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Krṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
and Lord Balarāma was engaged with Bāṇāsura's commander-in-chief, Kumbhāṇḍa, who was assisted by Kūpakarṇa. Sāmba, the son of Krṣṇa, was engaged in fighting with the son of Bāṇāsura, and Bāṇāsura was engaged in fighting with Sātyaki, commander-in-chief of the Yadu dynasty. In this way the fighting was waged.
News of the fighting spread all over the universe. Demigods such as Lord Brahmā, from higher planetary systems, along with great sages and saintly persons, Siddhas, Cāraṇas and Gandharvas—all being very curious to see the fight between Lord Śiva, Lord Krṣṇa and their assistants—were hovering over the battlefield in their airplanes. Lord Śiva is called the  bhūta-nātha , being assisted by various types of powerful ghosts and denizens of the inferno— bhūtas ,  pretas ,  pramathas ,  guhyakas ,  ḍākinīs ,  piśācas ,  kūṣmāṇḍas ,  vetālas ,  vināyakas , and  brahma-rākṣasas . (Of all kinds of ghosts, the  brahma-rākṣasas  are very powerful.  Brāhmaṇas  transferred to the role of ghosts become  brahma-rākṣasas .)
The Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Krṣṇa simply drove all these ghosts away from the battlefield, beating them with His celebrated bow, Śārṅgadhanu. Lord Śiva then began to release all his selected weapons upon the Personality of Godhead. Lord Śrī Krṣṇa, without any difficulty, counteracted all these weapons with counter-weapons. He counteracted the  brahmāstra , similar to the atomic bomb, by another  brahmāstra , and an air weapon by a mountain weapon. When Lord Śiva released a particular weapon bringing about a violent hurricane on the battlefield, Lord Krṣṇa presented just the opposing element, a mountain weapon which checked the hurricane on the spot. Similarly when Lord Śiva released his weapon of devastating fire, Krṣṇa counteracted it with torrents of rain.
At last, when Lord Śiva released his personal weapon, called  pāśupata-śastra , Krṣṇa immediately counteracted it by the  nārāyaṇa-śastra . Lord Śiva then became exasperated in fighting with Lord Krṣṇa. Krṣṇa then took the opportunity to release His yawning weapon. When this weapon is released, the opposing party becomes tired, stops fighting, and begins to yawn. Consequently, Lord Śiva became so fatigued that he refused to fight anymore and began to yawn. Krṣṇa was now able to turn His attention from the attack of Lord Śiva to the efforts of Bāṇāsura, and He began to kill his personal soldiers with swords and clubs. Meanwhile, Lord Krṣṇa's son Pradyumna was fighting fiercely with Kārttikeya, the commander-in-chief of the demigods. Kārttikeya was wounded, and his body was bleeding profusely. In this condition, he left the battlefield and, without fighting anymore, rode away on the back of his peacock carrier. Similarly, Lord Balarāma was smashing Bāṇāsura's commander-in-chief, Kumbhāṇḍa,