Gopalacampu 1.30

Now begins the thirty-second chapter, / Celebrating the Destruction of Keśin. / [1] Now we shall properly relate once more the morning's account, as follows:

[2] At first, Madhukaṇṭha, without raising his voice, pondered this clearly in his mind:

[3] 'Although after this, the report given to Kaṃsa by the venerable feet of the best of divine sages—who has, since our very childhood, engaged us in praising Kṛṣṇa, and who showers the bliss of the Lord's pastimes—is something that should be recounted;

[4] Even so, fools consider as impropriety the very propriety of those who, following the divine command of the Lord's play, constantly assist it and never thwart it; and likewise, this might not bring supreme joy even to these greatest of wise ones, the inhabitants of Vraja, whose radiant, peerless bliss is the essence of their confirmed love; therefore it should be related with the speaker's name left unmentioned.' [5] Then he clearly stated with qualification: [6] 'When Ariṣṭa had been slain by Śrī Hari, Kaṃsa, being tormented, dispatched no one for a whole year. And when Keśin was setting out, he was made to re-enter his own palace, [with the words:] "Do not pursue hostility in vain." [7] Then on the eleventh day of the dark fortnight of the principal month of Māgha, a certain denizen of heaven, pre-eminent in knowledge of all times, though utterly hostile to him, acted as if favorable and disclosed the secret history of Śrī Vasudeva, by which indeed Rāma and Kṛṣṇa were revealed to be Vasudeva's sons. [8] Thereupon, being unable to kill them because of the obstacle that [heavenly voice] made, he, enraged and opposed to the virtuous, immediately bound Vasudeva and Devakī again in prison with iron chains. [9] And having imprisoned them, having a base mind, he summoned the horse-demon and engaged him once more. The moment he was dispatched, he set out for Vraja and arrived there that very morning. And because Vraja, having moved its dwelling-place from below Nandīśvara hill to a farther distance following the slaying of Ariṣṭa, was stationed far off, he reached it from afar. [10] And coming to the cowherd settlement, tearing the surface of the earth with the scraping of his excessively sharp, fierce hooves, tossing his mass of manes and wheeling them about in the sky, by his unsteady course he threw into confusion the airplanes—whose accessories looked like a scattered cluster of black beans due to being veiled by clouds out of immense terror—as if stripping away their former pride; on account of which those gods, because their shining vigor was removed, became as though decrepit with age. [11] And then, leaping over trees with his swift stride, shaking everything out of immense pride, that horse-demon emitted a deep, rumbling roar like a pride of lions. [12] And as that roar spread, cows possessing dewlaps, leaping in groups over the enclosure of large branching trees of that huge cowherd settlement—which was like a lofty fortress extremely difficult to exit through its rough, vast, thorny gates that were securely bolted with massive crossbars—fled swiftly at a gallop directly toward the forest in bewilderment. [13] Disregarding even that, having entered the outskirts of the cowherd settlement and galloping around, that horse of an enemy of the gods sought out the crusher of Ariṣṭa at an ambling gait. [14] Then, overwhelmed with sorrow by the flight of the cows, all the cattle-owning folk, led by the distinguished lord of the cowherd settlement, immediately deserted their own homes and marched straight toward him with faces lifted high.

