Canto Ten - Chapter 85

Śrī Bādarāyaṇi said: One day, when his two sons came to him and bowed at his feet, Vasudeva joyfully welcomed Saṅkarṣaṇa and Acyuta and addressed Them with affection.

He had heard the sages' words revealing the divine nature of his sons, and Their mighty deeds had deepened his conviction. After embracing Them, he spoke.

Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, great master of yoga! Eternal Saṅkarṣaṇa! I know that You two are directly the supreme principles of primordial nature and the conscious person.

The Supreme Lord is directly the master of primordial nature and the conscious person: He is that in which, by which, from which, of which, for which, in whatever manner, and whenever this universe exists.

Adhokṣaja, this manifold universe was created from Your own being. O Self of all, unborn Lord, entering it through Your own power as the vital force and the individual self, You sustain it.

Whatever powers belong to the vital forces and the creators of the universe are powers of the Supreme. Because those agents are dependent upon and distinct from Him, their activity is in truth the activity of both.

You are the luster, heat, radiance, and very existence of the moon, fire, sun, stars, and lightning. You are the stability of mountains, the sustaining power of the earth, and its quality of fragrance.

Lord, You are the water's power to satisfy and sustain life; You are the waters themselves and their taste. Ruler of all, the vigor, endurance, strength, activity, and motion of the wind are Yours.

You are the room afforded by the directions; You are the directions and the ether, the subtle principle of sound and its support. You are sound, its syllables, the sacred Oṃ, and the distinctions among forms.

You are the senses' power of perception, the deities who govern them, and their favor. You are the intellect's understanding and the living being's enduring power of recollection.

You are the principle of false ego in darkness, from which the gross elements arise; the passionate principle from which the senses arise; the principle of goodness from which mental transformations arise; and the primordial nature in which all these rest.

Among all the perishable conditions of this world, You are the imperishable reality, just as in every transformation of a substance the underlying substance alone is identified.

Goodness, passion, and darkness, together with all the functions that arise from them, are merely projected upon You, the Supreme Brahman, by Yogamāyā.

Therefore these states have no true existence when superimposed upon You. Although conventionally spoken of as present within their transformations, You remain wholly other than them.

In this current of the qualities, those who do not know the subtle destination of You, the Self of all, wander here through karma because of their ignorance.

Lord, by rare good fortune one obtains a human body, perfectly suited for life's purpose, yet my years have passed in heedlessness of my true good, bewildered by Your māyā.

Through the bonds of affection, You bind this entire world to the notions, 'This am I,' 'These are mine,' 'This is my body,' and 'These are its descendants and relations.'

You two are not merely our sons but directly the supreme masters of primordial nature and the conscious person. As You Yourself have said, You descended to destroy the kṣatriyas who burden the earth.

O friend of the distressed, today I have come for shelter to Your lotus feet, which remove the fear of worldly existence from those who surrender. Enough, enough of craving for the senses, which makes me identify with this mortal body and regard You, the Supreme, merely as my child.

In the birthing chamber, did You not tell us that You, the unborn Lord, take birth age after age to protect Your own dharma? Like the sky, You manifest and withdraw many forms. O all-pervading Lord whose deeds are widely sung, who can comprehend the māyā of Your divine power?

Śrī Śuka said: Hearing these words from His father, the Supreme Lord, best of the Sātvatas, bowed humbly and replied with a gentle voice and a smile.

The Supreme Lord said: Father, we accept your words as a complete statement of truth, even though you expressed this entire body of principles by referring to Us as your sons.

Honored father, I, you, this brother of Mine, these residents of Dvārakā, and indeed everything moving and unmoving should all be understood in this same way, O best of the Yadus.

The Self is one, self-luminous, eternal, distinct from matter, and without material qualities. Yet through the qualities produced by its own power, it appears in many forms among the beings fashioned from those qualities.

Just as the one ether, air, fire, water, and earth appear or disappear, and seem small or great, according to the objects composed of them, so the one Self also appears to assume diversity.

Śrī Śuka said: O King, thus instructed by the Supreme Lord, Vasudeva heard His words, gave up his perception of multiplicity, and remained silent with a joyful heart.

Then, best of the Kurus, Devakī, who regarded Kṛṣṇa as embodying all the gods, heard in great amazement that her two sons had brought Their teacher's son back from death.

She approached Kṛṣṇa and Rāma and, remembering her own sons murdered by Kaṃsa, spoke pitifully. Overcome with anguish, her eyes filled with tears.

Śrī Devakī said: Rāma, Rāma, immeasurable Self! Kṛṣṇa, Lord of the masters of yoga! I know that You two are the primeval Persons and the masters of the universe's creators.

Today You have descended as my sons to remove from the earth the burden of rulers whose goodness has been destroyed by time and who conduct themselves outside the scriptures.

