Summary Description of Lord Krsna’s Pastimes 351
although all of them are equally the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The fifth excellence of Lord Krsna’s appearance is that He established
the most excellent of all religious principles by His one statement in the
Bhagavad-gita that simply by surrendering unto Him, one can discharge all
the principles of religious rites. In the Vedic literature there are twenty
kinds of religious principles mentioned, and each of them is described in
different sastras. But Lord Krsna is so kind to the fallen conditioned souls
of this age that He personally appeared and asked everyone to give up all
kinds of religious rites and simply surrender unto Him. It is said that this
age of Kali is three-fourths devoid of religious principles. Hardly one fourth
of the principles of religion are still observed in this age. But by the mercy
of Lord Krsna, this vacancy of Kali-yuga has not only been completely
filled, but the religious process has been made so easy that simply by
rendering transcendental loving service unto Lord Krsna by chanting His
holy names, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama,
Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, one can achieve the highest result of
religion, namely, being transferred to the highest planet within the spiritual
world, Goloka Vrndavana. One can thus immediately estimate the benefit
of Lord Krsna’s appearance and can understand that His giving relief to
the people of the world by His appearance was not at all extraordinary.
Srila Sukadeva Gosvami thus concludes his description of the super-
exalted position of Lord Krsna by glorifying Him in the following way:
“O Lord Krsna, all glories unto You. You are present in everyone’s heart
as Paramatma. Therefore You are known as Jananivasa, one who lives in
everyone’s heart.” As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, isvarah sarva-
bhiitanam hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati: The Supreme Lord in His Paramatma
feature lives within everyone’s heart. This does not mean, however, that
Krsna has no separate existence as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The Mayavadi philosophers accept the all-pervading feature of Para-
brahman, but when Parabrahman, or the Supreme Lord, appears, they
think that He appears under the control of material nature. Because Lord
Krsna appeared as the son of Devaki, the Mayavadi philosophers accept
Krsna to be an ordinary living entity who takes birth within this material
world. Therefore Sukadeva Gosvami warns them that devaki-janma-vada,
which means that although Krsna is famous as the son of Devaki, actually
He is the Supersoul or the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The devotees, however, take this word devaki-janma-vada in a different
way. The devotees understand that actually Krsna was the son of mother
Yagoda. Although Krsna first of all appeared as the son of Devaki, He
immediately transferred Himself to the lap of mother Yagoda, and His
