Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Acting out of friendship for Śiśupāla, Śālva and Pauṇḍraka, who had all passed on to the next world, the wicked Dantavakra appeared on the battlefield in a great rage, O King. All alone, on foot and wielding a club in his hand, the mighty warrior shook the earth with his footsteps.
Seeing Dantavakra approach, Lord Kṛṣṇa quickly picked up His club, jumped down from His chariot and stopped His advancing opponent just as the shore holds back the ocean.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “When Kṛṣṇa appeared before Dantavakra, his heroic march was immediately stopped, just as the great furious waves of the ocean are stopped by the beach.”
Raising his club, the reckless King of Karūṣa said to Lord Mukunda, “What luck! What luck — to have You come before me today!”
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that after having waited for three lifetimes, Dantavakra, formerly a gatekeeper in Vaikuṇṭha, could now return to the spiritual world. Therefore the transcendental meaning of his statement is: “How fortunate! How fortunate I am that today I can return to my constitutional position in the spiritual world!”
In the next verse, Dantavakra will refer to Kṛṣṇa as mātuleya, a maternal cousin. Dantavakra’s mother, Śrutaśravā, was the sister of Kṛṣṇa’s father, Vasudeva.
“You are our maternal cousin, Kṛṣṇa, but You committed violence against my friends, and now You want to kill me also. Therefore, fool, I will kill You with my thunderbolt club.”
The ācāryas have given the following alternate grammatical division of the third line of this verse: atas tvāṁ gadayā amanda, in which case Dantavakra says, “My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, You are amanda [not foolish], and therefore with Your powerful club You will now send me back home, back to Godhead.” This is the inner meaning of this verse.
“Then, O unintelligent one, I who am obliged to my friends will have repaid my debt to them by killing You, my enemy disguised as a relative, who are like a disease within my body.”
According to the ācāryas, the word ajña indicates that in comparison to Lord Kṛṣṇa, no one is more intelligent. Further, the word bandhu-rūpam indicates that Lord Kṛṣṇa is actually everyone’s true friend, and vyādhim indicates that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supersoul, the object of meditation within the heart, who takes away our mental distress. Furthermore, the ācāryas translate the word hatvā as jñātvā; in other words, by knowing Kṛṣṇa properly one can actually liberate all of one’s friends.
Thus trying to harass Lord Kṛṣṇa with harsh words, as one might prick an elephant with sharp goads, Dantavakra struck the Lord on the head with his club and roared like a lion.
Although hit by Dantavakra’s club, Lord Kṛṣṇa, the deliverer of the Yadus, did not budge from His place on the battlefield. Rather, with His massive Kaumodakī club the Lord struck Dantavakra in the middle of his chest.
His heart shattered by the club’s blow, Dantavakra vomited blood and fell lifeless to the ground, his hair disheveled and his arms and legs sprawling.
A most subtle and wondrous spark of light then [rose from the demon’s body and] entered Lord Kṛṣṇa while everyone looked on, O King, just as when Śiśupāla was killed.
But then Dantavakra’s brother Vidūratha, immersed in sorrow over his brother’s death, came forward breathing heavily, sword and shield in hand. He wanted to kill the Lord.
O best of kings, as Vidūratha fell upon Him, Lord Kṛṣṇa used His razor-edged Sudarśana disc to remove his head, complete with its helmet and earrings.
Having thus destroyed Śālva and his Saubha airship, along with Dantavakra and his younger brother, all of whom were invincible before any other opponent, the Lord was praised by demigods, human beings and great sages, by Siddhas, Gandharvas, Vidyādharas and Mahoragas, and also by Apsarās, Pitās, Yakṣas, Kinnaras and Cāraṇas. As they sang His glories and showered Him with flowers, the Supreme Lord entered His festively decorated capital city in the company of the most eminent Vṛṣṇis.
Thus Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master all mystic power and Lord of the universe, is ever victorious. Only those of beastly vision think He sometimes suffers defeat.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī gives the following elaborate commentary on this section of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:
Concerning the killing of Dantavakra, the Uttara-khaṇḍa (279) of the Padma Purāṇa contains further details in the following prose passage: atha śiśupālaṁ nihataṁ śrutvā dantavakraḥ kṛṣṇena saha yoddhuṁ mathurām ājagāma. kṛṣṇas tu tac chrutvā ratham āruhya mathurām āyayau. “Then, hearing that Śiśupāla had been killed, Dantavakra went to Mathurā to fight against Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa, moreover, heard of this, He mounted His chariot and went to Mathurā.”
Tayor dantavakra-vāsudevayor aho-rātraṁ mathurā-dvāri saṅgrāmaḥ samavartata; kṛṣṇas tu gadayā taṁ jaghāna; sa tu cūrṇita-sarvāṅgo vajra-nirbhinno mahīdhara iva gatāsur avani-tale nipapāta; so ’pi hareḥ sārūpyeṇa yogi-gamyaṁ nityānanda-sukha-daṁ śāśvataṁ paramaṁ padam avāpa: “Between the two of them — Dantavakra and Lord Vāsudeva — there then began a battle at the gate of Mathurā that lasted all day and night. Finally Kṛṣṇa struck Dantavakra with His club, at which point Dantavakra fell lifeless to the ground, all his limbs smashed like a mountain shattered by a lightning bolt. Dantavakra achieved the liberation of gaining a form equal to the Lord’s, and thus he also achieved the Lord’s eternal, supreme abode, attainable by perfect yogīs, which bestows the happiness of everlasting spiritual bliss.”
Itthaṁ jaya-vijayau sanakādi-śāpa-vyājena kevalaṁ bhagavato līlārthaṁ saṁsṛtāv avatīrya janma-traye ’pi tenaiva nihatau janma-trayāvasāne muktim avāptau: “So it was that Jaya and Vijaya — apparently because of being cursed by Sanaka and his brothers but actually to facilitate the Supreme Lord’s pastimes — descended to this material world and in three consecutive lifetimes were killed by the Lord Himself. Then, at the completion of these three lifetimes, they attained liberation.”
In this passage of the Padma Purāṇa the words kṛṣṇas tu tac chrutvā, “when Kṛṣṇa heard of this,” indicate that the Lord heard from Nārada, who travels as swiftly as the mind, that Dantavakra had gone to Mathurā. Therefore immediately after killing Śālva, without first entering Dvārakā, the Lord reached the vicinity of Mathurā in a single moment on His chariot, which also moves as swiftly as the mind, and there He saw Dantavakra. Thus it is that even today, by the gate of Mathurā facing the direction of Dvārakā, there is a village known in the vernacular as Datihā, a name derived from the Sanskrit dantavakra-ha, “killer of Dantavakra.” This village was founded by Kṛṣṇa’s great-grandson Vajra.
In the same section of the Padma Purāṇa, these statements follow: kṛṣṇo ’pi taṁ hatvā yamunām uttīrya nanda-vrajaṁ gatvā sotkaṇṭhau pitarāv abhivādyāśvāsya tābhyāṁ sāśru-sekam āliṅgitaḥ sakala-gopa-vṛddhān praṇamya bahu-vastrābharaṇādibhis tatra-sthān santarpayām āsa. “And after killing him [Vidūratha], Kṛṣṇa crossed the Yamunā and went to the cowherd village of Nanda, where He honored and consoled His aggrieved parents. They drenched Him with tears and embraced Him, and then the Lord offered obeisances to the elder cowherd men and gratified all the residents with abundant gifts of clothing, ornaments and so on.”
“Lord Keśava sported continuously with the cowherd women on the Kālindī’s charming bank, which was filled with pious trees. Thus the Supreme Lord, assuming the appearance of a cowherd, resided there for two months, enjoying the pleasure of intimate pastimes in various moods of loving reciprocation.”
Atha tatra-sthā nanda-gopādayaḥ sarve janāḥ putra-dārādi-sahitā vāsudeva-prasādena divya-rūpa-dharā vimānam ārūḍhāḥ paramaṁ vaikuṇṭha-lokam avāpuḥ; kṛṣṇas tu nanda-gopa-vrajaukasāṁ sarveṣāṁ nirāmayaṁ sva-padaṁ dattvā divi deva-gaṇaiḥ saṁstūyamāno dvāravatīṁ viveśa: “Then, by Lord Vāsudeva’s grace, Nanda and all the other residents of that place, together with their children and wives, assumed their eternal, spiritual forms, boarded a celestial airplane and ascended to the supreme Vaikuṇṭha planet [Goloka Vṛndāvana]. Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, after bestowing on Nanda Gopa and all the other inhabitants of Vraja His own transcendental abode, which is free of all disease, traveled through the sky and returned to Dvārakā as demigods chanted His praises.”
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī comments as follows on this passage in his Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta (1.488-89):
“Since Droṇa and other demigods had previously descended to earth to merge as partial expansions into the King of Vraja and other devotees of Vṛndāvana, at this time it was these demigod expansions whom Lord Kṛṣṇa sent off to Vaikuṇṭha. Lord Hari is perpetually enjoying pastimes in Vṛndāvana with His intimate devotees, the residents of Gokula, who are dearer to Him than even His most dear other devotees.”
In the passage of the Padma Purāṇa, the word putra in the phrase nanda-gopādayaḥ sarve janāḥ putra-dārādi-sahitāḥ (“Nanda Gopa and the others, together with their children and wives”) refers to such sons as Kṛṣṇa, Śrīdāmā and Subala, while the word dāra refers to such wives as Śrī Yaśodā and Kīrtidā, the mother of Rādhārāṇī. The phrase sarve janāḥ (“all the people”) refers to everyone living in the district of Vraja. Thus they all went to the topmost Vaikuṇṭha planet, Goloka. The phrase divya-rūpa-dharāḥ indicates that in Goloka they engage in pastimes appropriate to demigods, not those suited to humans, as in Gokula. Just as during Lord Rāmacandra’s incarnation the residents of Ayodhyā were transported to Vaikuṇṭha in their selfsame bodies, so in this incarnation of Kṛṣṇa the residents of Vraja attained to Goloka in theirs.
Lord Kṛṣṇa’s journey from Dvārakā to Vraja is confirmed by the following passage of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.11.9): yarhy ambujākṣāpasasāra bho bhavān kurūn madhūn vātha suhṛd-didṛkṣayā/ tatrābda-koṭi-pratimaḥ kṣaṇo bhavet. “O lotus-eyed Lord, whenever You go away to Mathurā, Vṛndāvana or Hastināpura to meet Your friends and relatives, every moment of Your absence seems like a million years.” Lord Kṛṣṇa had been harboring a desire to go see His friends and relatives in Vraja ever since Lord Baladeva had gone there, but His mother, father and other elders in Dvārakā had refused to give Him permission. Now, however, after the killing of Śālva, when Kṛṣṇa heard from Nārada that Dantavakra had gone to Mathurā, no one could object to the Lord’s going there immediately without first entering Dvārakā. And after killing Dantavakra, He would have the opportunity to meet with His friends and relatives living in Vraja.
Thinking like this, and also remembering Uddhava’s allusion to the gopīs in the words gāyanti te viśada-karma (Bhāg. 10.71.9), He went to Vraja, dispelling the feelings of separation of the inhabitants. For two months Lord Kṛṣṇa enjoyed in Vṛndāvana just as before, previous to His leaving there to kill Kaṁsa in Mathurā. Then, at the end of two months, He withdrew His Vraja pastimes from mundane eyes by taking the demigod portions of His parents and other relatives and friends to Vaikuṇṭha. Thus, in one complete plenary manifestation He went to Goloka in the spiritual world, in another He remained perpetually enjoying in Vraja while invisible to material eyes, and in yet another He mounted His chariot and returned alone to Dvārakā. The people of Śaurasena province thought that after killing Dantavakra Kṛṣṇa had paid a visit to His parents and other dear ones and now was returning to Dvārakā. The people of Vraja, on the other hand, could not understand where He had suddenly disappeared to, and so they were totally astonished.
Furthermore, Śukadeva considered that Parīkṣit Mahārāja might think, “How is it that the same Kṛṣṇa who caused the cowherds to attain Vaikuṇṭha in their selfsame bodies also caused the residents of Dvārakā to attain such an inauspicious condition in the course of His mauṣala-līlā?” Thus the King might consider the arrangement unfair because of his own affinity for the Yadus. That is why Śukadeva Gosvāmī did not allow him to hear this pastime, which, as mentioned above, is related in the Uttara-khaṇḍa of Śrī Padma Purāṇa.
In Śrī Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī, Sanātana Gosvāmī’s commentary on the Tenth Canto, we find the following sequential list of pastimes: First was the journey on the occasion of the solar eclipse, then the Rājasūya assembly, then the gambling match and attempted disrobing of Draupadī, then the Pāṇḍavas’ exile to the forest, then the killing of Śālva and Dantavakra, then Kṛṣṇa’s visit to Vṛndāvana, and finally the winding up of the Vṛndāvana pastimes.
Lord Balarāma then heard that the Kurus were preparing for war with the Pāṇḍavas. Being neutral, He departed on the pretext of going to bathe in holy places.
Both Duryodhana and Yudhiṣṭhira were dear to Lord Balarāma, and so to avoid an awkward situation He departed. Furthermore, after killing the demon Vidūratha, Lord Kṛṣṇa put aside His weapons, but Lord Balarāma still had to kill Romaharṣaṇa and Balvala to finish relieving the earth of her burden of demons.
After bathing at Prabhāsa and honoring the demigods, sages, forefathers and prominent human beings, He went in the company of brāhmaṇas to the portion of the Sarasvatī that flows westward into the sea.
Lord Balarāma visited the broad Bindu-saras Lake, Tritakūpa, Sudarśana, Viśāla, Brahma-tīrtha, Cakra-tīrtha and the eastward-flowing Sarasvatī. He also went to all the holy places along the Yamunā and the Ganges, O Bhārata, and then He came to the Naimiṣa forest, where great sages were performing an elaborate sacrifice.
Recognizing the Lord upon His arrival, the sages, who had been engaged in their sacrificial rituals for a long time, greeted Him properly by standing up, bowing down and worshiping Him.
After being thus worshiped along with His entourage, the Lord accepted a seat of honor. Then He noticed that Romaharṣaṇa, Vyāsadeva’s disciple, had remained seated.
Lord Balarāma became extremely angry upon seeing how this member of the sūta caste had failed to stand up, bow down or join his palms, and also how he was sitting above all the learned brāhmaṇas.
Romaharṣaṇa had failed to greet Lord Balarāma in any of the standard ways for welcoming a superior personality. Also, despite being of a lower caste, he sat in a seat above the assembly of exalted brāhmaṇas.
[Lord Balarāma said:] Because this fool born from an improperly mixed marriage sits above all these brāhmaṇas and even above Me, the protector of religion, he deserves to die.
Although he is a disciple of the divine sage Vyāsa and has thoroughly learned many scriptures from him, including the lawbooks of religious duties and the epic histories and Purāṇas, all this study has not produced good qualities in him. Rather, his study of the scriptures is like an actor’s studying his part, for he is not self-controlled or humble and vainly presumes himself a scholarly authority, though he has failed to conquer his own mind.
One might argue that Romaharṣaṇa committed an innocent mistake when he failed to recognize Lord Balarāma, but such an argument is refuted here by Lord Balarāma’s strong criticism.
The very purpose of My descent into this world is to kill such hypocrites who pretend to be religious. Indeed, they are the most sinful rascals.
Lord Balarāma was not prepared to overlook Romaharṣaṇa’s offense. The Lord had descended specifically to eliminate those who claim to be great religious leaders but do not even respect the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
[Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued:] Although Lord Balarāma had stopped killing the impious, Romaharṣaṇa’s death was inevitable. Thus, having spoken, the Lord killed him by picking up a blade of kuśa grass and touching him with its tip.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “Lord Balarāma had avoided taking part in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, and yet because of His position as an incarnation, the reestablishment of religious principles was His prime duty. Considering these points, He killed Romaharṣaṇa Sūta simply by striking him with a kuśa straw, which was nothing but a blade of grass. If someone questions how Lord Balarāma could kill Romaharṣaṇa Sūta simply by striking him with a blade of kuśa grass, the answer is given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by the use of the word prabhu, ‘master.’ The Lord’s position is always transcendental, and because He is omnipotent He can act as He likes without being obliged to follow the material laws and principles. Thus it was possible for Him to kill Romaharṣaṇa Sūta simply by striking him with a blade of kuśa grass.”
All the sages cried out, “Alas, alas!” in great distress. They told Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa, “O master, You have committed an irreligious act!”
“O favorite of the Yadus, we gave him the seat of the spiritual master and promised him long life and freedom from physical pain for as long as this sacrifice continues.”
Although Romaharṣaṇa was not a brāhmaṇa, having been born of a mixed marriage, he was invested with that status by the assembled sages and thus given the brahmāsana, the seat of the chief officiating priest.
“You have unknowingly killed a brāhmaṇa. Of course, even the injunctions of revealed scripture cannot dictate to You, the Lord of all mystic power. But if by Your own free will You nonetheless carry out the prescribed purification for this slaying of a brāhmaṇa, O purifier of the whole world, people in general will greatly benefit by Your example.”
The Personality of Godhead said: I will certainly perform the atonement for this killing, since I wish to show compassion to the people in general. Please, therefore, prescribe for Me whatever ritual is to be done first.
O sages, just say the word, and by My mystic power I shall restore everything you promised him — long life, strength and sensory power.
The sages said: Please see to it, O Rāma, that Your power and that of Your kuśa weapon, as well as our promise and Romaharṣaṇa’s death, all remain intact.
The Supreme Lord said: The Vedas instruct us that one’s own self takes birth again as one’s son. Thus let Romaharṣaṇa’s son become the speaker of the Purāṇas, and let him be endowed with long life, strong senses and stamina.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī quotes the following Vedic verse to illustrate the principle enunciated here by Lord Balarāma:
“You have taken birth from my various limbs and have arisen from my very heart. You are my own self in the form of my son. May you live through a hundred autumns.” This verse appears in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (14.9.8.4) and the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (6.4.8).
Please tell Me your desire, O best of sages, and I shall certainly fulfill it. And, O wise souls, please carefully determine My proper atonement, since I do not know what it might be.
Lord Balarāma here sets a perfect example for people in general by humbly submitting Himself before the qualified brāhmaṇas.
The sages said: A fearsome demon named Balvala, the son of Ilvala, comes here every new-moon day and contaminates our sacrifice.
First the sages tell Lord Balarāma the favor they would like Him to do for them.
O descendant of Daśārha, please kill that sinful demon, who pours down pus, blood, feces, urine, wine and meat upon us. This is the best service You can do for us.
Thereafter, for twelve months, You should circumambulate the land of Bhārata in a mood of serious meditation, executing austerities and bathing at various holy pilgrimage sites. In this way You will become purified.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī points out that the word viśudhyasi means that Lord Balarāma would achieve spotless fame by setting such a perfect example for the people in general.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “The brāhmaṇas could understand the purpose of the Lord, and thus they suggested that He atone in a manner which would be beneficial to them.”
