Vasudeva placed the female child on the bed of Devakī, bound his legs with the iron shackles, and thus remained there as before.

TRANSLATION

Both of you, husband and wife, constantly think of Me as your son, but always know that I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By thus thinking of Me constantly with love and affection, you will achieve the highest perfection: returning home, back to Godhead.

COMMENTARY

In the scriptures describing worship of Kṛṣṇa through mantras, Vasudeva is mentioned as the father of Kṛṣṇa. This shows without doubt that Vasudeva is eternally in the position of Kṛṣṇa’s father. But in order to increase their bliss by promising perfection of their sadhana in this birth, their status as Kṛṣṇa’s eternal associates (nitya-siddha parikaras) is hidden in this verse. “By thinking of Me you will attain Me.”

 

The actual meaning of the verse however is: “I will now go to My most excellent eternal abode of Gokula. After eleven years, I will return to Mathurā and you will meet Me at that time. But now I will be separated from you.”

 

|| 10.3.46 ||

śrī-śuka uvāca

ity uktvāsīd dharis tūṣṇīṁ bhagavān ātma-māyayā

pitroḥ sampaśyatoḥ sadyo babhūva prākṛtaḥ śiśuḥ

TRANSLATION

Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: After thus instructing His father and mother, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, remained silent. In their presence, by His internal energy, He then transformed Himself into a small human child. [In other words, He transformed Himself into His original form: kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28].

COMMENTARY

ātma māyayā: own spiritual energy; According to the Maha Saṁhitā, ātma māyayā means “by one’s own free will.”

babhuva prākṛtaḥ śiśuḥ: became an ordinary human being; means that Kṛṣṇa manifested His eternally perfect, spiritual form as a baby, but not a material baby. Prākṛtaḥ means prākṛti, svarūpa and svabhāva (eternal form and personality). In referring to great souls on earth, they are called prākṛti-siddha. Thus the word prākṛtaḥ here means svarūpa or svabhāva. It cannot mean material in this context because there are statements like the following from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (10.9.13) which contradict this:

 

na cāntar na bahir yasya na pūrvaṁ nāpi cāparam

pūrvāparaṁ bahiś cāntar jagato yo jagac ca yaḥ

taṁ matvātmajam avyaktaṁ martya-liṅgam adhokṣajam

gopīkolūkhale dāmnā babandha prākṛtaṁ yathā

 

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no beginning and no end, no exterior and no interior, no front and no rear. In other words, He is all-pervading. Because He is not under the influence of the element of time, for Him there is no difference between past, present and future; He exists in His own transcendental form at all times. Being absolute, beyond relativity, He is free from distinctions between cause and effect, although He is the cause and effect of everything. That unmanifested person, who is beyond the perception of the senses, had now appeared as a human child, and mother Yaśodā, considering Him her own ordinary child, bound Him to the wooden mortar with a rope.”

 

In this statement it is clear that He who mother Yaśodā bound up was like an ordinary material child (prākṛtā śiśuḥ), but actually He was not prākṛtā, He was aprākṛtā, completely spiritual. Therefore the Lord showed His original spiritual form as a human-like baby.

 

|| 10.3.47 ||

tataś ca śaurir bhagavat-pracoditaḥ sutaṁ samādāya sa sūtikā-gṛhāt

yadā bahir gantum iyeṣa tarhy ajā yā yogamāyājani nanda-jāyayā

TRANSLATION

Thereafter, exactly when Vasudeva, being inspired by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, was about to take the newborn child from the delivery room, Yogamāyā, the Lord’s spiritual energy, took birth as the daughter of the wife of Mahārāja Nanda.

COMMENTARY

Vasudeva was instructed by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, “If you are afraid, then take Me to Gokula and bring the child of Yaśodā, Yogamāyā, back here.”

 

After being instructed, Vasudeva saw that his chains automatically loosened. When Vasudeva was about to leave the prison, Yogamāyā took birth in Gokula as the daughter of Yaśodā. The Hari-vaṁśa says that in the eighth month of pregnancy, before full term, Devakī and Yaśodā gave birth at the same time to their children. But the Bhāgavatam states that Yaśodā gave birth after Devakī.

