20230417 Devakī Asks Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma to Bring Her Six Dead Sons Back to Life

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 17th, 2023 in Dallas,Texas, USA.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Continuation of the compilation of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book, Today's chapter is entitled as:

Devakī Asks Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma to Bring Her Six Dead Sons Back to Life
Under the Section: The Glories of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.25

mahāprabhura uttara-uttamādhikārijanera ācaraṇa akṣaja-jñāne vicārya nahe vā anyera anukaraṇīya nahe—

śuniñā viprera vākya śrī-gaurasundara
hāsiyā viprera prati karilā uttara

Jayapatākā Swami: On hearing the words of the brāhmaṇa, Śrī Gaurasundara smiled and replied to the brāhmaṇa.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.26

śuna vipra, mahā-adhikārī yebā haya
tabe tāna doṣa-guṇa kichu nā janmaya

Jayapatākā Swami: Listen, O brāhmaṇa, when one is highly qualified, the faults and virtues of one are not considered.

Purport: Gaurasundara said to that pious, doubtful brāhmaṇa, “Material qualification, or superficial vision, is one thing, and to grasp the profound meaning through keen vision is another thing. The qualification of those who always favorably cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness after giving up the coverings of extraneous desires, karma, and jñāna is different from that of others. Materialistic people are under the control of their mind, intelligence, and false ego. Material faults and virtues cannot enter the transcendental realm. As a lotus leaf cannot hold mercury or water, a heart engaged in giving pleasure to Kṛṣṇa never invites inauspiciousness based on selfish interest.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So Lord Caitanya was commenting that Lord Nityānanda was a very exalted personality. Anything He did was meant for the pleasure of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, He should not be analyzed by ordinary values.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.27

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (11.20.36):

na mayy ekānta-bhaktānāṁ
guṇa-doṣodbhavā guṇāḥ
sādhūnāṁ sama-cittānāṁ
buddheḥ param upeyuṣām

Translation: “Material piety and sin, which arise from the good and evil of this world, cannot exist within My unalloyed devotees, who, being free from material hankering, maintain steady spiritual consciousness in all circumstances. Indeed, such devotees have achieved Me, the Supreme Lord, who am beyond anything that can be conceived by material intelligence.’

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityānanda was someone who could not be understood by ordinary intelligence, material intelligence.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.28

padma-patre yena kabhu nāhi lāge jala
ei-mata nityānanda-svarūpa nirmala

Jayapatākā Swami: Just as a lotus leaf is not touched by water, in that way Lord Nityānanda Svarūpa is pure.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.29

paramārthe kṛṣṇacandra tāhāna śarīre
niścaya jāniha vipra, sarvadā vihare

Jayapatākā Swami: O brāhmaṇa, Kṛṣṇacandra is always present in His body, in the body of Lord Nityānanda. Know for certain that Kṛṣṇa is always enjoying pastimes in the body of Lord Nityānanda.

Purport: Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu is always engaged in the favorable cultivation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, therefore, since Kṛṣṇa is situated within Him, whatever actions He performs should not be considered like the activities of ordinary living entities, who are forced to enjoy the fruits of their karma.

Jayapatākā Swami: In the material world, the conditioned souls try to do good and bad karma depending on their desires. But Lord Nityānanda, since His desire was always to please Lord Kṛṣṇa, He did not fall in this category.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.30

adhikārī bai kare tāhāna ācāra
duḥkha pāya sei-jana, pāpa janme tāra

Jayapatākā Swami: If a person without qualification, imitates Lord Nityānanda’s behavior, he suffers and becomes implicated by his sin.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.31

rudra vine anye yadi kare viṣa-pāna
sarvathāya mare, sarva-purāṇa pramāṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: If anyone other than Rudra drinks poison, he will certainly die. This is the verdict of all the Purāṇas.

