Text* 1: Ĺukadeva GosvÄmÄŤ continued: O King, one day KášášŁáša decided to take His breakfast as a picnic in the forest. Having risen early in the morning, He blew His bugle made of horn and woke all the cowherd boys and calves with its beautiful sound. Then KášášŁáša and the boys, keeping their respective groups of calves before them, proceeded from VrajabhĹŤmi to the forest.
Text* 2: At that time, hundreds and thousands of cowherd boys came out of their respective homes in VrajabhĹŤmi and joined KášášŁáša, keeping before them their hundreds and thousands of groups of calves. The boys were very beautiful, and they were equipped with lunch bags, bugles, flutes, and sticks for controlling the calves.
Text 3: Along with the cowherd boys and their own groups of calves, KášášŁáša came out with an unlimited number of calves assembled. Then all the boys began to sport in the forest in a greatly playful spirit.
Text* 4: Although all these boys were already decorated by their mothers with ornaments of kÄca, guĂąjÄ, pearls and gold, when they went into the forest they further decorated themselves with fruits, green leaves, bunches of flowers, peacock feathers and soft minerals.
Text 5: All the cowherd boys used to steal one anotherâs lunch bags. When a boy came to understand that his bag had been taken away, the other boys would throw it farther away, to a more distant place, and those standing there would throw it still farther. When the proprietor of the bag became disappointed, the other boys would laugh, the proprietor would cry, and then the bag would be returned.
Text* 6: Sometimes KášášŁáša would go to a somewhat distant place to see the beauty of the forest. Then all the other boys would run to accompany Him, each one saying, âI shall be the first to run and touch KášášŁáša! I shall touch KášášŁáša first!â In this way they enjoyed life by repeatedly touching KášášŁáša.
Text 7-11: All the boys would be differently engaged. Some boys blew their flutes, and others blew bugles made of horn. Some imitated the buzzing of the bumblebees, and others imitated the voice of the cuckoo. Some boys imitated flying birds by running after the birdsâ shadows on the ground, some imitated the beautiful movements and attractive postures of the swans, some sat down with the ducks, sitting silently, and others imitated the dancing of the peacocks. Some boys attracted young monkeys in the trees, some jumped into the trees, imitating the monkeys, some made faces as the monkeys were accustomed to do, and others jumped from one branch to another. Some boys went to the waterfalls and crossed over the river, jumping with the frogs, and when they saw their own reflections on the water they would laugh. They would also condemn the sounds of their own echoes. In this way, all the cowherd boys used to play with KášášŁáša, who is the source of the Brahman effulgence for jĂąÄnÄŤs desiring to merge into that effulgence, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead for devotees who have accepted eternal servitorship, and who for ordinary persons is but another ordinary child. The cowherd boys, having accumulated the results of pious activities for many lives, were able to associate in this way with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How can one explain their great fortune?
Text 12: YogÄŤs may undergo severe austerities and penances for many births by practicing yama, niyama, Äsana and prÄášÄyÄma, none of which are easily performed. Yet in due course of time, when these yogÄŤs attain the perfection of controlling the mind, they will still be unable to taste even a particle of dust from the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. What then can we describe about the great fortune of the inhabitants of VrajabhĹŤmi, VášndÄvana, with whom the Supreme Personality of Godhead personally lived and who saw the Lord face to face?
Text 13: My dear King ParÄŤkᚣit, thereafter there appeared a great demon named AghÄsura, whose death was being awaited even by the demigods. The demigods drank nectar every day, but still they feared this great demon and awaited his death. This demon could not tolerate the transcendental pleasure being enjoyed in the forest by the cowherd boys.
Text* 14: AghÄsura, who had been sent by Kaášsa, was the younger brother of PĹŤtanÄ and BakÄsura. Therefore when he came and saw KášášŁáša at the head of all the cowherd boys, he thought, âThis KášášŁáša has killed my sister and brother, PĹŤtanÄ and BakÄsura. Therefore, in order to please them both, I shall kill this KášášŁáša, along with His assistants, the other cowherd boys.â
Text* 15: AghÄsura thought: If somehow or other I can make KášášŁáša and His associates serve as the last offering of sesame and water for the departed souls of my brother and sister, then the inhabitants of VrajabhĹŤmi, for whom these boys are the life and soul, will automatically die. If there is no life, there is no need for the body; consequently, when their sons are dead, naturally all the inhabitants of Vraja will die.
