SB 10.1.54 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

श्रीवसुदेव उवाच न ह्यस्यास्ते भयं सौम्य यद् वैसाहाशरीरवाक् । पुत्रान् समर्पयिष्येऽस्या यतस्ते भयमुत्थितम् ॥ ५४ ॥

Verse text

śrī-vasudeva uvāca na hy asyās te bhayaṁ saumya yad vai sāhāśarīra-vāk putrān samarpayiṣye ’syā yatas te bhayam utthitam

Synonyms

śrī — vasudevaḥ uvāca — Śrī Vasudeva said ; na — not ; hi — indeed ; asyāḥ — from Devakī ; te — of you ; bhayam — fear ; saumya — O most sober ; yat — which ; vai — indeed ; sā — that omen ; āha — dictated ; a — śarīra — vāk — a vibration without a body ; putrān — all my sons ; samarpayiṣye — I shall deliver to you ; asyāḥ — of her (Devakī) ; yataḥ — from whom ; te — your ; bhayam — fear ; utthitam — has arisen .

Translation

Vasudeva said: O best of the sober, you have nothing to fear from your sister Devakī because of what you have heard from the unseen omen. The cause of death will be her sons. Therefore I promise that when she gives birth to the sons from whom your fear has arisen, I shall deliver them all unto your hands.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Vasudeva said: O best of the sober, you have nothing to fear from your sister Devakī because of what you have heard from the unseen omen. The cause of death will be her sons. Therefore I promise that when she gives birth to the sons from whom your fear has arisen, I shall deliver them all unto your hands. KB 10.1.54 Vasudeva said to Kaṁsa, “My dear brother-in-law, please consider that you have no danger from your sister. You are awaiting some danger because you have heard a prophetic voice in the sky. But the danger is to come from the sons of your sister, who are not present now. And who knows? There may or may not be sons in the future. Considering all this, you are safe for the present. Nor is there cause of fear from your sister. If there are any sons born of her, I promise that I shall present all of them to you for necessary action.”

Purport

Kaṁsa feared Devakī’s existence because after her eighth pregnancy she would give birth to a son who would kill him. Vasudeva, therefore, to assure his brother-in-law the utmost safety, promised to bring him all the sons. He would not wait for the eighth son, but from the very beginning would deliver to the hands of Kaṁsa all the sons to which Devakī would give birth. This was the most liberal proposition offered by Vasudeva to Kaṁsa.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

"According to the message from the sky, you do not need to fear Devaki, but the eighth child. But anyway I will give you all eight children. You can kill the eighth child, whom you fear, or if you wish you can kill all eight.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

O Kaṁsa with peaceful nature (saumya)! In order to show inner happiness, a sarcastic meaning of these words is not evident as it was in previous speech. Or, the word can indicate that because of fear arising in Kaṁsa, his courageous nature had disappeared. I offer to you her sons from which no fear (te abhayam) should arise. Or I offer you her sons excluding whom, someone else will give you fear. He talks in this way, not wanting to give Kaṁsa fear. Another version has āgatam instead of utthitam.