Purport: Mṛtuñjaya, or Śiva who has conquered death, easily drank poison and became known as Nīlakaṇṭha. But if, on seeing that, unqualified worthless living entities consider themselves equal to him, they bring about their own ruination by falling into inauspiciousness. As fire can burn any object to ashes, persons with spiritual intelligence can remain indifferent to material wealth and activities by not using them for their own enjoyment.

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Śiva, he is most powerful, he could drink the ocean of poison, but if we try to imitate him, we will certainly die.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.32-033

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (10.33.29-30):

Translation: “The status of powerful controllers is not harmed by any apparently audacious transgression of morality, such as seeing women, we may see in them, for they are just like fire, which devours everything fed into it and remains unpolluted. Certainly one who is not the Supreme Personality of Godhead should never, even within his mind, imitate His activities. If out of ignorance one does so, he will be destroyed, just as if he were to imitate Lord Śiva, who drank poison produced from the ocean.”

Jayapatākā Swami: We cannot imitate Śiva or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the viṣṇu-tattva. If we try to do that, even if we think like that, we will be destroyed. We cannot imitate the Lord.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.34

akṛtrima mahatera vāhya-durācāra-darśane ādhyakṣika-vicāre kaṭākṣa vināśera hetu—

“eteke ye nā jāniñā ninde tāna karma
nija-doṣe se-i duḥkha pāya janma janma

Jayapatākā Swami: If someone does not know the greatness of Lord Nityānanda, and criticizes His activities, by his own defect, he will get distressed birth after birth.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.35

garhita karaye yadi mahā-adhikārī
nindāra ki dāya, tāṅre hāsilei mari

Jayapatākā Swami: What to speak of criticizing, if a person even laughs at a qualified person, who performs apparently an improper activity, he is vanquished.

Purport: Persons who are qualified mahā-bhāgavatas are not to be criticized by those who are less qualified. A person who ridicules the activities of a mahā-bhāgavata is inevitably degraded. By hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a Vaiṣṇava guru, all these topics can be properly understood.

In the Skanda Purāṇa (Maheśvara-khaṇḍa 17.106) it is stated:

“One who ridicules a devotee who sees everyone equally should be understood to be most fallen, whether he is a demigod or a mortal being.”

Jayapatākā Swami: In the service of Kṛṣṇa, such liberated souls as Lord Nityānanda may do things which one cannot understood. So if brings down or criticizes those, he should be considered very fallen, even if he is a deva or a human being.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.36

bhāgavatokta sei sakala siddhānta vaiṣṇava-guru kīrtana karena—

bhāgavata haite e saba tattva jāni
tāho yadi vaiṣṇava-gurura mukhe śuni

Jayapatākā Swami: From the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all these truths are known, and these truths are heard from the mouth of a Vaiṣṇava-guru.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.37

bhāgavatera daśama-skandhokta devakīra garbhajāta ṣaṭ-putrera vināśa o daṇḍaprāpti; brahmāra vāhya-durācāra-darśane tatprati kaṭākṣera dṛṣṭāntai pramāṇa—

mahāntera ācaraṇe hāsile ye haya
citta diyāśuna bhāgavate yei kaya

Jayapatākā Swami: Hear attentively what the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says happens to a person who criticizes the behavior of a great soul, who laughs at that person.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.38

eka-kāle rāma-kṛṣṇa gelena paḍite
vidyā pūrṇa kari’ citta karilā āsite

Jayapatākā Swami: Once, Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Balarāma, They went for studies. After Their studies were complete, They decided to return home.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.39

‘ki dakṣiṇā diba?’ balilena guru-prati
tabe patnī-saṅge guru karilā yukati

Jayapatākā Swami: They asked Their guru, what dakṣiṇā should We give you? Then the guru, he consulted with his wife.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.40

mṛta putra māgilena rāma-kṛṣṇa-sthāne
tabe rāma-kṛṣṇa gelā yama-vidyamāne

Jayapatākā Swami: They requested that they have back their dead son, from Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa. Then Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa went to speak to Yamarāja.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.41

ājñāya śiśura sarva karma ghucāiyā
yamālaya haite putra dilena āniyā

Jayapatākā Swami: By Their order, all the son’s karma was purified and They brought the child from the abode of Yamarāja and They gave to Their guru.

