352 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

childhood pastimes were blissfully enjoyed by mother YaSoda and Nanda
Maharaja. This fact was also admitted by Vasudeva himself when he met
Nanda Maharaja and Yasoda at Kuruksetra. He admitted that Krsna and
Balarama were actually the sons of mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja.
Vasudeva and Devaki were only Their official father and mother. Their
actual father and mother were Nanda and Yagoda. Therefore Sukadeva
Gosvami addressed Lord Krsna as devaki-janma-vada.

Sukadeva Gosvami then glorifies the Lord as one who is honored by the
yadu-vara-parisat, the assembly house of the Yadu dynasty, and as the killer
of different kinds of demons. Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
could have killed all the demons by employing His different material
energies, but He wanted to kill them personally in order to give them
salvation. There was no need of Krsna’s coming to this material world to
kill the demons. Simply by His willing, many hundreds and thousands of
demons could have been killed without His personal endeavor. But actually
He descended for His pure devotees, to play as a child with mother Yasoda
and Nanda Maharaja and to give pleasure to the inhabitants of Dvaraka. By
killing the demons and by giving protection to the devotees, Lord Krsna
established the real religious principle, which is simply love of God. By
following the factual religious principles of love of God, even the living
entities known as sthira-cara were also delivered of all material contami-
nation and were transferred to the spiritual kingdom. Sthira means the
trees and plants, which cannot move, and cara means the moving animals,
specifically the cows. When Krsna was present, He delivered all the trees,
monkeys and other plants and animals who happened to see Him and
serve Him both in Vrndavana and in Dvaraka.

Lord Krsna is especially glorified for His giving pleasure to the gopis and
the queens of Dvaraka. Sukadeva Gosvami glorifies Lord Krsna for His
enchanting smile, by which He enchanted not only the gopis at Vrndavana
but also the queens at Dvaraka. The exact word used in this connection is
vardhayan kamadevam. In Vrndavana as the boy friend of many gopis and
in Dvaraka as the husband of many queens, Krsna increased their lusty
desires to enjoy with Him. For God realization or self-realization, one
generally has to undergo severe austerities and penances for many, many
thousands of years, and then it may be possible to realize God. But the
gopis and the queens of Dvaraka, simply by enhancing their lusty desires
to enjoy Krsna as their boy friend or husband, received the highest type of
salvation.

This behavior of Lord Krsna with the gopis and queens is unique
in the history of self-realization. Usually people understand that for
