| Canto 10: The Summum Bonum | Chapter 12: The Killing of the Demon Aghāsura |
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.12.37
SYNONYMS
etat — this incident of delivering both Aghāsura and Krishna's associates from death; kaumāra-jam karma — performed during their kaumāra age (the age of five years); hareh — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ātma — the devotees are the Lord's heart and soul; ahi-mokshanam — their deliverance and the deliverance of the python; mrityoh — from the path of repeated birth and death; paugandake — at the age of pauganda, beginning with the sixth year (one year later); bālāh — all the boys; drishtvā ūcuh — disclosed the fact after one year; vismitāh — as if it had happened on that very day; vraje — in Vrindāvana.
TRANSLATION
This incident of Krishna's saving Himself and His associates from death and of giving deliverance to Aghāsura, who had assumed the form of a python, took place when Krishna was five years old. It was disclosed in Vrajabhūmi after one year, as if it had taken place on that very day.
PURPORT
The word mokshanam means "liberation." For the associates of Krishna and for Krishna Himself, there is no question about liberation; they are already liberated, being in the spiritual world. In the material world there are birth, death, old age and disease, but in the spiritual world there are no such things because everything is eternal. As for the python, however, by the association of Krishna and His devotees, Aghāsura also achieved the same facility of eternal life. Therefore, as indicated here by the word ātmāhi-mokshanam, if the python Aghāsura could receive eternal association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, what is to be said of those who are already associates of the Lord? Sākam vijahruh krita-punya-puñjāh (Bhāg. 10.12.11). Here is proof that God is good for everyone. Even when He kills someone, the one who is killed attains liberation. What then is to be said of those who are already in the association of the Lord?
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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
His Holiness Hrdayananda dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
Dravida dasa Brahmacari