Harivamsha 60
English (machine translation) 60
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60.1
Vaiśaṃpāyana said:
Having heard the words of Dāmodara, those who live by cattle were delighted; / accounting his speech as nectar, they replied without hesitation:
60.2
"Child, this great intellect of yours, increasing the joy of the cowherds, / pleases all of us and brings prosperity to men.
60.3
You are our refuge, you are our joy, you are our knower, you are our highest resort; / you grant us freedom from fear in dangers, and you are the friend of friends.
60.4
Because of you, Kṛṣṇa, this settlement lives in security, with a joyful herd of cattle, / its enemies entirely subdued, just as if it had gone to heaven.
60.5
From your very birth, by those divine, heroic deeds hard to perform on earth, / and from our recognition [of them] and our pride [in you], our minds are filled with wonder.
60.6
In supreme strength, fame, and prowess, / you are the highest among mortals, like Puraṃdara among the gods.
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In fiery majesty and in full brilliance,
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you are the highest among mortals, like the sun among the gods.
60.7
In loveliness, splendor, grace, face, and smile, / you are the highest among mortals, like the moon among the gods.
60.8
In appearance, bodily form, youthfulness, and conduct, / the Spear-Wielder might be your equal, but no human being at all.
60.9
As for the speech you have spoken regarding the sacrifice to the mountain, O Lord, / who could overstep it, any more than [one could overstep] the shore of the great ocean?
60.10
Let the festival of Śakra wait, dear child; let this glorious mountain festival, / initiated by you today, proceed for the sake of the cowherds and the cattle.
60.11
Let savory foods made of milk be prepared, / and let fine jars be placed at the wells, / and broad, large troughs for the sake of milk-rice to be licked.
60.12
Hard food, soft food, and drink—let all that be brought forward; / and let vessels of meat and boiled rice be set down, / and let the milk-yield of the entire settlement be gathered for three nights.
60.13
And let the animals that are fit for food, such as buffaloes and others, be slaughtered; / and let this sacrifice proceed, crowded with all the cowherds."
60.14
The great settlement, with its joyful herd of cattle, gave rise to jubilation / through the sounds of musical instruments and the roars of bulls,
60.15
and through the lowing cries of calves, increasing the joy of the cowherds; / with a lake of curd, an eddy of clarified butter, filled with streams of milk,
60.16
richly furnished with heaps of meat, with a visible mountain of boiled rice, / that sacrifice to the mountain proceeded, crowded with cattle, / filled with contented cowherds, charming to the cowherd women.
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Heaps of sweetmeats by the hundreds were prepared there,
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along with various fragrant garlands and incense of every kind.
60.17
Then, when the preparations had reached the perimeter and the sacrificial rites were complete, / on an auspicious lunar day, the cowherds performed the sacrifice to the mountain together with the twice-born.
60.18
At the conclusion of the sacrifice, Kṛṣṇa, through his power of illusion having become the mountain, / consumed that food, that milk, that finest curd, and the meat.
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Such indeed was the [fortune] of the cowherds there, O bull of the Bharatas!
60.19
And the foremost brahmins, satisfied and pleased with a complete meal, / having spoken blessings, arose at their ease with delighted minds.
60.20
And at the concluding bath, having eaten and drunk milk to his heart’s content, / Kṛṣṇa, saying, "I am fully satisfied!", laughed aloud in a divine form.
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Standing upon the summit of the mountain, the lotus-eyed one laughed aloud.
60.21
Seeing him standing upon the mountain summit, possessing the form of a mountain, / adorned with divine garlands and unguents, the cowherds approached Kṛṣṇa chief among them.
60.22
The Lord, the master, covered also in his own [human] form, / bowed down together with those cowherds and worshipped himself through himself.
60.23
The amazed cowherds said to that god standing upon the best of mountains: / "O Lord, we are devoted to your command; as your servants and attendants, what shall we do?"
60.24
The mountain then spoke to the cowherds in a splendid voice: / "From this day forward, I am to be worshipped with sacrifice, if you have compassion for the cows.
60.25
I am your foremost god, the fulfiller of all desires, benevolent; / and by my power, you shall enjoy tens of thousands of cows.
60.26
And I shall be benevolent to you, my devotees, in forest after forest; / and I shall sport with you, just like an inhabitant of heaven.
60.27
And to these renowned cowherds who stand here, Nandagopa and the others, / I, well pleased, grant abundant wealth to these cowherds.
60.28
Let the cows, accompanied by their calves, quickly encompass me; / thus my supreme delight will come to be, there is no doubt."
60.29
Then, for the rite of waving lights, the herds of cattle in groups, / along with bulls by the thousands, encircled the best of mountains.
60.30
Those cows, yielding milk for their calves, adorned with wreaths and clusters of flowers as armlets, / with garlands and chaplets on the tips of their horns, [came] by the hundreds and thousands.
60.31
And the cowherds followed, driving the herds, / their limbs anointed with decorative designs, wearing red, yellow, and black garments.
60.32
Wearing armlets bright as peacocks, their arms covered with weapons, / with their hair skillfully tied up with stalks of peacock feathers, / the cowherds shone exceedingly in that wonderful assembly.
60.33
Some mounted bulls, while others danced in joy; / yet other swift-moving cowherds took hold of cows.
60.34
When that festival of waving lights for the cattle had been duly completed, / that mountain quickly vanished with that body.
60.35
Kṛṣṇa too, standing among the cowherds, entered the cow-settlement, / marveling at that wonder brought about by the mountain sacrifice.
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The cowherds, young and old alike, praised the Slayer of Madhu.
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Dancing and singing, together with Kṛṣṇa they went to the cow-settlement.
Linked texts (1)
- Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit