SB 3.1.30 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

कच्चिद्धरे: सौम्य सुत: सद‍ृक्ष आस्तेऽग्रणी रथिनां साधु साम्ब: । असूत यं जाम्बवती व्रताढ्या देवं गुहं योऽम्बिकया धृतोऽग्रे ॥ ३० ॥

Verse text

kaccid dhareḥ saumya sutaḥ sadṛkṣa āste ’graṇī rathināṁ sādhu sāmbaḥ asūta yaṁ jāmbavatī vratāḍhyā devaṁ guhaṁ yo ’mbikayā dhṛto ’gre

Synonyms

kaccit — whether ; hareḥ — of the Personality of Godhead ; saumya — O grave one ; sutaḥ — son ; sadṛkṣaḥ — similar ; āste — fares well ; agraṇīḥ — foremost ; rathinām — of the warriors ; sādhu — well-behaved ; sāmbaḥ — Sāmba ; asūta — gave birth ; yam — whom ; jāmbavatī — Jāmbavatī, a queen of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s ; vratāḍhyā — enriched by vows ; devam — the demigod ; guham — of the name Kārttikeya ; yaḥ — whom ; ambikayā — unto the wife of Śiva ; dhṛtaḥ — born ; agre — in the previous birth .

Translation

O gentle one, does Sāmba fare well? He exactly resembles the son of the Personality of Godhead. In a previous birth he was born as Kārttikeya in the womb of the wife of Lord Śiva, and now he has been born in the womb of Jāmbavatī, the most enriched wife of Kṛṣṇa.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

O Uddhava! How is Sāmba, leader of all the great warriors, the son of Kṛṣṇa with similar form, whom previously was born to Durgā as Kārtikeya and now was born to Jāmbavatī after she performed austerities? Sadṛṣaḥ means “similar to.” Guham means Kārtikeya. Since the aṁśa and the aṁśī are considered non-different, Śiva is considered non-different from Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, Śiva’s son Kārtikeya, considered an aṁśa of Kṛṣṇa’s son Sāmba, is considered non-different from him. Or this statement can be explained in another way. When Kṛṣṇa appears on earth, Nārāyaṇa enters him and appears also. It is later said parāvareśo mahad-aṁśa-yukto: Kṛṣṇa appears with his aṁśas. (SB 3.2.15) Thus it is said that Nārāyaṇa appeared in Vasudeva’s house. (SB 10.48.24) Similarly because Kārtikeya entered Sāmba, Kāmadeva entered Pradyumna, and Vasu entered Uddhava in the same way, such statements as are made in the present verse are not wrong.

Purport

Lord Śiva, one of the three qualitative incarnations of the Personality of Godhead, is the plenary expansion of the Lord. Kārttikeya, born of him, is on the level of Pradyumna, another son of Lord Kṛṣṇa. When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa descends into the material world, all His plenary portions also appear with Him to exhibit different functions of the Lord. But for the pastimes at Vṛndāvana, all functions are performed by the Lord’s different plenary expansions. Vāsudeva is a plenary expansion of Nārāyaṇa. When the Lord appeared as Vāsudeva before Devakī and Vasudeva, He appeared in His capacity as Nārāyaṇa. Similarly, all the demigods of the heavenly kingdom appeared as associates of the Lord in the forms of Pradyumna, Sāmba, Uddhava, etc. It is learned here that Kāmadeva appeared as Pradyumna, Kārttikeya as Sāmba, and one of the Vasus as Uddhava. All of them served in their different capacities in order to enrich the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa.