Kamsa, recognizing the relentless nature of human desire, mused that people strive fiercely to fulfill their wishes, even when fate stands in their way, and thus they experience both happiness and sorrow. Yet, he resolved to carry out the command given to him. With these thoughts, he instructed Akrura and dismissed his ministers, then entered his palace. Akrura, too, returned to his own home. Soon after, Kamsa sent the fearsome horse-demon Kesi to terrorize the land. Kesi, swift as thought, thundered across the earth, his hooves shaking the ground, his mane whipping the sky, and his terrifying neighs striking fear into all who heard. With wide, glaring eyes, an enormous mouth, and a neck thick as a pillar, dark as a storm cloud, and filled with malice, he made his way to Nanda’s Vraja, intent on aiding Kamsa. The very earth trembled beneath him. Kesi’s wild neighing and the clouds tossed by his tail frightened the cowherd village of Krishna. But Krishna, leader of the cowherds, answered his challenge with a lion-like roar. As Krishna was engaged in a ritual sacrifice, Kesi, inflamed with rage, charged at him as if to swallow the sky and struck the lotus-eyed Lord with his powerful hooves, his speed fierce and overwhelming. The Unmanifest Lord, Krishna, feigning anger, seized Kesi with both arms, whirled him by his legs, and hurled him contemptuously a hundred bows’ lengths away, much as Garuda might toss aside a serpent. Regaining consciousness, Kesi rose once more, furious, and rushed at Hari with his mouth agape. Smiling, Krishna thrust his arm into the demon’s jaws, as a serpent enters its hole. The touch of Krishna’s arm shattered Kesi’s teeth like heated iron, and Krishna’s arm expanded within the demon, filling him like a mighty iron bar. Kesi’s breath was blocked, his limbs flailed helplessly, and his body broke into a sweat; his eyes rolled as he collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood and lifeless. Krishna withdrew his arm from the demon’s body, which resembled a crab-apple fruit, and, without astonishment or pride at his effortless victory, was honored by the gods with showers of flowers. At that moment, a divine sage, foremost among devotees, approached Krishna and spoke a secret message to him, whose actions are ever pure. The sage addressed Krishna: “Krishna, Krishna, O unfathomable Self, Lord of yoga, Lord of the universe, Vāsudeva, abode of all, foremost of the Sātvatas, O Master! You are the Self of all beings, the single light among the wise, hidden in the cave of the heart, the witness, the Great Person, the Lord. By your own Self, you are your own refuge; in the beginning, by your māyā, you created the guṇas, and with them, O Lord of true resolve, you create, maintain, and dissolve this world. Therefore, you have descended for the destruction of earth’s burdens—demons, tormentors, and Rākṣasas—and for the protection of the virtuous. By good fortune, this demon in the form of a horse has been slain by you in sport, whose neighing terrified the gods, causing even those who never sleep to abandon heaven. Soon, O Lord, I shall witness you slay Cāṇūra, Muṣṭika, other wrestlers, the elephant, and Kaṃsa himself. After that, I shall see the defeat of Śaṅkha, Yavana, Murā, Naraka, the theft of the Pārijāta tree, and Indra’s defeat. Your marriages to heroic maidens, won by valor and other virtues, and the liberation of King Nṛga from his curse in Dvārakā, O Lord of the world. The obtaining of the Syamantaka jewel along with the wife, the restoration of the dead son to the Brahmin by your own abode. The slaying of Pauṇḍraka, the burning of Kāśī city, the destruction of Dantavakra, and the death of Śiśupāla at the great sacrifice. And whatever other heroic deeds you perform while residing in Dvārakā, O Lord, I shall witness them; they are sung by poets on earth. Now, I shall witness the destruction of these armies by Him who is Time personified, the annihilator, with Arjuna as His charioteer. We contemplate upon the Lord, dense with pure knowledge, established in His own nature, whose every purpose is fulfilled, whose desires never fail, who by His own splendor is ever free from illusion, and who is the source of the flow of qualities. I bow to You, the Lord, the refuge of all, who by Your own power of illusion have created all distinctions; who, for the sake of play, have assumed a human form; the foremost among the Yadus, Vṛṣṇis, and Sātvatas.” Having offered his respects to Krishna, the chief of the Yadus, the sage, delighted by that vision and permitted by Krishna, departed. Krishna, known as Govinda, having slain Kesi in battle, tended the cows with the joyful cowherds, bringing happiness to Vraja. One day, as the cowherds grazed their cattle on the slopes of the mountain, they played a game of hiding, dividing themselves into groups as thieves and protectors. Some acted as thieves, some as cowherds, and others as sheep; all played together, carefree and fearless. Vyoma, the son of Maya and master of illusion, disguised himself as a cowherd and, acting as the leader of the sheep, led away many who played as thieves. The great demon, having led them away, cast them into a mountain cave and, leaving only four or five outside, sealed the entrance with a rock. Recognizing Vyoma’s wicked deed, Krishna, the giver of refuge to the virtuous, seized the demon as he was leading the cowherds away, just as a lion seizes a wolf. Vyoma then assumed his true form, massive as a great mountain, and tried to escape, but Krishna’s strength was overwhelming and he could not break free. Acyuta subdued him with his arms, threw him to the ground, and, as the gods watched from the heavens, killed the slayer of cattle. Krishna then broke open the cave’s entrance and released the cowherds, though it required effort. Praised by the gods and cowherds alike, he returned to his beloved Vraja. Thus concludes the thirty-seventh chapter, entitled ‘The Slaying of Vyomāsura,’ in the first half of the tenth book of the Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa, the scripture for the paramahaṃsas. Meanwhile, Akrūra, wise and devoted, spent the night in Mathurā. At dawn, he mounted his chariot and set out for Nanda’s Gokula. As he traveled, his heart awakened in devotion for the Lord with lotus eyes, and he reflected, “What good deed have I performed, what great austerity have I practiced, or what worthy gift have I given, that today I shall behold Keśava?