Text 26
aho alaṁ ślāghyatamaṁ yadoḥ kulam
aho alaṁ puṇyatamaṁ madhor vanam
yad eṣa puṁsām ṛṣabhaḥ śriyaḥ patiḥ
sva-janmanā caṅkramaṇena cāñcati
aho — oh; alam — verily; ślāghya-tamam — supremely glorified; yadoḥ — of King Yadu; kulam — dynasty; aho — oh; alam — verily; puṇya-tamam — supremely virtuous; madhoḥ vanam — the land of Mathurā; yat — because; eṣaḥ — this; puṁsām — of all the living beings; ṛṣabhaḥ — supreme leader; śriyaḥ — of the goddess of fortune; patiḥ — husband; sva-janmanā — by His appearance; caṅkramaṇena — by crawling; ca añcati — glories.
Oh, how supremely glorified is the dynasty of King Yadu, and how virtuous is the land of Mathurā, where the supreme leader of all living beings, the husband of the goddess of fortune, has taken His birth and wandered in His childhood.
In the Bhagavad-gītā the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, has expressively given a description of His transcendental appearance, disappearance and activities. The Lord appears in a particular family or place by His inconceivable potency. He does not take His birth as a conditioned soul quits his body and accepts another body. His birth is like the appearance and disappearance of the sun. The sun arises on the eastern horizon, but that does not mean that the eastern horizon is the parent of the sun. The sun is existent in every part of the solar system, but he becomes visible at a scheduled time and so also becomes invisible at another scheduled time. Similarly, the Lord appears in this universe like the sun and again leaves our sight at another time. He exists at all times and at every place, but by His causeless mercy when He appears before us we take it for granted that He has taken His birth. Anyone who can understand this truth, in terms of the statements of revealed scriptures, certainly becomes liberated just after quitting the present body. Liberation is obtainable after many births and after great endeavor in patience and perseverance, in knowledge and renunciation. But simply by knowing in truth about the Lord’s transcendental births and activities, one can get liberation at once. That is the verdict of the Bhagavad-gītā. But those who are in the darkness of ignorance conclude that the Lord’s birth and activities in the material world are similar to those of the ordinary living being. Such imperfect conclusions cannot give anyone liberation. His birth, therefore, in the family of King Yadu as the son of King Vasudeva and His transfer into the family of Nanda Mahārāja in the land of Mathurā are all transcendental arrangements made by the internal potency of the Lord. The fortunes of the Yadu dynasty and that of the inhabitants of the land of Mathurā cannot be materially estimated. If simply by knowing the transcendental nature of the birth and activities of the Lord one can get liberation easily, we can just imagine what is in store for those who actually enjoyed the company of the Lord in person as a family member or as a neighbor. All those who were fortunate enough to associate with the Lord, the husband of the goddess of fortune, certainly obtained something more than what is known as liberation. Therefore, rightly, the dynasty and the land are both ever glorious by the grace of the Lord.