajas-tamaḥ-svabhāvānāḿ
(40) The vision of You indeed is, though by the living beings rarely achieved, yet still for people like us, whose natures are in passion and ignorance, not difficult to obtain with You endeavoring to reach us on Your own accord [see B.G. 3: 21-23].
10.85.41-43
kecanodbaddha-vaireṇa
sannikṛṣṭāḥ surādayaḥ
(41-43) The sons of Diti and Dâna, the singers of heaven, the perfected, the scientific, the venerable, the wealthkeepers, the wild, the carnivorous and the paranormal, the mystics, the politicians, we and others like them are attracted to You despite of constantly being fixed with a grudge against the Direct Embodiment of Pure Goodness in the divine form of the revealed scriptures; some are especially obstinate with hatred, some are of devotion with ulterior motives, but the enlightened and the rest of the ones lusting in goodness, are not that attracted at all [compare: the âtmârâma-verse 1.7: 10].
The Gandharvas, Siddhas, Vidyādharas and Cāraṇas are adversaries of the Supreme Lord when they follow the lead of the Daitya and Dānava demons. The Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, Piśācas and so on tend to be inimical because they are generally covered by ignorance. There are some rascals in the pure mode of ignorance, like Śiśupāla and Pauṇḍraka, who are totally absorbed in meditation on the Lord as their enemy, and this fixed consciousness earns them liberation. Others, in a mixed condition of passion and ignorance, associate with the Lord with a desire for position and prestige; Mahārāja Bali sees himself as belonging to this category. Yet Lord Viṣṇu favored Bali by becoming his doorkeeper in the subterranean region of Sutala, just as He favored the demons by killing and liberating them, and the Gandharvas by engaging them in singing His glories. On the other hand, the Lord awards sense gratification to those demigods who are proud of their being situated in the mode of goodness; thus they become deluded and forget Him.
10.85.44
tava yogeśvareśvara
(44) O Controller when not even the masters of yoga know Your bewildering power of yoga that for the greater part is characterized in terms like this [svarûpa and vis'esha game of identity], what then of us?
Systematic understanding of something should include knowledge of both its svarūpa, or essential identity, and also its viśeṣas, the attributes that make it different from other things. Māyā, the energy underlying all material existence, is more subtle than ordinary phenomena. Only God and His liberated devotees, therefore, can know its svarūpa and viśeṣa.
10.85.45
pādāravinda-dhiṣaṇānya-gṛhāndha-kūpāt
niṣkramya viśva-śaraṇāńghry-upalabdha-vṛttiḥ
(45) Therefore o shelter of the lotus feet that are sought by the selfless, have mercy with me and lead me out of the blind well of a household life, so that I in peace may wander alone or else may wander with the friends of all, those [saints, devotees, Vaishnavas, desire trees] who are willing to help all in the world and at whose feet the subsistence [the 'vritti'] is obtained.
in response to Bali's prayers, Śrī Kṛṣṇa invited him to choose some benediction, and in this verse Bali submits his request. Bali begs to be relieved of the entanglement of material life so he will be free to leave home and wander in the wilderness, with only the Lord's lotus feet as his shelter. For his subsistence, Bali proposes, he will take help from the forest trees, at whose feet are fruits to eat and leaves to sleep on, for all to use as needed. And if the Lord is especially merciful to him, Bali hopes, he will not have to wander alone but will be allowed to travel in the company of Lord Kṛṣṇa's devotees.
10.85.46
śādhy asmān īśitavyeśa
pumān yac chraddhayātiṣṭhaḿś
(46) Please direct us o Controller of the ones controlled, make us sinless o Master, turn us into a person who executes with faith and thus is freed from [scriptural] fixations.'
The ācāryas explain Bali's thoughts as follows. Reflecting on the possibility that his request for immediate deliverance may have been too bold, Bali Mahārāja considers that first he will need to become sufficiently purified. In any case, he thinks, Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Balarāma must have come to him for some specific purpose; if he can receive the Lords' order and carry it out, that will be his best opportunity for purification. Indeed, as Bali states, a devotee acting under the Personality of Godhead's instruction need no longer follow the sacrificial injunctions and prohibitions of the Vedas.
10.85.47
(47) The Supreme Lord said: 'Once, during the first Manu, were there of Marîci six sons born from Ûrnâ, demigods, who laughed when they saw how the one of love ['kam', or Brahmâ in this case] wanted to copulate with his daughter [called Vâk, see 3.12: 28-35, compare 3.20: 23].
