Devanagari
विश्वं यदेतत् स्वतनौ निशान्ते
यथावकाशं पुरुष: परो भवान् ।
बिभर्ति सोऽयं मम गर्भगोऽभू-
दहो नृलोकस्य विडम्बनं हि तत् ॥ ३१ ॥
Verse text
viśvaṁ yad etat sva-tanau niśānte
yathāvakāśaṁ puruṣaḥ paro bhavān
bibharti so ’yaṁ mama garbhago ’bhūd
aho nṛ-lokasya viḍambanaṁ hi tat
Synonyms
viśvam
—
the entire cosmic manifestation
;
yat etat
—
containing all moving and nonmoving creations
;
sva
—
tanau — within Your body
;
niśā
—
ante — at the time of devastation
;
yathā
—
avakāśam — shelter in Your body without difficulty
;
puruṣaḥ
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
paraḥ
—
transcendental
;
bhavān
—
Your Lordship
;
bibharti
—
keep
;
saḥ
—
that (Supreme Personality of Godhead)
;
ayam
—
this form
;
mama
—
my
;
garbha
—
gaḥ — came within my womb
;
abhūt
—
it so happened
;
aho
—
alas
;
nṛ
—
lokasya — within this material world of living entities
;
viḍambanam
—
it is impossible to think of
;
hi
—
indeed
;
tat
—
that (kind of conception) .
Translation
At the time of devastation, the entire cosmos, containing all created moving and nonmoving entities, enters Your transcendental body and is held there without difficulty. But now this transcendental form has taken birth from my womb. People will not be able to believe this, and I shall become an object of ridicule.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
At the time of devastation, the entire cosmos, containing all created moving and nonmoving entities, enters Your transcendental body and is held there without difficulty. But now this transcendental form has taken birth from my womb. People will not be able to believe this, and I shall become an object of ridicule.
KB 10.3.31
“My dear Lord, at the end of the annihilation of the cosmic manifestation, You put the whole universe within Your abdomen; still, by Your unalloyed mercy You have appeared in my womb. I am surprised that You imitate the activities of ordinary human beings just to please Your devotee.”
Purport
As explained in
Caitanya-caritāmṛta,
loving service to the Personality of Godhead is of two different kinds:
aiśvarya-pūrṇa,
full of opulence, and
aiśvarya-śīthila,
without opulence. Real love of Godhead begins with
aiśvarya-śīthila,
simply on the basis of pure love.
premāṣjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti
yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
(
Brahma-saṁhitā
5.38
)
Pure devotees, whose eyes are anointed with the ointment of
prema,
love, want to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Śyāmasundara, Muralīdhara, with a flute swaying in His two hands. This is the form available to the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, who are all in love with the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Śyāmasundara, not as Lord Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa, who is worshiped in Vaikuṇṭha, where the devotees admire His opulence. Although Devakī is not on the Vṛndāvana platform, she is near the Vṛndāvana platform. On the Vṛndāvana platform the mother of Kṛṣṇa is mother Yaśodā, and on the Mathurā and Dvārakā platform the mother of Kṛṣṇa is Devakī. In Mathurā and Dvārakā the love for the Lord is mixed with appreciation of His opulence, but in Vṛndāvana the opulence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not exhibited.
There are five stages of loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead —
śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya
and
mādhurya.
Devakī is on the platform of
vātsalya.
She wanted to deal with her eternal son, Kṛṣṇa, in that stage of love, and therefore she wanted the Supreme Personality of Godhead to withdraw His opulent form of Viṣṇu. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura illuminates this fact very clearly in his explanation of this verse.
Bhakti, bhagavān
and
bhakta
do not belong to the material world. This is confirmed in
Bhagavad-gītā
(14.26)
:
māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
“One who engages in the spiritual activities of unalloyed devotional service immediately transcends the modes of material nature and is elevated to the spiritual platform.” From the very beginning of one’s transactions in
bhakti,
one is situated on the transcendental platform. Vasudeva and Devakī, therefore, being situated in a completely pure devotional state, are beyond this material world and are not subject to material fear. In the transcendental world, however, because of pure devotion, there is a similar conception of fear, which is due to intense love.
As stated in
Bhagavad-gītā
(
bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ
) and as confirmed in
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
(
bhaktyāham ekayā grāhyaḥ
), without
bhakti
one cannot understand the spiritual situation of the Lord.
Bhakti
may be considered in three stages, called
guṇī-bhūta, pradhānī-bhūta
and
kevala,
and according to these stages there are three divisions, which are called
jṣāna, jṣānamayī
and
rati,
or
premā
— that is, simple knowledge, love mixed with knowledge, and pure love. By simple knowledge, one can perceive transcendental bliss without variety. This perception is called
māna-bhūti.
When one comes to the stage of
jṣānamayī,
one realizes the transcendental opulences of the Personality of Godhead. But when one reaches pure love, one realizes the transcendental form of the Lord as Lord Kṛṣṇa or Lord Rāma. This is what is wanted. Especially in the
mādhurya-rasa,
one becomes attached to the Personality of Godhead (
śrī-vigraha-niṣṭha-rūpādi
). Then loving transactions between the Lord and the devotee begin.
