S'rî
S'uka said: 'Then
as sent by Kamsa [in 10.36:
20] was
there Kes'î,, a huge horse that, with his hooves ripping
open the earth and with the speed of mind scattering the clouds
as well the celestial carriers of the gods, with his manes and
neighing frightened everyone. The Supreme Lord stepped, in
response to the stir of the clouds created by his tail and his
whinnying which terrified His cowherd village, thereupon
forward to fight and called for Kes'î who searching for
Him was roaring like a lion.
S'ukadeva
Gosvâmî said: The demon Kes'î, sent by
Kamsa, appeared in Vraja as a great horse. Running with the
speed of the mind, he tore up the earth with his hooves. The
hairs of his mane scattered the clouds and the demigods'
airplanes throughout the sky, and he terrified everyone
present with his loud neighing.
When the
Supreme Personality of Godhead saw how the demon was
frightening His village of Gokula by neighing terribly and
shaking the clouds with his tail, the Lord came forward to
meet him. Kes'î was searching for Krishna to fight, so
when the Lord stood before him and challenged him to
approach, the horse responded by roaring like a lion.
(Vedabase)
Text
3
When
he, hard to conquer and approach and agressive with a mouth
wide open swallowing the sky, saw Him before him, rushed he
furiously forward to attack the lotus eyed Lord with his
legs.
Seeing
the Lord standing before him, Kes'î ran toward Him in
extreme rage, his mouth gaping as if to swallow up the sky.
Rushing with furious speed, the unconquerable and
unapproachable horse demon tried to strike the lotus-eyed
Lord with his two front legs. (Vedabase)
Text
4
Dodging
that seized the Lord of the Beyond, alert to it, him with His
arms by the legs to whirl him around indifferently and throw
him at a distance of a hundred bow lengths, standing there just
like the son of
Târkshya
[Garuda]
throwing a snake.
But
the transcendental Lord dodged Kes'î's blow and then
with His arms angrily seized the demon by the legs, whirled
him around in the air and contemptuously threw him the
distance of one hundred bow-lengths, just as Garuda might
throw a snake. Lord Krishna then stood there.
(Vedabase)
Text
5
He
regaining his consciousness rose in bitter rage and ran,
opening wide [his mouth], fast for the Lord who on His
turn with a smile put His left arm in his mouth like a snake in
a hole.
Upon
regaining consciousness Kes'î angrily got up, opened
his mouth wide and again rushed to attack Lord Krishna. But
the Lord just smiled and thrust His left arm into the
horse's mouth as easily as one would make a snake enter a
hole in the ground. (Vedabase)
Text
6
As
Kes'î,'s teeth came in touch with the Lord His arm fell
they out as if they had come in contact with a redhot iron and
swelled the arm of the Supreme Soul having entered his body up
like a sick belly [of dropsy] in
neglect.
Kes'î's
teeth immediately fell out when they touched the Supreme
Lord's arm, which to the demon felt as hot as molten iron.
Within Kes'î's body the Supreme Personality's arm then
expanded greatly, like a diseased stomach swelling because
of neglect. (Vedabase)
Text
7
With
Krishna's arm thus expanding was his breath arrested and fell
he, kicking his legs, perspiring all over, rolling with his
eyes and excreting feces, lifeless down to the
ground.
As
Lord Krishna's expanding arm completely blocked
Kes'î's breathing, his legs kicked convulsively, his
body became covered with sweat, and his eyes rolled around.
The demon then passed stool and fell on the ground, dead.
(Vedabase)
Text
8
The
Mighty-armed One retracting His arm from the dead body that
looked like a cucumber [karkathikâ], was,
as unassuming as He was in His effortlessly having killed His
enemy, from above worshiped by the gods with a rain of
flowers.
The
mighty-armed Krishna withdrew His arm from Kes'î's
body, which now appeared like a long karkathikâ
fruit. Without the least display of pride at having so
effortlessly killed His enemy, the Lord accepted the
demigods' worship in the form of flowers rained down from
above. (Vedabase)
Text
9
The
devarishi [Nârada], the most exalted
devotee of the Lord, o King, said in private to Krishna who is
so effortless in His actions this:
My
dear King, thereafter Lord Krishna was approached in a
solitary place by the great sage among the demigods,
Nârada Muni. That most exalted devotee spoke as
follows to the Lord, who effortlessly performs His pastimes.
