Krsna Book Audio Dictation - Chapter 01
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Heading: "Advent of Lord Kṛṣṇa."
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When the world was too much overburdened by the unnecessary defense force of different kings who were actually demons but were posing themselves as royal order, at that time, the whole world had become perturbed, and the predominating deity of this earth, known as Bhūmi, went to see Lord Brahmā to express her calamities on account of the demonic kings. The predominating deity of the earth, Bhūmi, assumed the shape of a cow and presented herself before Lord Brahmā with tears in her eyes, very much bereaved and weeping, just to invoke compassion of the lord, and she began to narrate the calamitous position of the earth. Lord Brahmā, after hearing the narration of Bhūmi, become too much aggrieved, and he at once started for the ocean of milk, where Lord Viṣṇu is lying, accompanied by all the demigods, headed by Lord Śiva and others. Bhūmi, the predominating deity of earth in the shape of the cow, also followed the demigods.
Lord Brahmā, just arriving on the shore of milk ocean, began to pacify the Lord, who formerly saved the earthly planet assuming the transcendental form of boar. In the Vedic mantra there is a particular type of prayers called puruṣa-sūkta. Generally, by chanting that puruṣa-sūkta the demigods offer their obeisances to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu. It is understood herein that the predominating deity of every planet can see the supreme lord of this universe, Brahmā, whenever there is some disturbance in that planet. And Brahmāalso can approach the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu, not directly by seeing Him, but he can approach Him just by standing on the ocean of…, on the shore of the ocean of milk.
There is a planet within this universe which is called Śvetadvīpa, and in that planet the ocean is of milk. It is understood in various Vedic literature that just we have got the ocean of salt water within this planet, similarly, there are various kinds of oceans in other planets. Somewhere there is the ocean of milk, somewhere there is ocean of oil, somewhere there is ocean of liquor, and there are different types of ocean. And puruṣa-sūkta is the standard prayer reciting which the demigods appease the Supreme Personality of God Viṣṇu, who is lying as Kṣīrodakaśāyī-Viṣṇu. Because He is lying on the milk of ocean, He is called Kṣīrodakaśāyī-Viṣṇu, and this Kṣīrodakaśāyī-Viṣṇu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead through whom all the incarnation within this universe appears.
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On offering the puruṣa-sūkta prayer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead by all the demigods, when there was no response apparently heard by the demigods, at that time Lord Brahmā personally sat into meditation, and there was transmission of message from Lord Viṣṇu to Brahmā, and Brahmā thus broadcast the message to the demigods. That is the system of receiving Vedic knowledge. The Vedic knowledge is received first Brahmā from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, through the medium of heart. As it is stated in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, tene brahma hṛdā :(SB 1.1.1). The transcendental knowledge of Vedas was transmitted to Lord Brahmā through the heart. Here also, in the same way, only Brahmā could understand the message transmitted by Lord Viṣṇu, and he broadcast the message to the demigods that they should immediately take action on the message of the Lord.
The message was that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is going to appear on the earth very soon, along with His supreme powerful potencies. And so long He would remain on the earth planet for executing His particular mission of annihilating the demons and establishing the devotees, the demigods should also remain there to assist Him. They should all immediately go and take birth in the family of Yadu dynasty, wherein Lord also will appear in due course of time.
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The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, shall personally appear as the son of Vasudeva. Before He appears there all the demigods, along with their wives, shall appear in different pious families of the world just to assist the Lord in executing His mission. The exact word used in this connection for the demigods is tatpriyārtham, which means the demigods should appear on the earth in order to please the Lord. In other words, any living entity who lives only for satisfying the Lord is a demigod.
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The demigods were also informed that the plenary portion of Lord Kṛṣṇa, namely Ananta, who is maintaining the universal planets extending His millions of hoods, He would also appear there before Lord Kṛṣṇa's appearance. They were also informed that the external potency of Viṣṇu under whom all the conditioneds are enamored, she would also appear just to execute the purpose of the Supreme Lord. She is already instructed by the Personality of Godhead how to appear in order to help Him in His mission there.
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In this way Lord Brahmā, the father of all prajāpatis, or progenitor of universal population, after instructing and pacifying all the demigods, as well as the Mahī, or the predominating deity of the earth, by sweet words, departed for his own abode in the highest planetary system called Brahmaloka.