 

How to correlate these contradictory statements? Exactly when Devakī gave birth to Kṛṣṇa in Mathurā, Yaśodā also gave birth to Kṛṣṇa in Gokula. After that, as described in this verse, Yaśodā gave birth to Yogamāyā. Thus two children appeared from Yaśodā at different times. This is confirmed in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (10.4.9), which describes Yogamāyā as ānujā, the younger sister of Kṛṣṇa. But when Kṛṣṇa appeared from Yaśodā it is not stated that He had four hands. Therefore, it is understood that Kṛṣṇa appeared from Yaśodā with two hands because she worshiped Kṛṣṇa without understanding His Godhood. But Vasudeva and Devakī worshiped their son as Viṣṇu.

 

|| 10.3.48-49 ||

tayā hṛta-pratyaya-sarva-vṛttiṣu dvāḥ-stheṣu paureṣv api śāyiteṣv atha

dvāraś ca sarvāḥ pihitā duratyayā bṛhat-kapāṭāyasa-kīla-śṛṅkhalaiḥ

tāḥ kṛṣṇa-vāhe vasudeva āgate svayaṁ vyavaryanta yathā tamo raveḥ

vavarṣa parjanya upāṁśu-garjitaḥ śeṣo ’nvagād vāri nivārayan phaṇaiḥ

TRANSLATION

By the influence of Yogamāyā, all the doorkeepers fell fast asleep, their senses unable to work, and the other inhabitants of the house also fell deeply asleep. When the sun rises, the darkness automatically disappears; similarly, when Vasudeva appeared, the closed doors, which were strongly pinned with iron and locked with iron chains, opened automatically. Since the clouds in the sky were mildly thundering and showering, Ananta-nāga, an expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, followed Vasudeva, beginning from the door, with hoods expanded to protect Vasudeva and the transcendental child.

COMMENTARY

Through her expansion, Yogamāyā covered the knowledge gathering senses of the doorkeepers so they fell into deep sleep.

svayam vyavaryanta: automatically opened wide; The doors were insurmountable being made of thick panels, huge bolts and chains. But they opened by themselves just like the sun driving away darkness.

 

upāṁśu: mildly resound; The clouds began to rumble softly. Śeṣa, an expansion of Lord Balarāma, spread His hood like an umbrella. Braḥmāṇḍa Purāṇa says: śayyāsana paridhāna pādukā, chatra, camaraiḥ kim nabhus tasya kṛṣṇasya murtibhedais ca murtiṣu, “Whenever Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa takes different forms, Lord Balarāma’s expansion Śeṣa serves Kṛṣṇa as His bed, seat, shoes, umbrella and camara.”

 

|| 10.3.50 ||

maghoni varṣaty asakṛd yamānujā gambhīra-toyaugha-javormi-phenilā

bhayānakāvarta-śatākulā nadī mārgaṁ dadau sindhur iva śriyaḥ pateḥ

TRANSLATION

Because of constant rain sent by the demigod Indra, the River Yamunā was filled with deep water, foaming about with fiercely whirling waves. But as the great Indian Ocean had formerly given way to Lord Rāmacandra by allowing Him to construct a bridge, the River Yamunā gave way to Vasudeva and allowed him to cross.

COMMENTARY

The River Yamunā was filled with deep water (toyaughah), but she gave way to Vasudeva just as the great Indian Ocean did for Lord Rāma (śriyaḥ pateḥ).

 

|| 10.3.51 ||

nanda-vrajaṁ śaurir upetya tatra tān gopān prasuptān upalabhya nidrayā

sutaṁ yaśodā-śayane nidhāya tat-sutām upādāya punar gṛhān agāt

TRANSLATION

When Vasudeva reached the house of Nanda Mahārāja, he saw that all the cowherd men were fast asleep. Thus he placed his own son on the bed of Yaśodā, picked up her daughter, an expansion of Yogamāyā, and then returned to his residence, the prison house of Kaṁsa.

COMMENTARY

Taking Yaśodā’s daughter, Vasudeva returned to the prison. From the mundane point of view it appears unjustified that Vasudeva, who was supposed to be following the highest principles, condoned the sacrifice of another’s child to protect his own. Vasudeva cannot be accused of callousness, however, because his normal sense of discrimination was covered by his paternal love (vātsalya-prema) for Lord Kṛṣṇa who had appeared as his son.

 

|| 10.3.52 ||

devakyāḥ śayane nyasya vasudevo ’tha dārikām

pratimucya pador loham āste pūrvavad āvṛtaḥ

TRANSLATION