Harivamsha 69
English (machine translation) 69
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69.1
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: / Having entered the house of the cowherd Nanda together with Keśava, / he whose gifts are boundless gathered the cowherd elders and spoke;
69.2
and, delighted, he said to Kṛṣṇa united with the son of Rohiṇī: / “Tomorrow, dear child, we will go to the city of Mathurā for your good fortune.
69.3
All the cowherd settlements with their herds of cattle / will go by the command of Kaṃsa, bearing the customary annual tribute.
69.3x783
And we, mounting our chariot together, will set forth.
69.4
A magnificent bow festival of that Kaṃsa is to take place; / you will see it in all its splendor, and you will meet your own kinsmen.
69.5
And you two will meet your father Vasudeva, a constant vessel of sorrow, / wretched, worn out by the slaying of his sons;
69.6
constantly tormented by Kaṃsa of wicked mind, / withered at the end of his life, grown old, broken by miseries;
69.7
trembling with fear of Kaṃsa, deprived of both of you, / burning day and night with an inner self full of longing.
69.8
And I will see her, Govinda, her breasts uncaressed by sons, / Devakī, resembling a goddess, sinking down, her radiance destroyed;
69.9
wasting away with grief for her sons, intent upon seeing you, / burning with the sorrow of separation, like a cow bereft of her calf;
69.10
her eyes always flooded [with tears], her clothes always soiled, / like the radiance of the moon seized by the mouth of Svarbhānu [Rāhu];
69.11
ever intent on seeing you, longing for your arrival, / sinking down, poor woman, with grief born from you;
69.12
unskilled in your childish prattles, separated from you in your infancy, / ignorant of the beauty of your face, O Lord, which possesses the splendor of the moon.”
69.13
If after giving birth to you, Kṛṣṇa, Devakī suffers,
what purpose was there in bearing a child? It would indeed be better to be childless.
69.14
For women without sons, only a single sorrow is prescribed;
but a woman with a son grieves when the son is fruitless: 'Curse this offspring!'
69.15
You, however, are a son equal to Śakra, whose virtues match your own,
granting safety even to foes; she should not grieve.
69.16
Your aged parents have fallen into servitude to another,
reviled on your account by the short-sighted Kaṃsa.
69.17
If Devakī, who bore your person, is revered by you as the earth,
you ought to raise her up, submerged in the waters of sorrow.
69.18
And by reuniting that aged, mighty Vasudeva with his beloved son,
you will attain dharma, Kṛṣṇa.
69.19
Just as the exceedingly wicked serpent in the Yamunā pool was subdued,
and just as that vast mountain, the earth-supporter, was held up by you,
69.20
and the mighty Ariṣṭa, swollen with pride, was struck down,
and the wicked Keśī, slayer of others' lives, was killed by you,
69.21
by that very effort, raising up those two afflicted elders,
consider, Kṛṣṇa, how you may attain dharma.
69.22
All those who saw your father being reviled in the assembly, Kṛṣṇa,
shed tears from their eyes, deeply overcome with sorrow.
69.22x784
Having said something to that blind man, Kaṃsa indeed rebuked him.
69.23
Helpless, your mother Devakī, Kṛṣṇa, endures numerous afflictions
from Kaṃsa, beginning with the cutting of her wombs.
69.24
By everyone who is born and nurtured, the debt to parents
must indeed be repaid; so it is declared according to duty.
69.25
As you show favor in this way, Kṛṣṇa, to your parents,
they will abandon their grief, and your dharma will be peerless.
69.25x785
Your dharma will be vast and endless, without a doubt."
69.26
Knowing his purpose, the radiant Keśava
said to that man of boundless generosity, "Very well!" and showed no anger.
69.27
Assembled together, the cowherds, led by the cowherd Nanda,
having heard Akrūra's words, set out at Kaṃsa's command.
69.28
The residents of Vraja made ready for departure;
having prepared their gifts, the elder cowherds departed,
69.29
bringing tribute of oxen, clarified butter, buffaloes as beasts of burden,
and according to their means and herds, delivering milk and ghee.
69.30
Having made ready that tribute and gifts for Kaṃsa,
all those cowherd chiefs prepared for departure.
69.31
As Akrūra stayed awake, conversing with Kṛṣṇa,
with the son of Rohiṇī as the third, that night passed away.
Linked texts (1)
- Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit