Krishna ’s appearance

Gaura Govinda swami maharaja

Mathura Meets VrindaVan

17 Krishna ’s appearance Mathura and Vrindavan Exactly at the same time when Yasoda- mata gave birth to Krishna in Vrinda- van, in Mathura, in the prison house of Kamsa, Devaki also gave birth to a child. That is described in the tenth canto of theB h ā g a v a t a m. Lord Hari appeared in Mathura in a four-handed form. He had a crown on His head and with His four hands He was holding a śakha, cakra,
gadā,a n d padma — a conchshell, disk, club and lotus.Kanaka-kuala-kara, on His two ears there were golden earrings, and a bright effulgence was coming out of His body. Although it was a dark and cloudy night, by the effulgence coming from the body of Lord Hari everything was illuminated.

Seeing this wonderful child, Devaki paid obeisances with folded hands and offered prayers. Vasudev immediately took bath. How could he take bath in the prison house? He did so by medita- tion within his mind,manasā-snāna. Also in his mind he observed a grand festival for the birthday of Lord Hari and gave away innumerable cows in charity to the
brāhmaasand vaiavas. Like Devaki, he also offered prayers to Lord Narayan. Then Narayan told him, “Immediately take Me to Vraja-Gokul and put Me on the lap of Yasoda-mata.”
Hearing this, Vasudev was very, very happy. By the wonderful will of Lord Hari, those who were guarding the prison all fell asleep. All of the strong iron doors and shackles opened and Vasudev was free to leave. Exactly at the same time when Vasudev was leaving the prison of Kamsa, Yasoda-mata gave birth to a second child, a daughter.
When Vasudev came to the bank of the Yamuna he saw there was a great flood. The


water was very high and all of the land was inundated. He thought, “How can I cross?” Just then Vasudev saw Mahamaya in the form of a she-jackal crossing the Yamuna. So Vasudev followed her.
Finally he came to the quarters of Nanda Maharaja. There he put his son on the lap of Yasoda-mata and took Yasoda’s daugh- ter with him.


Hearing this, Snigdha Kantha said, “What is this? Yasoda-mata gave birth to one son and one daughter, and Va- sudev took the daughter. What hap- pened to the son?”
Madhu Kantha said, “This is a very con- fidential matter. Yasoda-mata’s daughter wassākāt-yogamāyā. By her potency, Yo- gamaya kept the son of Nanda hidden, and Vasudev could not see Him. He only saw the daughter.”

The son of Nanda and Yasoda issvaya bhagavān, the original Supreme Personal- ity of Godhead — ete cāśa-kalā pusa kas tu bhagavān svayam.2 Nanda-nandana ka, yaśodā-nandana kai s svaya bhagavān, and all avatāras are His plenary
portions or portions of His plenary por- tions —asa andkalā. From the womb of Devaki came the four- handed form Vāsudev, who is aprābhava- prakāśa of Krishna. Krishna has two types of expansions,prābhava-prakāśa and vaibhava-prakāśa. In the temporary category ofprābhava come the incarnations Mohini, Hamsa and Sukla. In the eternal category comes Dhanvantari, Rishabha, Vyasa, Dat- tatreya, Kapila, etc. Thevaibhava-prakāśa are partially powerful. In this category comes Kurma, Matsya, Nara Narayan Rishi, Varaha, Hayagriva, Prishnigarbha, Baladev, Yajna, Vibhu, Satyasena, Hari,

Vaikuntha, Ajita, Vaman, Sarvabhauma, Rishabha, Vishwaksena, Dharmasetu, Sudama, Yogeswar, Brihadbhanu, etc.
When svayam bhagavān Krishna comes, all of His portions and portions of portions, asaand kalā, all come within Him. The son of Vasudev is Vāsudev, a four-handed form of the Lord. Vāsudev is a plenary portion of Krishna. So when Vasudev put his son on the lap of Yasoda, that Vāsudev entered into the child Krishna who was already lying there. Just as all rivers flow down to enter into the ocean, similarly all the plenary portions and portions of the plenary portions of the Lord all come and enter into the original Lord. By the activity ofyoga-māyā, Vasudev could not understand any of these things.

In theHari-vaśa (2.4.11) it is described how Lord Hari simultaneously took birth in two places:
garbha kāle tv asapūre aame māsi te striyau devakī ca yaśodā ca suubāte sama tadā In the eighth month of pregnancy, which is consideredasapūra, incomplete, Yasoda and Devaki both gave birth at the same time.*
Just after that, Yasoda gave birth to a daughter, Yogamaya. Mahamaya is a portion of Yogamaya, and she was thus also there. Vasudev took away this Ma- hamaya and handed her over to Kamsa, while Yogamaya stayed, hidden, in Vrajabhumi. In this way it was declared that the eighth child was a daughter, not a son. Kamsa was cheated.

Madhu Kantha then said, “When Yaso- da-mata gave birth to Krishna, all were asleep. Everyone slept through the whole night. Then in the morning Lord Hari started crying, “Kwaaa! Kwaaa! Kwaaa!” Everyone woke up. Yasomati also woke and saw her nice son.
Seeing her wonderful, very beautiful son, mother Yasoda completely drowned in the ocean of blissfulness. She couldn’t think what to do. She was shedding tears of bliss and love. From her breast, milk was flowing. The new-born child was there in her lap and Yasoda was very bliss- fully looking at Him.

Yasoda-mata’s voice was faltering in joy. She could not speak anything, and was simply shedding tears of love. Up until that day she had only looked at the sons of others. Today she was looking at her own son. Tears poured from her eyes and milk flowed from her breasts. Her whole sari became completely soaked. Again and again Yasoda-mata looked at the beautiful lotus-like, moon-like face of her son. All the nurses,g o p a s , andg o p ī s awoke,

hearing the crying sound of the new- born child. Everyone came and said, “Oh, it is not a daughter, it is a son! Yasoda has given birth to a son!”
Everyone was very happy and bliss- ful. It was as if all of Gokul, Vrajab- humi, had drowned in an ocean of blissfulness. All theg o p a s andg o p ī s came running to Nanda Maharaja’s quarters to see Yasoda’s newly born son. The demigods were dancing in the heavenly planets, beating drums and singing, “hari hari hari-bolo! hari-
bolo! hari-bolo! hari-bolo!” The fourteen planetary systems resounded with the sound of “hari-bolo”.

In the heavenly planets thedeva-nārīs, the wives of the demigods, were showering flowers. All of thegopas andgopīs were dancing blissfully. Embracing one another with love and affection, they were all drowning in an ocean of happiness.
Immediately Nanda Maharaja took bath according to Vedic rites. Then he per- formed the jāta-karma-saskāra — purifi- catory ceremony for childbirth.Brāhmaas came and utteredsvasti-vācana, prayers for auspiciousness.

Many musicians came playing variet- ies of musical instruments. The sound of drums, kettledrums, and other musical instruments resounded throughout all of the three planetary systems.
The three planetary systems were completely filled with supreme happi- ness,mahā-ānanda. Prithivi-devi, Mother Earth had been very, very distressed and over-burdened by thea s ur a s , demons. Now the demons were to be killed and Prithivi-devi would be relieved of her heavy burden. All of thesādhus, vaiavas, and dvijas, brāhmaas, were happy.