King Paréksit was hearing the narrations of the pastimes of Lord Krishna and Lord Balaräma from Çukadeva Gosvämé. These pastimes are all transcendentally pleasurable to hear, and Mahäräja Paréksit addressed Çukadeva Gosvämé as follows: “My dear lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, is the bestower of both liberation and love of God simultaneously. Anyone who becomes a devotee of the Lord automatically attains liberation without having to make a separate attempt. Because the Lord is unlimited, His pastimes and activities for creating, maintaining and destroying the whole cosmic manifestation are also unlimited. I therefore wish to hear about other pastimes of His which you may not have described as yet. My dear master, the conditioned souls within this material world are frustrated by searching out the pleasure of happiness derived from sense gratification. Such desires for material enjoyment are always piercing the hearts of conditioned souls. But I am actually experiencing how the transcendental topics of Lord Krishna’s pastimes can relieve one from being affected by such material activities of sense gratification. I think that no intelligent person can reject this method of hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Lord again and again; simply by hearing, one can remain always steeped in transcendental pleasure. Thus one will not be attracted by material sense gratification.”

In this statement, Mahäräja Paréksit has used two important words: visanna and viçesa-jïa. Visanna means “morose.” Materialistic people invent many ways and means to become fully satisfied, but actually they remain morose. The point may be raised that sometimes transcendentalists also remain morose. Paréksit Mahäräja, however, has used the word viçesa-jïa. There are two kinds of transcendentalists, namely the impersonalists and the personalists. Viçesa-jïa refers to the personalists, who are interested in transcendental variegatedness. The devotees become jubilant by hearing the descriptions of the personal activities of the Supreme Lord, whereas the impersonalists, who are actually more attracted by the impersonal feature of the Lord, are only superficially attracted by the Lord’s personal activities. As such, in spite of coming in contact with the pastimes of the Lord, the impersonalists do not fully realize the benefit to be derived, and thus they become just as morose as the materialists do in pursuing their fruitive activities.

Lord Balaräma prepared Himself to meet the demon Balvala. At the time when the demon usually attacked the sacred place, there appeared a great hailstorm, the whole sky became covered with dust, and the atmosphere became surcharged with a filthy smell. Just after this, the mischievous demon Balvala began to shower torrents of stool and urine and other impure substances on the arena of sacrifice. After this onslaught, the demon himself appeared with a great trident in his hand. He was a gigantic person, and his black body was like a huge mass of carbon. His hair, his beard and his mustache appeared reddish like copper, and because of his great beard and mustache, his mouth appeared dangerous and fierce. As soon as He saw the demon, Lord Balaräma prepared to attack him. He first considered how He could smash the great demon to pieces. Lord Balaräma then called for His plow and club, and they immediately appeared before Him. The demon Balvala was flying in the sky, and at the first opportunity Lord Balaräma dragged him down with His plow and angrily smashed the demon’s head with His club. Balaräma’s striking fractured the demon’s forehead, making blood flow profusely. Screaming loudly, the demon, who had been such a great disturbance to the pious brähmaëas, fell to the ground like a great mountain with a red oxide peak being struck and smashed to the ground by a thunderbolt.

The inhabitants of Naimiñäraëya, learned sages and brähmaëas, became most pleased by seeing this, and they offered their respectful prayers to Lord Balaräma. They offered their heartfelt blessings to the Lord, and all agreed that none of Lord Balaräma’s attempts to do something would ever be a failure. The sages and brähmaëas then performed a ceremonial bathing of Lord Balaräma, just as the demigods bathe King Indra when he is victorious over the demons. The brähmaëas and sages honored Lord Balaräma by presenting Him first-class new clothing and ornaments and the lotus garland of victory; this garland was the reservoir of all beauty and was everlasting—it was was never to be dried up.

After the demise of Çiçupäla, Çälva and Pauëòraka, a foolish demoniac king of the name Dantavakra wanted to kill Krishna to avenge the death of his friend Çälva. He became so agitated that he appeared on the battlefield without the proper arms and ammunition and without even a chariot. His only weapon was his great anger, which was red-hot. He carried only a club in his hand, but he was so powerful that when he moved, everyone felt the earth tremble. When Lord Krishna saw him approaching in a very heroic mood, He immediately got down from His chariot, for it was a rule of military etiquette that fighting should take place only between equals. Knowing that Dantavakra was alone and armed with only a club, Lord Krishna responded similarly and prepared Himself by taking His club in His hand. When Krishna appeared before him, Dantavakra’s heroic march was immediately stopped, just as the great, furious waves of the ocean are stopped by the beach.

At that time, Dantavakra, who was the King of Karüña, stood up firmly with his club and spoke to Lord Krishna as follows: “It is a great pleasure and fortunate opportunity, Krishna, that we are seeing each other face to face. My dear Krishna, after all, You are my maternal cousin, and I should not kill You in this way, but unfortunately You have committed a great mistake by killing my friend Çälva. Moreover, You are not satisfied by killing my friend; I know that You want to kill me also. Because of Your determination, I must kill You by tearing You to pieces with my club. Krishna, although You are my relative, You are foolish. You are our greatest enemy, so I must kill You today just as a person removes a boil on his body by a surgical operation. I am always very much obliged to my friends, and I therefore consider myself indebted to my dear friend Çälva. I can liquidate my indebtedness to him only by killing You.”

After talking with his charioteer, the son of Däruka, Pradyumna could understand the real circumstances. Therefore he refreshed himself by washing his mouth and hands, and after arming himself properly with bows and arrows, he asked his charioteer to take him near the place where Çälva’s commander in chief was standing. During the short absence of Pradyumna from the battlefield, Dyumän, Çälva’s commander in chief, had been taking over the positions of the soldiers of the Yadu dynasty. Appearing on the battlefield, Pradyumna immediately stopped him and, smiling, shot eight arrows at him: with four arrows he killed Dyumän’s four horses and with one arrow his chariot driver, with another arrow he cut his bow in two, with another he cut his flag to pieces, and with the last he severed his head from his body.

On the other fronts, heroes like Gada, Sätyaki and Sämba were killing the soldiers of Çälva. The soldiers staying with Çälva in the airplane were also killed in the fighting, and they fell into the ocean. Each party began to strike the opposite party very severely in a fierce, dangerous battle that continued for twenty-seven days without stopping.

While the fight was going on in the city of Dvärakä, Krishna was staying at Indraprastha with the Päëòavas and King Yudhisthira. This fighting with Çälva took place after the Räjasüya-yajïa had been performed by King Yudhisthira and after the killing of Çiçupäla. When Lord Krishna understood that there was great danger in the city of Dvärakä, He took permission from the elder members of the Päëòava family, especially from His aunt Kuntédevé, and started immediately for Dvärakä.

Lord Krishna began to think that while He was staying in Hastinäpura with Balaräma after the killing of Çiçupäla, Çiçupäla’s men must have attacked Dvärakä. On reaching Dvärakä, Lord Krishna saw that the whole city was greatly endangered. He placed Balarämajé in a strategic position for the protection of the city, and He Himself asked His charioteer, Däruka, to prepare to start. He said, “Däruka, please immediately take Me to where Çälva is staying. You may know that this Çälva is a very powerful, mysterious man. Don’t fear him in the least.” As soon as he got his orders from Lord Krishna, Däruka had Him seated on the chariot and drove very quickly toward Çälva.