Text 12] The Birth of Lord Krsna 213

TRANSLATION

When Vasudeva saw his extraordinary son, his eyes were struck
with wonder. In transcendental jubilation, he mentally collected
ten thousand cows and distributed them among the brahmanas as a
transcendental festival.

PURPORT

Srila Viévanatha Cakravarti Thakura has analyzed the wonder of
Vasudeva upon seeing his extraordinary child. Vasudeva was shivering
with wonder to see a newborn child decorated so nicely with valuable
garments and gems. He could immediately understand that the Supreme
Personality of Godhead had appeared, not as an ordinary child but in His
original, fully decorated, four-handed form. The first wonder was that
the Lord was not afraid to appear within the prison house of Karnsa,
where Vasudeva and Devaki were interned. Second, although the Lord,
the Supreme Transcendence, is all-pervading, He had appeared from the
womb of Devaki. The third point of wonder, therefore, was that a child
could take birth from the womb so nicely decorated. Fourth, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead was Vasudeva’s worshipable Deity yet
had taken birth as his son. For all these reasons, Vasudeva was transcen-
dentally jubilant, and he wanted to perform a festival, as ksatriyas do to
celebrate the birth of a child, but because of his imprisonment he was
unable to do it externally, and therefore he performed the festival within
his mind. This was just as good. If one cannot externally serve the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can serve the Lord within one’s
mind, since the activities of the mind are as good as those of the other
senses. This is called the nondual or absolute situation (advaya-jfidna).
People generally perform ritualistic ceremonies for the birth of a child.
Why then should Vasudeva not have performed such a ceremony when
the Supreme Lord appeared as his son?

TEXT 12
TIARA Tet
WT AS: HN: Haale: |
eran aNd alan
fared Tait: wa 22
