One day, during the childhood
of Lord Krishna, He was playing with the cowherd boys in Gokul (a town
in ancient North India). They were playing games, such as imitating peacocks
and running after birds’ shadows on the ground.
Suddenly, they came upon a cave. The cave was actually
the mouth of a snake demon called Aghasur. The demon had expanded himself
into an eight-mile long snake to kill Lord Krishna. The opening to the
cave was his mouth.
The boys felt a hot wind blowing from the cave.
It smelled like fish, because of the snake demon’s intestines. Just
as the boys walked into the cave, Lord Krishna became alert. He knew it
was a demon’s trick to kill Him. He thought for a moment, then decided
to enter the cave Himself.
Demons all over the world became joyful when
Lord Krishna went inside, since they thought that He would soon be swallowed.
For a moment, there was no movement. It seemed as if the snake demon Aghasur
had swallowed Lord Krishna. However, the next moment, everyone saw Lord
Krishna grow very large and choke the snake to death.
The snake’s life air burst through a hole
in his skull. Victorious Lord Krishna came out of the snake and rescued
His little friends. |
