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Verse 1

This pastime has, as it were, the very nature of the karma-kanda, the ritualistic portion of the Vedas: Magadha, the relative of Kamsa, besieged the beautiful city of Mathura, which itself embodies the nature of impersonal Brahman-knowledge.

Verse 2

Through his own potency, Krishna led his kinsmen away to the city of Dvaraka; abandoning the invading Yavana king, Hari, together with Balarama, departed from Mathura.

Verse 3

Maharaja Mucukunda, who was qualified for the path of liberation, was then encountered; and the wicked invader, from kicking him with his own foot, was reduced to ashes by his radiance.

Verse 4

Hari, having gone to Dvaraka, a city itself made of the consciousness of majestic opulence, married the goddess Rukmini, who is herself the very embodiment of supreme opulence.

Verse 5

Pradyumna, who is Kamadeva himself in another form, was born to her, and was then stolen away by the evil-minded demon Sambara, who himself possessed the very form of illusion.

Verse 6

Trained by his own wife, the goddess Rati, in the pain of separation endured elsewhere, Kama, having slain Sambara, then returned to Dvaraka.

Verse 7

Hari, out of love, married Satyabhama, an auspicious portion of Radha in her own aspect of jealous pride, through the very pretext of recovering a lost jewel.

Verse 8

Rukmini and the other principal queens, eight in number, within Krishna's inner palace, are indeed reflected images, in their own right, of the sweetness of Radha's own pleasure-giving potency.

Verse 9

In this display of opulence, Krishna's fruitfulness is seen in the vast extent of his progeny; the growth of the Yadu dynasty in Dvaraka lives on within the hearts of the saintly.

Verse 10

In a text meant to convey only the surface meaning, a full determination of their deeper significance cannot be made; let the wise, in their own way, bring that deeper meaning to light.

Verse 11

Having slain the demon who had falsely taken on the very role of the one Supreme Lord, Krishna, the husband of Lakshmi, burned down Kashi, the very seat of that wicked one's false doctrine.

Verse 12

He who rides upon Garuda, having slain the demon born of the earth, the very embodiment of earthly, materialistic intelligence, rescued the multitude of women held captive and, dear to the saintly, married them.

Verse 13

Having had Jarasandha slain through Bhima, the brother devoted to dharma, he freed the kings who had been held captive from the bondage of their fettered karma.

Verse 14

And at the sacrifice of the son of Dharma, having received complete and unreserved worship there, he severed the head of Shishupala, who harbored hatred toward Him, the Supreme Self.

Verse 15

In the battle of Kurukshetra, Krishna, removing the burden of the earth, that merciful one, accomplished the necessary task of protecting society.

Verse 16

And the sage Narada, upon beholding Hari present in the private chambers of each and every one of his queens simultaneously, arrived at a state of wonder in ascertaining this truth.

Verse 17

Dantavakra, who embodied a miserly, mean disposition, was then slain; and the Lord gave Subhadra, indeed, to Arjuna, the brother devoted to dharma, in marriage.

Verse 18

Having destroyed the illusion wrought by Shalva, he protected the city of Dvaraka; and he freed King Nrga from the bondage of his fettered karma, from the very condition of having become a lizard.

Verse 19

Hari ate the flattened rice given with love by Sudama, and was not nearly so pleased by the sweets offered by faithless pretenders.

Verse 20

Even as a mere boy, this pure soul, having come under the sway of love for Krishna, slew the foolish ape-demon, who took delight in denying the very existence of God.

Verse 21

Within the abode fashioned from his own inner awareness, present within the heart, the son of Rohini enjoyed pastimes with the gopis, themselves manifestations of his own ecstatic mood, deep within the great forest.

Verse 22

Krishna's pastimes go on continuously, eternally, within the hearts of his devotees; even though he appears to depart for his own abode, he does so only when the very life of those devotees who witnessed them comes to its own end.

Verse 23

That chaste desire of Krishna's own, taking the form of time itself, having withdrawn the Yadavas, themselves but manifestations of his own moods, from their play, then caused Dvaraka to be submerged beneath the sea.

Verse 24

At Prabhasa, through mutual quarreling among themselves, those bodies, weighed down by age, were released from within the very consciousness of God.

Verse 25

Krishna, though himself of the very nature of pure consciousness, having emerged from that body worn down by age, attained Gokula once more, and is glorified there in his own true, eternal glory.