Canto 10: The Summum BonumChapter 26: Wonderful Kṛṣṇa

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.26.4

tokenāmīlitākṣeṇa

pūtanāyā mahaujasaḥ

pītaḥ stanaḥ saha prāṇaiḥ

kāleneva vayas tanoḥ

SYNONYMS

tokena — by the young child; ā-mīlita — almost closed; akṣeṇa — whose eyes; pūtanāyāḥ — of the witch Pūtanā; mahā-ojasaḥ — whose power was very great; pītaḥ — drunk; stanaḥ — the breast; saha — along with; prāṇaiḥ — her life air; kālena — by the force of time; ivaas; vayaḥ — the life span; tanoḥ — of a material body.

TRANSLATION

As a mere infant who had hardly yet opened His eyes, He drank the breast milk of the powerful demoness Pūtanā and then sucked out her very life air as well, just as the force of time sucks out the youth of one's body.

PURPORT

The word vayaḥ in this verse indicates youth or life span in general. With irresistible power, time takes away our life, and that time is actually Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself. Thus in the case of the powerful witch Pūtanā, Lord Kṛṣṇa accelerated the time process and within an instant withdrew the duration of her life. Here the cowherd men mean to say, "How could a mere infant who could barely open His eyes so easily kill a very powerful demoness?"

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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