Devanagari
एतत् कौमारजं कर्म हरेरात्माहिमोक्षणम् ।
मृत्यो: पौगण्डके बाला दृष्ट्वोचुर्विस्मिता व्रजे ॥ ३७ ॥
Verse text
etat kaumārajaṁ karma
harer ātmāhi-mokṣaṇam
mṛtyoḥ paugaṇḍake bālā
dṛṣṭvocur vismitā vraje
Synonyms
etat
—
this incident of delivering both Aghāsura and Kṛṣṇa’s associates from death
;
kaumāra
—
jam karma — performed during their kaumāra age (the age of five years)
;
hareḥ
—
of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
ātma
—
the devotees are the Lord’s heart and soul
;
ahi
—
mokṣaṇam — their deliverance and the deliverance of the python
;
mṛtyoḥ
—
from the path of repeated birth and death
;
paugaṇḍake
—
at the age of paugaṇḍa, beginning with the sixth year (one year later)
;
bālāḥ
—
all the boys
;
dṛṣṭvā ūcuḥ
—
disclosed the fact after one year
;
vismitāḥ
—
as if it had happened on that very day
;
vraje
—
in Vṛndāvana .
Translation
This incident of Kṛṣṇa’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 Kṛṣṇa was five years old. It was disclosed in Vrajabhūmi after one year, as if it had taken place on that very day.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
This incident of Kṛṣṇa'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 Kṛṣṇa was five years old. It was disclosed in Vrajabhūmi after one year, as if it had taken place on that very day.
KB 10.12.37
The killing of Aghāsura took place when Kṛṣṇa and all His boyfriends were under five years old. Children under five years old are called kaumāra, from five years up to the tenth year they are called paugaṇḍa, and from the tenth year up to the fifteenth year they are called kaiśora. After the fifteenth year, boys are called youths. For one year there was no discussion of the incident of the Aghāsura demon in the village of Vraja. But when the boys attained their sixth year, they informed their parents of the incident with great wonder.
Purport
The word
mokṣaṇam
means “liberation.” For the associates of Kṛṣṇa and for Kṛṣṇa 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 Kṛṣṇa and His devotees, Aghāsura also achieved the same facility of eternal life. Therefore, as indicated here by the word
ātmāhi-mokṣaṇam,
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?
Sākaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṇya-puṣjāḥ
(
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?
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
There was another astonishing event which you should hear about. Though Krsna performed the pastime when he was five years old (kaumara jam) the cowherd boys reported the incident when they were six years old (pauganda), but as if the incident -being freed from the mouth of the serpent--happened that day.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Thought the boys saw the liberation of the soul from Agha during Kṛṣṇa’s kaumāra period they spoke about it in Vraja at the beginning of Kṛṣṇa’s paugaṇḍa period with great astonishment.
The ending ke on paugaṇḍa indicates that the paugaṇḍa age of Kṛṣṇa had just begun. Instead of hareḥ sometimes ca asya is seen. The word ca indicates “the liberation of the snake and the celebration by the devatās.” Seeing the event of killing the snake which occurred during Kṛṣṇa’s kaumāra period, the astonished boys spoke to the people of Vraja about the snake’s death a year later during the beginning of Kṛṣṇa’s paugaṇḍa age. Another meaning is that the boys had many questions about the event of the kaumāra period, and visualizing it, spoke about the puzzlement for a year among themselves as if it were in the present. What did they see? They pointed out to each other that the ātmā was liberated from the snake (ātmāhi-mokṣaṇam) when it died, since they were not aware of Kṛṣṇa’s powers as the Lord. And later it is said:
adyānena mahā-vyālo yaśodā-nanda-sūnunā
hato ’vitā vayaṁ cāsmād iti bālā vraje jaguḥ
As the cowherd boys reached the village of Vraja, they sang, “Today Kṛṣṇa saved us by killing a great serpent!” Some of the boys described Kṛṣṇa as the son of Yaśodā, and others as the son of Nanda Mahārāja. SB 10.14.48
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Thought the boys saw the liberation of the soul from Agha during Kṛṣṇa’s kaumāra period they spoke about it in Vraja at the beginning of Kṛṣṇa’s paugaṇḍa period with great astonishment.
The killing of Aghāsura took place in the kaumāra period. The events were related to the people of Vraja and the beginning of Kṛṣṇa’s paugaṇḍa period (paugāṇḍake). Hareḥ means Kṛṣṇa who takes away death. They saw the killing of Agha and the celebration by the devatās during the kaumāra period.