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The leader of the Yadu dynasty, King Śūrasena, was ruling over the country known as Māthura, or the district of Mathurā, as well as the district known as Śūrasena according to his own name. In the beginning he was the ruling prince of that portion of the country. On account of ruling by Śūrasena, Mathurā became the capital city for all the kings of Yadus. Another reason for making Mathurāas the capital of the kings of Yadu dynasty was that this family is a very pious family, and they knew that Mathurā is the place where Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa lives eternally, as much as He lives in Dvārakā. Once upon a time, Vasudeva, the son of Śūrasena, after marrying Devakī, was going home on his chariot with his newly married wife. The father of Devakī, known as Devaka, contributed sufficient dowry at the time of marriage of his daughter on account of his being very much affectionate for his daughter. In the beginning he contributed one hundred chariots completely decorate with golden equipments. At that time Kaṁsa, the son of Ugrasena, in order to please his sister Devakī, voluntarily took the reins of the horses of Vasudeva's chariot and was driving himself, as it is the custom of Vedic civilization.
According to Vedic civilization, when one girl is married, it is the custom that the brother takes the sister and brother-in-law to his home. Because the newly married girl may feel too much separation from the father's family, therefore the brother goes with her until she reaches her father-in-law's house. Devakī's father, Devaka, gave sufficient dowry to his daughter, which are described as follows, that he contributed 400 elephants, fully decorated with golden garlands; similarly decorated 15,000 horses were contributed and 1800 chariots, similarly decorated. Just to accompany his daughter, he arranged two hundred beautiful girls to follow his daughter. The kṣatriya system of marriage is still current in India that when a kṣatriya is married, along with his wife another few dozens of young girlfriends of the bride come to the house of the king. Such followers of the queen are called maidservant, but actually they act as friends of the queen. This practice is prevalent from time immemorial, at least from the time before the advent of Lord Kṛṣṇa, that is, 5,000 years ago also the system was current. And thus Vasudeva brought home another suite of two hundred beautiful girls along with his wife, Devakī.
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While the bride and bridegroom was passing on on the chariot, there were different kinds of musical instruments playing in order to indicate auspicious moment. There were conchshells, bugles, drums, kettledrums; all of them combined together was vibrating a nice concert. While the procession was passing very pleasingly and Kaṁsa was driving the chariot, at that time there was a miraculous sound vibrated from the sky which announced especially to Kaṁsa, "Kaṁsa, you are so fool! You are driving the chariot of your sister and brother-in-law, but you do not know that the eighth child of this sister will kill you."
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Kaṁsa was the son of Ugrasena, which family was known as Bhoja dynasty, and it is said Kaṁsa was the worst of all the Bhoja dynasty kings. So immediately after hearing the omen from the sky, he became very much alert and caught hold of the bunch of hair of Devakī and was just about to kill her with his sword. Vasudeva was astonished by seeing the behavior of Kaṁsa, and in order to pacify the cruel, shameless brother-in-law, Kaṁsa, Vasudeva began to say as follows, with great reason and evidences. He said, "My dear brother-in-law Kaṁsa, you are the most famous king of the Bhoja dynasty, and people know that you are the greatest warrior and valiant king. How it is that you are so much infuriated that you are ready to kill one woman, and especially she is your sister, at the auspicious ceremony of her marriage? And why you should be so much afraid of death? Death is already born along with your birth. Since you have taken your birth, from the very day you have begun to die. Suppose you are now twenty-five years old. That means you have already died twenty-five years. So every moment, every second, you are dying. Why you should be so much afraid of death? Final death is inevitable. Either you may die today or a hundred years after, you cannot avoid death. So why you should be so much afraid?
"Actually, death means annihilation of the present body. So as soon as the present body is stopped functioning and mixed with the five elements of material nature, the living entity within the body, according to his own action and reaction accepts another body and thus gives up the present body. Just like when a man walks on the street: he steps forward one leg, and when he is confident that his leg is situated in a sound ground, he lifts the other leg. In this way, one after another, body is changed and the soul transmigrates. You have seen how the plant worms change from one twig to another so carefully. Similarly, the living entity changes his body as soon as by higher authority his next body is fixed up. Similarly, a living entity, so long he is conditioned within this material world, he must have a material body one after another. Simply his particular body is offered by the laws of nature, according to his action and reaction in this life.
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"This body is exactly like one of the bodies which we always see in dream. At…, during our sleeping dream we create so many bodies according to the mental creation. Just like we have seen gold and also seen a mountain, so in dream we can see a golden mountain by combining the two ideas. Similarly, sometimes we see that we have got a body which is flying in the sky. At that time we completely forget of our present body. Similarly, these bodies are changing, and when you have got a separate body we forget our past body, just like during dream we see contact with so many new kinds of body, but when you are awakened we forget all those bodies. Actually this material body is creation of our mental activities, and at the present moment we do not recollect what was our past body.
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"The nature of mind is flickering—sometimes accepts something and immediately rejects the something. So such accepting and rejecting process in contact with the five objects of sense gratification, namely form, taste, smell, sound and touch, so the mind in its speculative way, when it comes in touch with such objects of sense gratification, a living entity desires a particular type of body and he gets it. Therefore the body is an offering by the laws of material nature, and the living entity accepts such body and come out again in the material world for enjoying or suffering according to the construction of the body. Unless we have got a particular type of body, we cannot enjoy or suffer according to our mental concoction in the previous life. Actually, a particular type of body is offered to us according to the mental condition at the time of death.