(Vedabase)
Text
10-11:
'Krishna, o
Krishna, o Vâsudeva, immeasurable Soul, o Lord of Yoga, o
Controller of the Universe, o shelter of each, o You master and
very best of the Yadus; You alone are the Soul of all living
beings who like fire hidden in firewood resides within the
heart as the Witness, the Controller, the Supreme
Personality.
[Nârada
Muni said:] O Krishna, Krishna, unlimited Lord, source
of all mystic power, Lord of the universe! O Vâsudeva,
shelter of all beings and best of the Yadus! O master, You
are the Supreme Soul of all created beings, sitting unseen
within the cave of the heart like the fire dormant within
kindling wood. You are the witness within everyone, the
Supreme Personality and the ultimate controlling Deity.
(Vedabase)
Text
12
As the Refuge
of the Intelligence of the Spirit Soul You first produced, by
Your energy, the modes of nature and through these
[then] this thruth [of the Universe], to the
drive of which You create, destroy and maintain as the
Controller.
You
are the shelter of all souls, and being the supreme
controller, You fulfill Your desires simply by Your will. By
Your personal creative potency You manifested in the
beginning the primal modes of material nature, and through
their agency You create, maintain and then destroy this
universe. (Vedabase)
Text
13
You, this one
[creator] Himself, has in order to protect the saintly
descended for the destruction of the demons [Daityas],
wildmen [Râkshasas] and tormentors
[Pramathas] who impose as leaders.
You,
that very same creator, have now descended on the earth to
annihilate the Daitya, Pramatha and Râkshasa demons
who are posing as kings, and also to protect the godly.
(Vedabase)
Text
14
To our fortune
have You sportfully killed this demon that assumed the form of
a horse of whose neighing the vigilant gods terrified abandoned
heaven.
The
horse demon was so terrifying that his neighing frightened
the demigods into leaving their heavenly kingdom. But by our
good fortune You have enjoyed the sport of killing him.
(Vedabase)
Text
15-20
The
day after tomorrow, will I see Cânûra, Mushthika
and other wrestlers as also the elephant
[Kuvalayâpîda] and Kamsa been killed by
You, o Almighty One. Thereafter will follow [the
demons] S'ankha, [Kâla-]yavana and Mura as
well as Naraka and will You steal the pârijâta
flower and defeat Indra. In Dvârakâ will You, o
Master of the Universe, be known for marrying the daughters of
the heroic [kings] with the gift of Your valor, the
deliverance of King Nriga from his curse, capturing the jewel
named Syamantaka together with a wife and presenting the dead
son of a brahmin [Sândîpani Muni] from Your
abode [of death]. Next will You kill Paundraka, burn
down the city of Kâs'î [Benares] and see to
the demise of Dantavakra and the king of Cedi
[S'is'upâla] during the great sacrifice [see
also: 3.2:
19,
7.1:
14-15].
About these and other great feats that I will see performed by
You as You stay in Dvârakâ will the poets on this
earth be singing.
In
just two days, O almighty Lord, I will see the deaths of
Cânûra, Mushthika and other wrestlers, along
with those of the elephant Kuvalayâpîda and King
Kamsa - all by Your hand. Then I will see You kill
Kâlayavana, Mura, Naraka and the conch demon, and I
will also see You steal the pârijâta flower and
defeat Indra. I will then see You marry many daughters of
heroic kings after paying for them with Your valor. Then, O
Lord of the universe, in Dvârakâ You will
deliver King Nriga from a curse and take for Yourself the
Syamantaka jewel, together with another wife. You will bring
back a brâhmana's dead son from the abode of Your
servant Yamarâja, and thereafter You will kill
Paundraka, burn down the city of Kâs'î and
annihilate Dantavakra and the King of Cedi during the great
Râjasûya sacrifice. I shall see all these heroic
pastimes, along with many others You will perform during
Your residence in Dvârakâ. These pastimes are
glorified on this earth in the songs of transcendental
poets. (Vedabase)
Text
21
Then will I see
You as the charioteer of Arjuna with whom You assume the form
of Time with the purpose of effectively bringing about the
destruction of the complete of the armed forces of this
world.
Subsequently
I will see You appear as time personified, serving as
Arjuna's chariot driver and destroying entire armies of
soldiers to rid the earth of her burden. (Vedabase)
Text
22
Let me approach
[You who are] this Supreme Lord, full of the purest
spiritual awareness, who in His original identity is completely
fulfilled, whose will in none of His exploits can be thwarted
and who by the power of His potency is always elevated above
the flow of the things happening with the modes of the
illusory, material energy.