[15] Passing beyond all of them and rushing completely forward, the younger brother of Rāma, whose actions are razor-sharp and unblemished, even bypassed Rāma, exciting wonder as he moved straight toward the enemy. [16] Then the leaders among the people of Vraja, overtaken by total agitation, saw him advancing and cried out this: / 'This horse has hairs as hard as thunderbolts and conquers the wielder of the thunderbolt; / with his road cleared by the gods who are defeated and roaring with his neighing. / But you resemble a fresh tāpiñcha tree that has the nature of tender shadow; / therefore, do not rush ahead into his presence!' // [17] Thus, when disaster drew so close, there was also this dispute between mother and son: / 'Son, where are you going?' 'Mother, I am going to deal with the horse.' / 'Alas, his reckless malice is unrestrained!' / 'What will he do to us, or is he without any master to ride him?' / 'Go inside the house!' 'Am I a fool?' // [18] Then, emboldened by agitation, she also addressed the lord of the cowherd settlement with these words: / 'Never since my childhood have I spoken harsh words to you, the master of the house, / but today I wish to make my feelings known—listen! / Why do you not seize the child at once along with everyone, / or why do the others not also charge against the horse, O lord of Vraja?' // [19] But the younger brother of Śrī Rāma, who from beginningless time rends the sons of Diti, disregarded what was thus being spoken, smiled, reassured his mother, and—bestowing joy as the refuge of all universal faith—looked for a moment upon that evil-eyed [demon] and summoned him to come near to him. [20] Summoned by the enemy of Pūtanā, yet inwardly overpowered by his splendor, he deemed himself a hero and remained unshaken before him; first of all, to launch his prowess, he stepped back slowly step by step, yielding ground as far as the Yamunā so that he could make a space for a charge. Thinking that his charge would possess greater force from a distance, having yielded the ground and having resolved that Kṛṣṇa was the target to be slain, the steed of the enemy of the gods roared with pride like a pride of lions, menacing his enemy's party. [21] And then, as [the demon] seemed all at once to wish to crush, tear, and swallow everything, Kṛṣṇa, unable to tolerate that, suddenly raised a lion-like roar; having the powerful frame of a lion, he directly embraced a full confrontation with that audacious brute. While all of Vraja was agitatedly running behind him, the horse saw that, and with a galloping stride called utteritā, furiously lunged at him without delay, wherein— / Transcending the sky, he leaped forward, / and opened his mouth as though to swallow it; / whatever he struck with his pair of hooves, / Hari dealt with by counter-strikes. // And then— / Swiftly raising this huge creature, whose hooves and tail were thrashing / and whose cluster of hairs was bristling, as though it were a tuft of grass, / he hurled him ahead to a spot marked at a distance of a hundred bow-lengths, / just as a host of ocean waves hurls a ball of sea-foam. // Having regained consciousness, he rose again at that moment, / and opening his mouth, he charged swiftly at Hari. / He too, smiling, thrust his left arm into his mouth, / just as a serpent [enters] the mouth of a great frog. // Like a divine serpent, Kṛṣṇa’s arm visibly swelled in the cavity / of his throat out of heroic sentiment; / and struck as if by the flame of deadly poison, / his teeth then fell out from its brilliance. // His teeth fell out, all his sense faculties were shattered, / and his body shook violently; / old age, rising at that moment, / surely stood there awaiting his death. // When that arm of his choked his throat, / then all his limbs split apart, / as if out of sheer grief for it, / since they depend upon it alone in every way. // Did his vital breaths flee away, / thinking that Kṛṣṇa's club-like arm / entering Keśin's throat was the consumer / of the life-breath of the entire universe? //JGc_1,32_10// 'This single door named the throat is blocked; / I shall make many doors for my departure'— / was it thinking this that the host of his life-breaths / made openings all around and then departed from it? // When his life-breath had departed from the house of his body, / Kṛṣṇa's arm came out, resembling an honored guest; / and without its master, that house / fell to pieces, destroyed by fate. // When he withdrew his arm from the cavity of Keśin's throat, / it returned to its natural form, / like a divine arrow after destroying [its mark]. //

That dung was discharged by him in the end is said to be fitting; / for the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, which effects liberation for such as him, is entirely beyond logical reasoning. // Some describe Keśin's body as split in two like Jarāsandha; / others describe it as split in two like a cucumber. // [22] Thus, when the horse-demon had obtained duality in body but non-duality in his true nature, the utterance of the joyful gods, who scattered flowers and understood Kṛṣṇa's intention, was as follows: / 'You opened your mouth at once to swallow my entire body, / and I placed my arm in your throat to measure it; / if you lost your life from that alone, / then, O proud horse, alas, why did you perform such a rash act all of a sudden?' // Thus.

Then Vraja, like the ocean,
repeatedly raising a roaring tumult, gladly surrounded Hari, who stood like a mountain;
and he shed tears of joy like rain,
resembling a mountain stream, and poured it upon the surface of the earth. ||17
[23] Then all, being filled with longing, having Kṛṣṇa seated in their midst, by the sweetness of the gradations of their love obtained an intermediate place inwardly according to their respective standing; and though separated by the end of him, those fortunate ones, imagining themselves to be right next to him, and thinking through embrace that he alone was none other, experienced an array of ecstatic transformations. [24] And then, after a few moments, with their external consciousness returned, they, accompanied by Kṛṣṇa, went to the Yamunā’s landing-ghāṭ and bathed; which indeed the foremost of holy men to this day recognize as Keśi-tīrtha; and having resorted to another ghāṭ on the bank fashioned with heaps of tree-trunks, a little near to the upstream current of the daughter of the Sun, they rested to relieve that fatigue. And this second ghāṭ is declared by the elders to be Cena-ghaṭṭa and by the moderns to be Cīra-ghaṭṭa; for "cena" is the Mathurā vernacular word for the pleasure of rest. [25] And having rested, thoroughly understanding that this destruction of Keśin was an indication of the fall of Kaṃsa, rejoicing doubly in bloom with delightful joy, surrounding Śrī Govinda who was praised by the foremost of bards whose faces danced as they spread his fame and who experienced inward joy, those people of Vraja, following the glorious lord of Vraja,
first brought together the herd of cattle.
When the "hī-hī" cry of the milkers arose there,
that sound of Kṛṣṇa's was distinctly perceived,
just like the pleasant, deep rumble of a cloud
amid the loud roar of heavy showers of rain. ||18
[26] Then those cattle-owners, such as the young prince of Vraja, who had conquered Indra, followed each their own herd of kine, and the king of Vraja and the elders alone returned to Vraja.

[27] Kaṃsa, however, hearing even of the destruction of Keśin, his mind agitated, did not emerge from his palace, like a sickly man. [28] Now the conclusion:
O lord of Vraja, this son of yours, whose desires are fulfilled,
here made Keśin into a neighbor of Yama.

Thus ends the thirty-second chapter, entitled "The Praise of the Destruction of Keśin," in the auspicious Gopālacampū. ||32