Bhagavatam tenth canto study 69 – 10.12.29-36 – Krishna fulfilled the desire of the gopas to have Agha’s body as a plaything

We will continue in our next session.
Bhagavatam 10.12.29 The Killing of the Demon Ghasur तदागन्चदादेवा भयाद्धाहेति चुक्रुषुहु जहर्षुर्येच कमसाद्यः कौणपास्त्व अगपान्धवः तदागन्चदादेवा At that time, the gods had been hiding behind the clouds because they were fearful that a Ghasur might spot them and if he saw that they were cheering his opponent, he might get angry with them and he might wreak his vengeance on them. So, from behind the clouds they were observing. It requires courage to come out with our convictions in public.
It’s relatively always easier to watch which side the winds are blowing and hedge our bets till then and be a fence-sitter and then back the winning horse. Now, yes, if it’s a matter of, say, practically choosing between two options, that’s one thing, but when it’s a matter of our integrity and when we compromise that so that we can choose the winning horse, then we are maybe backing the winning horse, but we are making ourselves into a losing horse to hedge our bets and to back the winning horse. When the winning horse is unprincipled, is against our integrity, then we are making ourselves into the losing horse by this.
Of course, the devatas were being cautious here, fearful also. So, they felt fear on seeing Krishna enter into the mouth of Allah. It’s like somebody whom we are counting on in a war, if a great hero seems to be overcome by the opponent, then all those who cheer the hero, all those who are depending on the hero, will become fearful, because the death of the hero means that after that their own death will also follow.
So, they started lamenting, ha ha, what is this, alas, alas, they explained, and then, at the same time, Kamsa and other demons, agabandhavaha, they became jubilant. Now, it’s interesting that we could say that the devatas have a capacity to perceive things from a higher perspective, and thus we can say they had a live telecast of what was going on, but what about the others? How could Kamsa and others see? Here we could say that they could have had some spies, or they might also have some mystic vision. The important point here is that the same action led to contrasting responses, and those contrasting responses point to conflicting loyalties, and accordingly their reactions are coming out here.
So, Krishna, if he gets destroyed, the demons will rejoice, and the gods will lament. That’s what seems to have happened. Krishna allows demons to temporarily put the upper hand on him, but that is just a part of his play, till he again reasserts himself decisively and triumphantly.
So, text 30, tashvatva bhagavan, Krishna’s, avyaya sarbhavatsakam, chur nikhirsor atmanam, tarasavavruddhe gale, tashvatva bhagavan, Krishna’s, on hearing this, the Lord Krishna, what do you do? avyaya sarbhavatsakam, avyaya, he is imperishable, he is undefeatable, he is invincible, sarbhavatsakam, along with the cowherd boys and the cows, they had all entered into the mouth of Aghasura, but chur nikhirsor, they had entered into the mouth, and from there he wanted to swallow them and send them into his abdomen, and in that abdomen he would destroy them, he would digest them, he would destroy them, that way, atmanam, tarasavavruddhe gale, so Krishna wanting to free his gopas and cows from danger, and also to relieve the devatas of fear, Krishna acted, and the way he acted was that he enlarged his size to huge proportions. You see, Hanuman also did something similar, but that was when he was faced with Sindhika, and actually what he did over there was that, before entering into her, he made his mouth big, so she also saw that and she tried to make her mouth bigger, so Hanuman made his body big, and then it was a competition among both of them, so there, because Hanuman was outside and she could see Hanuman making his body big, so she could also make her mouth big, but in this case, Krishna had entered into the body of Aghasura, and thus, Aghasura couldn’t anticipate what was happening, suddenly he thought that, I have won, and unlike Sindhika who could prepare and enlarge her mouth, Aghasura got no opportunity because he couldn’t see Krishna inside, and therefore, he was shocked, he was alarmed, he was agonized, so he also tried to do his, he tried to extend, but Krishna extended suddenly and rapidly, extended his body, that’s described in the next text, text 31, tato atikāyasya niruddha-mārgino ya udgīrṇa-dṛṣṭe brahma-tastvaitas tathā pūrṇo antaraṅge pavano niruddho mūrdhan vinirbhitya-vinirgato bahi tato atikāyasya niruddha-mārgino So, in this way, Krishna took action, and then the demon also increased his size, niruddha-mārgino, but still, because Krishna’s size had become so great, so he, the pathways for his body, they all became blocked, his body, he felt suffocated, mārga, niruddha, all the doors, the passageway through which air would come, that got blocked, and like that, he started feeling suffocated. Itas tathā, his eyeballs started rolling here and there, udgīrṇa-dṛṣṭe, normally, when we encounter something unexpected, that’s the time when we become overwhelmed, and we can’t do anything.
