As the mighty Keśī charged at the Lord, filled with wrath and delusion, the Unmanifest Lord, concealing His true power, seized the demon with both arms. With a forceful whirl, He grasped Keśī by the legs and hurled him aside, flinging him contemptuously a hundred bows’ length, just as Garuda might cast away a helpless serpent. Regaining his senses, Keśī, burning with fury, rose again and rushed fiercely at Hari, his mouth agape in a dreadful roar. Krishna, however, only smiled. Effortlessly, He thrust His arm into the demon’s gaping jaws, as if a serpent were entering its own hole. The moment Krishna’s arm touched Keśī’s teeth, they shattered and fell, just as heated iron crumbles under pressure. Then, Krishna’s arm began to expand within the demon’s body, swelling like an iron bar, completely disregarded by the demon. With Krishna’s arm growing inside him, Keśī’s breath was cut off. His limbs flailed helplessly, sweat poured from his body, and his eyes rolled in agony. At last, vomiting blood, the demon collapsed to the ground, lifeless. From the demon’s body, now resembling the fruit of a crab-apple, the mighty-armed Lord calmly withdrew His arm. He showed no astonishment and made no boast at having slain His enemy with such ease. The gods, overjoyed, showered Him with flowers in reverence. At that moment, O King, the foremost of devotees, the divine sage Nārada, approached Krishna, whose actions are ever pure and untainted. Nārada spoke a secret, sacred praise to the Lord: “O Krishna, Krishna! O unfathomable Self, Lord of yoga, Lord of the universe, Vāsudeva, abode of all, foremost among the Sātvatas, O Master! You are the Self of all beings, the one light among the wise, hidden in the cave of the heart, the witness, the Great Person, the Supreme Lord. By Your own Self, You are Your own refuge. At the beginning of creation, by Your māyā, You manifested the guṇas, and with them, O Lord of true resolve, You create, sustain, and dissolve this world. Therefore, You have descended to destroy the burdens of the earth—demons, tormentors, and Rākṣasas—and to protect the virtuous. By great fortune, this demon in the form of a horse, whose neighing terrified the gods and drove even the sleepless from heaven, has been slain by You in sport. Tomorrow or the day after, O Lord, I shall witness You slay Cāṇūra, Muṣṭika, other wrestlers, the elephant, and Kaṃsa himself. Thereafter, I shall see the defeat of Śaṅkha, Yavana, Murā, Naraka, the theft of the Pārijāta tree, and even the humbling of Indra. I will witness Your marriages to heroic maidens, won through Your valor and other noble qualities, and the liberation of King Nṛga from his curse in Dvārakā, O Lord of the world. I will see You obtain the Syamantaka jewel and its wife, and restore the dead son to the Brahmin by bringing him from Your own abode. I shall witness the slaying of Pauṇḍraka, the burning of Kāśī, 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, for poets on earth sing of Your glories. Now, I shall behold the destruction of these armies by Him who is Time personified, the annihilator, with Arjuna as His charioteer. I 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 all qualities. I bow to You, Lord, 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 thus praised Krishna, the chief of the Yadus, the divine sage, after receiving permission, bowed and departed, his heart delighted by the Lord’s vision. Meanwhile, Govinda, having slain Keśī in battle, returned to tending the cows with the joyful cowherds, filling Vraja with happiness. One day, as the cowherds grazed their cattle on the slopes of the mountain, they began to play a game. They divided into groups, some as thieves, some as protectors, and some as sheep, playing together without fear or care. Among them, Vyoma, the son of Maya and master of illusion, disguised himself as a cowherd. Taking the role of the leader of the sheep, he cunningly led away many who played as thieves. The great demon, having thus separated the cowherd boys, cast them into a mountain cave, leaving only four or five outside, and sealed the entrance with a massive rock. Krishna, perceiving the demon’s wicked deed, seized Vyoma as he was leading away more cowherds, just as a lion seizes a wolf. Vyoma then assumed his true, colossal form, vast as a great mountain, and struggled to escape, but was overpowered by Krishna’s strength. The Lord subdued him with His arms, threw him to the ground, and, as the gods watched from the heavens, killed the slayer of cattle. Breaking open the cave’s entrance, Krishna released the cowherd boys with some difficulty. Praised by the gods and the cowherds, 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. Now, Śuka continued his narration: Akrūra, the wise and devoted one, spent that night in Mathurā. At dawn, he mounted his chariot and set out for Nanda’s Gokula. As he traveled the road, his heart awakened with devotion for the Lord with lotus eyes, and he reflected deeply: “What good deed have I done, what great austerity have I practiced, or what worthy gift have I given, that today I shall behold Keśava? I consider the vision of the Lord of excellent fame to be most rare for me, just as the chanting of Brahman is rare for one born as a śūdra, attached to sense objects. May it not be that, even for one as fallen as myself, the vision of Acyuta is denied; for sometimes, even one being swept away by the river of Time manages to cross over. Today my misfortune is ended, and my life has borne fruit, for I shall bow to the lotus feet of the Lord, which are the object of meditation for yogis. Indeed, today even Kaṁsa has shown me the utmost favor, for I shall see the lotus feet of Hari, who has descended as an incarnation, whose nails’ radiance once dispelled the impenetrable darkness that even the ancients could not cross. Those feet are worshipped by Brahmā, Śiva, and other gods, by the goddess Śrī, by sages, and by the Sātvatas; they wander in the forest with His companions tending the cows and are marked with the saffron of the gopīs’ breasts. Surely, I shall behold Mukunda’s face, with its beautiful cheeks and nose, its smiling, glancing, reddish lotus eyes, covered with curling locks, around which the deer move in circumambulation.” Thus Akrūra journeyed, his heart overflowing with longing and devotion for the blessed vision of Krishna.