Devanagari
अथ काल उपावृत्ते देवकी सर्वदेवता
पुत्रान् प्रसुषुवे चाष्टौ कन्यां चैवानुवत्सरम् ॥ ५६ ॥
Verse text
atha kāla upāvṛtte
devakī sarva-devatā
putrān prasuṣuve cāṣṭau
kanyāṁ caivānuvatsaram
Synonyms
atha
—
thereafter
;
kāle
—
in due course of time
;
upāvṛtte
—
when it was ripe
;
devakī
—
Devakī, the wife of Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa’s father
;
sarva
—
devatā — Devakī, to whom all the demigods and God Himself appeared
;
putrān
—
sons
;
prasuṣuve
—
gave birth to
;
ca
—
and
;
aṣṭau
—
eight
;
kanyāṁ ca
—
and one daughter named Subhadrā
;
eva
—
indeed
;
anuvatsaram
—
year after year .
Translation
Each year thereafter, in due course of time, Devakī, the mother of God and all the demigods, gave birth to a child. Thus she bore eight sons, one after another, and a daughter named Subhadrā.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Each year thereafter, in due course of time, Devakī, the mother of God and all the demigods, gave birth to a child. Thus she bore eight sons, one after another, and a daughter named Subhadrā.
KB 10.1.56
Each year thereafter, in due course of time, Devakī gave birth to a child. Thus she gave birth to eight male children, as well as one daughter.
Purport
The spiritual master is sometimes glorified as
sarva-devamayo guruḥ
(
Bhāg.
11.17.27
). By the grace of the
guru,
the spiritual master, one can understand the different kinds of
devas.
The word
deva
refers to God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the original source of all the demigods, who are also called
devas.
In
Bhagavad-gītā
(10.2)
the Lord says,
aham ādir hi devānām:
“I am the source of all the
devas.
” The Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, the Original Person, expands in different forms.
Tad aikṣata bahu syām
(
Chāndogya Upaniṣad
6.2.3). He alone has expanded into many.
Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam
(
Brahma-saṁhitā
5.33
). There are different grades of forms, known as
svāṁśa
and
vibhinnāṁśa.
The
svāṁśa
expansions, or
viṣṇu-tattva,
are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whereas the
vibhinnāṁśa
are
jīva-tattva,
who are part and parcel of the Lord (
mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
). If we accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and worship Him, all the parts and expansions of the Lord are automatically worshiped.
Sarvārhaṇam acyutejyā
(
Bhāg.
4.31.14
). Kṛṣṇa is known as Acyuta (
senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me ’cyuta
). By worshiping Acyuta, Kṛṣṇa, one automatically worships all the demigods. There is no need of separately worshiping either the
viṣṇu-tattva
or
jīva-tattva.
If one concentrates upon Kṛṣṇa, one worships everyone. Therefore, because mother Devakī gave birth to Kṛṣṇa, she is described here as
sarva-devatā.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Devaki is described as sarva devata, the devata of all the devas, because she is worshipable as the mother of the Lord. The daughter mentioned is Subhadra. Every year for eight years a son was born. The reason is given inverse 58.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The word atha indicates auspiciousness. Viṣṇu Purāṇa says yuvaiva vasudevo ‘bhut vihāyābhyāgatāṁ jarām: Vasudeva was young, having given up old age. In Hari-vaṁśa Akrūra says to Kṛṣṇa, vṛddhau tavādya pitarau: your parents were elderly. This means that Kṛṣṇa was born to them when they were quite old. Thus after some time Devakī gave birth to her sons. She is called the devatā among all devatās because she possessed the power of the Lord. She is praised by the devatās in Viṣṇu Purāṇa as the supreme, subtle prakṛti. The meaning is this. Vasudeva was the cause of the Lord’s appearance because he is śuddha sattva. That is the meaning of the word vasudeva. Śiva says sattvaṁ viśuddhaṁ vasudeva-śabditaṁ: vasudeva means śuddha-sattva. (SB 4.3.23) Vasudevaṁ hareḥ sthānaṁ
vadanty ānakadundubhim: Vasudeva, who provided the proper place for the appearance of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, was also known as Ānakadundubhi. (SB 9.24.30) Devakī has great qualities similar to her husband’s. The daughter was called Subhadrā. They were born one year after the previous child, in order that Kṛṣṇa would appear quickly.