Krsna Book Audio Dictation - Chapter 37
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
The demon Keśī, after thus being instructed by Kaṁsa, assumed the form of a terrible horse, and in his speed as good as the mind he entered the area of Vṛndāvana, digging the earth with his hooves. And flinging(?) the hairs on his neck as if a cloud and aeroplane appeared in the sky, he began to whine, terrifying the whole world. Just on his appearance, the Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa saw that the horse-shaped demon was terrifying the whole residents of Vṛndāvana by his whining sound, and wheeling the bunch of hair on the tail as if big clouds moving in the sky, and Kṛṣṇa could understand the horse was challenging for fighting. Thus the Lord accepted his challenge and stood before the horse and called him for fight.
At that time, the horse began to proceed towards Kṛṣṇa with whining sound as if a lion is roaring. The demon horse stood before the Lord, spreading his face as if it was eating the whole sky, and with great speed run towards Kṛṣṇa he tried to beat Him with his legs, which were not only very strong and forceful but were as hard as a stone, and thus attempted to strike the body of the Lord. Kṛṣṇa, however, immediately caught hold of the legs and thus baffled him in his attempt to strike Kṛṣṇa.
At this time Kṛṣṇa, being a little angry, began to wheel around the horse as if in great negligence, and thus after a few rounds He threw him a hundred yards off, as if the Garuḍa throws away a big snake and stands upright. The horse thus being thrown by Kṛṣṇa became immediately unconscious, but after a little while he regained his consciousness, and with great anger and force he began to rush towards Kṛṣṇa, this time spreading his mouth. As soon as the horse approached Kṛṣṇa, He pushed His left hand within the mouth of the horse as if a big snake enters into the hole of the field. The horse, however, felt it difficult because the hand of Kṛṣṇa appeared to him something like hot iron rod, and immediately all his set of teeth fell down.
When Kṛṣṇa thus entered His hand within the mouth of the horse and began to inflate, the throat of the horse became choked up, and out of suffocation there was perspiration on his body and he began to throw his legs hither and thither. And at the time of breathing last, the eyeballs in the socket began to roll, and he passed stool and urine simultaneously, and thus the vital force of his life expired. When the horse was dead, all his body and mouth becomes loosened, flattened, and Kṛṣṇa could get out His hand without any difficulty. He, however, did not feel any surprise that the enemy demon Keśī was killed so easily. But the demigods in the sky, they become very much amazed, and out of their great appreciation began to offer Kṛṣṇa greetings by showering flowers.
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After this incidence, Nārada Muni, the greatest of all devotees, came to see Kṛṣṇa in a solitary place and began to talk with Him as follows: "My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, You are unlimited Supersoul, the supreme controller of all mystic powers, the Lord of the whole universe, all-pervading Personality of Godhead, and the rest for all the cosmic manifestation, and the master of all devotees and the Lord of everyone. My dear Lord, You are the Supersoul of all living entities, and You remain concealed within their heart exactly like the fire remains concealed in every piece of fuel. But still You are the witness of all activities of the living entities, and You are the supreme controller within their heart.
"You are Yourself self-sufficient, and before the creation You existed, and by Your energy You have created the whole material elements. And on account of Your perfect plan, this material world is created by interaction of the modes of nature, they are maintained and they are annihilated also. Although You are unaffected by all such activities, You remain the supreme controller eternally. My dear Lord, You have advented Yourself on the surface of this world just to kill all the so-called kings on the surface of the world who are actually demons and hobgoblins, and they are cheating people in the dress of princely order. You have advented Yourself, however, to fulfill Your promise that You come within this material world just to give protection to the principles of right religiosity and to annihilate such unwanted miscreants.
"My dear Lord, I am therefore sure that day after tomorrow I shall see that the demons like Cāṇūra, Muṣṭika and wrestlers and elephants, as well as Kaṁsa himself, will be killed by You, and I shall see them with my own eyes. After this, I shall be able to see the killing of other demons like Śaṅkha, Yavana, Mura, Narakāsura, and I shall also see how You take away the pārijāta flower from the kingdom of heaven and how the king of heaven becomes defeated by You."
