Kṛshṇa Stotrarāja

The Kṛshṇa Stotrarāja is the hymn Vasudeva sang at the moment Bhagavān Kṛshṇa was born. It is found in the Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, chapter 7. Vasudeva sang it when Parāt-para Brahman stood before him and Devakī in the prison at Mathurā in his four-armed form.

The setting

At midnight on the night of the birth, on the Rohiṇī nakshatra and the kṛshṇāshṭamī (the eighth day of the dark half of the month), the prison cell of Vasudeva and Devakī was filled with divine light. The guards fell asleep and the fetters fell away.

Before the astonished parents stood the infant Kṛshṇa. At first he showed his four-armed Vishṇu form, adorned with divine ornaments, holding conch (śaṅkha), disc (cakra), mace (gadā) and lotus (padma), and wearing the Kaustubha gem and the Vaijayantī garland. Devakī and Vasudeva knew Bhagavān Kṛshṇa as the Supreme. They were full at once of awe and of a parent’s love. Vasudeva sang this stotra at that moment, with the form of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa in direct sight (darśana).

The stotra

Kṛshṇa as Parāt-para Brahman

The stotra opens by praising the child before Vasudeva as Parāt-para Brahman, the Supreme beyond the supreme, the ground and source of all that is. He is anādi (without beginning), nitya (eternal), nirguṇa (beyond the three guṇas of prakṛti) and nirākāra (without a fixed form). Yet out of compassion for his devotees he takes a form.

The four yugas

Vasudeva praises Bhagavān Kṛshṇa as appearing in four forms and colours through the four yugas.

• In Kṛta yuga he is shining white (śveta), the pure form of satya.
• In Tretā yuga he is red (rakta).
• In Dvāpara yuga he is yellow or golden (pīta).
• In Kali yuga he is dark or black (kṛshṇa), the very form standing before Vasudeva.

The tapas of Kaśyapa

In the stotra Vasudeva speaks of what Bhagavān Kṛshṇa has told him. In an earlier kalpa Vasudeva was the ṛshi Kaśyapa. With his wife Aditi, whose aṃśa (part) is now Devakī, he kept tapas for ten thousand years on the mountain Gandhamādana, wishing to have Vishṇu as his son. That tapas has now borne its highest fruit: Parāt-para Brahman has come as their child.

Gratitude and wonder

The stotra speaks of Vasudeva’s great gratitude. The master of all creation, whose glory Brahmā, Śiva, Śesha and the Vedas themselves cannot fully reach, has come down to be his son. This comes from the grace of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, from his own wish to delight his devotees.

The request

The stotra ends with a prayer. Vasudeva asks the child to give him firm devotion (dṛḍha bhakti), and asks that the bond made in this life, of father and son and of devotee and Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, last through all later births. He does not ask for worldly vara (boons) or for the pleasures of svarga. He asks only for dṛḍha bhakti and dāsya (service).

The reply of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa

After Vasudeva’s stotra, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa answered him. He said that Vasudeva was indeed Kaśyapa in an earlier birth and that Devakī was Aditi. He said that the birth now taking place was the direct fulfilment of that old tapas. Then he took the ordinary form of a newborn infant, with a newborn’s cries and a baby’s helpless movements, so that Vasudeva could carry him to safety in Gokula.

The phalaśruti

One who recites Vasudeva’s stotra with devotion gains firm devotion (dṛḍha bhakti) to Śrī Hari.

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 7