Text* 16: After thus deciding, that crooked AghÄsura assumed the form of a huge python, as thick as a big mountain and as long as eight miles. Having assumed this wonderful pythonâs body, he spread his mouth like a big cave in the mountains and lay down on the road, expecting to swallow KášášŁáša and His associates the cowherd boys.
Text* 17: His lower lip rested on the surface of the earth, and his upper lip was touching the clouds in the sky. The borders of his mouth resembled the sides of a big cave in a mountain, and the middle of his mouth was as dark as possible. His tongue resembled a broad traffic-way, his breath was like a warm wind, and his eyes blazed like fire.
Text 18: Upon seeing this demonâs wonderful form, which resembled a great python, the boys thought that it must be a beautiful scenic spot of VášndÄvana. Thereafter, they imagined it to be similar to the mouth of a great python. In other words, the boys, unafraid, thought that it was a statue made in the shape of a great python for the enjoyment of their pastimes.
Text 19: The boys said: Dear friends, is this creature dead, or is it actually a living python with its mouth spread wide just to swallow us all? Kindly clear up this doubt.
Text* 20: Thereafter they decided: Dear friends, this is certainly an animal sitting here to swallow us all. Its upper lip resembles a cloud reddened by the sunshine, and its lower lip resembles the reddish shadows of a cloud.
Text* 21: On the left and right, the two depressions resembling mountain caves are the corners of its mouth, and the high mountain peaks are its teeth.
Text* 22: In length and breadth the animalâs tongue resembles a broad traffic-way, and the inside of its mouth is very, very dark, like a cave in a mountain.
Text* 23: The hot fiery wind is the breath coming out of his mouth, which is giving off the bad smell of burning flesh because of all the dead bodies he has eaten.
Text 24: Then the boys said, âHas this living creature come to swallow us? If he does so, he will immediately be killed like BakÄsura, without delay.â Thus they looked at the beautiful face of KášášŁáša, the enemy of BakÄsura, and, laughing loudly and clapping their hands, they entered the mouth of the python.
Text* 25: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, ĹrÄŤ KášášŁáša, who is situated as antaryÄmÄŤ, the Supersoul, in the core of everyoneâs heart, heard the boys talking among themselves about the artificial python. Unknown to them, it was actually AghÄsura, a demon who had appeared as a python. KášášŁáša, knowing this, wanted to forbid His associates to enter the demonâs mouth.
Text* 26: In the meantime, while KášášŁáša was considering how to stop them, all the cowherd boys entered the mouth of the demon. The demon, however, did not swallow them, for he was thinking of his own relatives who had been killed by KášášŁáša and was just waiting for KášášŁáša to enter his mouth.
Text* 27: KášášŁáša saw that all the cowherd boys, who did not know anyone but Him as their Lord, had now gone out of His hand and were helpless, having entered like straws into the fire of the abdomen of AghÄsura, who was death personified. It was intolerable for KášášŁáša to be separated from His friends the cowherd boys. Therefore, as if seeing that this had been arranged by His internal potency, KášášŁáša was momentarily struck with wonder and unsure of what to do.
Text 28: Now, what was to be done? How could both the killing of this demon and the saving of the devotees be performed simultaneously? KášášŁáša, being unlimitedly potent, decided to wait for an intelligent means by which He could simultaneously save the boys and kill the demon. Then He entered the mouth of AghÄsura.
Text* 29: When KášášŁáša entered the mouth of AghÄsura, the demigods hidden behind the clouds exclaimed, âAlas! Alas!â But the friends of AghÄsura, like Kaášsa and other demons, were jubilant.
Text 30: When the invincible Supreme Personality of Godhead, KášášŁáša, heard the demigods crying âAlas! Alas!â from behind the clouds, He immediately enlarged Himself within the demonâs throat, just to save Himself and the cowherd boys, His own associates, from the demon who wished to smash them.
Text* 31: Then, because KášášŁáša had increased the size of His body, the demon extended his own body to a very large size. Nonetheless, his breathing stopped, he suffocated, and his eyes rolled here and there and popped out. The demonâs life air, however, could not pass through any outlet, and therefore it finally burst out through a hole in the top of the demonâs head.
Text* 32: When all the demonâs life air had passed away through that hole in the top of his head, KášášŁáša glanced over the dead calves and cowherd boys and brought them back to life. Then Mukunda, who can give one liberation, came out from the demonâs mouth with His friends and the calves.
Text 33: From the body of the gigantic python, a glaring effulgence came out, illuminating all directions, and stayed individually in the sky until KášášŁáša came out from the corpseâs mouth. Then, as all the demigods looked on, this effulgence entered into KášášŁášaâs body.
Text 34: Thereafter, everyone being pleased, the demigods began to shower flowers from Nandana-kÄnana, the celestial dancing girls began to dance, and the Gandharvas, who are famous for singing, offered songs of prayer. The drummers began to beat their kettledrums, and the brÄhmaášas offered Vedic hymns. In this way, both in the heavens and on earth, everyone began to perform his own duties, glorifying the Lord.
Text 35: When Lord BrahmÄ heard the wonderful ceremony going on near his planet, accompanied by music and songs and sounds of âJaya! Jaya!â he immediately came down to see the function. Upon seeing so much glorification of Lord KášášŁáša, he was completely astonished.
Text* 36: O King ParÄŤkᚣit, when the python-shaped body of AghÄsura dried up into merely a big skin, it became a wonderful place for the inhabitants of VášndÄvana to visit, and it remained so for a long, long time.
Text 37: This incident of KášášŁášaâs saving Himself and His associates from death and of giving deliverance to AghÄsura, who had assumed the form of a python, took place when KášášŁáša was five years old. It was disclosed in VrajabhĹŤmi after one year, as if it had taken place on that very day.
Text 38: KášášŁáša is the cause of all causes. The causes and effects of the material world, both higher and lower, are all created by the Supreme Lord, the original controller. When KášášŁáša appeared as the son of Nanda MahÄrÄja and YaĹodÄ, He did so by His causeless mercy. Consequently, for Him to exhibit His unlimited opulence was not at all wonderful. Indeed, He showed such great mercy that even AghÄsura, the most sinful miscreant, was elevated to being one of His associates and achieving sÄrĹŤpya-mukti, which is actually impossible for materially contaminated persons to attain.
Text 39: If even only once or even by force one brings the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead into oneâs mind, one can attain the supreme salvation by the mercy of KášášŁáša, as did AghÄsura. What then is to be said of those whose hearts the Supreme Personality of Godhead enters when He appears as an incarnation, or those who always think of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the source of transcendental bliss for all living entities and by whom all illusion is completely removed?
Text* 40: ĹrÄŤ SĹŤta GosvÄmÄŤ said: O learned saints, the childhood pastimes of ĹrÄŤ KášášŁáša are very wonderful. MahÄrÄja ParÄŤkᚣit, after hearing about those pastimes of KášášŁáša, who had saved him in the womb of his mother, became steady in his mind and again inquired from Ĺukadeva GosvÄmÄŤ to hear about those pious activities.
Text* 41: MahÄrÄja ParÄŤkᚣit inquired: O great sage, how could things done in the past have been described as being done at the present? Lord ĹrÄŤ KášášŁáša performed this pastime of killing AghÄsura during His kaumÄra age. How then, during His paugaášá¸a age, could the boys have described this incident as having happened recently?
Text 42: O greatest yogÄŤ, my spiritual master, kindly describe why this happened. I am very much curious to know about it. I think that it was nothing but another illusion due to KášášŁáša.
Text 43: O my lord, my spiritual master, although we are the lowest of kᚣatriyas, we are glorified and benefited because we have the opportunity of always hearing from you the nectar of the pious activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Text 44: SĹŤta GosvÄmÄŤ said: O Ĺaunaka, greatest of saints and devotees, when MahÄrÄja ParÄŤkᚣit inquired from Ĺukadeva GosvÄmÄŤ in this way, Ĺukadeva GosvÄmÄŤ, immediately remembering subject matters about KášášŁáša within the core of his heart, externally lost contact with the actions of his senses. Thereafter, with great difficulty, he revived his external sensory perception and began to speak to MahÄrÄja ParÄŤkᚣit about kášášŁáša-kathÄ.