The special significance of Kṛṣṇa’s bearing a flute in His hands in Vrajabhūmi, Vṛndāvana, is described as
mādhurī … virājate.
The form of the Lord with a flute in His hands is most attractive, and the one who is most sublimely attracted is Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, Rādhikā. She enjoys supremely blissful association with Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes people cannot understand why Rādhikā’s name is not mentioned in
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Actually, however, Rādhikā can be understood from the word
ārādhana,
which indicates that She enjoys the highest loving affairs with Kṛṣṇa.
Not wanting to be ridiculed for having given birth to Viṣṇu, Devakī wanted Kṛṣṇa, with two hands, and therefore she requested the Lord to change His form.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
"Why should I withdraw this form? You should not become proud to attain the Lord as your son." Fearing this words from the Lord, Devaki speaks. "I do not want fame or position. You hold the universe within the temple (nisanta) of your body comfortably (yathavakasam) but you have appeared in my womb. Common people will make fun of me, for how is this possible? The neighbors will joke, "O foolish Devaki, the Lord who has a gigantic form of thousands of universes is situated as a son in your little womb. Are you not ashamed to make this claim?" I will not get any fame for this event.
Here a question arises: How is it that Devaki, and Vasudeva who realize directly with their senses the supreme Lord can be afflicted with fear and lamentation arising from ignorance? One should not raise such a question. This fear and lamentation arises from prema of the cit sakti, the internal energy, which is the root of the external energy and material knowledge and ignorance. This fear is part of vyabhicari bhava. It does not arise from ignorance. Such an idea would attribute fault to prema.
What is the proof that prema is beyond maya? One must certainly accept that the Lord is controlled by prema. If prema is maya then the Lord would be controlled by maya. This is explained elsewhere as well. Bhaktya mam abhijanati... I am known only by devotion. In the words of the Lord himself, he is known only by devotion or prema.
Bhakti is of three types: guni bhuta, pradhani bhuta and kevala. The results are also different. From guni bhuta bhakti comes jnana, from pradhani bhuta bhakti comes jnana mayi rati and from kevala bhakti comes prema. Through jnana one realizes the Brahman (cit sukha mayam), through jnana mayi rati one realizes the Lord in majesty (cid aisvarya mayam), and through prema one realizes the sweet aspect of Krsna, Rama and others (madhurya mayam).
Although all the forms of God are one, by difference of taste there is different appearances of God. There are seven types of sweetness pertaining to the form of the Lord, sweetness of form, touch, smell, sound and taste, as well as sweetness of affection for the devotee and sweetness of pastimes. The sweetness of Vraja has two additional types of sweetness: that of the flute and his powers. In total there are nine types of sweetness. It is said in scriptures: "In Vraja there are four types of sweetness: his powers, his pastimes, his flute and his form."
Prema has four types: dasya, sakhya , vatsalya and ujjvala. The glory of vatsalya is that it makes Krsna the object of pity and extreme attachment. Although his majesty (aisvarya) is present, this mood of vatsalya covers it in such a way that Krsna, bound by ropes of attachment and becoming subservient, gives those devotees a taste of sweetness unavailable to others. The taste arising from great attachment is millions of times greater than that of the experience of the Lord through jnana or jnana mayi rati. Because of great attachment, the mother derives more pleasure from her son, though full of faults and lacking all good qualities, than from seeing the moon which extinguishes all suffering and bestows all bliss. If that is so, then what to speak of having a son who is the supreme Lord? This is the difference between jnana and prema. Just as ignorance binds the jiva with attachment to give suffering, so prema binds Krsna, who is already the very form of bliss, with attachment that gives rise to greater joy. Though an offender is bound with ropes and chains, and a respectable man is honored by binding him with valuable, soft and fragrant turban and coat, one bondage gives suffering and the other bondage gives pleasure. The jiva subjected to ignorance gets suffering, and Krsna subjected to prema gets joy.
Just as there are degrees of the five types of suffering according to the covering of ignorance, so there are different degrees of happiness in prema due to the different degrees of covering of jnana and aisvarya. The prema of Yasoda and others, by ropes of attachment mutually bind together that devotee and Krsna, and cover jnana and aisvarya. This gives a type of happiness not available in Devaki’s prema. Her prema has less strength due to mixture with asivarya and jnana. Why do they have different types of prema? Because they are both nitya siddha devotees, their difference in prema is also nitya siddha. There can be no further discussion on this.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
“I will now kill Kaṁsa. You will be famous for having this form as your son. People with material eyes will also be astonished.” Fearing this response she requests him again with increasing strength as a mother, disregarding his powers, using another pretext.
Though the interpretation follows Śrīdhara Svāmī, Devakī speaks with slight anger. When Kṛṣṇa says “I will kill Kaṁsa” there is a hint of boldness in her words. At the end of Brahmā’s night, you as the great creator, create and maintain millions of universes in your body. You have entered the universe which is within you and appeared from my womb. Instead of garbha-jaḥ sometimes garbha-gaḥ is seen.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Moreover, with this godly form, humans like me cannot have affection for you. People will think that your being born from me is some false imitation and not true.