Devanagari
नेमं विरिञ्चो न भवो न श्रीरप्यङ्गसंश्रया ।
प्रसादं लेभिरे गोपी यत्तत्प्राप विमुक्तिदात् ॥ २० ॥
Verse text
nemaṁ viriṣco na bhavo
na śrīr apy aṅga-saṁśrayā
prasādaṁ lebhire gopī
yat tat prāpa vimuktidāt
Synonyms
na
—
not
;
imam
—
this exalted position
;
viriṣcaḥ
—
Lord Brahmā
;
na
—
nor
;
bhavaḥ
—
Lord Śiva
;
na
—
nor
;
śrīḥ
—
the goddess of fortune
;
api
—
indeed
;
aṅga
—
saṁśrayā — although she is always the better half of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
prasādam
—
mercy
;
lebhire
—
obtained
;
gopī
—
mother Yaśodā
;
yat tat
—
as that which
;
prāpa
—
obtained
;
vimukti
—
dāt — from Kṛṣṇa, who gives deliverance from this material world .
Translation
Neither Lord Brahmā, nor Lord Śiva, nor even the goddess of fortune, who is always the better half of the Supreme Lord, can obtain from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the deliverer from this material world, such mercy as received by mother Yaśodā.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Neither Lord Brahmā, nor Lord Śiva, nor even the goddess of fortune, who is always the better half of the Supreme Lord, can obtain from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the deliverer from this material world, such mercy as received by mother Yaśodā.
KB 10.9.20
This was exemplified by Kṛṣṇa’s surrender unto His mother, Yaśodā.
Kṛṣṇa is the supreme bestower of all kinds of liberation to His devotees, but the benediction which was bestowed upon Mother Yaśodā was never experienced even by Lord Brahmā or Lord Śiva or the goddess of fortune.
Purport
This is a comparative study between mother Yaśodā and other devotees of the Lord. As stated in
Caitanya-caritāmṛta
(
Ādi
5.142)
,
ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya:
the only supreme master is Kṛṣṇa, and all others are His servants. Kṛṣṇa has the transcendental quality of
bhṛtya-vaśyatā,
becoming subordinate to His
bhṛtya,
or servant. Now, although everyone is
bhṛtya
and although Kṛṣṇa has the quality of becoming subordinate to His
bhṛtya,
the position of mother Yaśodā is the greatest. Lord Brahmā is
bhṛtya,
a servant of Kṛṣṇa, and he is
ādi-kavi,
the original creator of this universe (
tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye
). Nonetheless, even he could not obtain such mercy as mother Yaśodā. As for Lord Śiva, he is the topmost Vaiṣṇava (
vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ
). What to speak of Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī, is the Lord’s constant companion in service, since she always associates with His body. But even she could not get such mercy. Therefore Mahārāja Parīkṣit was surprised, thinking, “What did mother Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja do in their previous lives by which they got such a great opportunity, the opportunity to be the affectionate father and mother of Kṛṣṇa?”
In this verse there are three negative pronouncements —
na, na, na.
When anything is uttered three times — “do it, do it, do it” — one should understand that this is meant to indicate great stress on a fact. In this verse, we find
na lebhire, na lebhire, na lebhire.
Yet mother Yaśodā is in the supermost exalted position, and thus Kṛṣṇa has become completely subordinate to her.
The word
vimuktidāt
is also significant. There are different types of liberation, such as
sāyujya, sālokya, sārūpya, sārṣṭi
and
sāmīpya,
but
vimukti
means “special
mukti.
” When after liberation one is situated on the platform of
prema-bhakti,
one is said to have achieved
vimukti,
“special
mukti.
” Therefore the word
na
is mentioned. That exalted platform of
premā
is described by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as
premā pum-artho mahān,
and mother Yaśodā naturally acts in such an exalted position in loving affairs. She is therefore a
nitya-siddha
devotee, an expansion of Kṛṣṇa’s
hlādinī
potency, His potency to enjoy transcendental bliss through expansions who are special devotees (
ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ
). Such devotees are not
sādhana-siddha.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
This verse is spoken on seeing the exceptional devotion of the queen of Vraja among all the devotees, which brought Krsna under exceptional control. Vimukti here means visesa mukti or specialized mukti, or prema. Vimukti da is the giver of prema, Krsna. The inconceivable mercy that Yasoda obtained from the giver of prema, Krsna, was not received by Brahma (virinca). It was not received by Siva (bhava). It was not received by Laksmi (sri). As the negative statement is repeated three times, it emphasizes the exceeding (times three) absence of mercy. Or with the word api, the sentence can mean even though they received mercy, but it was not to the extent of Yasoda. Brahma is the son of bhagavan and the adi guru of the devotees (adi devo jagatam paro guru). Siva is the soul of bhagavan . He is considered superior to Brahma (vaisnavanam yatha sambhu). Laksmi, residing on the chest of Visnu, is superior to Siva and Brahma, the shelters of sakhya and dasya rasa. But Yasoda is superior to her.
