etat kaumārajaṁ karma
harer ātmāhi-mokṣaṇam
mṛtyoḥ paugaṇḍake bālā
dṛṣṭvocur vismitā vraje
etat - this incident of delivering both Aghāsura and Kṛṣṇa's associates from death; kaumāra-jam karma - performed during their kaumāra age (the age of five years); hareḥ - of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ātma - the devotees are the Lord's heart and soul; ahi-mokṣaṇam - their deliverance and the deliverance of the python; mṛtyoḥ - from the path of repeated birth and death; paugaṇḍake - at the age of paugaṇḍa, beginning with the sixth year (one year later); bālāḥ - all the boys; dṛṣṭvā ūcuḥ - disclosed the fact after one year; vismitāḥ - as if it had happened on that very day; vraje - in Vṛndāvana.
This incident of Kṛṣṇa’s saving Himself and His associates from death and of giving deliverance to Aghāsura, who had assumed the form of a python, took place when Kṛṣṇa was five years old. It was disclosed in Vrajabhūmi after one year, as if it had taken place on that very day.
The word mokṣaṇam means “liberation.” For the associates of Kṛṣṇa and for Kṛṣṇa Himself, there is no question about liberation; they are already liberated, being in the spiritual world. In the material world there are birth, death, old age and disease, but in the spiritual world there are no such things because everything is eternal. As for the python, however, by the association of Kṛṣṇa and His devotees, Aghāsura also achieved the same facility of eternal life. Therefore, as indicated here by the word ātmāhi-mokṣaṇam, if the python Aghāsura could receive eternal association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, what is to be said of those who are already associates of the Lord? Sākaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ (Bhāg. 10.12.11). Here is proof that God is good for everyone. Even when He kills someone, the one who is killed attains liberation. What then is to be said of those who are already in the association of the Lord?
