Canto Ten - Chapter 2

Śrī Śuka said: Supported by Pralamba, Baka, Cāṇūra, Tṛṇāvarta, Mahāśana, Muṣṭika, Ariṣṭa, Dvivida, Pūtanā, Keśī, and Dhenuka,

and joined by other demonic rulers such as Bāṇa and Bhauma, the powerful Kaṃsa took shelter of the king of Magadha and brought devastation upon the Yadus.

Tormented by him, the Yadus sought refuge among the Kurus, Pañcālas, Kekayas, Śālvas, Vidarbhas, Niṣadhas, Videhas, and Kośalas.

Some of his relatives, however, submitted to Kaṃsa and remained in his service. Meanwhile, the son of Ugrasena killed the first six infants born to Devakī.

Devakī's seventh embryo was the divine abode of Viṣṇu known as Ananta. His presence increased both her joy and her sorrow.

Bhagavān, the Soul of the universe, knew of the danger Kaṃsa posed to the Yadus, whose own Lord He was, and therefore instructed Yogamāyā.

'Auspicious goddess, go to Vraja, adorned with cowherds and cows. Rohiṇī, the wife of Vasudeva, lives in Nanda's Gokula, while his other wives, frightened by Kaṃsa, are living in secluded places.

Within Devakī's womb is My own divine expansion called Śeṣa. Draw that embryo out and place Him in Rohiṇī's womb.

Then, auspicious one, I shall become Devakī's son through a portion of My potency, and you shall be born from Yaśodā, the wife of Nanda.

People will worship you as the supreme mistress who grants every desired boon. With incense, offerings, and sacrificial gifts they will honor you as the giver of all desired blessings.

Throughout the earth people will establish places for you and give you names such as Durgā, Bhadrakālī, Vijayā, and Vaiṣṇavī,

and also Kumudā, Caṇḍikā, Kṛṣṇā, Mādhavī, Kanyakā, Māyā, Nārāyaṇī, Īśānī, Śāradā, and Ambikā.

Because He will be drawn from one womb to another, people on earth will call Him Saṅkarṣaṇa. Because He delights the world He will be called Rāma, and because of His great strength He will be called Balabhadra.'

Thus instructed by Bhagavān, Yogamāyā accepted His command with the words 'So be it' and 'Om.' After circumambulating Him, she descended to earth and carried out His order.

When Yoganidrā transferred Devakī's embryo to Rohiṇī, the people of the city lamented, 'Alas, her pregnancy has miscarried!'

Bhagavān, the Soul of the universe and giver of fearlessness to His devotees, then entered the mind of Ānakadundubhi Vasudeva through a portion of His potency.

Bearing the divine splendor of the Supreme Person, Vasudeva shone like the sun and became unapproachable and exceedingly difficult for ordinary beings to withstand.

The goddess Devakī then bore within herself the all-auspicious expansion of Acyuta, the indwelling Self of all, which had been concentrated in the mind of Śūra's son, just as the eastern direction bears the moon that delights every mind.

Devakī had become the abode of Him in whom the entire universe dwells, yet she did not shine openly in the house of the Bhoja king, just as a flame is confined or true learning is hidden within a person unfit for knowledge.

Seeing Devakī's pure smile and extraordinary radiance, which illumined the whole house, Kaṃsa thought: 'Hari, the one who will take my life, has certainly entered her womb. She has never appeared like this before.'

'What should I do about this at once? The Lord, whose purpose cannot be checked, will not abandon His power. Yet killing my sister, a pregnant woman under my protection, would destroy my fame, prosperity, and life itself.

A person who acts with extreme cruelty is as good as dead even while living. After his body dies, people curse him, and one who identifies with the body certainly enters blinding darkness.'

Kaṃsa therefore turned away from that most dreadful intention. He remained waiting for Hari's birth, while maintaining his bond of enmity toward the Lord.

Whether sitting, lying down, standing, eating, or walking upon the earth, Kaṃsa constantly thought of Hṛṣīkeśa and saw the whole world filled with Him.

Brahmā and Bhava came there with sages headed by Nārada and with the gods and their attendants. Together they praised the all-powerful Lord with sacred words.

We take refuge in You, whose vow is truth, who are devoted to truth and true in the three phases of time; the source of truth, hidden within truth, the Truth of truth, whose vision is sacred truth, and whose very nature is truth.

The primordial tree of embodied existence has one foundation, two fruits, three roots, four tastes, five forms, six conditions, seven layers of bark, eight branches, nine openings, ten leaves, and two birds.

You alone are the source of this manifest universe, its abiding foundation, and its grace. Those whose minds are covered by Your māyā see You as many, but the wise do not.

Though You are pure awareness and the Self, You assume forms endowed with pure sattva for the welfare of all moving and unmoving beings. Those forms bring happiness to the virtuous and repeatedly end the inauspicious power of the wicked.

O lotus-eyed Lord, those whose minds are absorbed in meditation upon You, the abode of all existence, cross the ocean of becoming by the boat of Your feet, made available by the great souls, and reduce it to a calf's hoofprint.

O radiant Lord, Your devotees, filled with boundless compassion, cross the terrible and nearly impassable ocean of becoming themselves, yet leave here the boat of Your lotus feet for others. Such is Your grace toward the saintly.

O lotus-eyed Lord, others who consider themselves liberated but have no devotion for You possess impure intelligence. Though they rise with great difficulty to the supreme station, they fall down again because they disregard Your feet.

Your devotees are not like that, Mādhava. Bound to You by affection, they never fall from the path. Protected by You, O Lord, they move without fear, placing their feet upon the heads of the commanders of every obstacle.

For the preservation of embodied beings and as the means to their highest good, You assume a form grounded in pure sattva. Through Vedic rites, yoga, austerity, and meditation, people strive to worship You in that form.

O Creator, if this pure sattva were not Your own, realized knowledge could not shatter and erase ignorance. You are inferred through the manifestation of qualities, for every quality appears only in relation to You and by Your power.

The names and forms of You, the witness of all, cannot truly be defined by material qualities, birth, or action. Your path is only inferred by mind and speech, O Lord, yet through devotional activity people come to recognize You.

One who hears, speaks, remembers, and contemplates Your auspicious names and forms, and whose mind is absorbed in service to Your lotus feet in every activity, is no longer fit for repeated material birth.

By good fortune, Hari, the burden upon this earth, which is the seat of Your feet, will be removed by the birth of You, her Lord. By good fortune we shall see the earth and heaven graced by Your compassion and beautifully marked with Your footprints.

O unborn Lord, we cannot conceive any cause for Your birth other than divine play. Creation, dissolution, and preservation appear to be produced by ignorance, for in You, the fearless refuge and the Self of all, they have no independent reality.

You have descended among fish, horses, tortoises, men and lions, boars, swans, kings, brāhmaṇas, and gods, and thus You protect us and the three worlds. In the same way now, O Lord and best of the Yadus, remove the earth's burden. Our obeisance to You.

Mother, by great good fortune the Supreme Person, Bhagavān Himself, has entered your womb through His plenary potency for our welfare. Do not fear the Bhoja king, whose death is near. Your son will become the protector of the Yadus.

Śrī Śuka said: Having thus praised the Supreme Person, whose form is beyond the material universe, the gods, led by Brahmā and Īśāna, returned to heaven.