So, the eyes popped out. Brahma tathā, itas tathā, as his eyeballs and his life air started moving desperately, pūrno antaraṅge pavano niruddha His life air could not pass through any outlet, it just got stopped inside itself, mūrdhan vinirbhitya-vinirgato bahi and in his head it created a hole, and it burst out from the hole in the top of his head. The point is that he died.
So, if we consider this, Krishna uses different strategies to kill different people. Normally, we might say, some people might choke someone. So, one way to choke is by, say, pressing on the neck tightly.
But another way to choke could be that, go inside the body. And the alimentary canal is used for eating as well as for breathing. So, Aghāsura would not have thought that such a danger would come upon me, but it came.
And as Krishna increased his size, he covered his alimentary canal, and therefore he just couldn’t eat. When Aghāsura became choked and life air had to go through somewhere, life air burst through his mouth, through the top of his head, mūrdhana, and thus he fell dead. So, when through that hole in the top of his head, the life air passed out, then what did Krishna do? prāṇeśvat-sāṅsura-dāpare-tān So, Krishna looked at the cows and the cowherds who were very dear to him, pare-tān, they had already died.
Inside the body of the snake was so toxic, the toxic effects, the Gopās entered cheerfully, but within moments they died. But Krishna revived them. When he glanced over them, he brought them back to life.
And then, accompanied by them, He again came out of the mouth. So, the mouth was still open, but life air had been blocked. So, on the top of his body, life air came out, and then he, Krishna, came out of the mouth, nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened.
This is the extraordinary power of Krishna in destroying demons. prāṇeśvat-sāṅsura-dāpare-tān avasthitam īśa-nirgamam viveśitasmin miśitām divaukasām vināhi bhagavatyatam So, now something wonderful happened. From that great serpent’s body, actually, which was aibhoga-uttitam.
It was a material body meant for materialistic purposes. The demon had lived demonically for sensuality. adbhutam mahājyoti here.
A wonderful great effulgence came. So dham na jvalayat. And it was self-effulgent, it was blazing.
Disha disha pratiksha. It was illuminating all the directions and it waited in the sky. Pratiksha khe avasthitam ish nirgamam.
And ish nirgamam. And as soon as Aghasur had died, this light came out of his body and the light waited outside till Krishna came out. And then vivesha tasmin shitam, divau kasam, vivesha tasmin, entered into his body while divau kasam, while all the devatas were observing.
So this was another extraordinary phenomenon. So Krishna’s killing the demon was extraordinary. But Aghasur’s soul or the spirit from his body coming out and then entering into Krishna was even more astonishing.
And not only did it happen, but it happened with Krishna after he came out and thus the devatas also saw this happening. And this indicates that actually because Aghasur was killed by Krishna, so Aghasur attained sahitya liberation. So here the attainment of liberation by Aghasur is indicative of the magnitude of the purifying potency of Krishna.
It was not that Aghasur was pure, but rather Aghasur was hugely impure. But because Krishna is all pure, because Vishwacharya Datta explains that because Aghasur let Krishna enter into him, so Krishna let Aghasur enter into him. Ye tha maam prapadyante.
This is how Krishna reciprocated. So this echoes the theme in the 7th canto where Yudhishthira Maharaj asked Narada Muni about how Shishupala was liberated when he had been so envious and blasphemous of Krishna. There also they had seen an effulgence come out of his body and enter into Krishna’s body.
See here also something similar is described and this is because Krishna is so merciful. Aghasur was thinking of Krishna and it is not so much because he was thinking of Krishna, but because Krishna is merciful that whoever Krishna kills, he delivers them. That’s how he attained Krishna.
Of course he attained Krishna’s impersonal effulgence. Now specific destination that he attained is something which can be up for discussion. Different Acharyas can comment in different ways.
But if we stick to the Bhagavatam, what we see over there is that this effulgence comes out of Aghasur’s body and enters into Krishna’s body. That means something extraordinary has happened and more important the specifics of what the extraordinary thing that has happened, the significance of that extraordinary thing is much more defining. The specifics of the extraordinary event are important that where did Aghasur go after entering Krishna’s body, but more than that the significance of the event itself that how could a demon have the opportunity to enter into Krishna’s body, that itself is indicative of Krishna’s mercy and the Bhagavatam demonstrates this mercy of Krishna through this narration.
Text 34. Tatto atihrishta swakato kotarhanam pushpaisuga apsarasas chanartane geetai suravadya dharas chavadya kai sthavaischa viprajayanisvanairgana So thereafter, Tato, Athirishta, everybody became very pleased, Swakrta executed their own particular duty. They started executing Arhanam.