Purport: See Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.45.30-46.

Concealing Their innately perfect knowledge by Their humanlike activities, those two omniscient Lords of the universe, Themselves the origin of all branches of knowledge, next desired to reside at the school of a spiritual master. Thus They approached Sāndīpani Muni, a native of Kāsī living in the city of Avantī.

Text 32: Sāndīpani thought very highly of these two self-controlled disciples, whom he had obtained so fortuitously. By serving him as devotedly as one would serve the Supreme Lord Himself, They showed others an irreproachable example of how to worship the spiritual master.

Text 33: That best of brāhmaṇas, the spiritual master Sāndīpani, was satisfied with Their submissive behavior, and thus he taught Them the entire Vedas, together with their six corollaries and the Upaniṣads.

Text 34: He also taught Them the Dhanur-veda, with its most confidential secrets; the standard books of law; the methods of logical reasoning and philosophical debate; and the sixfold science of politics.

Texts 35-36: O King, those best of persons, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, being Themselves the original promulgators of all varieties of knowledge, could immediately assimilate each and every subject after hearing it explained just once. Thus with fixed concentration They learned the sixty-four arts and skills in as many days and nights. Thereafter, O King, They satisfied Their spiritual master by offering him guru-dakṣiṇā.

Text 37: O King, the learned brāhmaṇa Sāndīpani carefully considered the two Lords’ glorious and amazing qualities and Their superhuman intelligence. Then, after consulting with his wife, he chose as his remuneration the return of his young son, who had died in the ocean at Prabhāsa.

Text 38: “So be it,” replied those two great chariot warriors of limitless might, and They at once mounted Their chariot and set off for Prabhāsa. When They reached that place, They walked up to the shore and sat down. In a moment the deity of the ocean, recognizing Them to be the Supreme Lords, approached Them with offerings of tribute.

Text 39: The Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa addressed the lord of the ocean: Let the son of My guru be presented at once — the one you seized here with your mighty waves.

Text 40: The ocean replied: O Lord Kṛṣṇa, it was not I who abducted him, but a demonic descendant of Diti named Pañcajana, who travels in the water in the form of a conch.

Text 41: “Indeed,” the ocean said, “that demon has taken him away.” Hearing this, Lord Kṛṣṇa entered the ocean, found Pañcajana and killed him. But the Lord did not find the boy within the demon’s belly.

Texts 42-44: Lord Janārdana took the conchshell that had grown around the demon’s body and went back to the chariot. Then He proceeded to Saṁyamanī, the beloved capital of Yamarāja, the lord of death. Upon arriving there with Lord Balarāma, He loudly blew His conchshell, and Yamarāja, who keeps the conditioned souls in check, came as soon as he heard the resounding vibration. Yamarāja elaborately worshiped the two Lords with great devotion, and then he addressed Lord Kṛṣṇa, who lives in everyone’s heart: “O Supreme Lord Viṣṇu, what shall I do for You and Lord Balarāma, who are playing the part of ordinary humans?”

Text 45: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Suffering the bondage of his past activity, My spiritual master’s son was brought here to you. O great King, obey My command and bring this boy to Me without delay. 

Text 46: Yamarāja said, “So be it,” and brought forth the guru’s son. Then those two most exalted Yadus presented the boy to Their spiritual master and said to him, “Please select another boon.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Haribol! We can see that Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, They are acting like ordinary disciples. But They are always the Supreme Personality of Godhead So it is not an ordinary guru-dakṣiṇā, they asked for the recovery of their deceased son. But considering that Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sāndīpani Muni asked that. And as explained here, They got the son back and presented him to the guru and said please accept another boon.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.42

parama adbhuta śuni’ e saba ākhyāna
devakī o māgilena mṛta-putra-dana

Jayapatākā Swami: Hearing this wonderful incident, Devakī Mātājī, she requested for her dead sons.

