SB 10.31.3 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

विषजलाप्ययाद् व्यालराक्षसाद् वर्षमारुताद् वैद्युतानलात् । वृषमयात्मजाद् विश्वतो भया- दृषभ ते वयं रक्षिता मुहु: ॥ ३ ॥

Verse text

viṣa-jalāpyayād vyāla-rākṣasād varṣa-mārutād vaidyutānalāt vṛṣa-mayātmajād viśvato bhayād ṛṣabha te vayaṁ rakṣitā muhuḥ

Synonyms

viṣa — poisonous ; jala — by the water (of the Yamunā, contaminated by Kāliya) ; apyayāt — from destruction ; vyāla — fearsome ; rākṣasāt — from the demon (Agha) ; varṣa — from rain (sent by Indra) ; mārutāt — and the wind-storm (created by Tṛṇāvarta) ; vaidyuta — analāt — from the thunderbolt (of Indra) ; vṛṣa — from the bull, Ariṣṭāsura ; maya — ātmajāt — from the son of Maya (Vyomāsura) ; viśvataḥ — from all ; bhayāt — fear ; ṛṣabha — O greatest of personalities ; te — by You ; vayam — we ; rakṣitāḥ — have been protected ; muhuḥ — repeatedly .

Translation

O greatest of personalities, You have repeatedly saved us from all kinds of danger — from poisoned water, from the terrible man-eater Agha, from the great rains, from the wind demon, from the fiery thunderbolt of Indra, from the bull demon and from the son of Maya Dānava.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

O greatest of personalities, You have repeatedly saved us from all kinds of danger—from poisoned water, from the terrible man-eater Agha, from the great rains, from the wind demon, from the fiery thunderbolt of Indra, from the bull demon and from the son of Maya Dānava. KB 10.31.3 “We are always grateful to You because You have protected us many times: from the poisonous water of the Yamunā, from the serpent Kāliya, from Bakāsura, from the anger of Indra and his torrents of rain, from the forest fire and so many other incidents. You are the greatest and most powerful of all. It is wonderful for You to protect us from so many dangers, but we are surprised that You are neglecting us at this moment.

Purport

Here the gopīs imply, “O Kṛṣṇa, You saved us from so many terrible dangers, so now that we are dying of separation from You, won’t You save us again?” Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that the gopīs mention Ariṣṭa and Vyoma because, although Kṛṣṇa had not yet killed these demons, the fact that He would kill them in the future was well known, having been predicted by the sages Garga and Bhāguri at the time of the Lord’s birth.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

If you want to kill us, then why did you repeatedly save us from danger? It is not proper to save us and then kill us. You saved us from the water of the lake filled with Kaliya’s poison. You saves us from the vicious man eater, Aghasura the snake (vyala raksasa). You saved us from the rain poured down by Indra (varsadi). You saved us from Trnavarata (marut), from Indra’s thunderbolt, from the bull demon Aristasura (vrsa), from Vyomasura (mayatmaja), from some many types of fear (visvato). O best of men (rsabha) by killing the demons, by your personal protection, we, who have only you as our life, were saved. Though you protected all of vraja from the rain and other calamities, you also protected us. Putting our faith in you as our protector, we come to you for relieving us of the pain of being pierced by the five arrows of cupid, otherwise we will die in the flames of separation from you which are thousands of times more intense. Do you not fear the sin of killing our faith?" Though the killing of Aristasura and Vyomasura were future events, these were written in Krsna’s horoscope, and the gopis had heard of these future events from Garga, Baguri and other munis.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

