Canto Ten - Chapter 1

The King said: You have described the expansion of the lunar and solar dynasties and the supremely wondrous deeds of the kings born in both lines.

O best of sages, now tell us of the heroic deeds of Viṣṇu, who descended by a portion of Himself in the line of the thoroughly righteous Yadu.

Please tell us in detail all that Bhagavān, the nourisher of beings and the Soul of the universe, did after descending into Yadu's dynasty.

The accounts of Uttamaśloka's virtues are sung by those whose thirst for worldly things has ceased. They are medicine for material existence and a delight to the ear and mind. Who would turn away from them except one who destroys living creatures?

In battle, my grandfathers crossed the impassable ocean of the Kaurava army, filled with invincible warriors such as Devavrata who were like mighty sea monsters. Taking Him as their boat, they made that ocean seem no deeper than a calf's hoofprint.

When the weapon of Droṇa's son had scorched this body of mine, the last seed of the Kuru and Pāṇḍava lines, He entered the womb of my mother, who had taken refuge in Him, and protected me with disc in hand.

Learned sage, please tell of the deeds of Him who appears human through His māyā, yet who, as the Puruṣa within all embodied beings and as Time outside them, bestows both death and immortality.

You have said that Rāma, Rohiṇī's son, is also Saṅkarṣaṇa. Without passing from one body to another, how was He connected with Devakī's womb?

Why did Bhagavān Mukunda leave His father's house and go to Vraja? Where did the Lord of the Sātvatas live together with His relatives?

What did Keśava do while living in Vraja and in the city of Mathurā? He also killed Kaṃsa, His mother's brother, who fully deserved that fate.

Having assumed a human body, for how many years did the Lord dwell with the Vṛṣṇis in the city of the Yadus, and how many wives did He have?

O all-knowing sage, please describe in detail for me, who hear with faith, all these and the other deeds of Kṛṣṇa.

Although I have given up even water, this hunger, otherwise exceedingly hard to bear, does not trouble me as I drink the nectar of Hari's stories flowing from your lotus mouth.

Sūta said: O descendant of Bhṛgu, hearing this worthy praise, the divine son of Vyāsa honored Viṣṇurāta in return. Then that foremost devotee began to relate Kṛṣṇa's deeds, which destroy the evils of the age of Kali.

Śrī Śuka said: O finest of royal sages, your intelligence is rightly resolved, for unwavering love for the accounts of Vāsudeva has arisen in you.

A question concerning the stories of Vāsudeva purifies three kinds of people: the speaker, the questioner, and the listeners, just as the water flowing from His feet purifies all three worlds.

The earth was oppressed by the immense burden of hundreds of thousands of demonic armies whose arrogant members had assumed the guise of kings, and so she sought refuge in Brahmā.

Taking the form of a cow, distressed, tearful, and crying piteously, she approached the Lord Brahmā and told him of her own suffering.

After hearing her plight, Brahmā went with her and the gods, accompanied by the three-eyed Lord Śiva, to the shore of the Ocean of Milk.

Having arrived there, Brahmā became deeply concentrated and worshiped with the Puruṣa-sūkta the Lord of the universe, the God of gods, Vṛṣākapi, the Supreme Puruṣa.

In meditation Brahmā heard a voice resounding in the sky. He then said to the gods: 'O immortals, hear again the words of the Supreme Puruṣa as I received them. Carry them out at once, exactly as directed, without delay.'

The Supreme Person already knows the fever of the earth. Take birth through your portions among the Yadus while the Lord of all lords moves upon the earth, diminishing her burden by His power of Time.

The Supreme Puruṣa, Bhagavān Himself, will take birth in Vasudeva's house. To serve His pleasure, the wives of the gods should also take birth.

Ananta, the thousand-headed and independent Lord who is a plenary portion of Vāsudeva, will appear before Him, desiring to act for Hari's pleasure.

The divine Māyā of Viṣṇu, by whom the world is bewildered, will also take birth in a partial manifestation, commanded by the Lord for the accomplishment of His purpose.

Śrī Śuka said: Having thus instructed the hosts of gods and reassured the earth with his words, mighty Brahmā, lord of the progenitors, returned to his supreme abode.

Long ago Śūrasena, lord of the Yadus, lived in the city of Mathurā and ruled the regions of Mathurā and Śūrasena.

Mathurā then became the capital of all the Yādava kings, for Bhagavān Hari is eternally present there.

Once in that city, Śauri Vasudeva, newly married, mounted a chariot for the journey together with his bride Devakī.

To please his sister, Kaṃsa, the son of Ugrasena, took the reins of the horses. He was surrounded by hundreds of golden chariots.

As a wedding gift there were four hundred elephants adorned with golden garlands, fifteen thousand horses, and eighteen hundred chariots.

Devaka, affectionate toward his daughter, also gave her two hundred tender young maidservants, all beautifully adorned, to accompany her on the journey.

Conches, trumpets, mṛdaṅgas, and kettledrums all sounded together at the departure of the bride and groom, creating a most auspicious celebration, dear King.