10.85.48-49
adhunāvadya-karmaṇā
hiraṇyakaśipor jātā
(48-49) Because of that offense entered they immediately a womb to be born to Hiranyakas'ipu. They were then by Yogamâyâ transferred to be born from the womb of Devakî, o King, and were murdered by Kamsa. She laments over them as being her own sons; they, these same sons are living here with you [see also ** and 10.2*].
10.85.50
mātṛ-śokāpanuttaye
tataḥ śāpād vinirmaktā
(50) We want to take them from here in order to dispel their mother's sadness; when thereafter the curse is lifted will they being freed from the misery go back to their own world.
in his purports to Chapter Two, Texts 5 and 8, of this canto, Marīci's sons were condemned for their offense against Lord Brahmā, and in addition Hiraṇyakaśipu once cursed them to be killed by their own father in a future life. This curse was fulfilled by Vasudeva's letting Kaḿsa murder them one by one.
10.85.51
smarodgīthaḥ pariṣvańgaḥ
(51) By My grace will these six - Smara [Kîrtimân, see 10.1: 57], Udgîtha, Parishvanga, Patanga, Kshudrabhrit and Ghrinî - return to the destination of the saintly.'
These are the names the six children first had when they were sons of Marīci. The oldest, Smara, was called Kīrtimān when born again to Vasudeva, as recorded in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.1.57),
kīrtimantaḿ prathama-jaḿ
kaḿsāyānakadundubhiḥ
"Vasudeva was very much disturbed by the fear of becoming a liar by breaking his promise. Thus with great pain he delivered his firstborn son, named Kīrtimān, into the hands of Kaḿsa."10.85.52
(52) Thus having spoken took They, both honored by Bali, them back to Dvârakâ and presented They the sons to their mother.
10.85.53
pariṣvajyāńkam āropya
mūrdhny ajighrad abhīkṣṇaśaḥ
(53) Seeing the boys made the breasts of the goddess out of her affection for her sons flow, and placing them on her lap embraced she them, over and over smelling their heads.
10.85.54
(54) Bewildered by Vishnu's illusory energy because of which the creation comes into being, allowed she lovingly her sons to drink from her breasts that were wet the moment they touched them.
10.85.55-56
pītvāmṛtaḿ payas tasyāḥ
nārāyaṇāńga-saḿsparśa-
pratilabdhātma-darśanāḥ
yayur dhāma divaukasām
(55-56) Having drunk her nectarean milk, the remnants of what the Wielder of the Club drank [before Vasudeva carried Him to Gokula], regained they, because they came in touch with the body of Nârâyana, the awareness of their original selves. Bowing down to Govinda, Devakî, their father and Balarâma went they, for everyone to see, to the abode where the gods live.
Lord Kṛṣṇa remained as an infant with Devakī and Vasudeva for only a very short time. First the Lord appeared before them in His four-armed Viṣṇu form, and after hearing their prayers He changed Himself into an apparently ordinary infant for their pleasure. But to save Kṛṣṇa from suffering His brothers' fate, Vasudeva at once removed Him from Kaḿsa's prison. Just before Vasudeva took Him away, mother Devakī suckled Kṛṣṇa once so that He would not feel thirsty during the long trip to Nanda-vraja.
10.85.57
mṛtāgamana-nirgamam
(57) Seeing this return and departure of the dead, thought devine Devakî in great amazement about the magic that was arranged by Krishna, o King.
10.85.58
(58) Of Krishna, the Supreme Soul unlimited in His valor, are there a countless number of feats like this, o descendant of Bharata.'
10.85.59
ya idam anuśṛṇoti śrāvayed vā murāreś
caritam amṛta-kīrter varṇitaḿ vyāsa-putraiḥ
(59) S'rî Sûta [at Naimishâranya, 1.1: 4] said: "Whoever devoutly hears or recounts this pastime of Murâri whose glories are unlimited, the way it is described by Vyâsa's respected son, will, because this true delight for His devotees' ears fully annihilates the sins of the living being, with fixing his mind on the Supreme Lord, go to His all-auspicious heavenly abode."
the wonderful events of Lord Kṛṣṇa's life destroys sins in a manner that is perfect (alam) because it is easy. Anyone can easily participate in this hearing, and those who become devoted to Kṛṣṇa always enjoy wearing on their ears the ornaments of topics concerning Him. Not only those who were present at the time of their occurrence, but also Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Sūta Gosvāmī, all who have heard since and everyone in the universe who will hear in the future — all are blessed by the continuous recital of Lord Kṛṣṇa's transcendental glories.
Thus end of the Tenth Canto, Eighty-fifth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "Lord Kṛṣṇa Instructs Vasudeva and Retrieves Devakī's Sons."
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