Nārada Muni continued to say, "My dear Lord, I shall then be able to see how You marry princess, daughters of great chivalrous kings, by paying proper price of kṣatriya's strength." This proper price paid by a kṣatriya means whenever he wants to marry a very beautiful and qualified prince (princess) daughter of a great king, he must fight with other competitors and come out victorious, and then he is given in charity the hand of the princess.
"I shall see also how You saved from the hellish condition of life the king Nṛga, which will be acted by You in Dvārakā," said Nārada Muni. "I shall be able to see also how You get Your wife, along with the Syamantaka jewel, and how You save the son of a brāhmaṇa from dead life and already transferred to another planet. After this, it will be possible for me to see how You would kill the Pauṇḍraka demon and how You burn into ashes the kingdom of Kāśī. Thereafter, it will be possible for me to see how You would kill the king of Caidya and Dantavakra in the great sacrifice of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. Besides all these activities, it will be possible for me to see many other chivalrous activities by You while You shall remain in Dvārakā, and all such activities would be sung by great poets for all the time. My dear Lord, by Your grace it will be possible for me to see all these incidences.
"After this, there will be the Battle of Kurukṣetra, in which You will take part as the chariot driver of Your friend Arjuna, and as the invincible death incarnation, eternal time, for all the belligerents assembled there, and I shall see how a large number of military forces will be killed in that battlefield. My Lord, let me offer my respectful obeisances unto Your lotus feet, because You are situated completely in transcendental position in perfect knowledge and bliss, and by Your own situation You are complete in the matter of fulfillment of all Your desires. By exhibition of Your internal potency, You have set up the influence of māyā, and Your unlimited potency cannot be measured by anyone. My dear Lord, You are the supreme controller. You are under Your own internal potency, and whatever apparently creations are there as if You are dependent on them, they are simply imagination.
"Your taking birth in the family of Yadu dynasty or Vṛṣṇi dynasty or Your advent on the surface of the world in Your original form of eternal, blissful knowledge, all those are Your own pastimes. You are not dependent on anything except Yourself. Therefore, I offer my respectful obeisances unto Your lotus feet."
In this connection Nārada Muni wanted to impress upon us, people in general, philosophers, that Kṛṣṇa is fully independent. He is not dependent on anyone else. His appearance in the family of Yadu or His friendship with Arjuna, all His activities are not necessarily obliging Him to act or to enjoy the results, but they are all His pastimes, and for Him they are all imagination. But for us they are actual tangible facts.
Thus, after offering his respectful obeisances to Lord Kṛṣṇa, Nārada Muni, taking His permission, left the place. And Kṛṣṇa also as usual, after killing the demon Keśī, with His friends and cows began to tend them in the forest without any deviation. In other words, Kṛṣṇa is eternally engaged in His transcendental activities in Vṛndāvana with the friends cowherds boys and the gopīs, although He has sometimes to exhibit the extraordinary prowess of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the matter of killing different types of demons.
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Sometimes, Kṛṣṇa with His cowherds boys friends were playing on the top of the Govardhana Hill, and they imitated the play of a thief and the police, and some of the boys became the police constable, and some of the boys became thieves, and some of the boys began to take the role of lambs. And in this way they were enjoying their childhood pastimes. But one demon known by the name of Baumāsura, "the demon who flies in the sky," he is the son of another great demon whose name is Maya. These demons can play very wonderful magic. So he appeared on the scene and he took the part of the cowherds boy who were playing as thieves, and taking this opportunity he stole many boys who were playing the role of the lambs. In this way, one after another he took away almost all the cowherds boys excepting a few, and he put them each in the caves of the mountain and closed the door with another stone.
Kṛṣṇa could immediately understand the tricks the demon was playing; therefore, He caught hold of him exactly like the lion catches hold of a lamb. The demon, however, tried to expand himself just like hill to escape his arrest. But Kṛṣṇa did not allow him to get out of His clutches, and he was immediately thrown on the ground with great force and was killed, exactly like an animal is killed in the slaughterhouse ground. After killing the sky demon, Lord Kṛṣṇa released all His cowherds boys friends from the caves of the mountain, and being praised both by His friends and the demigods in the sky for this wonderful act, He again returned back to Vṛndāvana with His cows and cowherds boyfriends.
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Thus ends the Thirty-seventh Chapter of Kṛṣṇa in the matter of "Killing the Sky Demon by Kṛṣṇa."