Prem Sagar: Chapter XLIV

This is an English translation of a passage from a Sanskrit-tradition Hindu devotional narrative — likely a vernacular retelling of the *Bhagavata Purana* — in which the divine narrator Shukadeva recounts events to a king. The passage covers Krishna (Shree Krishnu) and his elder brother Balarama (Bulram/Buldeo) arriving at a royal wrestling arena in Mathura, where they must first defeat Kuvalayapida, a maddened elephant of supernatural strength guarding the gate. The brothers dispatch the elephant with playful ease — slipping between its tusks, swinging it by the tail, killing it barehanded — then enter the arena carrying its tusks as weapons. A theologically distinctive moment occurs when beholders perceive Krishna differently according to their own nature: wrestlers see a wrestler, kings see a king, gods see their lord, children see a playmate, and the tyrant Kansa sees death itself. The passage closes as Kansa, frightened, orders his champion wrestlers to destroy the brothers, and the wrestler Chanura, despite trying to bait them with false modesty, admits he cannot take them for ordinary children after witnessing what they have already done. The overall effect is devotional epic — celebrating Krishna's effortless, sport-like omnipotence while staging each obstacle as a dramatic proof of his divinity.

Prem Sagar: Chapter XLIV

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