Harivamsha 65

English (machine translation) 65

Language: English

65.1

Vaiśaṃpāyana said: / Hearing that Kṛṣṇa was thriving in Vraja like a waxing fire, / Kaṃsa fell into agitation, dreading imminent danger from him.

65.2

When Pūtanā had been slain and Kāliya vanquished, / when Dhenuka was brought to ruin and Pralamba brought down,

65.3

when Govardhana was held aloft and Śakra's command was rendered futile, / and when the cattle were saved through an enviable deed,

65.4

when the humped bull Ariṣṭa was slain and the cowherds rejoiced, / his own ruin becoming visible and a great terror drawing near,

65.5

and hearing of that unthinkable deed—the uprooting of two trees / by a child performing superhuman acts—and that his enemies were flourishing,

65.6

the lord of Mathurā regarded himself as one who had met misfortune; / his mind and senses stunned, he became like one whose life was gone.

65.7

Then the ruler of men, whose rule was harsh, having summoned his kinsmen and his father / at night when Mathurā was quiet and still,

65.8

and having called god-like Vasudeva and the Yādava Kahva, / Satyaka, Dāruka, and Kahva's younger brother,

65.9

Bhoja, Vaitaraṇa, and the mighty Vikadru, / King Bhayesakha, and Vipṛthu of great splendor,

65.10

Babhru, the lord of gifts, Kṛtavarman, / and the unshakeable Bhūriśravas of abundant splendor—

65.11

addressing all these Yādavas and saying "Listen!", / King, son of Ugrasena, the lord of Mathurā spoke:

65.12

"You know all affairs, you are skilled in all sacred sciences, / versed in justice and statecraft, promotors of the threefold aim.

65.13

You are performers of duty, equal to gods among men, / steadfast like mountains, established in noble conduct,

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firmly established in great conduct like unshakeable mountains.

65.14

All of you are free from deceit, devoted to weighty tasks, / keepers of royal counsel, and all masters of archery.

65.15

Beacons of fame for the worlds, eager to explain the meaning of the Vedas, / knowers of the nature of the stages of life, masters of the order of castes,

65.16

eloquent, well-disciplined, leaders who see sound policy, / destroyers of hostile kingdoms, protectors of those seeking refuge.

65.17

By you, of unblemished conduct, splendid, and ever rising higher, / heaven itself would be graced, how much more so the earth!

65.18

Your conduct is like that of the seers, your power like that of the Maruts, / your wrath like that of the Rudras, and your radiance like that of the Āṅgirasas.

65.19

By you heroes of renowned fame, the vast Yadu clan, / though turning aside, has been upheld, like the surface of the earth by mountains.

65.20

While you are qualified and obedient to my heart, / why have you overlooked this misfortune that is growing against me?

65.21

This boy known as Kṛṣṇa, the son of the cowherd Nanda in Vraja, / rising like a raincloud, cuts away at our roots.

65.22

For because I was ministerless, isolated, and blind to intelligence, / that son has been sheltered in the home of the cowherd Nanda.

65.23

Like a disease neglected, like a cloud filling up, / like a thundering cloud at the end of the hot season, that evil-minded one increases.

65.24

I know not the course, nor the yoga, nor the ultimate nature / of this worker of wonders born in the house of the cowherd Nanda.

65.25

We do not know what being or offspring of a god has arisen; / he is inferred by his superhuman deeds transcending even the gods.

65.26

In infancy, the terrible bird-demoness Pūtanā / was sucked dry along with her life-breaths by him, an infant desiring to drink milk from her breast.

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Likewise, by that child in play with the big toe of his foot,

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while lying in his bed, the cart was overturned.

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Likewise, by that mighty child, two very huge trees born together,

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the twin arjuna trees, were broken down, roots and branches together.

65.27

So too, the serpent Kāliya was subdued in the pool of the Yamunā / and driven in an instant from the pool to dwell in the underworld; / and using his yoga, Nanda's son emerged once more.

Dhenuka was hurled lifeless from the top of a palm tree; / and his elder brother, the mighty and fierce Balabhadra— / struck down Pralamba with a single fist like an ordinary mortal, / whom the gods could not even bear to face in battle."

65.30

Having ruined the festival of Vāsava, he made Gokula free of water / from the rain born of Vāsava's rage, and held aloft Mount Govardhana.

65.31

The mighty Ariṣṭa was slain and made hornless in the cow-station. / By what human form, indeed, could Mount Govardhana / be lifted up in a cow-station? Truly, I know of nothing more wondrous than that. / All this is exceedingly wondrous: the rain produced by Vāsava / was warded off for seven days—what wonder could be greater than this? / Though no child, he has assumed childhood and sports with childish play.

65.32

This unbroken succession of deeds belongs to that dweller of the cow-station; / and imminent danger is surely close at hand for Keśin and for me.

65.33

He was certainly my death in a former life, belonging to a previous body; / for longing for battle, he seems to stand directly before me.

65.34

Where is the inauspicious condition of a cowherd, human existence frail with death, / and where is playing with the power of a god in my pasture?

65.35

Ah, concealing his own body with a lowly form, / what god is this who sports like fire dwelling in a cremation ground?

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Ah, let the best of Yādavas speak with concentrated minds!

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This too, I think, is something else to be heard, O bulls of the Yadus.

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Just as I do, so do you know the whole story.

65.36

For it is heard that formerly Viṣṇu, for the sake of the gods on another occasion, / took away this earth in the form of a dwarf.

