sri sri guru gauranga jayatah!
Year 1, Issue 10, Amāvasyā
Speical Edition
Posted: 28 October 2019
Dedicated to and Inspired by
nitya-lila pravista om visnupada
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
“Anujā” – Bhāgavatam Proof that
Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the Son of Yaśodā
Śrī Śrī Guru-Gauraṅgau Jayataḥ
Śrī Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha
Mathurā (U.P.)
15 September, 1983
śrī śrī vaiṣṇava-caraṇe-daṇḍavat-nati-pūrvakeyam
Mā Umā, know that my blessings are with you and convey the same to your mother and Gārgī dīdī. I came to know all the news from your letter, dated 28 July 1983. I became happy to know that the Śrī Śrī Ratha-yātrā festival there [at the Chuṅchurā Maṭha] was completed successfully. I become happier to know that the two cows at the maṭha have started giving milk [for service to the deity].
At present, Premānanda’s health is generally good and he does not need an operation. Śubhānanda is doing his [Sanskrit and śāstra] studies nicely. Everyone else is basically well. Here [in the Mathurā Maṭha], Śrī Janmāṣṭamī, Nandotsava and Śrī Rādhāṣṭamī have been accomplished well, with a special festiveness.
[Regarding your questions] The meaning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam statement [about Kaṁsa killing all children born] ‘within the last ten days or slightly more’ in accordance with the advice of his ministers, is as follows:
(1) [Kaṁsa proclaimed that] children born within the last ten days must be killed. Moreover, even those born two to four days before that must also be killed. So, in other words, the children born in the last ten days, and even two to four days before or after, are all to be slain.
(2) [After hearing the aerial voice] Kaṁsa’s ministers speculatively concluded that Devakī had given birth to a child the night before. Therefore, by killing all children born within the last ten to twelve days, Kaṁsa’s enemy [Kṛṣṇa] would also certainly be killed. In this way, the demons’ considerations are based on their gross intelligence. They have no policy to accept a one-pointed conclusion.
(3) The word anujā refers to the female child that is born after the first child [either male or female] from the same parents, and she is thus known as the anujā (younger sister) of the first child. In special cases, such as when a man has two wives, a female child born from one wife after a child born from the other wife can also be called the anujā [of his first child]. But when two brothers [such as Nanda Mahārāja and Vasudeva] have two different wives [Yaśodā and Devakī, respectively], the female child born from one wife after the child born from the brother’s wife cannot be called anujā.*
[Editors’ note: In other words, by Śrīla Vyāsadeva referring to Yogamāyā (also known as Ekānaṁśā) as anujā in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.4.9 – adṛśyatānujā viṣṇoḥ – he proves that she must be the younger sister of Kṛṣṇa born of Yaśodā and Nanda Bābā. She is not the younger sister (anujā) of four-armed Kṛṣṇa who manifested before Nanda Bābā’s brother Vasudeva and Vasudeva’s wife, Devakī.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.2.9 shows that Yogamāyā was born to Yaśodā: “O all-auspicious Yogamāyā, I shall then appear with My full six opulences as the son of Devakī, and you will appear as the daughter of mother Yaśodā, the queen of Mahārāja Nanda.”**
And in 10.3.37: “Thereafter, exactly when Vasudeva, being inspired by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, was about to take the new born child from the delivery room, Yogamāyā, the Lord’s spiritual energy, took birth as the daughter of the wife of Mahārāja Nanda.”**
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja states in his purport on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.5.1: “Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura desires to prove with evidence from many śāstras that Kṛṣṇa actually took birth as the son of Yaśodā before the birth of Yogamāyā, who is therefore described as the Lord’s younger sister.”***
And in his purport on 10.4.9: “The word anujā, meaning “the younger sister”, is significant. When Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, took birth from Devakī, He must have simultaneously taken birth from Yaśodā also. Otherwise how could Yogamāyā have been anujā, the Lord’s younger sister?***]
Therefore, Śrīla Viśvanatha Cakravartī Ṭhākura and other commentators have stated that only Yogamāyā born from the womb of Yaśodā is Kṛṣṇa’s anujā.
What else should I write? Know my blessings. Thus I conclude.
Vaiṣṇava dāsānudāsa
Śrī Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa
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* The daughter born to Vasudeva and Devakī was Subhadrā-devī. She is therefore the anujā of four-armed Kṛṣṇa.
** Translation by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja, copyright BBT
*** From a purport by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja, copyright BBT.
