Devanagari
युवां मां पुत्रभावेन ब्रह्मभावेन चासकृत् ।
चिन्तयन्तौ कृतस्नेहौ यास्येथे मद्गतिं पराम् ॥ ४५ ॥
Verse text
yuvāṁ māṁ putra-bhāvena
brahma-bhāvena cāsakṛt
cintayantau kṛta-snehau
yāsyethe mad-gatiṁ parām
Synonyms
yuvām
—
both of you (husband and wife)
;
mām
—
unto Me
;
putra
—
bhāvena — as your son
;
brahma
—
bhāvena — knowing that I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
ca
—
and
;
asakṛt
—
constantly
;
cintayantau
—
thinking like that
;
kṛta
—
snehau — dealing with love and affection
;
yāsyethe
—
shall both obtain
;
mat
—
gatim — My supreme abode
;
parām
—
which is transcendental, beyond this material world .
Translation
Both of you, husband and wife, constantly think of Me as your son, but always know that I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By thus thinking of Me constantly with love and affection, you will achieve the highest perfection: returning home, back to Godhead.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Both of you, husband and wife, constantly think of Me as your son, but always know that I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By thus thinking of Me constantly with love and affection, you will achieve the highest perfection: returning home, back to Godhead.
KB 10.3.45
“My dear father and mother, you have therefore raised Me many times as your child, with great affection and love, and I am therefore very much pleased and obliged to you. And I assure you that this time you shall go back home, back to Godhead, on account of your perfection in your mission. I know you are very concerned about Me and afraid of Kaṁsa. Therefore I order you to take Me immediately to Gokula and exchange Me for the daughter who has just been born to Yaśodā.”
Purport
This instruction by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to His father and mother, who are eternally connected with Him, is especially intended for persons eager to return home, back to Godhead. One should never think of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as an ordinary human being, as nondevotees do. Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, personally appeared and left His instructions for the benefit of all human society, but fools and rascals unfortunately think of Him as an ordinary human being and twist the instructions of
Bhagavad-gītā
for the satisfaction of their senses. Practically everyone commenting on
Bhagavad-gītā
interprets it for sense gratification. It has become especially fashionable for modern scholars and politicians to interpret
Bhagavad-gītā
as if it were something fictitious, and by their wrong interpretations they are spoiling their own careers and the careers of others. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, however, is fighting against this principle of regarding Kṛṣṇa as a fictitious person and of accepting that there was no Battle of Kurukṣetra, that everything is symbolic, and that nothing in
Bhagavad-gītā
is true. In any case, if one truly wants to be successful, one can do so by reading the text of
Bhagavad-gītā
as it is. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu especially stressed the instructions of
Bhagavad-gītā:
yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa.
If one wants to achieve the highest success in life, one must accept
Bhagavad-gītā
as spoken by the Supreme Lord. By accepting
Bhagavad-gītā
in this way, all of human society can become perfect and happy.
It is to be noted that because Vasudeva and Devakī would be separated from Kṛṣṇa when He was carried to Gokula, the residence of Nanda Mahārāja, the Lord personally instructed them that they should always think of Him as their son and as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That would keep them in touch with Him. After eleven years, the Lord would return to Mathurā to be their son, and therefore there was no question of separation.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In the scriptures indicating worship of Krsna through mantras, Vasudeva is mentioned as the father of Krsna. Therefore this shows without doubt that Vasudeva is eternally in that position. But in order to increase their bliss by promising perfection of their sadhana in this birth, their nitya siddha status is hidden in this verse. "By thinking of me you will attain me."
The actual meaning of the verse however is: "I will now go to my most excellent eternal dhama Gokula. After eleven years, I will return to Mathura and you will attain me there at that time. But now I will be separated from you."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The word vā (instead of ca) can mean a comparison or an alternative. You developed affection for me as Bhagavān in my svarūpa or as the chief entity Brahman because I am the greatest, and you continuously meditated upon me. The two moods are seen as equal just to glorify Brahman. They would go to Vaikuṇṭha along with Kaśyapa and Aditi who had similar qualification. Śrīdhara Svāmī comments as follows. “If you were pleased with them, why should they take another birth?” This verse answers that they will not take birth in the future.
Or it can be explained that the two should not be considered sādhakas and thus there should not be any worry about not attaining the Lord. In the Padma Purāṇa, Kārtika-māhātmya, it says ete hi yādavāḥ sarve mad gaṇā eva bhāvini: O Pārvatī, all the Yadus are my eternal relatives. Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa says:
yathā saumitra-bharatau yathā saṅkarsaṇādayaḥ
tathā tenaiva jāyante nija-lokād yadrcchayā
punas tenaiva gacchanti tat padaṁ śāśvataṁ param
na karma bandhanaṁ janma vaiṣnavānām ca vidyate
Like Rāma’s brothers or Balarāma, the Yādavas appear with the Lord from the Lord’s planet by his will and again go to his eternal abode with him. They are not bound by karma and do not take birth.