O Self of the universe, creation, maintenance, and dissolution arise through only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of You. I now take shelter of You, the primeval Lord.

Long after Your teacher's son had died, he asked You to retrieve him. You brought him back from the realm of the ancestors and gave him to Your teacher as the fee due to him.

You two are the Lords even of the masters of yoga. Please fulfill this desire of mine as well: I long to see the sons of mine who were killed by the king of Bhoja brought back to me.

The sage said: Thus urged by Their mother, O descendant of Bharata, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa invoked Yogamāyā and entered the realm of Sutala.

When the king of the Daityas perceived that They had entered, he recognized Them as the divine Lords of the universe and especially as the Lords of his own self. His heart flooded with the joy of seeing Them, he immediately rose and bowed down together with his family.

Joyfully bringing excellent seats for those two great souls, he seated Them, washed Their feet, and held them reverently. Together with his household he placed upon his head that water, which purifies even the realm of Brahmā.

He worshiped Them both with his riches: costly garments, ornaments, fragrant ointments, betel, lamps, nectarean foods, and other offerings. He also offered Them his family, wealth, and very self.

King, Indrasena Bali repeatedly held the Supreme Lord's lotus feet as his mind broke open with love. His eyes were filled with tears of joy, the hairs of his body stood erect, and he spoke in a voice choked with emotion.

Bali said: Obeisance to infinite and mighty Saṅkarṣaṇa, and obeisance to Kṛṣṇa, the creator. Obeisance to the expounders of Sāṅkhya and yoga, to Brahman and the Supreme Self.

The sight of You two is exceedingly difficult for living beings to attain, yet not entirely unattainable even for those whose nature is ruled by passion and darkness, since You have come to us of Your own accord.

Daityas, Dānavas, Gandharvas, Siddhas, Vidyādharas, Cāraṇas, Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, Piśācas, Bhūtas, and the leaders of the Pramathas

are perpetually bound in hostility toward You, whose abode is pure goodness and whose body is the scripture. We and others like us are among them.

Some have been brought near to You by fixed enmity, others through devotion, and still others through desire. The gods and others absorbed in goodness have not approached You in quite the same way.

Lord of the masters of yoga, even the great yogīs generally do not understand Your Yogamāyā as it truly is. How, then, could we understand it?

Therefore please be gracious to us. May we leave the blind well of household life, fix our understanding upon Your lotus feet, which are sought by those free of material expectation, and obtain our livelihood at the feet of the refuge of the universe, wandering in peace, whether alone or with all our companions.

Lord and master of all who are ruled, instruct us and make us free from sin. A person who faithfully follows Your command becomes liberated from all binding injunctions.

The Supreme Lord said: In the first Manvantara, Marīci begot six sons in Ūrṇā. They were gods, but they laughed when they saw Ka, Brahmā, preparing to unite with his own daughter.

Because of that offensive act they entered a demonic womb. They were born as sons of Hiraṇyakaśipu, and Yogamāyā later brought them from there.

They were born again from Devakī's womb, O King, and were murdered by Kaṃsa. She mourns for those sons of hers, and they are now living here near you.

We shall take them from here to remove their mother's grief. Then, freed from their curse and all distress, they will depart for their proper celestial realm.

These six are Smara, Udgītha, Pariṣvaṅga, Pataṅga, Kṣudrabhṛt, and Ghṛṇī. By My grace they will again attain the highest destination.

Having spoken thus, Kṛṣṇa and Rāma took the six sons. Worshiped by Indrasena, They returned to Dvāravatī and presented the sons to their mother.

Seeing the boys, the goddess Devakī's breasts flowed with milk from maternal love. She embraced them, placed them upon her lap, repeatedly smelled their heads,

and joyfully nursed them with milk that streamed at the touch of her sons. She was bewildered by Viṣṇu's māyā, through which creation itself proceeds.

They drank her nectarean milk, the remnant of milk previously drunk by the wielder of the club. Through contact with Nārāyaṇa's body they regained direct realization of the Self.

They bowed to Govinda, Devakī, their father, and Balarāma, and then, before the eyes of every living being, departed for the abode of the gods.

Seeing her dead sons arrive and then depart, the goddess Devakī was profoundly amazed, O King, and understood that this was a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa's māyā.

Descendant of Bharata, such are the wondrous deeds of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Self. The exploits of the infinitely powerful Lord are themselves without end.

Śrī Sūta said: Whoever faithfully hears or causes others to hear this deed of Murāri, whose fame is immortal, as recounted by Vyāsa's son, fixes the mind upon the Supreme Lord and reaches His auspicious abode. This account utterly destroys the world's sins and is a splendid ornament for the ears of His devotees.