Devanagari
वसुदेवगृहे साक्षाद् भगवान्पुरुष: पर:
जनिष्यते तत्प्रियार्थं सम्भवन्तु सुरस्त्रिय: ॥ २३ ॥
Verse text
vasudeva-gṛhe sākṣād
bhagavān puruṣaḥ paraḥ
janiṣyate tat-priyārthaṁ
sambhavantu sura-striyaḥ
Synonyms
vasudeva
—
gṛhe — in the house of Vasudeva (who would be the father of Kṛṣṇa when the Lord appeared)
;
sākṣāt
—
personally
;
bhagavān
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has full potency
;
puruṣaḥ
—
the original person
;
paraḥ
—
who is transcendental
;
janiṣyate
—
will appear
;
tat
—
priya — artham — and for His satisfaction
;
sambhavantu
—
should take birth
;
sura
—
striyaḥ — all the wives of the demigods .
Translation
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who has full potency, will personally appear as the son of Vasudeva. Therefore all the wives of the demigods should also appear in order to satisfy Him.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who has full potency, will personally appear as the son of Vasudeva. Therefore all the wives of the demigods should also appear in order to satisfy Him.
KB 10.1.23
The Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, Kṛṣṇa, would personally appear as the son of Vasudeva. Before His appearance, all the demigods, along with their wives, should appear in different pious families in the world just to assist the Lord in executing His mission. The exact word used here is tat-priyārtham, which means the demigods should appear on the earth in order to please the Lord. In other words, any living entity who lives only to satisfy the Lord is a demigod.
Purport
In
Bhagavad-gītā
(4.9)
the Lord says,
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti:
after giving up the material body, the devotee of the Lord returns home, back to Godhead. This means that the devotee is first transferred to the particular universe where the Lord is at that time staying to exhibit His pastimes. There are innumerable universes, and the Lord is appearing in one of these universes at every moment. Therefore His pastimes are called
nitya-līlā,
eternal pastimes. The Lord’s appearance as a child in the house of Devakī takes place continuously in one universe after another. Therefore, the devotee is first transferred to that particular universe where the pastimes of the Lord are current. As stated in
Bhagavad-gītā,
even if a devotee does not complete the course of devotional service, he enjoys the happiness of the heavenly planets, where the most pious people dwell, and then takes birth in the house of a
śuci
or
śrīmān,
a pious
brāhmaṇa
or a wealthy
vaiśya
(
śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo ’bhijāyate
). Thus a pure devotee, even if unable to execute devotional service completely, is transferred to the upper planetary system, where pious people reside. From there, if his devotional service is complete, such a devotee is transferred to the place where the Lord’s pastimes are going on. Herein it is said,
sambhavantu sura-striyaḥ.
Sura-strī,
the women of the heavenly planets, were thus ordered to appear in the Yadu dynasty in Vṛndāvana to enrich the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. These
sura-strī,
when further trained to live with Kṛṣṇa, would be transferred to the original Goloka Vṛndāvana. During Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes within this world, the
sura-strī
were to appear in different ways in different families to give pleasure to the Lord, just so that they would be fully trained before going to the eternal Goloka Vṛndāvana. With the association of Lord Kṛṣṇa, either at Dvārakā-purī, Mathurā-purī or Vṛndāvana, they would certainly return home, back to Godhead. Among the
sura-strī,
the women of the heavenly planets, there are many devotees, such as the mother of the Upendra incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. It was such devoted women who were called for in this connection.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Sura striya, the wives of the devas, refers to expansions of Krsna’s eternal female companions, who were present in the heavenly planets. Examples are the wives of the manvatara avataras such as Upendra or Vamana. They performed worship to attain friendship and intimacy with Krsna’s most dear lovers. Because of this worship they should take birth in different forms as priya sakhis of Krsna. In the Ujjvala nilamani it is said: nitya priyanam amsas tu -When Krsna appears in the family of the devas in partial form, his beloveds also appear as the forms of devis to please him. When Krsna appeared on earth, they took the form of young unmarried gopis, as priya sakhis of the nitya priya sakhis.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Having mentioned that Kṛṣṇa is the source of all forms of God, Viṣṇu now describes the esoteric goal of Svayam Bhagavān’s appearance: his blissful pastimes. Kṛṣṇa is described as puruṣaḥ paraḥ, the person to whom no one is superior, and as Bhagavān, endowed with all powers. By mentioning this, no one can say he is born like an ordinary jīva. He will appear (rather than be born) personally in Vasudeva’s house. In order to please him (tat-priyārtham) by your service, or in order to serve his dear consorts such as Rukmiṇī and Rādhā (tat-priyā), the wives of the devatās should make their appearance in the best possible way (sambhavantu). Or they should become qualified (sambhavantu). This means the Lord would bless them with suitable qualification and they would then appear.