KRSNA CONFRONTS THE BAKA DEMON

One day all the boys, including Krsna and Balarama, brought the calves to a reservoir of water, desiring to allow them to drink. After the animals drank water, the boys drank water there also. Right by the reservoir, the boys saw a gigantic body resembling a mountain peak broken and struck down by a thunderbolt. They were afraid even to see such a huge living being.

That great-bodied demon was named Bakasura. He had assumed the body of a duck with a very sharp beak. Having come there, he immediately swallowed Krsna. When Balarama and the other boys saw that Krsna had been devoured by the gigantic duck, they became almost unconscious, like senses without life.

Krsna, who was the father of Lord Brahma but who was acting as the son of a cowherd man, became like fire, burning the root of the demon's throat, and the demon Bakasura immediately disgorged Him. When the demon saw that Krsna, although having been swallowed, was unharmed, he immediately attacked Krsna again with his sharp beak.

When Krsna, the leader of the Vaisnavas, saw that the demon Bakasura, the friend of Kamsa, was endeavoring to attack Him, with His arms He captured the demon by the two halves of the beak, and in the presence of all the cowherd boys Krsna very easily bifurcated him, as a child splits a blade of virana grass. By thus killing the demon, Krsna very much pleased the denizens of heaven.