When Lord Kṛṣṇa desires to manifest His earthly pastimes, He appears through His eternal parents, Śrīmatī Devakī and Śrī Vasudeva, and is later brought up by His foster parents, Mother Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja. Saintly souls who perfect their devotional service by following in the footsteps of the Lord's eternal parents are elevated to the highest position as eternal associates of the Supreme Lord. Once having entered into the Lord's eternal transcendental pastimes, these great souls relish superexcellent devotional mellows in ecstatic love of Godhead.
In the innumerable universes, Lord Kṛṣṇa reveals His earthly pastimes with His intimate friend and eternal associate Arjuna. The Lord makes this clear in two Bhagavad-gītā verses (4.5-6):
- bahūni me vyatītāni
- janmāni tava cārjuna
- tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi
- na tvaṁ vettha parantapa
- ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā
- bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san
- prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya
- sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā
Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy! Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.
As for those unfortunate souls who do not strive for the supreme goal of entering the eternal pastimes of the Supreme Lord and instead become attracted to the mundane practices of karma, jñāna, and yoga, which ultimately elevate one to the heavenly planets—such souls must once again take birth in this material world. Although they may reach a high status in this cosmic system, they must come down as if on a ferris wheel. Kṛṣṇa describes this phenomenon in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.16):
- ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ
- punar āvartino 'rjuna
- mām upetya tu kaunteya
- punar janma na vidyate
From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.