We have been protected by you as part of your general protection of Vraja and by protection of individuals. But you do not remember that it is improper to cut down a poisonous tree when it is growing? You protected the cows and cowherds from death when they drank its poison water of Kāliya-hrada. You protected us from Aghāsura, the snake Rākṣasa, for it was said: itthaṁ mitho ’tathyam ataj-jña-bhāṣitaṁ śrutvā vicintyety amṛṣā mṛṣāyate rakṣo viditvākhila-bhūta-hṛt-sthitaḥ svānāṁ niroddhuṁ bhagavān mano dadhe Kṛṣṇa, full of all powers, who is situated as antaryāmi in the core of everyone’s heart, heard the boys talking falsely among themselves like ignorant people, considering that truly a snake was beautifying Vraja, and knowing moreover that it was a Rākṣasa, wanted to prevent them from entering the demon’s mouth. SB 10.12.25 You protected us from Agha who swallowed the calves and boys. We were protected by your protecting all the living entities of Vraja. Protection of individuals that affect everyone is indicated in these examples. You protected us from wind mixed with rain, including hail, and from lightning by lifting Govardhana. This is protection of everyone. You protected us from Vatsāsura who appeared to be a calf but on being killed took the form of a huge bull. You protected us from Vyomāsura (which will be described later thought it took place when Kṛṣṇa was younger.) These pastimes indicate protection of individuals as protection of all. This is like the story of Varāha killing Hiraṇyakṣa. It is narrated out of sequence in the Third Canto, though it took place during Cākṣuṣa Manvantara. Vṛṣa-mayātmajāt may also be taken as vṛṣātmajāt (from the offspring of the bull, the calf demon) and mayātmajāt (from Vyomāsura, offspring of Maya). All are taken together by saying “You saved us from all fear.” His qualification for doing this is mentioned: O best of all men (ṛṣabha)!

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

By protecting the cows and cowherds from the poisonous water and by protecting all Vraja from the rain of Indra, you protected relatives and ourselves. Or all this protection took place by the auspiciousness of Kṛṣṇa’s presence. This is stated out of intense prema. You protected us from Vyomāsura. Though this took place later, they state this out of prema, in pain of separation, manifesting spontaneous omniscience. Though it took place in the future it is expressed in the past, to show the certainty of the event. We were saved from many types of sufferings. We cannot even count them. We were protected from Pūtanā, Śaktāsura, Tṛnāvarta, the Yamalārjuna trees, Baka, Vatsāsura, the forest fire, Keśī. Again and again we were protected by you or things related to you. That is natural for you since you are the best in mercy (ṛṣabha) or since you are the lord of Vraja. Here they mention themselves directly (vayam) in order to indicate to him to help them even now. Thus they say you protected us constantly (muhuḥ). You were most merciful, without indifference. Or they directly experienced these events as in a dream or hallucination, under the influence of prema. Thus the chronological order is missing out of confusion in separation. Or the events are arranged in order of less fear for Kṛṣṇa, with clear enumeration of the events. We were saved from the poisonous water, what to speak of from Aghāsura. Or we were saved from the demon Kāliya and others demons, from Pūtana, Baka and Agha, and from Śaṅkhacūḍa, a Yakṣa, non-different from the Rākṣasas mentioned (vyāla-rākṣasād). This is made clear in the story of Dhruva. The singular rākṣasāt is used to denote a species. You protected us from the storm of intoxicated Indra and from the wind of Tṛnavarta (mārutāt) and from the lightening at the time of the monsoon. You protected us from two forest fires and from other things like the cart (viśvataḥ). We and the cowherds (te) were protected by you (understood by context). By defeating Kāliya, you protected the cowherds from the poisonous water and you protected us when we wanted to enter the water and die in grief by your sweet glance. You protected Nanda from being swallowed by the snake. You protected all of Vraja from fear of Pūtanā falling on them. You protected the young boys from śakata and the yamalārjuna trees. You protected us from Śaṅkhacūḍa. You protected all of Vraja from the rain. These are stated as examples. We were protected by all these in general. Now however you should protect us by coming. Or the word kim is continued from the last verse. Were we protected from all these calamities? It would be better if they would kill us. The demons are listed with increasing tendency to kill them.