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"The luminous planets like the sun, moon or the stars reflect themselves in different types of reservoir, like water, oil, ghee. The reflection moves according to the movement of the reservoir. The reflection of moon is on the water; the moving water makes the moon also moving. Actually the moon is not moving. Similarly, the living entity, by mental concoction, attains different types of body. Actually the living entity has no connection with such body, but on account of illusion, being enchanted by the influence of māyā, the living entity thinks that he belongs to that particular body. That is the way of conditioned life. Suppose a living entity is now in a human form of body. So he thinks that he belongs to the human community or a particular country, particular place, and he identifies himself in that way and unnecessarily prepares for another body, which is not required by him. But such desires and mental concoctions are the causes of different types of body. The covering influence of material nature is so strong that the living entity, whatever body he gets, he is satisfied and he identifies with that body with great pleasure. Therefore I beg to request you not to be overwhelmed by the dictation of your mind and body. If you actually want your ultimate…" (break)
Kṛṣṇa, tape number three.
Vasudeva thus requested Kaṁsa not to be envious to his newly married sister. Why sister? One should not be envious to anyone, because this enviousness is the cause of fearfulness both in this world and as well as in the next world before the Yamarāja. Vasudeva appealed to Kaṁsa on behalf of Devakī, stating that she was his younger sister and she is just on an auspicious moment on account of her marriage, and younger sister or younger brother are considered as one's children. So the position being so delicate, "If you kill her, it will go against your high reputation."
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Thus Vasudeva tried to pacify Kaṁsa by methods of good instruction, as well as by differentiation, but Kaṁsa was not to be pacified, because his association was demonic. Although he was born in a very high royal family, still, on account of his demonic association, he was also a demon. A demon never cares for any good instruction. Just like a thief, however you can give him moral instruction it is not effective upon a determined thief, similarly, those who are demonic by nature, atheistic by nature, hardly they can assimilate any good instruction, however authorized they may be. That is the difference between demigod and demon. Those who can accept good instruction and try to behave in their life in that way, they are called demigods, and those who are unable to take such good instruction, they are called demons.
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Vasudeva, however, failing in his attempt to pacify Kaṁsa, he thought within himself how to protect his wife, Devakī. When there is imminent danger, an intelligent person should try to avoid such dangerous position as far as possible by good intelligence. And in spite of endeavoring by all intelligence, if one fails to avoid any dangerous position, there is no fault on his part. Yatne kṛte yadi na sidhyati (Hitopadeśa). One should try his best to execute his duties, but in spite of all endeavor if the attempt fails, he has no fault. So Vasudeva thought his wife, "For the present let me save the life of Devakī, then later on, if there are children, I shall see how to save them." He thought within himself, "If in future I get one child who can kill Kaṁsa—as Kaṁsa was thinking—then both Devakī and the child would be saved, because the law of Providence is inconceivable. Some way or other, let me now save the life of Devakī."
There is no certainty how a living entity contacts a certain type of body, as much as there is no certainty how the blazing fire come in contact with a certain type of wood in the forest. When there is a forest fire, it is experienced that the blazing fire sometimes overlaps one tree and catches another tree, influenced by the wind blowing at that time. Similarly, a living entity who may be very careful in the matter of executing his duties, still it is very difficult to know what type of body he is going to get next life. Just like Mahārāja Bharata: he was very faithfully executing the duties of self-realization, but by chance he contacted a temporary affection for a deer and he had to accept next life the body of a deer.
Thus Vasudeva, after mature deliberation how to save his wife, again began to say with great respect to Kaṁsa, although he was the most sinful man. It sometimes happens that a person like Vasudeva, the most virtuous person, has to flatter a person like Kaṁsa, the most vicious person. So that is the way of all diplomatic transaction. And Vasudeva, although he was deeply aggrieved within himself, outwardly he presented himself as a smiling. Thus he addressed to the shameless Kaṁsa, because he was so much atrocious. Vasudeva said to Kaṁsa, "My dear brother-in-law, now just consider that you have no danger from your sister. If you are awaiting some danger, as you have heard a voice of foretelling from the sky, so you are confronted with the sons of your sister. The sons of your sister are not present. Who knows, there may be sons or there may not be sons. Considering all this position, you are safe for the present. And there is no cause of fearing from your sister. Now if there are sons born of your sister, I promise that I shall present all of them to you for your necessary action."
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Kaṁsa knew the value of the word of honor from Vasudeva, and he was convinced by his argument. So for that time he ceased himself from the heinous action of killing of his sister. When Kaṁsa thus stopped such killing business, Vasudeva was very pleased and he eulogized the action of Kaṁsa, and in this way he went back to his home. After this, in due course of time Devakī gave birth to eight children, as well as one daughter, year after year.
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When the first son was born, Vasudeva, to keep his word of honor, immediately brought the child before Kaṁsa. It is said that Vasudeva was very much celebrated for his word of honor, and he wanted to continue this standard of his fame, although it was very painful for Vasudeva to hand over the newly born child in the hands of Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa was very much glad to receive the child, but he became a little compassionate with the behavior of Vasudeva. This instance of Vasudeva's behavior with Kaṁsa is very exemplary, because for a great soul like Vasudeva, there is nothing considered to be painful in course of discharging the duty. A learned person like Vasudeva carries on duties without being hesitant. On the other hand, what is abominable action for a demoniac person like Kaṁsa? It is said therefore that saintly person can tolerate all kinds of miserable condition of life, a learned man can discharge his duties without waiting for any favorable circumstances, and a heinous person like Kaṁsa can act any sinful activity and a devotee can sacrifice anything for satisfying the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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By this action of Vasudeva, Kaṁsa, although he was demoniac, he became so much satisfied and was surprised to see Vasudeva fixed up in his promise. Just being compassionate upon him and pleased, he began to say as follows. Kaṁsa said, "My dear Vasudeva, you need not present this child to me because I have no danger from this child. I have heard that from the eighth child born of you and Devakī would kill me. So why shall I accept this child unnecessarily? You can take him back."
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After this, when Vasudeva was going back with his first-born child, although he was a little pleased within himself by the behavior of Kaṁsa, still he could not believe him, because he knew Kaṁsa was uncontrolled. An atheistic person therefore he cannot be fixed up in his word of honor. In other words, one who cannot control the senses cannot be fixed up in their determination. There is a saying of one great politician named Cāṇakya Paṇḍita. He said that "Never put your trust to the diplomats or to the woman." In other words, those who are addicted to unrestricted sense gratification, they can never be truthful, neither they can be trusted with any faith.
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When Vasudeva went away to his home, at that time the great sage Nārada came to Kaṁsa, and he was informed about Kaṁsa's becoming compassionate with Vasudeva and returning his first child. Nārada was very much anxious to accelerate the descendance of Lord Kṛṣṇa as soon as possible, therefore he informed Kaṁsa that all personalities like Nanda Mahārāja in Vṛndāvana and all the cowherds boys, girls and the wives of the cowherds men in the one side, and in the other side Vasudeva, his father Śūrasena and all his relatives born in the family of Vṛṣṇi, all persons presently known as the descendants of the Yadu dynasty and their wives, everyone born in their family at the present moment, their friends and well-wisher, are the demigods taking birth in those families. And he warned Kaṁsa to be careful of them, because Kaṁsa and all his friends and advisor, they are all demons. Demons are always afraid of the demigods. So…
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After being thus informed by Nārada about the appearance of the demigods in different families he became immediately too much alert, and could understand that all the demigods have already appeared, and Lord Viṣṇu must be now coming. He at once arrested both his brother-in-law Vasudeva and Devakī and put them into prison bars. And in this way Kaṁsa imprisoned Vasudeva and his wife Devakīwithin the prison bars, shackled in iron chains so that they may not go away. And as they were giving birth to a male child year after year, Kaṁsa was killing them one after another, thinking all the babies as incarnation of Viṣṇu. He was practically afraid of the eighth child, but after visit of Nārada, he came to the conclusion that any child may be Kṛṣṇa; therefore it was better to kill all the babies who may take birth of Devakī and Vasudeva.
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This action of Kaṁsa is not very difficult to understand. In the history of the world there are many instances that persons in the royal order, for satisfaction of their ambitions, some of them has killed his fathers, some of them has killed their brothers or the whole family. Some of them have killed friends. So for demonic, greedy royal order there is nothing astonishing. They can kill anyone for their nefarious ambition.
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Kaṁsa was aware of his previous birth by the grace of Nārada, that in his previous birth he was a demon of the name Kālanemi, and he was killed by Viṣṇu. And knowing that he had taken his birth now in the Bhoja family, he decided to become deadly enemy of the Yadu dynasty, because Kṛṣṇa was going to take birth in that family and he was very much afraid that he would be killed by Kṛṣṇa as he was killed in his last birth.
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Thus decided, he first of all imprisoned his father Ugrasena because he was the chief king amongst the Yadu dynasty, Bhoja dynasty, Andhaka dynasty. He thus occupied the whole kingdom of Śūrasena—Vasudeva's father—and he declared himself as the king of all such places.
Thus ends the First Chapter, in the matter of "Advent of Kṛṣṇa."