Krishna's Childhood Pastimes

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking online to devotees in the Philippines
22 August 2011, part 2

Krishna lived in Gokul Mahavan with Nanda Maharaj and Yasoda, but after Kamsa started his attempts to kill Him, they moved to Nanda-gram. Radharani was also born in Raval, but later Kirtida Mayi and Raja Vrisabhanu moved to Varshana. Nanda-gram and Varshana are two villages near each other.

Although Krishna lived in Nanda-gram, He spent much time playing with His cowherd boyfriends in Gokul. You know that one day Krishna was eating soil, and his cowherd friends sent the news to Mother Yasoda, "Krishna is eating soil!" Then, Mother Yasoda came and chastised her son, but Krishna began to cry and showed His mouth to His mother—when Yasoda looked into His mouth, suddenly it became bigger and bigger and Krishna showed her that the whole universe, all demigods, everything was in His mouth!

Krishna showed so many things in His lila (pastimes). He played with cows and dust of Vrindavan (dhuli-khela). Also, you know that when Krishna was only three days old, Kamsa got to know that Krishna, his enemy, had already been born and lived in Gokul, so he sent Putana raksasi (demoness) to kill Him. Putana raksasi fed Krishna from her poisoned breast and although Krishna was only three days old, He killed her. He was so powerful, even at the age of three days only!

Krishna also did the pastime of Kaliya-daman. Kamsa sent so many demons to kill Krishna—Aghasura, Bakasur, Batsasur, etc., but Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so He killed them all. Every time He killed a demon, His cowherd friends would come home and tell their mothers, "You know, today this lila happened—we were all going to die but Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaj, protected us!" In the end, all mothers, Vraja-gopis, said, "Oh, Krishna shows His pastimes to you, but He does not want to show any pastimes to us!" So, to fulfil their desire to see His pastimes, Krishna wanted to show His lila to everybody.

First, all cowherd boys came to the lake where Kaliya-nag lived peacefully. When they came there, they all, the boys and the cows, died because of the poison of Kaliya-nag. When Krishna saw it, He took them out of the water, kept them lying on the bank, and jumped into the lake Himself. He started swimming and making much noise in the water which distrubed Kaliya-nag and made him angry. The serpent came to the surface, caught Krishna with his tail and started killing Him by holding Him tighter and tighter. It looked as if Krishna was dead and there was so much disturbance in the environment—many clouds appeared in the sky, and everything became unhappy in Gokul, Vrindavan...

Everybody was unhappy because Nityananda-Balaram had not not come. The news spread very fast, "Something has happened! Something has happened to Nanda Maharaj's Gopal!" Everybody ran to the lake and became to shout and cry. Nanda Maharaj and Yasoda came too, they wanted to jump into the lake, but Balaram held them back. Krishna was actually waiting at that time for everybody to gather, and when Balaram cried to Krishna, "Please come out! Come please! Everybody is going to jump into the lake and die! Please come out!"

When everybody came to the lake, Krishna showed His lila. He jumped out of Kaliya-nag's tail and placed His feet on top of Kaliya-nag's heads. As He started dancing on his heads, Kaliya-nag was almost dead when suddenly all wives of Kaliya-nag appeared and prayed to Krishna, "Please, we do not want to beceom widows! Please do not kill him!" Krishna agreed, "OK, you will not become widows, He will live a long life, but he cannot stay here. All Vraja-basis, all birds, cows, everybody is disturbed because of him, and whoever comes to the lake dies—you cannot stay here. You must leave." Kaliya-nag left and since that time he has been staying near the Fiji island. He is still there in Fiji now...

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