178 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

immediately detected the demon, killed him, and threw him into a tree.
When Krsna, along with His brother, Balarama, entered the Talavana
forest, the demon known as Dhenukasura, in the shape of an ass, attacked
Them and was immediately killed by Balarama, who caught his hind legs
and threw him in a palm tree. Although the Dhenukasura demon was
assisted by his cohorts, also in the shape of asses, all were killed, and the
Talavana forest was then open for the use of the animals and inhabitants of
Vrndavana. When Pralambasura entered amongst His cowherd boy friends,
He caused his death by Balarama. Thereafter, Krsna saved His friends and
cows from the severe forest fire, and He chastised the Kaliya serpent in
the lake of Yamuna and forced him to leave the vicinity of the Yamuna
River; He thereby made the water of the Yamuna poisonless.”

Another one of the friends of Nanda Maharaja said, ‘““My dear Nanda,
we do not know why we are so attracted by your son Krsna. We want to
forget Him, but this is impossible. Why are we so naturally affectionate
toward Him? Just imagine how wonderful it is! On one hand He is only
a boy of seven years old, and on the other hand there is a huge hill like
Govardhana Hill, and He lifted it so easily! O Nanda Maharaja, we are now
in great doubt—your son Krsna must be one of the demigods. He is not at
all an ordinary boy. Maybe He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

On hearing the praises of the cowherd men in Vrndavana, King Nanda
said, “My dear friends, in reply to you I can simply present the statement
of Gargamuni so that your doubts may be cleared. When he came to
perform the name-giving ceremony, he said that this boy descends in
different periods of time in different colors and that this time He has
appeared in Vrndavana in a dark color and is known as Krsna. Previously,
He has white color, then red color, then yellow color. He also said that
this boy was once the son of Vasudeva, and everyone who knows of His
previous birth calls Him Vasudeva. Actually he said that my son has many
varieties of names, according to His different qualities and activities.
Gargacarya assured me that this boy will be all-auspicious for my family
and that He will be able to give transcendental blissful pleasure to all the
cowherd men and cows in Vrndavana. Even though we will be put into
various kinds of difficulties, by the grace of this boy we will be very
easily freed from them. He also said that formerly this boy saved the world
from an unregulated condition, and He saved all honest men from the hands
of the dishonest. He also said that any fortunate man who becomes at-
tached to this boy, Krsna, is never vanquished or defeated by his enemy.
On the whole, He is exactly like Lord Visnu, who always takes the side of
the demigods, who are consequently never defeated by the demons.
