Krsna Book Audio Dictation - Chapter 63
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Next paragraph. Sixty-third Chapter. Subject: "Lord Kṛṣṇa Fights with Bāṇāsura."
When four months of rainy season passed off and still Aniruddha did not return home, all the members of Yadu family became too much perturbed why the boy was missing for so long time. Fortunately, one day the great sage Nārada came there, and he informed about the whole story of Aniruddha’s disappearance from the palace and how he was carried to the city of Śoṇitapura, the capital of Bāṇāsura, and how Bāṇāsura had arrested him by the rope of snake, although his soldiers were defeated in the attempt. All these news were informed in detail, and the whole story was disclosed.
Then the members of Yadu dynasty, all of whom were so much affectionate to Kṛṣṇa, prepared themself to go and attack the city of Śoṇitapura, where Aniruddha was being detained under arrest. Practically all the leaders of the Yadu dynasty—Pradyumna, Gada, Sāmba, Sāraṇa, Nanda, Upananda and Bhadra—all combined together gathered eighteen divisions of akṣauhiṇī military phalanx, and all of them went to the city of Bāṇāsura and surrounded the whole city by soldiers, elephants, horses, chariots, etc.
When Bāṇāsura heard that outside the city the soldiers of the Yadu dynasty had arrived and they were creating disturbances by tearing down various walls and gates and nearby gardens and they have attacked the whole city, he immediately became very much angry and ordered for his soldiers of equal category, and he came out of the city to face them for fighting. Lord Śiva was so kind upon, he personally came as the commander-in-chief of the whole military strength, assisted by his heroic sons, Kārttikeya and Gaṇapati. When he engaged himself fighting with Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, Lord Śiva was seated on his favorite bull of the name Nandīśvara.
Now we can simply imagine how fierceful was the fight, because on one side there was Lord Śiva himself with his valiant sons. On the other side was Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His elder brother, Śrī Balarāmajī. The fighting was so fierceful that anyone who saw the battle was struck with wonder, and the hairs on the body stood up. Engagement was directly with Lord Śiva and Lord Kṛṣṇa, and on the other side with Pradyumna and Kārttikeya. Lord Balarāma was engaged in fighting with the commander-in-chief of Bāṇāsura, of the name Kumbhāṇḍa, assisted by Kūpakarṇa. Sāmba, the son of Kṛṣṇa, was engaged in fighting with the son of Bāṇāsura, and Bāṇāsura himself engaged in fighting with Sātyaki, commander-in-chief of the soldiers of Yadu dynasty. In this way, the fighting began.
The fighting news spread all over the universe, and demigods from different higher planetary system like Lord Brahmā, great sages and saintly persons, Siddhas, the Cāraṇas, the Gandharvas, all of them being very much inquisitive to see the fight between Lord Śiva and Lord Kṛṣṇa along with their assistants, and all of them were hovering on the battlefield on their respective aeroplanes.
Lord Śiva as usual is called the Bhūta-nātha. He was assisted by various kind of powerful ghosts and denizens of inferno, or the Bhūtas, Pretas, Pramathas, Guhyakas, Ḍākinīs, Piśācas, Kuṣmāṇḍas, Vetālas, Vināyakas and Brahma-rākṣasas. Out of all kinds of ghosts, the ghost of the name Brahma-rākṣasas are very powerful. Brāhmaṇa transferred to the species of ghostly life becomes a Brahma-rākṣasa. The Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, taking in His hand the celebrated bow Śārṅga-dhanur, began to beat all of them. They were simply driven away from the battlefield, and Lord Śiva himself took charge of the fighting and began to release all his selected weapons upon the Personality of Godhead.
Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa without any difficulty counteracted all those selected weapons by counterweapons. He counteracted the brahmāstra, similar to atomic bomb, by brahmāstra. He counteracted the air weapon with a mountain weapon. The idea is when Lord Śiva released his particular type of weapon which could bring in a vehement hurricane on the battlefield, Lord Kṛṣṇa would present just the opposing element, a mountainous weapon, which would check the hurricane on the spot. Similarly, when Lord Śaṅkara released his weapon of devastating fire, Kṛṣṇa counteracted such devastating fire with torrents of rain.
Then at last, when Lord Śiva released his personal weapon, which is called Pāśupata-astra, Kṛṣṇa immediately counteracted it by the Nārāyaṇa-astra. In this way, when Lord Śiva was exasperated in that fighting with Lord Kṛṣṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa took the opportunity of releasing His yawning weapon. When this weapon is released, the opposing fighting party simply feels tired; without fighting they begin only yawning. In this way, Lord Śiva became fatigued and continued yawning, ceasing to fight anymore.
In this way, when Lord Kṛṣṇa got relief from the attack of Lord Śiva, he turned His attention towards Bāṇāsura and began to kill his personal soldier with swords and club. On the other hand, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s son Pradyumna was fighting so fiercely that Kārttikeya, who is the commander-in-chief of the demigods, became wounded. As a result of the wound, Kārttikeya was emanating profuse blood discharges from the body. He also left the battlefield without fighting anymore and ride away on the back of his peacock carrier. Similarly, Lord Balarāma was also smashing by the stroke of His club on the commander-in-chief of Bāṇāsura, namely Kumbhāṇḍa. In this way Kumbhāṇḍa and Kūpakarṇa became also wounded by the weapons of Balarāmajī. Both of them fell down on the battlefield. When the commander-in-chief of the Bāṇāsura's soldiers was thus fatally wounded, all the soldiers without guidance became dismantled, and they were scattered here and there.
Next paragraph.
When Bāṇāsura saw that by the constant attack of the soldiers and commanders of Lord Kṛṣṇa his soldiers and commanders are being defeated, he could simply increase his temper only, anger, and he thought it wise that without fighting with Sātyaki, the commander-in-chief of Kṛṣṇa, he would directly attack Lord Kṛṣṇa. So he was rushing toward Kṛṣṇa in great haste. This time Bāṇāsura had the opportunity for using his one thousand hands, and he engaged at once his one thousand hands for working with five hundred bows and two thousand arrows, and all of them simultaneously was used for killing Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Foolish person could not measure the strength of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Lord Kṛṣṇa immediately, without any difficult, cut into two pieces all the bows of Bāṇāsura. And in order to check him to go further, his chariot driver, horses were laid down on the ground and the whole chariot broken into pieces. After doing this, He blew His conchshell of the name Pāṣcajanya.
There was another demigoddess of the name Koṭarā. She was worshiped by Bāṇāsura, and the relationship was as mother and son. Mother Koṭarā being aggrieved to the point of Bāṇāsura’s life being in danger, she also appeared on the scene with naked body and scattered hair and stood before Lord Kṛṣṇa. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa did not like to see this naked woman, therefore He turned His face without seeing her. Bāṇāsura, getting this chance of not being attacked by Kṛṣṇa, left the battlefield because all the strings of his bow disconnected and there was no chariot, no driver. So he had no other alternative than to return back in his own city, losing everything in the battle.
Next paragraph.
In this way, when Lord Śiva saw that his ghostly…
(break) (rest of chapter missing)