Srila Gurudeva: Being in the womb of the wife of Vyasadeva, Sukadeva Gosvami was hearing Bhagavatam for sixteen years. Then after sixteen years, Vyasadeva said, “Who are you, who is in the womb of my wife? Please come out. Don’t give any pain to your mother. You should come out.”
He told Vyasadeva, “I do not want to be in maya. If anyone can remove this maya for a moment, then I will come out.”
Vyasa told him, “I am powerful enough to do this, so you should come out.”
He asked, “Who are you?”
“I am Vyasa.”
“Oh, I have no faith in you.”
“Then to whom do you have faith in?”
“I only have faith in Krsna.”
“Okay, I am calling Krsna.” Then Vyasadeva meditated and prayed for Krsna to appear there and to tell that child to come out from the womb. Then at once Krsna came and told that boy, “O boy, you should come out of the womb of your mother.”
He told Krsna, “I do not want to be in maya. Who are You?”
“I have the power to do this. I am Krsna Himself.”
“Oh, You are Krsna? Then you can protect me.”
“So you should come out just now.” When a very little mustard seed is thrown on the edge of a razor, can it stay there? No, it will go to one side or the other. Krsna told that boy, “You should come out in the same way.” So at once Krsna removed maya and he came out from the womb. Then he at once ran out into a very deep and dense forest. Vyasa thought that, “Oh, he is like a brahma-jnani. I want him to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam. There is no one in this world qualified to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, so I want to explain Srimad-Bhagavatam to him. But he is going away.” So Vyasa began to follow him, calling out, “O my son! O my dear son!”
But that boy had nothing to do. He was walking away and only the echo was coming from the trees saying, “Who is son? Who is father? Who is mother? Who is daughter and sons?” This is only moha, illusion. All living entities are really the soul. There is no actual relation between any father and mother and children in this world. Our only father and mother or anything is Krsna. All of these material relationships are illusory because we are all actually the soul. There is no real relation between anyone, father and mother, wife and husband, or daughter and son with father and mother. No real relation is there. Only our relation with Krsna is permanent. Our relation with our father and mother is only for some time. Thinking like this, Sukadeva Gosvami left that place without even looking back.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on December 3rd, 1998, Malaysia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 25]