Radha Krishna - Chapter 85: Lord Krishna Instructs Vasudeva and Retrieves Devakî's Sons

(1) The son of Vyâsa said: 'Then, one day, visited Sankarshana and Acyuta, the two sons of Vasudeva, Their father who, after They had honored his feet, welcomed Them affectionately and spoke to Them. (2) Having heard the words of the sages referring to the powers of his two sons, got he also in regard of their valorous deeds convinced of Them and said he, addressing Them by name: (3) 'Krishna, o Krishna, o greatest yogi, o eternal Sankarshana, I know You two are the direct representatives of the primary nature [or pradhâna] and male principle [the purusha or person] out here. (4) Whatever, however or whenever, in, by, from, of or unto this [universe] comes into existence, all represents directly the One who Predominates, the Supreme Lord, the primary nature and person. (5) This variegated universe that You created from Yourself, o Lord of the Beyond, do You, o Unborn One, entering it by Yourself, maintain as the Supreme Soul and principle of vitality and individuality. (6) Of both [the animate, and inanimate] entities which, different as they are and all belonging to the Supreme, are thus dependent, are You the One who constitutes the creative potency of the life air and the other basic elements of the universe [see also 2.5: 32-33]. (7) The glow, brilliance, luminosity, the particular of the moon, the fire, the sun, the stars and the lightning [B.G. 15: 12], the permanence of the mountains and the fragrance and sustaining power of the earth, are all You in fact. (8) The quenching, the vitalizing capacity of water as also the water itself and its taste are You o Lord. O Controller, of You is there on the basis of the air [so one says] the body heat, the mental and physical vigor, the endeavor and the movement [see also B.G. 11: 39]. (9) You are the directions and the spaces they describe, the omnipresent ether and the elemental sound belonging thereto. You are the primeval vibration that is the syllable AUM and its differentiation in particular forms [of language, see also B.G. 7: 8]. (10) You are of the senses the power to perceive, You are their gods [see also see also 3.12: 26] and of them are You the mercy; You are of the intelligence the power to decide and of the living being the power to remember the things as they are [B.G. 7: 10 & 15: 15]. (11) You, the primeval Cause of all Causes, are the source of the physical elements [tamas], the passions of the senses [rajas] and the stream of consciousness of the creative gods [sattva, see also B.G. 14]. (12) Of the entities that are subject to destruction in this world are You the indestructible being, the way the substance itself is relative to its transformations. (13) The modes of goodness, passion and ignorance and their functions are this way within You, within the Supreme Absolute Truth, regulated by the internal potency [the yogamâyâ of Your pastimes]. (14) On that account are these entities not [really] destroyed when they - at other times indeed being nonmaterial - conditioned within You as products of creation, also have You within them [as a believer, as the life force or caitanya, as a nitya-mukta, eternally liberated, conscious soul or a jîvâtmâ, see B.G 2: 12, 9: 4-5 & 8: 19]. (15) Those then in this world are ignorant who, failing in understanding the destination that is the Soul of Everything, by their karma are impelled to move around in the flow of the material ocean. (16) Somehow or other with this life having obtained the most desirable status of a human being - a status that is so difficult to achieve -, may someone deluded by the material energy [like me], o Controller, [still] have spent his entire life in confusion about his own best interest. (17) With You who in this world ties everyone together with the ropes of affection is there with the body and the progeny and other relations the 'this I am' and 'these are mine' to it [see also e.g. 2.9: 2, 4.28: 17, 4.29: 5, 5.5: 8 and 6.16: 41]. (18) The two of You are not our sons but evidently the Controllers of pradhâna and purusha that descended to remove the burden of rulers from the earth, as You Yourselves have said [10.50: 7-10]. (19) Therefore do I today seek Your shelter, Your lotus feet that, from the surrendered, the distressed, take away the fear of being entangled, o Friend, and that is all. Enough, I have enough of that hankering for sense enjoyment which binds me to the mortal frame and makes me think of You, the One Supreme, as being my child. (20) In the maternity room You indeed said [see 10.3: 44] that You, taking birth with us, were the Unborn One who that way age after age operates in defense of Your dharma and as a cloud therewith assume and relinquish various bodies [see B.G. 4: 8]; o, who can understand the mystic potency and manifold of You, the all-pervading, most glorified Lord?'

(21) S'rî S'uka said: 'Having heard what His father thus said replied the Supreme Lord, the best of the Sâtvatas, broadly smiling with a gentle voice after with humility having bowed down. (22) The Supreme Lord said: 'I consider these words of you appropriate, o father, since by referring to Us, your Sons, you have expressed the complete of reality. (23) I, you, He, My brother, and these residents of Dvârakâ, must together with everything that moves and not moves, all be considered the same way [as expansions of Me], o best of the Yadus [B.G. 9: 5 & 15 and the siddhânta]. (24) The Supreme Soul indeed is one, self-luminous, eternal and distinct; being free from the modes is He seen as many, in His by the modes from Himself having created the material entities that belong to those modes. (25) It is as with the ether, the air, the fire, the water and the earth that, being single elements, depending their locations, in their products, whether they are manifest or unmanifest, small or large, appear as many [see also B.G. 13: 31].'

(26) S'rî S'uka said: 'Vasudeva who thus was addressed by the Supreme Lord, o King, was freed from his thinking in opposites and became silent, being satisfied within. (27-28) Then at that place, o best of the Kurus, asked loudly and clear Devakî, the worshipable goddess of all who to her utter amazement had heard of [the retrieval of] the son of Their guru [10.45], Krishna and Râma to bring back her own sons who were murdered by Kamsa; and looking back with that in mind she was sad and spoke she distraught with tears in her eyes. (29) S'rî Devakî said: 'Râma, o Râma, o Immeasurable Soul; o Krishna, Master of the Yoga Masters, I know You both are the Original Personalities, the Lords of the Creators of the Universe [see also catur-vyûha]. (30) You have now descended taking birth from me because of the kings who, living in defiance of the scriptures and with their good qualities destroyed by the time [of Kali-yuga], became a burden to the earth. (31) O Soul of All that Be, today came I for my shelter to Him, to You, who by a partial expansion [the modes] of an expansion [the material energy] of an expansion [Nârâyana] gives rise to the generation, prospering and dissolution of the universe [see also 2.5]. (32-33) One says that Your guru ordered You to retrieve his son wo had died a long time ago. You brought him from the place of the forefathers to Your spiritual master as a gift of gratitude to the teacher. Please, o You two Masters of the Yoga Masters, fulfill the same way my desire: I'd like to see my sons brought back who were killed by Kamsa [see 10.4].'