On the road, an incorporeal voice addressed Kaṃsa as he held the reins: 'Fool! The eighth child of this woman you are driving will kill you.'

Hearing this, the wicked and sinful Kaṃsa, a disgrace to the Bhoja family, seized his sister by the hair with sword in hand and prepared to kill her.

The greatly fortunate Vasudeva tried to pacify that shameless and merciless man, who was about to commit such a loathsome act, and spoke to him.

Śrī Vasudeva said: Your qualities are praised by heroes, and you bring honor to the Bhojas. How, then, can you kill your own sister, a woman, on the occasion of her marriage?

O hero, death is born together with the body of every embodied being. Whether today or after a hundred years, death is certain for every living creature.

When the body returns to the five elements, the embodied soul, helplessly following its karma, obtains another body and leaves the former one behind.

Just as a person walking places one foot forward while the other remains in place, and just as a leech moves from one blade of grass to another, so the embodied soul proceeds along the course determined by karma.

A person whose mind is absorbed in imagined desires sees in a dream a body shaped by what has been seen and heard. Identifying with that form, one forgets the present body. The same kind of forgetfulness accompanies the soul's attainment of another body.

Wherever the changeful mind runs, impelled by destiny, among the five objects of sense displayed by māyā, the embodied soul follows it, embraces those conditions, and is born together with that mind.

Just as a light reflected in water or on the ground seems to move when driven by the wind, so the person becomes bewildered through attachment to the qualities within bodies fashioned by his own māyā.

Therefore one who seeks one's own welfare should never injure another, for the aggressor always has reason to fear retaliation from others.

This young woman is your younger sister, helpless and like your own daughter. O protector of the distressed, you must not kill this virtuous woman.

Śrī Śuka said: O descendant of Kuru, although Vasudeva tried to reason with him through conciliation and careful argument, the cruel Kaṃsa would not desist, for he followed the ways of man-eating demons.

Seeing Kaṃsa's unyielding determination, Ānakadundubhi Vasudeva reflected on how to ward off the immediate danger and arrived at this course of action.

An intelligent person should try to avert death as long as intelligence and strength remain available. But if death cannot be turned aside, the embodied person is not at fault.

I shall promise my sons to this death-like man and thereby free this helpless woman. Sons may indeed be born to me, or death itself may die before then.

Why should the opposite not occur? The course of destiny is impossible to overcome. A danger now present may withdraw, while one that has withdrawn may return again.

There is no cause other than unseen destiny for fire's joining with one piece of wood and separation from another. In the same way, the cause of a living being's union with and separation from a body is exceedingly hard to understand.

After considering the matter in this way, Śauri honored the sinful Kaṃsa with the greatest outward respect, to the full extent that his own discernment allowed.

His lotus face appearing serene, though his mind was tormented, Vasudeva smiled before the shameless and merciless man and spoke these words.

Śrī Vasudeva said: Gentle Kaṃsa, you have nothing to fear from this woman, just as the incorporeal voice declared. I shall deliver to you her sons, from whom your danger is to arise.

Śrī Śuka said: Understanding the force of Vasudeva's words, Kaṃsa desisted from killing his sister. Pleased, Vasudeva praised him and entered his home.

Then, as time passed, Devakī, the vessel of all divine powers, gave birth year after year to eight sons and also a daughter.

With great anguish, for he was deeply troubled by the prospect of falsehood, Ānakadundubhi delivered his firstborn son, Kīrtimān, to Kaṃsa.

What suffering is unbearable for the saintly? What dependence remains for the learned? What deed is impossible for the cruel, and what is difficult to relinquish for those who have mastered themselves?

Seeing Śauri's impartiality and his firm adherence to truth, Kaṃsa became pleased and, laughing, spoke to him, O King.

Let this child return with you, for I have no fear from him. It is said that my death has been ordained from the eighth pregnancy of you two.

Saying, 'So be it,' Ānakadundubhi took his son and went away. Yet he placed no trust in the words of that wicked and uncontrolled man.

Nanda and the other cowherds in Vraja, their wives, the Vṛṣṇis headed by Vasudeva, and the Yadu women headed by Devakī

were all, O Bhārata, largely descended from the gods. So too were the relatives, kinsmen, and friends of both families who had not become followers of Kaṃsa.

Bhagavān Nārada came to Kaṃsa and told him all this, including the effort underway to destroy the demons who had become a burden upon the earth.

After the sage departed, Kaṃsa understood that the Yadus were gods and that Viṣṇu would be born from Devakī in order to kill him.

He confined Devakī and Vasudeva in their home with iron shackles and killed each son as soon as he was born, fearing the birth of the Unborn Lord.

Greedy kings who cling to their own lives commonly kill even their mothers, fathers, brothers, and all their friends upon the earth.

Knowing that he had previously been the great demon Kālanemi and had been killed by Viṣṇu, Kaṃsa became hostile toward the Yadus.

Powerful Kaṃsa personally imprisoned his own father Ugrasena, lord of the Yadus, Bhojas, and Andhakas, and himself took control of the Śūrasena realm.