Such statements are also found in books concerning Kṛṣṇa’s worship, celebration of his birth and his mantra. Their appearance now in their original forms and in their expansions in previous births is only a pastime to preach the worship of the Lord with intense prema by showing their prema, which was intense as that of the Lord. In being born as Pṛśni or Aditi, their attainment of the Lord is not a matter of special sādhana. Rather Devakī attained the Lord as previously by her very nature. That is expressed in the verse. You meditated upon me with a special parental love (putra) and with expectation that I would specially appear (bhāvena), or with ordinary love and with expectations of an ordinary appearance (brahma-bhāvena). The word vā indicates an alternative. The comparison is made in the following verses.
pitarau nānvavindetāṁ kṛṣṇodārārbhakehitam
Although Kṛṣṇa was so pleased with Vasudeva and Devakī that he descended as their son, they could not enjoy Kṛṣṇa’s magnanimous childhood pastimes. SB 10.8.47
pitarāv upalabdhārthau viditvā puruṣottamaḥ
mā bhūd iti nijāṁ māyā tatāna jana-mohinīm
Understanding that his parents were becoming aware of his powers as God, he thought that this should not be allowed to happen. Thus he expanded his Yogamāyā, which bewilders his devotees. SB 10.45.1
aho bhāgyam aho bhāgyaṁ nanda-gopa-vrajaukasām
yan-mitraṁ paramānandaṁ pūrṇaṁ brahma sanātanam
How greatly fortunate are Nanda Mahārāja, the cowherd men and all the other inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi! There is no limit to their good fortune, because the Absolute Truth, the source of transcendental bliss, the eternal Supreme Brahman, has become their friend. SB 10.14.32
itthaṁ satāṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā
dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena
māyāśritānāṁ nara-dārakeṇa
sākaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ
In this way, all the cowherd boys used to play with Kṛṣṇa, who is the source of the Brahman effulgence for jñānīs desiring to merge into that effulgence, who is the Supreme Lord for devotees who have accepted eternal servitorship, and who for ordinary persons is but another ordinary child. The cowherd boys, having accumulated the results of pious activities for many lives, were able to associate in this way with the Lord. How can one explain their great fortune? SB 10.12.11
Seeing Kṛṣṇa as their son comes first as the main method, and thinking of him as great is a secondary method. Or they meditated only once on the Lord as great (taking the words as vā and sakṛt rather than vā and asakṛt). The word vā can indicate that it may have been possible that they meditated once on Brahman.
Later you will go from the pastimes on earth to my abode with the aprakaṭa pastimes. You do not have to depend on sādhana. Doing sādhana would interfere with what is to be accomplished by you as my assistants. The reason is given. You have eternally perfect affection (kṛta-snehau). You two have prema filled with affection for me as a son. It is your nature in the manner of ātmā pahata-pāpmā: the soul is without sin in the liberated state. (Chandogya Upaniṣad 8.1.5) Or, you meditated on me as your son with affection and maybe once meditated on Brahman.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
You think of me as your son, who is Brahman. They are expressed as equivalents, to point out the greatness of the object of affection. You think of me constantly. This indicates their bhāva. Or the word vā (instead of ca) indicates a comparison. You think of me constantly as a son, just as others think of Brahman. The word vā can also indicate the inferiority of Brahman.
Being affectionate you two will attain my most attractive (parām) place of attainment (gatim), Vaikuṇṭha. Or you will attain the goal from me (mat). This indicates they will attain it easily, by his mercy.
Or you think of me as a son constantly, since it is full of affectionate rasa, and you thought of me of Brahman only once (vā sakṛt), since it is without rasa. Why? It is because, by your affection for me, it is impossible for you to have any obstacles in attaining me. He praises them to pacify them and glorify them, since they suffered in previous births.
Though Aditi and Kaśyapa will attain the highest goal after being qualified, they attained it as your expansions. Now you will attain the goal, without another birth. Or Vasudeva and Devakī are eternal associates in Vaikuṇṭha whereas Aditi and Kaśyapa are expansions.
tvam eva pūrva-sarge ’bhūḥ pṛśniḥ svāyambhuve sati
tadāyaṁ sutapā nāma prajāpatir akalmaṣaḥ
The Supreme Lord replied: My dear mother, best of the chaste, in your previous birth, in the Svāyambhuva millennium, you were known as Pṛśni, and Vasudeva, who was the most pious Prajāpati, was named Sutapā. SB 10.3.32
You two attain my abode now. Kaśyapa and Aditi, after being qualified, will attain it. This is understood according to Bhāgavatāmṛta. Or you will attain me as the goal (mad-gatim), by thinking of me as your son.