And the child that was the Lord spoke to the mother in the hour of His
coming as the Sovereign of all Sovereignty would speak:
"Say unto him, Vāsudeva, thy husband, to transport me to where the wife
of the King Nanda doth lie, who but now giveth birth to a daughter.
"Pass through the gates; the chains shall be loosened, the keepers
asleep at their posts.
"The warring waters of the Jumnā a path shall make for him to pass with
Me in his arms. The gates of the palace on the banks of the river wide
open shall stand, and the mother asleep in her chamber shall be.
"Put Me on her breast, and bear away the daughter that to her is born.
And when the prince shall ask Vāsudeva for the eighth child that is born
unto thee, do thou deliver the daughter of Yasodā unto him."
Thus spake the Lord, and a helpless child He became.
Vāsudeva in wonder passed through the gates; the keepers all slept a
sleep as of death. The waters parted to make a way for him who carried
the Lord to pass.
Unseen, unheard, he entered the courtyard and palace and passed the
sounding halls and corridors, until the room of the sleeping queen he
spied, and taking the Lord from under his cloak, on the breast of the
sleeping queen he laid it, and took in his place the wide-eyed daughter,
that cooed and smiled in his bearded face.
And sleep still held the queen and the city and the gaolers embraced,
till he stood at the side of Devaki once more, who wept at the sight of
the smiling babe, who soon at the hand of her brother must perish.
At break of day, the prince entered the dungeon to seek the life of the
eighth child of his sister.
As he lifted the child on high to dash its head on the flagged floor,
lo! the child slipped from his hand and rose, the while speaking:
"Karma, that counteth all reckonings up, cannot be cheated by thee, O
prince! Tis written that thou must be slain by the eighth son of thy
sister, and so it shall be.
"That child I am not, O prince! But I came on earth for this hour, to
show thee thy folly. Dost thou think, O fool, that by human force, by
the slaying of innocence, by the destroying of hope and joy in the heart
of the mother, thou canst change the Will of Him who is the Maker of all
laws?
"Thinkest thou, O man, thou canst cross swords with Him that knoweth the
effect of each thought that man thinketh, even before the thinking is
done?
"He whom thou seekest thou shalt not find!"
She ceased, and a light never seen on earth or in heaven enveloped the
child as she vanished from view.
And the prince rushed forth in his frenzy and madness and sought not
again to bring harm to his sister, but unfettered the chains were of
husband and wife, and in freedom forth they went.