Therefore it is wrong to think then that this Yasoda is the sadhana siddha, who was given a boon in a previous life time as Dhara by Brahma. The prema of Yasoda cannot be attained as a result of Brahma’s boon, for Brahma himself prays to become a blade of grass in Vraja. Brahma is indeed counted in a much, much lesser class. "O Parkisit though you know about the Nanda and Yasoda who are famous in the scriptures as nitya siddhas, in answer to your casual question about Nanda and Yasoda’s austerities in previous lives (10.8.46), I told the story of Drona and Dhara, who are their small, very small parts."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Parīkṣit asked how Nanda attained such a position as the father of Kṛṣṇa. Śukadeva began to illustrate the intimate relationship from the beginning of this chapter by telling the Dāmodara pastime. Now the true answer is presented in two verses, after describing the situation in the previous verse. Brahmā is the guru of the devotees. Śiva is a good example of a devotee. Lakṣmī is the Lord’s eternal consort and takes shelter of his body (aṅga-saṁśrayāḥ), sitting on his chest. But they did not attain mercy in the form of great bhakti. However Yaśodā, queen of the gopīs, received something indescribable from the Lord—who is the giver of liberation. Muktiṁ dadāti karhicit sma na bhakti-yogam: the Lord gives liberation but not bhakti. (SB 5.6.18) Generally the Lord gives liberation. Yaśodā attained something unspeakable (yat tat), explained previously as mercy in the form of the highest prema. Being an exclusive object, it is simply called tat. Brahmā, Śiva and Lakṣmī did not receive this prema. Or what Yaśodā attained, Brahmā, Śiva and Lakṣmī did not attain. The negative is repeated three times for emphasis. Lakṣmī was the dearest, thinking that she belonged to the Lord, being situated on his chest. She had possessiveness of the Lord and was obedient to him. But she was filled with knowledge of the greatness of the Lord. The possessiveness of Yaśodā was not disturbed by anything else. She thought “Kṛṣṇa depends on me. I must see to his welfare alone.” That prema was intense, and the mercy was intense. What more can be said? Kṛṣṇa belonged to her. Such mercy could not be attained by a benediction from Brahmā (as stated in the last chapter). Brahmā later prays:
tad bhūri-bhāgyam iha janma kim apy aṭavyāṁ
yad gokule ’pi katamāṅghri-rajo-’bhiṣekam
yaj-jīvitaṁ tu nikhilaṁ bhagavān mukundas
tv adyāpi yat-pada-rajaḥ śruti-mṛgyam eva
My greatest possible good fortune would be to take any birth whatever in this forest of Gokula and have my head bathed by the dust falling from the lotus feet of any of its residents. Their entire life and soul is the Supreme Lord Mukunda, the dust of whose lotus feet is still being searched for in the Vedic mantras. SB 10.14.34
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
This is explained. Even Lakṣmī situated on the Lord’s chest could not control Kṛṣṇa as Yaśodā did. Lakṣṁī controls only one limb of the Lord, his chest (aṅga-saṁśrayā). Or taking shelter of his chest, she did not attain the same mercy since she could not subject him (with ropes). Or Brahmā did not attain, Śiva did not attain, Lakṁsī did not attain and some others (understood) did attain (lebhire—plural verb) the same mercy. Or Brahmā, Śiva and Lakṣmī did not attain the same mercy (lebhire). Or they attained mercy, but Yaśodā’s attainment of mercy was inconceivable. Or they did not attain the famous mercy that she attained.
The lord gives special mercy, Vaikuṇṭha, to some (vimuktidāt). He who gives liberation to others was bound up by Yaśodā. This shows that he is controlled by his devotee.