What was their duty? In their own particular way, they started worshipping the Lord, Pushpai, Sugha. So the devatas showered flowers from the Nandakarana gardens. In the Nandakarana gardens, Sugha, the celestial singers started singing, Apsara, Apsarashtra, the celestial singers started dancing, Chinartanai, they started dancing, Geetai, Suravadidharash, Geetai, celestial songs were being sung by the devatas, Vadidhara, with a particular instrument that they would play, Vadyakaha, the instrument players were playing the instruments respectively.
Then the Savaishya Vipra and the Vipras, the Brahmanas started chanting prayers, chanting Vedic hymns to praise the Lord. So in this way, Jainishvanair Gana, Jainishvanair, in this way everybody was glorifying the Supreme Lord. That is the magic of Krishna’s power that once he removes the danger that is posed by the existence and the malevolence of demons, once that is removed, then everybody starts doing their duties.
And the central duty of all living beings is to use their particular abilities to glorify the Supreme Lord. And when demonic influence becomes prominent, such glorification may decrease temporarily, but by Krishna’s grace, when the demonic influence is countered, then such glorification resumes. And that’s what has happened.
Everybody has started jubilantly glorifying Krishna. That is our constitutional position. The part is meant to play the part of the whole, play the part of the part and glorify the whole.
When the part offers its whole to the supreme whole, the part experiences wholeness. Not that the part becomes the whole, but the part becomes full, experiences fullness. So that is demonstrated.
So basically, demonic influence keeps the part separate from the whole. But when demonic influence is countered, the part unites with the part, links with the whole. And when the part uses its whole energy to play its part, then the whole, wholly fills the whole in the heart of the part.
This is how we experience completeness. So here everybody is glorifying Krishna. Then text 35.
In this way, with wonderful verses they glorified Krishna. Musical sounds and drums were played, songs were sung. There was praising, many many different celebrations for glorifying the Lord were undertaken, took place.
Mangalasvanan. Transcendental sounds were chanted by a river, Mangalashitva, Swadhamno Antya. Hearing those sounds, the sounds were so sweet and so widespread, that from his own abode Brahma heard this, Antya Aji Agataha.
Brahmaji came over there very soon. Drishtva Mahi Eshasya Jagam Bismayam. And on seeing the glory and the glorification of Krishna, he was astounded.
So the glory and the glorification of Krishna astounded Brahma. Glorification means how all the worlds were singing his glory and singing his praises. And glory refers to the fact that he had killed the demon, such a powerful demon so effortlessly.
So we don’t have to seek glory or glorification. If we just try to focus on service, whatever Krishna wants, glory will come, sometimes the glorification will come. But for Krishna, because he’s all famous, glory and glorification are there in his fullness with him.
Now this Brahmaji coming over here is indicative of the next chapter and the pastime that we described over there. Here, next chapter will be the Brahma Vimohan. There are two chapters.
So here it is described. Rajan Aajgaram Charama Sushkam Vrindavani Adbhutam Prajaukasam Bahutitham Babhuva Kridhagavaram So, okay, Maharaj Parikshit. Aajgaram Charama.
So the dead body of the demon Aghasura. So his body, after he died, his body became dried and it became a skin. Sushkam.
Completely dried out. Vrindavani Adbhutam. It became like an exhibit in Vrindavan.
That’s interesting. Normally, nobody considers corpses to be exhibits. Of course, in some places, skeletons may be decorated like in Halloween and other times and they look attractive if they are any attractive.
But normally, by nature itself, when somebody dies, the body doesn’t become attractive. But here, because Krishna had been the cause of the death of Aghasura just as earlier, Putana’s body had become fragrant. So, Aghasura’s body became a playground.
So what the Vrajagopas had desired earlier to play, they had thought, is this a plaything? So Krishna fulfilled their desire by making the dead body of Aghasura into a plaything for them. So Adbhutam, it is a wondrous plaything. Vrindavani Adbhutam Prajaukasam Bahutitham And for many days, for the Vrajavasis, Babhuva Kriya Gahavaram, it became like a cave in which they could play, in which they could perform, do various sports.
So Krishna is so sensitive that he fulfills every desire of his devotees. Krishna is Satya Sankalpa. His desire becomes reality.
And if a devotee has a sincere desire and Krishna is pleased with that desire, Krishna fulfills that desire also. So what the Gopas desired initially, it was a misinformed desire because Aghasura was not a plaything. And it was a dangerous thing for them to mistake like that.
But Krishna made that mistake, rectified the, prevented the consequences of that mistake and made the underlying desire into a reality by making Aghasura’s body into a plaything for the Gopas. So this is how Krishna acts wonderfully. Let’s continue our discussion in the next session.