Text 4
śrī-śuka uvāca
kadācid autthānika-kautukāplave
janmarkṣa-yoge samaveta-yoṣitām
vāditra-gīta-dvija-mantra-vācakaiś
cakāra sūnor abhiṣecanaṁ satī
śrī-śukaḥ uvāca — Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued to speak (at the request of Mahārāja Parīkṣit); kadācit — at that time (when Kṛṣṇa was three months old); autthānika-kautuka-āplave — when Kṛṣṇa was three or four months old and His body was developing, He attempted to turn around, and this pleasing occasion was observed with a festival and bathing ceremony; janma-ṛkṣa-yoge — at that time there was also a conjunction of the moon with the auspicious constellation Rohiṇī; samaveta-yoṣitām — (the ceremony was observed) among the assembled women, a ceremony of mothers; vāditra-gīta — different varieties of music and singing; dvija-mantra-vācakaiḥ — with chanting of Vedic hymns by qualified brāhmaṇas; cakāra — executed; sūnoḥ — of her son; abhiṣecanam — the bathing ceremony; satī — mother Yaśodā.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: When mother Yaśodā’s baby was slanting His body to attempt to rise and turn around, this attempt was observed by a Vedic ceremony. In such a ceremony, called utthāna, which is performed when a child is due to leave the house for the first time, the child is properly bathed. Just after Kṛṣṇa turned three months old, mother Yaśodā celebrated this ceremony with other women of the neighborhood. On that day, there was a conjunction of the moon with the constellation Rohiṇī. As the brāhmaṇas joined by chanting Vedic hymns and professional musicians also took part, this great ceremony was observed by mother Yaśodā.
There is no question of overpopulation or of children’s being a burden for their parents in a Vedic society. Such a society is so well organized and people are so advanced in spiritual consciousness that childbirth is never regarded as a burden or a botheration. The more a child grows, the more his parents become jubilant, and the child’s attempts to turn over are also a source of jubilation. Even before the child is born, when the mother is pregnant, many recommended ritualistic ceremonies are performed. For example, when the child has been within the womb for three months and for seven months, there is a ceremony the mother observes by eating with neighboring children. This ceremony is called svāda-bhakṣaṇa. Similarly, before the birth of the child there is the garbhādhāna ceremony. In Vedic civilization, childbirth or pregnancy is never regarded as a burden; rather, it is a cause for jubilation. In contrast, people in modern civilization do not like pregnancy or childbirth, and when there is a child, they sometimes kill it. We can just consider how human society has fallen since the inauguration of Kali-yuga. Although people still claim to be civilized, at the present moment there is actually no human civilization, but only an assembly of two-legged animals.