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Keśava then gave it over, it is said, to the king of the gods.

65.37

Assuming the form of a lion, by powerful Viṣṇu / Hiraṇyakaśipu, the grandfather of the Dānavas, was slain.

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Having slain the Dānava in battle, Hari made [another] king.

65.38

Assuming an unthinkable form on the crest of the White Mountain, / the Daityas were displaced by Bhava formerly while slaying Tripura.

65.39

Bhārgava, protected by the son of Guru, indeed the descendant of Aṅgiras, / entered into the illusory power of the Asuras and brought about a drought.

65.40

The endless, eternal god, the imperishable thousand-faced one, / assumed the form of a boar and drew up the earth from the ocean.

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Hari gave over the earth with its mountains and forests to Śakra.

65.41

Formerly, when the nectar of immortality was produced, Viṣṇu assumed the form of a woman / and brought about a very terrible battle between the gods and the Asuras.

65.42

And formerly, when the gods and Daityas assembled for the sake of the nectar, / Viṣṇu supported Mount Mandara as a tortoise (Akūpāra)—so states sacred tradition.

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Assuming a dwarf's body, a contemptible body, in former times,

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with three strides he took away the three worlds, the abode of the gods.

65.43

Dividing his splendor fourfold in the house of the son of Daśaratha, / he alone, known by the name of Rāma, then destroyed Rāvaṇa.

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That very same blessed Viṣṇu, having become the son of Bhṛgu,

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slew the son of Kṛtavīrya with a sharp battle-axe.

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Having slain the foremost kṣatriyas on earth thrice seven times,

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he gave it, they say, to Kāśyapa at a horse-sacrifice.

65.44

Thus he, indeed through contrivance, assumes one form after another / and accomplishes his purpose for the achievement of the gods' aims.

65.45

Therefore, this is surely Viṣṇu, or Śakra the best of the Maruts, / arrived with the desire to subdue me, as Nārada told me.

65.46

Here my mind suspects Vasudeva, O lord; / by the superiority of his intellect we have fallen into cowardice.

65.47

For I met with Nārada in the Khaṭvāṅga forest, / and that brahmin spoke a word to me again a second time:

65.48

‘The great effort undertaken by you, O Kaṃsa, on account of the embryos / was made fruitless by Vasudeva in the night.

65.49

The infant girl who was dashed by you upon the rock at night, O Kaṃsa— / know her to be Yaśodā's daughter, and Kṛṣṇa to be born of Vasudeva.

65.50

Those two embryos were exchanged at night for your slaying / by Vasudeva, an enemy in the guise of a friend, having made a scheme.’

65.51

Now that maiden of Yaśodā, having slain both Śumbha and Niśumbha, / the two Dānavas who roamed the mountain, on the Vindhya, best of mountains,

65.52

consecrated, bestowing boons, served by hosts of spirits, / is worshipped by fierce outlaws, fond of sacrifices of large beasts,

65.53

adorned with two jars filled with liquor and flesh, / and decorated with diverse peacock armlets and loads of peacock feathers.

65.54

The forest resounds with wild roosters and is filled with the cries of crows; / it is full of flocks of goats and birds living without enmity.

65.55

Echoing with the roar of lions, tigers, and boars, / dense and impenetrable with trees, it is surrounded on all sides by wild wilderness.

65.56

Adorned with divine golden vessels, fly-whisks, and mirrors, / and echoed hundreds of times by the sounds of divine musical instruments, / her abode on Mount Vindhya was fashioned by her own splendor.

65.57

Generating terror in her enemies, she constantly dwells there, in that delightful place, / exceedingly delighted, worshipped even by the gods.

65.58

As for this one who is called the son of the cowherd Nanda, Kṛṣṇa— / concerning him Nārada told me a very great deed as the cause:

65.59

‘A second Vāsudeva will be born from Vasudeva; / he will be your natural death and will be your kinsman.’

65.60

He is indeed that powerful Vāsudeva, the son of Vasudeva, / a kinsman by dharma to me, but in his heart an enemy, my ender.

65.61

For just as a crow stands on the head of a man with its feet, / and pecks at the very eyes of that man with its beak, greedy for flesh,

65.62

so also this Vasudeva, along with his son and kinsmen, / cuts at my roots while eating at my side.

65.63

Even the slaying of an embryo may be atoned for, or the killing of a cow or the killing of a woman; / but there is no world for one who is ungrateful, especially toward a kinsman.

65.64

He quickly follows the path pursued by fallen men, / who, ungrateful by nature, bears a cruel affection.

65.65

That cruel path inhabited by hell must be trodden by him, / who, evil-hearted toward the sinless, commits an evil deed.

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He goes to a dreadful hell, from which a return is hard to attain.

65.66

Am I the praiseworthy kinsman, or is he the more praiseworthy son, / according to obligations, according to conduct toward elders, or through your desire for kinship?

65.67

In a fierce quarrel between elephants, creepers suffer destruction; / but when the battle ceases, they eat together in the great forest.

65.68

So also among kinsmen when a time of division arises: / he who seeks an opening is killed, and one's own people undergo ruin.

65.69

For knowingly I nourished you, Kali, for my destruction! / Go, go as you please, Vasudeva, lowest of men! // That wretched lump of food was given when knowingly I gave to you; / if that had been given to dogs, it would bring me greater good! / Since, Vasudeva, you vehemently bring discord to this house, / resentful, prone to enmity, ever evil-minded, and deceitful!

Linked texts (1)

Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit