158 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

to prepare to start. He said, “Daruka, please immediately take Me to where
Salva is staying. You may know that this Salva is a very powerful,
mysterious man. Don’t fear him in the least.” As soon as he got his orders
from Lord Krsna, Daruka had Him seated on the chariot and drove very
quickly toward Salva.

The chariot of Lord Krsna was marked with the flag bearing the
insignia of Garuda, and as soon as the soldiers and warriors of the Yadu
dynasty saw the flag, they could understand that Lord Krsna was on the
battlefield. By this time, almost all the soldiers of Salva had been killed,
but when Salva saw that Krsna had come to the battlefield, he released a
great, powerful weapon which flew through the sky with a roaring sound
like a great meteor. It was so bright that the whole sky lit up by its
presence. But as soon as Lord Krsna appeared, He tore the great weapon
into hundreds and thousands of pieces by releasing His own arrow.

Lord Krsna struck Salva with sixteen arrows, and with showers of arrows
He overpowered the airplane, just as the sun in a clear sky overpowers the
whole sky by an unlimited number of molecules of sunshine. Salva struck
a severe blow to Krsna’s left side, where the Lord was carrying His bow,
Sarniga, and as a result the Sariga bow fell from Lord Krsna’s hand. This
dropping of the bow was indeed wonderful. Great personalities and demi-
gods who were observing the fighting between Salva and Krsna became
most perturbed by this, and they began to exclaim, ’’Alas! Alas!”

Salva thought that he had become victorious, and with a roaring sound
began to address Lord Krsna as follows: “You rascal, Krsna! You kid-
napped Rukmini forcibly, even in our presence. You baffled my friend
Sigupala and married Rukmini Yourself. And in the great assembly at King
Yudhisthira’s Rajasiiya yajfia, while my friend Sigupala was a little absent-
minded, You took an opportunity to kill him. Everyone thinks that You
are a great fighter and that no one can conquer You. So now You'll have
to prove Your strength. I think that if You stand before me any longer,
with my sharpened arrows I shall send You to a place wherefrom You will
never return.” ””

To this Lord Krsna replied, “Foolish Salva, you are talking nonsensically.
You do not know that the moment of death is already upon your head.
Those who are actually heroes do not talk much. They prove their prowess
by practical exhibition of chivalrous activities.” After saying this, Lord
Krsna, in great anger, struck Salva on the collarbone with His club so severe-
ly that he began to bleed internally and tremble as if he were going to
collapse from severe cold. Before Krsna was able to strike him again,
however, Salva became invisible by his mystic power.
