Bhagavatapurana 10.37
English (machine translation) 10.37
- Language
- English
Contents
10.37.1
Śrī Śuka said: / But Keśī, dispatched by Kaṃsa, a great steed swift as thought, / tearing up the earth with his hooves, / scattering clouds and heavenly chariots with his tossing mane, terrified all with his neighing.
10.37.2
As he terrified his Gokula, whirling the clouds with his neighs and tail, / seeking Him out for battle, the foremost of all, the Lord, / challenged him; and he roared like a lion.
10.37.3
Seeing Him, furious, as if drinking the sky with his open mouth, he rushed headlong, / and, fierce in speed, difficult to approach and hard to overcome, / struck the lotus-eyed Lord with his hind legs.
10.37.4
Dodging that blow, Adhokṣaja angrily seized him by the legs with both hands, / whirled him around, cast him disdainfully a hundred bow-lengths away, and stood firm like Garuḍa tossing a serpent.
10.37.4.p1
Having regained consciousness, rising up again in rage, Keśī opened his mouth wide and charged swiftly at Hari.
10.37.5
He, smiling, thrust His left arm into his mouth, as if a serpent into a hole.
10.37.5.p1
[…]
10.37.5.p2
Touching the Lord’s arm, Keśī’s teeth fell out / as if touching heated iron,
10.37.5.p3
touching the Lord’s arm, Keśī’s teeth fell out / as if touching heated iron;
10.37.6
and the great-souled Lord’s arm inside his body / expanded like a neglected disease.
10.37.6.p1
[…]
10.37.7
With his breath choked by the swelling arm of Kṛṣṇa, kicking his legs, / his body drenched in sweat, his eyes rolling back, he voided dung and fell lifeless to the ground.
10.37.8
Pulling His arm out of that lifeless body which had split like a ripe cucumber, the mighty-armed Lord / felt no wonder at slaying his enemy effortlessly, and was praised by the gods showering rainfalls of flowers.
10.37.9
Approaching Him, O King, the divine seer, foremost of Bhāgavatas, / spoke this in secret to Kṛṣṇa, whose deeds are performed without toil:
10.37.10
"O Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa of immeasurable self, Master of yoga, Lord of the universe, / Vāsudeva, abode of all, foremost of the Sātvatas, O Master!
10.37.11
You are the one Self of all beings, like fire within firewood; / hidden, abiding in the cave of the heart, the witness, the Supreme Person, the Lord.
10.37.12
Resting on Yourself alone, by Yourself You first projected the gunas through Your creative power; / through them, You of infallible will create, consume, and protect this world, O Sovereign.
10.37.13
That very You have descended to destroy the Daityas, Pramathas, and Rākṣasas / who burden the earth, and to protect the virtuous.
10.37.14
By good fortune this Daitya in the form of a horse has been killed by You in play— / he by whose neighing the gods, terrified, fled heaven.
10.37.15
The day after tomorrow, O mighty Lord, I shall see Cāṇūra and Muṣṭika, / the other wrestlers, the elephant, and Kaṃsa slain by You.
10.37.16
After that, [I shall see] the killing of Śaṅkha, the Yavana, Mura, and Naraka, / the carrying off of the Pārijāta tree, and the defeat of Indra;
10.37.17
the marriage to heroic maidens won by displays of prowess and other signs, / the release of Nṛga from his curse in Dvārakā, O Lord of the world;
10.37.18
the taking of the Syamantaka jewel together with a bride, / and the returning of the brāhmaṇa's dead son from Your own abode;
10.37.19
then the slaying of Pauṇḍraka, the burning of the city of Kāśī, / the destruction of Dantavakra, and of Śiśupāla at the great sacrifice.
10.37.20
And whatever other heroic deeds You will perform while dwelling in Dvārakā, / to be sung by poets on earth, I shall behold them all.
10.37.21
Then, as You assume the form of Time intent on destroying it, / acting as Arjuna's charioteer, I will see the destruction of this host of armies.
10.37.21.p1
Him who is a mass of pure consciousness, established in His own nature, / who has realized all purposes, whose desire is never unfulfilled,
10.37.22
who by His own radiance has eternally turned away the stream of the modes of creative power—to that Lord we approach with reverence."
10.37.22.p1
[…]
10.37.23
I bow down to you, the Lord, your own support, who by your own creative power have constructed all manifold distinctions, / who have now assumed a human form for play, the foremost leader of the Yadus, Vṛṣṇis, and Sātvatas.
10.37.24
Śrī Śuka said: / Having thus bowed down to Kṛṣṇa, the lord of the Yadus, the sage, foremost among the devotees of the Lord, took his leave and departed, joyful with the festival of seeing him.
10.37.25
The Lord Govinda too, having slain Keśin in battle, / protected the cattle together with the delighted cowherds, bringing joy to Vraja.
10.37.26
Once, as those cowherds were grazing the cattle on the slopes of the mountain, / they played the game of hide-and-seek under the guise of thieves and keepers.
10.37.27
There some were thieves, O king, and some were keepers, / and some there acted as sheep; thus, free from fear, they played.
10.37.28
Vyoma, the son of Maya, a master of great illusion, assuming the guise of a cowherd, / acted as a thief and carried away many of those who were playing sheep.
10.37.29
Throwing each one he carried off into a mountain cave, the great asura / blocked the entrance with a boulder, until only four or five were left.
10.37.30
Knowing his deed, Kṛṣṇa, the giver of refuge to the virtuous devotees, / seized him by his might as he was leading away the cowherds, just as a lion seizes a wolf.
10.37.31
Assuming his own form, huge as a prince of mountains, the powerful demon / wished to free himself, but seized fast, was unable to do so.
10.37.32
Grabbing him with both arms and throwing him down on the surface of the earth, / Acyuta slaughtered him like a sacrificial beast while the gods watched from the sky.
10.37.33
Breaking open the cave’s barrier and leading the cowherds out from their plight, / he entered his own Gokula, praised by the gods and cowherds.
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit