Canto Ten - Chapter 63

Śrī Śuka said: O descendant of Bharata, four rainy-season months passed while Aniruddha's relatives, unable to find him, continued to grieve.

When Nārada told them the news of Aniruddha's captivity and what had occurred, the Vṛṣṇis, whose deity was Kṛṣṇa, departed for Śoṇitapura.

Pradyumna, Yuyudhāna, Gada, Sāmba, Sāraṇa, Nanda, Upananda, Bhadra, and the others followed Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa.

Assembling twelve full divisions of troops, the foremost Sātvatas surrounded Bāṇa's city on every side.

Seeing his city's gardens, walls, towers, and gateways being broken down, Bāṇa became furious and marched out with an equal army.

For Bāṇa's sake, the Supreme Lord Rudra mounted the bull Nandi and, accompanied by his son and the Pramathas, fought against Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa.

O King, a fierce, astonishing, hair-raising battle arose between Kṛṣṇa and Śaṅkara and also between Pradyumna and Guha.

Balarāma fought Kumbhāṇḍa and Kūpakarṇa, Sāmba fought Bāṇa's son, and Sātyaki fought Bāṇa.

Brahmā and the other rulers of the gods, together with sages, Siddhas, Cāraṇas, Gandharvas, Apsarās, and Yakṣas, arrived in celestial vehicles to witness the battle.

With arrows Śauri attacked Śaṅkara's followers: Bhūtas, Pramathas, Guhyakas, Ḍākinīs, Rākṣasas, Vetālas, and Vināyakas,

as well as Pretas, Mātṛs, Piśācas, Kūṣmāṇḍas, and Brahma-rākṣasas. He drove them away with sharp-tipped arrows released from the Śārṅga bow.

The wielder of Pināka launched various weapons at the wielder of Śārṅga, but without agitation the Lord holding Śārṅga neutralized each with a counterweapon.

He opposed the brahmāstra with another brahmāstra, the wind weapon with a mountain weapon, the fire weapon with a rain weapon, and the pāśupata weapon with His own nārāyaṇa weapon.

Then Śauri bewildered Giriśa with the yawning weapon, making him yawn, and struck down Bāṇa's army with sword, club, and arrows.

Tormented on every side by torrents of Pradyumna's arrows, Skanda bled from his limbs and withdrew from the battlefield upon his peacock.

Kumbhāṇḍa and Kūpakarṇa fell, battered by Balarāma's club, and their leaderless armies fled in every direction.

Seeing his forces scattered, the enraged Bāṇa abandoned his fight with Sātyaki and drove his chariot against Kṛṣṇa in battle.

Mad for battle, Bāṇa simultaneously drew five hundred bows and fixed two arrows upon each bow.

The Supreme Lord Hari simultaneously cut apart all those bows, killed Bāṇa's charioteer and horses and shattered his chariot, and then sounded His conch.

To save her son's life, Bāṇa's mother, named Koṭarā, stood naked before Kṛṣṇa with her hair unbound.

Gadāgraja turned His face aside so as not to look at the naked woman. Meanwhile Bāṇa, deprived of his chariot and his bows cut apart, entered the city.

After the hosts of Bhūtas had been routed, a fever with three heads and three feet rushed at the Daśārha Lord as though burning all ten directions.

Seeing it, the divine Nārāyaṇa released His own fever. The Māheśvara and Vaiṣṇava fevers then fought each other.

Overpowered by the strength of the Vaiṣṇava fever, the Māheśvara fever cried aloud. Finding refuge nowhere else and filled with fear, it sought shelter from Hṛṣīkeśa and praised Him with folded hands.

The fever said: I bow to You, Lord of infinite power, Supreme Lord and Self of all, pure consciousness alone. You are the cause of the universe's creation, maintenance, and dissolution, the peaceful Absolute indicated by sacred revelation.

Time, destiny, karma, the individual being, nature, substance, the field, life force, ego, transformation, their aggregation, and the flowing succession of seed and sprout constitute Your māyā. I take refuge in You, the negation and transcendence of all this.

Through the various forms You assume in mere play, You protect the gods, the virtuous, and the principles that sustain the worlds. You destroy those who stray from the path and live by violence. This birth of Yours relieves the earth's burden.

I am scorched by the unbearable power of Your most fierce yet pacifying fever. Embodied beings likewise suffer as long as, bound by desires, they do not serve the shelter of Your feet.

The Supreme Lord said: Three-headed one, I am pleased with you. Let your fear of My fever depart. Whoever remembers this dialogue between us shall have no fear from you.

Thus addressed, the Māheśvara fever bowed to Acyuta and departed. Bāṇa then mounted his chariot and came forward again to fight Janārdana.

O King, holding many kinds of weapons in his thousand arms, the demon became supremely enraged and released arrows at the wielder of the disc.

As Bāṇa repeatedly discharged his weapons, the Supreme Lord cut off his arms with the razor-edged disc as one might lop branches from a tree.

As Bāṇa's arms were being severed, the Supreme Lord Bhava, compassionate to his devotee, approached the wielder of the disc and spoke.

Śrī Rudra said: You are the supreme Absolute, the hidden light within the Vedic revelation. Pure-hearted sages behold You as the one undivided reality, like the unobstructed sky.

The sky is Your navel, fire Your mouth, water Your seed, heaven Your head, the directions Your hearing, earth Your feet, the moon Your mind, and the sun Your sight. I am Your ego, the ocean Your abdomen, and Indra Your arm.

Plants are Your body hair, clouds the hair of Your head, Brahmā Your intelligence, Prajāpati Your power of generation, and dharma Your heart. You are indeed the cosmic Person who constitutes the worlds.

O Lord of unfailing glory, this descent of Yours protects dharma and benefits the universe. Empowered by You, all of us sustain the seven worlds.

You are the one original Person without a second, the transcendent fourth, self-seeing, the cause who has no cause, and the Supreme Lord. Yet through Your own māyā You appear in diverse transformations so that all qualities may become manifest.

Just as the sun, apparently covered by its own shadow, illuminates both that shadow and all visible forms, so You, concealed by the qualities, illuminate the qualities and the beings who possess them, infinite Lord, for You are the light of the Self.

Those whose intelligence is bewildered by Your māyā become attached to children, spouse, home, and the rest, and repeatedly rise and sink in the ocean of suffering.

One who obtains this human life, a gift of God, but fails to master the senses and does not honor Your feet is pitiable, for he cheats his own soul.

A mortal who rejects You, his own Self, dearest friend and Lord, for the sake of contrary sense objects abandons nectar and consumes poison.

I, Brahmā, the gods, and sages of pure heart have surrendered to You with our entire being, for You are our Self, our dearest one, and our Lord.

For freedom from worldly existence we worship You, the divine cause of the universe's creation, maintenance, and end, equal toward all, perfectly peaceful, the friend, Self, and worshipful Lord of all, the one without a second and the very sign by which the universe is known.

This Bāṇa is dear to me, favored by me, and obedient to me. I have granted him fearlessness, Lord. Please bestow Your grace upon him just as You once favored his ancestor, the lord of the Daityas.

The Supreme Lord said: Venerable one, We shall do as you have said and what is pleasing to you. I fully approve your decision.

This demon, the son of Vairocani, is not to be killed by Me either. I gave Prahlāda the boon that I would not kill any of his descendants.

I severed his arms to subdue his pride, and I destroyed his vast army because it had become a burden upon the earth.

Four arms shall remain to him, and the demon will be free from old age and death. He will become foremost among your attendants and will have nothing to fear from any quarter.

Thus receiving fearlessness, the demon bowed his head to Kṛṣṇa, placed Aniruddha and his bride upon a chariot, and brought them before the Lord.

Kṛṣṇa placed the couple at the head of the procession, finely dressed and adorned, and departed with an entire army division, with Rudra's approval.

The Lord entered His capital, decorated with flags and archways and with roads and squares sprinkled with water, while conches, drums, and kettledrums resounded and citizens, friends, and brāhmaṇas came forward to welcome Him.

Whoever rises in the morning and remembers Kṛṣṇa's victory and His battle with Śaṅkara will never suffer defeat.