atha kÄla upÄvá¹›tte
devakÄ« sarva-devatÄ
putrÄn prasuá¹£uve cÄá¹£á¹au
kanyÄá¹ caivÄnuvatsaram
atha - thereafter; kÄle - in due course of time; upÄvá¹›tte - when it was ripe; devakÄ« - DevakÄ«, the wife of Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa's father; sarva-devatÄ - DevakÄ«, to whom all the demigods and God Himself appeared; putrÄn - sons; prasuá¹£uve - gave birth to; ca - and; aá¹£á¹au - eight; kanyÄá¹ ca - and one daughter named SubhadrÄ; eva - indeed; anuvatsaram - year after year.
Each year thereafter, in due course of time, DevakÄ«, the mother of God and all the demigods, gave birth to a child. Thus she bore eight sons, one after another, and a daughter named SubhadrÄ.
The spiritual master is sometimes glorified as sarva-devamayo guruḥ (BhÄg. 11.17.27). By the grace of the guru, the spiritual master, one can understand the different kinds of devas. The word deva refers to God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the original source of all the demigods, who are also called devas. In Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (10.2) the Lord says, aham Ädir hi devÄnÄm: “I am the source of all the devas.†The Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, the Original Person, expands in different forms. Tad aiká¹£ata bahu syÄm (ChÄndogya Upaniá¹£ad 6.2.3). He alone has expanded into many. Advaitam acyutam anÄdim ananta-rÅ«pam (Brahma-saá¹hitÄ 5.33). There are different grades of forms, known as svÄá¹Å›a and vibhinnÄá¹Å›a. The svÄá¹Å›a expansions, or viṣṇu-tattva, are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whereas the vibhinnÄá¹Å›a are jÄ«va-tattva, who are part and parcel of the Lord (mamaivÄá¹Å›o jÄ«va-loke jÄ«va-bhÅ«taḥ sanÄtanaḥ). If we accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and worship Him, all the parts and expansions of the Lord are automatically worshiped. SarvÄrhaṇam acyutejyÄ (BhÄg. 4.31.14). Kṛṣṇa is known as Acyuta (senayor ubhayor madhye rathaá¹ sthÄpaya me ’cyuta). By worshiping Acyuta, Kṛṣṇa, one automatically worships all the demigods. There is no need of separately worshiping either the viṣṇu-tattva or jÄ«va-tattva. If one concentrates upon Kṛṣṇa, one worships everyone. Therefore, because mother DevakÄ« gave birth to Kṛṣṇa, she is described here as sarva-devatÄ.
