Canto 10, Chapter 8, Verse 1
śrī-śuka uvāca
gargaḥ purohito rājan
yadūnāṁ sumahā-tapāḥ
vrajaṁ jagāma nandasya
vasudeva-pracoditaḥ
Sage Sukadev says, O King Parikshit, the priest of the Yadu dynasty, Garga Muni, was highly elevated in penance and austerity, and was asked by Vasudeva to go see Nanda at his home.
Canto 10, Chapter 8, Verse 11
śrī-śuka uvāca
evaṁ samprārthito vipraḥ
sva-cikīrṣitam eva tat
cakāra nāma-karaṇaṁ
gūḍho rahasi bālayoḥ
Sage Sukadev continues, Having been asked by Nanda to do what he already wanted to do, Garga Muni performed the naming ceremony for Krishna and Balarama in a solitary place.
After the death of the demon Trinavarta, Yashoda started thinking that all those strange events were happening because they had not yet named their baby boy.
Meanwhile, in Mathura, Vasudeva was wondering how his friend and relative Nanda was doing. He knew that his wife Rohini was at Nanda’s place, but due to the threatening situation in Mathura, he hadn’t allowed her to come back. So he asked Garga Muni, the high family priest of the Yadavas, “Please, go to Gokul and visit Nanda secretly. I would like to know what is happening there.”
When Garga arrived in Gokul, he was warmly welcomed. Then, because he was a great authority in astrological knowledge, Nanda said, “It’s a blessing to have you here. Can you please do the naming ceremony of our children?” Garga replied, “If Kamsa knows that I have come here to name these children, for sure he will be suspicious that they are from a royal lineage.” Since Garga was the royal priest, of course he would not go and give names to mere cowherd boys, and if Kamsa heard about this naming ceremony, he would automatically know that there was something fishy about it. Eventually he would connect these children with the eighth son of Devaki. That’s why they decided to do the naming ceremony in secret.
At the moment Garga was about to give the names to the baby boys, he closed his eyes and saw Narayana on Adishesh. He shook his head and thought, “Something is wrong here! What am I seeing?” Again, he closed his eyes to have the inner vision of the spiritual names he should give. Again, he saw Narayana and Adishesh. He was confused and started thinking, “Strange! What is this?” Then he realised that Bhagavan Himself was there, and by His Will he could have this vision of Him. Now, more confusion arose inside of him as he thought, “He is the Lord of the universe, so what name will I give Him? Who am I to name Him? All the names are His. He has thousands of Names. Who am I to give Him another Name?” Suddenly, he heard Bhagavan’s voice speaking to him inwardly, “Listen, accept the task which I have given you. Do your duty!”
It happened the same way when Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John the Baptist. John tried to deter Jesus saying that he couldn’t baptise Him. In fact, he was the one that needed to be baptised by Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus told John to do what he had to do.
Here Bhagavan is also saying to Garga, “Do what you have to do. This is your duty.” So inside himself he accepted this divine task. He named the elder boy ‘Balarama’ because of His strength and his great capacity of delighting people. He called Him also Sankarshana because he was transferred miraculously from the womb of Devaki to Rohini.
Then looking at the little dark baby, he said, “What name shall I give to Him?” Then he said ‘Krishna’. ‘Krish’ means ‘saturated with the bliss of divine fulfilment, ultimate bliss'. The word ‘Krishna’ is from the root ‘karsh - Karshayati’ and also means ‘He who irresistibly pulls everybody and everything to Him, like an eternal centre of attraction, at all times and places’. ‘Krishna’ has two other main meanings: ‘dark’ and ‘He who destroys the sin of the world, the Saviour, Bhagavan Himself’. Garga felt that this Name fit the Lord. However, He has many different qualities and many more Names.