Return of the Six Dead Sons of Devaki by Lord Krsna 221

devotees, They accepted all the appreciation of Vasudeva with a kindly
smiling attitude. Krsna then began to confirm all Vasudeva’s statements as
follows: “My dear father, whatever you may say, We are, after all, your
sons. What you have said about us is certainly a highly philosophical
understanding of spiritual knowledge. I accept it in total without excep-
tion.”

Vasudeva was in the complete perfection of life in considering Lord
Krsna and Balarama to be his sons, but because the sages assembled in the
place of pilgrimage at Kuruksetra had spoken about the Lord as the su-
preme cause of everything, Vasudeva simply repeated it out of his love
for Krsna and Balarama. Lord Krsna did not wish to detract from His
relationship with Vasudeva as father and son; therefore in the very
beginning of His reply He accepted the fact that He is the eternal son of
Vasudeva and that Vasudeva is the eternal father of Krsna. After this,
Lord Krsna informed His father of the spiritual identity of all living entities.
He continued, “My dear father, everyone, including Myself and My brother
Balarama, as well as all the inhabitants of the city of Dvaraka and the
whole cosmic manifestation, is exactly as you have already explained, but
all of us are also qualitatively one.”

Lord Krsna intended for Vasudeva to see everything in the vision of a
mahabhdagavata, a first-class devotee. A first-class devotee sees that all
living entities are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and that the Su-
preme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart. In fact, every living entity has
spiritual identity, but in contact with material existence he becomes -
influenced by the material modes of nature. He becomes covered by the
concept of bodily life, forgetting that his spirit soul is of the same quality
as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One mistakenly considers one
individual to be different from another simply because of their material
bodily coverings. Because of differences between bodies, the spirit soul
appears before us differently.

Lord Krsna then gave a nice example in terms of the five material
elements. The total material elements, namely, the sky, the air, the fire,
the water and the earth, are present in everything in the material world,
whether in an earthen pot or in a mountain or in the trees or in an earring.
These five elements are present in everything, in different proportions
and quantities. A mountain is a gigantic form of the combination of these
five elements, and a small earthen pot is of the same elements, but in a
smaller quantity. Therefore all material items, although in different shapes
or different quantities, are of the same ingredients. Similarly, the living
entities—beginning from Lord Krsna and including the Visnu-tattva and