Let
us approach You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for
shelter. You are full of perfectly pure spiritual awareness
and are always situated in Your original identity. Since
Your will is never thwarted, You have already achieved all
possible desirable things, and by the power of Your
spiritual energy You remain eternally aloof from the flow of
the qualities of illusion. (Vedabase)
Text
23
For You, the
Controller self-contained, who by the creative potency of Your
own Self has arranged for an unlimited number of specific
situations so that You could enact and now have taken upon
Yourself [the burden of] humanity divided [in
warfare], I do bow myself down, You the Greatest of the
Yadus, Vrishnis and Sâtvatas.'
I
bow down to You, the supreme controller, who are dependent
only on Yourself. By Your potency You have constructed the
unlimited particular arrangements of this universe. Now you
have appeared as the greatest hero among the Yadus, Vrishnis
and Sâtvatas and have chosen to participate in human
warfare. (Vedabase)
Text
24
S'rî
S'uka said: 'The most eminent sage among the devotees thus
respectfully of reverence for Krishna, the leading Yadu,
received permission to leave and went away being elated of
having seen Him.
S'ukadeva
Gosvâmî said: Having thus addressed Lord
Krishna, the chief of the Yadu dynasty, Nârada bowed
down and offered Him obeisances. Then that great sage and
most eminent devotee took his leave from the Lord and went
away, feeling great joy at having directly seen Him.
(Vedabase)
Text
25
And Govinda,
the Supreme Lord who in a fight had killed Kes'î, tended
the animals together with the cowherd boys who were so pleased
about Him bringing happiness to Vraja.
After
killing the demon Kes'î in battle, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead continued to tend the cows and other
animals in the company of His joyful cowherd boyfriends.
Thus He brought happiness to all the residents of
Vrindâvana. (Vedabase)
Text
26
One
day, when the gopas were grazing the animals, enacted
they at the hillside games of hide and seek playing cops and
robbers.
One
day the cowherd boys, while grazing their animals on the
mountain slopes, played the game of stealing and hiding,
acting out the roles of rival thieves and herders.
(Vedabase)
Text
27
In that game
were some the thieves, some were the herds while others of
them, o King, to that acted as the unsuspecting
sheep.
In
that game, O King, some acted as thieves, others as
shepherds and others as sheep. They played their game
happily, without fear of danger. (Vedabase)
Text
28
A
son of the demon Maya named Vyoma ['the sky'], a
powerful magician, assumed the disguise of a gopa and
engaged in the game as one of the many thieves and took away
almost all those who acted as the sheep.
A
powerful magician named Vyoma, son of the demon Maya, then
appeared on the scene in the guise of a cowherd boy.
Pretending to join the game as a thief, he proceeded to
steal most of the cowherd boys who were acting as sheep.
(Vedabase)
Text
29
One by one
threw the great demon them in a mountaincave of which he
blocked the entrance with a boulder so that only four or five
remained.
Gradually
the great demon abducted more and more of the cowherd boys
and cast them into a mountain cave, which he sealed shut
with a boulder. Finally only four or five boys acting as
sheep remained in the game. (Vedabase)
Text
30
Finding
out what he was doing seized Krishna, the leader of the
gopas and shelterer of the saintly, him without mercy
just like a lion would seize a wolf.
Lord
Krishna, who shelters all saintly devotees, understood
perfectly well what Vyomâsura was doing. Just as a
lion grabs a wolf, Krishna forcefully seized the demon as he
was taking away more cowherd boys. (Vedabase)
Text
31
The demon
resuming his original form that was as big as a mountain by all
means wanted to free himself, but held tightly in His grip was
he debilitated not capable of doing so.
The
demon changed into his original form, as big and powerful as
a great mountain. But try as he might to free himself, he
could not do so, having lost his strength from being held in
the Lord's tight grip. (Vedabase)
Text
32
Holding him
fast with His arms forced Acyuta him to the ground and while
the gods in heaven were watching killed He him like he was a
sacrificial animal [strangled him thus].
Lord
Acyuta clutched Vyomâsura between His arms and threw
him to the ground. Then, while the demigods in heaven looked
on, Krishna killed him in the same way that one kills a
sacrificial animal. (Vedabase)
Text
33
Breaking
through the blocked entrance of the cave freed He the
gopas out of their awkward position and returned He,
under the praises of the gopas and the gods, to His
cowherd village.'
Krishna
then smashed the boulder blocking the cave's entrance and
led the trapped cowherd boys to safety. Thereafter, as the
demigods and cowherd boys sang His glories, He returned to
His cowherd village, Gokula. (Vedabase)