Aghāsura Vadha

Aghāsura Vadha is the killing of Aghāsura, told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skandha, Chapter 12. Aghāsura was an asura in the form of a huge python. He was the brother of Pūtanā and Baka, and Kaṃsa sent him to kill Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. He lay across the road like a mountain cave. The gopa boys and their calves walked into his mouth, and Bhagavān Kṛshṇa killed him from inside. The Bhāgavata says the event was told in Gokula only a year later, and it comes just before the episode called Brahmā Vimohana Līlā.

Aghāsura and his form

Aghāsura was an asura of enormous size, a python (ajagara) chosen by Kaṃsa to kill Kṛshṇa. He was the brother of Pūtanā, who was killed while nursing the baby Kṛshṇa, and of Baka, who was killed at the bank of the Yamunā. His hatred of Kṛshṇa was therefore a family hatred as well as an asura’s hatred. He had decided to destroy the boy who had killed his brother and sister.

He lay stretched across the road to the grazing ground and made his body huge. His open mouth was as wide as a mountain cave. His lips were like two mountain ridges. His upper and lower jaws were like the rocky sides of a gorge. His teeth were like boulders. His tongue lay flat like a wide road going inward. The darkness of his throat was like the depth of a cave. His body stretched for miles over the land and looked just like a beautiful mountain.

The gopa boys go in

That morning Kṛshṇa and the gopa boys were going to the grazing ground. The calves walked in front. The boys carried their flutes, their lunch and their cattle sticks. They came upon the huge shape and were amazed. They gathered around it and talked, as children do, about what it was. Some said, “What a fine cave!” Others said the mouth was like a lotus. One said, “From this side it looks like Govardhana.” Another saw the tongue move a little but thought it was the wind.

They said, “Let us go in and look!” The calves went first, and then the boys, and all walked happily into the open mouth of Aghāsura.

Kṛshṇa had stayed a little behind. When he came up, he found all his friends already inside the python. He understood at once what it was. Aghāsura had half closed his mouth and was enjoying the moment before he would swallow them. Inside, the boys saw their mistake. What they had thought was cool darkness was becoming warmer and more closed in.

Kṛshṇa grows and Aghāsura dies

Kṛshṇa walked into Aghāsura’s mouth on purpose. Once inside, he made his body grow until it filled every part of the python’s body. Aghāsura could not swallow and could not breathe out, because Kṛshṇa’s growing body blocked every passage. Aghāsura thrashed, his eyes bulged and his whole body shook under the pressure. Then, with one last growth of his body, Kṛshṇa split open the python’s head. Aghāsura died.

A bright light rose from Aghāsura’s dead body into the sky. This was his jīva-jyoti (the life-light of a freed soul). It stayed in the air for a moment, then came down and merged into the body of Kṛshṇa. Aghāsura had hated Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and had thought of him all the time as an enemy. By that very thought he reached the highest moksha (liberation): he became one with Bhagavān Kṛshṇa.

All the gopa boys and all the calves came out of the python’s body without harm. Kṛshṇa had brought them back to full life by his will.

The telling a year later

The Bhāgavata says this event was reported in Gokula only a year later. The boys came home from the grazing ground and told the people at home what had happened the year before. This delay leads to the episode of Brahmā Vimohana Līlā, which fills the year in between. In that year Brahmā hid the real boys and calves, and Kṛshṇa took the form of all of them himself.

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skandha, Chapter 12