Devanagari
अथ नारायण: देव: तं दृष्ट्वा व्यसृजज्ज्वरम् ।
माहेश्वरो वैष्णवश्च युयुधाते ज्वरावुभौ ॥ २३ ॥
Verse text
atha nārāyaṇaḥ devaḥ
taṁ dṛṣṭvā vyasṛjaj jvaram
māheśvaro vaiṣṇavaś ca
yuyudhāte jvarāv ubhau
Synonyms
atha
—
thereupon
;
nārāyaṇaḥ devaḥ
—
Lord Nārāyaṇa (Kṛṣṇa)
;
tam
—
him (the Śiva-jvara)
;
dṛṣṭvā
—
seeing
;
vyasṛjat
—
released
;
jvaram
—
His personified fever (of extreme cold, as opposed to the extreme heat of the Śiva-jvara)
;
māheśvaraḥ
—
of Lord Māheśvara
;
vaiṣṇavaḥ
—
of Lord Viṣṇu
;
ca
—
and
;
yuyudhāte
—
fought
;
jvarau
—
the two fevers
;
ubhau
—
against each other .
Translation
Seeing this personified weapon approach, Lord Nārāyaṇa then released His own personified fever weapon, the Viṣṇu-jvara. The Śiva-jvara and Viṣṇu-jvara thus battled each other.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Seeing this personified weapon approach, Lord Nārāyaṇa then released His own personified fever weapon, the Viṣṇu-jvara. The Śiva-jvara and Viṣṇu-jvara thus battled each other.
KB 10.63.23
… and Kṛṣṇa observed that he was specifically coming toward Him.
As there is a Śiva-jvara weapon, there is also a Nārāyaṇa-jvara weapon, which is represented by excessive cold. When there is excessive heat, one can somehow or other tolerate it, but when there is excessive cold, everything collapses. This is actually experienced by a person at the time of death. At the time of death, the temperature of the body first of all increases to 107 degrees Fahrenheit, and then the whole body collapses and immediately becomes as cold as ice. To counteract the scorching heat of the Śiva-jvara, there is no other weapon but the Nārāyaṇa-jvara.
Therefore, when Lord Kṛṣṇa saw that the Śiva-jvara had been released by Lord Śiva, He had no recourse other than to release the Nārāyaṇa-jvara. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Nārāyaṇa and the controller of the Nārāyaṇa-jvara weapon. When the Nārāyaṇa-jvara was released, there was a great fight between the two jvaras. When excessive heat is counteracted by extreme cold, it is natural for the hot temperature to gradually reduce, and this is what occurred in the fight between the Śiva-jvara and the Nārāyaṇa-jvara.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Krsna created the cool fever weapon.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
There is also another slightly different version of the verse. Immediately (atha) Kṛṣṇa released his own weapon in a special manner (vi—sṛjān)—something more powerful than Śiva’s weapon. This was for play. The Lord is described as deva—he who plays, since he can even create the universe just by his will in the form of Nārāyaṇa.