Her six sons were killed by Kaṁsa and the seventh Balarāma was transferred to the womb of Rohiṇī. Kṛṣṇa was the eight son. Haribol! She wanted the six sons that were killed.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.43

daive eka dina rāma-kṛṣṇe sambodhi
yākahena devakī ati kātara haiyā

Jayapatākā Swami: By the arrangement of providence one day, Devakī spoke to Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa with great affliction.

Purport: See Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.85.27-28.

[Text 27-28] At that time, O best of the Kurus, the universally worshiped Devakī took the opportunity to address her two sons, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Previously she had heard with astonishment that They had brought Their spiritual master’s son back from death. Now, thinking of her own sons who had been murdered by Kaṁsa, she felt great sorrow, and thus with tear-filled eyes she beseeched Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, naturally a mother is very affectionate and how bad she must have felt to have her six sons murdered by Kaṁsa! When she heard that Sāndīpani Muni had his dead son brought back by Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, she thought she should ask Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma for the same benediction.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.44

‘śuna śuna rāma-kṛṣṇa yogeśvareśvara!
tumi dui ādi nitya-śuddha kalevara

Jayapatākā Swami: Listen, listen, Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa, O best of the topmost mystic yogīs! You two have original, pure, eternal bodies.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.45

sarva-jagatera pitā-tumi dui-jana
muñi jānoṅ tumi-dui parama-kāraṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: You two are the fathers of all universes. I know that You two are the cause of all causes.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.46

jagatera utpatti sthiti vā pralaya
tomāra aṁśera aṁśa haite saba haya

Jayapatākā Swami: The universe creation, maintenance and annihilation are performed by the part of Your part of Your plenary portion.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.47

tathāpiha pṛthivīra khaṇḍāite bhāra
haiyācha mora putra-rūpe avatāra

Jayapatākā Swami: Yet You have appeared to relieve the burden of the earth, and You have personally appeared as my Sons, descending from the spiritual world.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.48

yama-ghara haite yena gurura nandana
āniñā dakṣiṇā dile tumi dui jana

Jayapatākā Swami: From the abode of Yamarāja, You brought the son of Your spiritual master, and gave him as a dakṣiṇā for Your guru.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.49

mora chaya-putra ye marila kaṁsa haite
baḍa citta haya tāhā-sabāre dekhite

Jayapatākā Swami: My six sons who were killed by Kaṁsa, I am very eager to see all of them.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.50

kata kāla guru-putra āchila mariyā
tāhā yena āni’ dilāśakti prakāśiyā

Jayapatākā Swami: Although Your guru’s son was dead for some time, but by Your potency, You brought him back.

Caitanya Bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 6.51

ei-mata āmāre o kara’ pūrṇa-kāma
āni’ deha’ more mṛta chaya putra dāna

Jayapatākā Swami: In the same way, You can fulfill my desire. Bring and give me back my six dead sons as a charity.

Purport: See Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.85.30-33.

[Text 30-33] Taking birth from me, You have now descended to this world in order to kill those kings whose good qualities have been destroyed by the present age, and who thus defy the authority of revealed scriptures and burden the earth.

O Soul of all that be, the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe are all carried out by a fraction of an expansion of an expansion of Your expansion. Today I have come to take shelter of You, the Supreme Lord.

It is said that when Your spiritual master ordered You to retrieve his long-dead son, You brought him back from the forefathers’ abode as a token of remuneration for Your guru’s mercy. Please fulfill my desire in the same way, O supreme masters of all yoga masters. Please bring back my sons who were killed by the King of Bhoja, so that I may see them once again.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, we will hear why these six sons were killed by Kaṁsa. They had criticized or laughed at a great soul, therefore they had to be killed by Kaṁsa. We will find out the details later, in the next chapter. Stay tuned!

Thus ends the chapter entitled, Devakī Asks Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma to Bring Her Six Dead Sons Back to Life
Under the Section: The Glories of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu

Haribol!