Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.18.28
Īśānukathā· The Lord and His devoteesFearless Balarāma Strikes the Demon
“Remembering the actual situation, the fearless Balarāma understood that the demon was tṛying to kidnap Him and take Him away from His companions. The Lord then became furious and struck the demon’s head with His hard fist, just as Indra, the king of the demigods, strikes a mountain with his thunderbolt weapon.”
What the purport teaches
- Remembering the actual situation, fearless Balarāma understood that the demon was kidnapping Him and taking Him away from His companions.
- Balarāma became furious and struck the demon’s head with His hard fist. The blow is compared to Indra’s thunderbolt crashing into a mountain and cracking its stone surface.
- The purport also explains a reading of the verse in which the demon was flying along the cosmic path in the sky. His purpose was to carry off Balarāma, his object of pursuit.
Try this today
Read the verse aloud once, giving attention to the description of Balarāma as fearless.
Ask yourself
What does Balarāma’s decisive response show about His apparent fear in this pastime?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
From Canto 10, chapter 14 onward, the translation and purports were completed by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples after his departure, and published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.