Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.1 Summary

The summary of the First Chapter is as follows. This chapter describes how Kamsa, frightened by hearing an omen about his being killed by the eighth son of Devakī, killed Devakī's sons one after another.

When Śukadeva Gosvāmī finished describing the dynasty of Yadu, as well as the dynasties of the moon-god and sun-god, Mahārāja Parīkshit requested him to describe Lord Krishna, who appeared with Baladeva in the Yadu dynasty, and how Krishna performed His activities within this world. Krishna is transcendental, the King said, and therefore to understand His activities is the occupation of liberated persons. Hearing of krishna-līlā is the boat by which to achieve the ultimate goal of life. Except for an animal killer or one who is following a policy of suicide, every intelligent person must strive to understand Krishna and His activities.

Krishna was the only worshipable Deity for the Pāndavas. When Mahārāja Parīkshit was in the womb of his mother, Uttarā, Krishna saved him from the attack of the brahma-śastra. Now Mahārāja Parīkshit asked Śukadeva Gosvāmī how His Lordship Baladeva, the son of Rohinī, could have appeared in the womb of Devakī. Why did Krishna transfer Himself from Mathurā to Vrindāvana, King Parīkshit asked, and how did He live there with His family members? What did Krishna do in Mathurā and Vrindāvana, and why did He kill His maternal uncle Kamsa? For how many years did Krishna reside in Dvārakā, and how many queens did He have? Mahārāja Parīkshit asked Śukadeva Gosvāmī all these questions. He also requested Śukadeva Gosvāmī to describe other activities of Krishna about which he could not inquire.

When Śukadeva Gosvāmī began to speak about Krishna consciousness, Mahārāja Parīkshit forgot the fatigue brought about by his fasting. Enthusiastic to describe Krishna, Śukadeva Gosvāmī said, "Like the waters of the Ganges, descriptions of the activities of Krishna can purify the entire universe. The speaker, the inquirer and the audience all become purified."

Once when the entire world was overburdened by the increasing military power of demons in the form of kings, mother earth assumed the shape of a cow and approached Lord Brahmā for relief, Sympathetic to mother earth's lamentation, Brahmā, accompanied by Lord Śiva and other demigods, took the cow-shaped mother earth to the shore of the milk ocean, where he offered prayers to please Lord Vishnu, who lay there on an island in transcendental ecstasy. Brahmā thereafter understood the advice of Mahā-Vishnu, who informed him that He would appear on the surface of the earth to mitigate the burden created by the demons. The demigods, along with their wives, should appear there as associates of Lord Krishna in the family of Yadu to increase the sons and grandsons in that dynasty. By the will of Lord Krishna, Anantadeva would appear first, as Balarāma, and Krishna's potency, yogamāyā, would also appear. Brahmā informed mother earth about all this, and then he returned to his own abode.

After marrying Devakī, Vasudeva was returning home with her on a chariot driven by Kamsa, her brother, when an ominous voice addressed Kamsa, warning him that Devakī's eighth son would kill him. Upon hearing this omen, Kamsa was immediately ready to kill Devakī, but Vasudeva diplomatically began to instruct him. Vasudeva stressed that it would not be good for Kamsa to kill his younger sister, especially at the time of her marriage. Anyone who possesses a material body must die, Vasudeva advised him. Every living entity lives in a body for some time and then transmigrates to another body, but one is unfortunately misled into accepting the body as the soul. If a person under this mistaken conception wants to kill another body, he is condemned as hellish.

Because Kamsa was not satisfied by Vasudeva's instructions, Vasudeva devised a plan. He offered to bring Kamsa all of Devakī's children so that Kamsa could kill them. Why then should Kamsa kill Devakī now? Kamsa was satisfied by this proposal. In due course of time, when Devakī gave birth to a child, Vasudeva brought the newborn baby to Kamsa, who, upon seeing Vasudeva's magnanimity, was struck with wonder. When Vasudeva gave Kamsa the child, Kamsa, showing some intelligence, said that since he was to be killed by the eighth child, why should he kill the first? Although Vasudeva did not trust him, Kamsa requested Vasudeva to take the child back. Later, however, after Nārada approached Kamsa and disclosed to him that the demigods were appearing in the Yadu and Vrishni dynasties and conspiring to kill him, Kamsa decided to kill all the children born in these families, and he also decided that any child born from the womb of Devakī must be killed. Thus he arrested and imprisoned both Devakī and Vasudeva and killed six of their sons, one after another. Nārada had also informed Kamsa that in his previous birth Kamsa was Kālanemi, a demon killed by Vishnu. Consequently, Kamsa became a great enemy to all the descendants of the yadu-vamśa, the Yadu dynasty. He even arrested and imprisoned his own father, Ugrasena, for Kamsa wanted to enjoy the kingdom alone.

Krishna has threefold pastimes — the Vraja-līlā, Māthura-līlā and Dvārakā-līlā. As already mentioned, in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there are ninety chapters, which describe all these līlās. The first four chapters describe Brahmā's prayers for the relief of the earth's burden, and they also describe the appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Chapters Five through Thirty-nine recount Krishna's pastimes in Vrindāvana. The Fortieth Chapter describes how Krishna enjoyed in the water of the Yamunā and how Akrūra offered prayers. Chapters Forty-one through Fifty-one, eleven chapters, tell of Krishna's pastimes in Māthura, and Chapters Fifty-two through Ninety, thirty-nine chapters, relate Krishna's pastimes in Dvārakā.

Chapters Twenty-nine through Thirty-three describe Krishna's dancing with the gopīs, known as the rāsa-līlā. Therefore these five chapters are known as rāsa-pañcādhyāya. The Forty-seventh Chapter of the Tenth Canto is a description known as the bhramara-gītā.

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