Next day as the sun rose, Kamsa was very tired and feeling weak. Suddenly he decided to announce that the wrestling tournament would start sooner than planned. Soon after, everybody could hear the sound of the drums and the trumpets blowing.
Krishna had woken up early and went to perform His ablution in the Yamuna. Afterwards, He had a nice breakfast together with the gopas (among the many gifts they had brought to offer to King Kamsa, there was a lot of curd, butter and milk). Then, they proceeded towards the arena.
Nanda was not aware that Kamsa had prepared some traps. According to the tradition, as the chief of Vrindavan, he went ahead to offer the king the gifts from Vrindavan. After presenting their gifts to Kamsa, they were allocated seats where they would sit in the arena.
Canto 10, Chapter 43, Verse 2
raṅga-dvāraṁ samāsādya
tasmin nāgam avasthitam
apaśyat kuvalayāpīḍaṁ
kṛṣṇo ’mbaṣṭha-pracoditam
When Lord Krishna arrived at the entrance to the arena, He saw Kuvalayapida, the elephant, blocking His way at the insistence of his keeper.
When Krishna, Balarama and the gopas arrived at the gate of the arena, they saw a huge elephant by the name of Kuvalayapida. This huge elephant was not a normal elephant, he was mad. First, Krishna asked the mahout, “Please move the elephant. He is in the way and we have to go.” However, the mahout ignored Krishna, because Kamsa had ordered him to make sure that the elephant would crush Krishna. So, Krishna told the boys, “Stand to the side.” Then, Krishna tied His hair. As the elephant was rushing towards Krishna, He caught the tusk of the elephant with His two hands. After that, He easily lifted the elephant in the air and threw him down. As the elephant charged Krishna with his tusks, Krishna pulled them out and with only a single blow, killed the elephant.
The more you approach the higher consciousness, the more obstacles will be in the way, trying to divert you. Like this, when the mighty elephant of doubt arises, Krishna has to remove it. And doubt has many forms and many ways. Bhagavan wants to cleanse the ego from you. He will clean and remove everything which stands in the way, like this mighty elephant. Like all the mighty demons.
Krishna gave one tusk of the elephant to Balarama and He kept the other one. Then, they walked into the arena holding the tusks on their shoulders, followed by the gopas. At that moment, everybody stood up, and started applauding joyfully and screaming, “Krishna, Krishna, Krishna”. Of course, Kamsa went even more crazy by hearing people shouting the Name of Krishna.
So everybody was looking at Krishna. For some, Krishna was a great hero, very strong and powerful. For the maidens like Trivarka, Krishna was their lover. For Nanda, Krishna was his dear son. For the Yadava clan, Krishna was their saviour. For the evil-minded, Krishna was their terror, Yamraj Himself. For the great yogis, Krishna was the supreme Truth. Likewise, everybody beholds the Supreme Lord according to the feeling, the bhav, they have deep inside of them. That’s why He has many forms, and many ways of reaching people.
Canto 10, Chapter 44, Verse 1
śrī-śuka uvāca
evaṁ carcita-saṅkalpo
bhagavān madhusūdanaḥ
āsasādātha caṇūraṁ
muṣṭtikaṁ rohiṇī-sutaḥ
Sage Sukadev says, Thus challenged, Lord Krishna made up His mind to accept the challenge. He partnered with Chanura, and Lord Balarama with Mustika.
Krishna, Balarama and the gopas sat down next to Nanda and the other cowherds of Vrindavan. The sound of the trumpets and the drums announced the beginning of the wrestling tournament. Kamsa was sitting on his throne feeling extremely anxious, when the mighty wrestlers Chanura and Mustika came to fight with Krishna and Balarama. They were the top wrestlers of Mathura and great friends of Kamsa.
Firstly, Chanura approached Krishna saying, “Come, let’s wrestle in a friendly way! Like this, we don’t aim at harming or killing each other. Let’s just play a little bit for the sake of entertaining the public.” Krishna declined saying, “We are simple cowherds who dwell in the forest. You are mighty wrestlers. We don’t engage ourselves in this kind of fighting. We are not wrestlers.”
Nanda also stood up and said, “They are underage.” At that time, Krishna was very young, only 14-16 years old.
He was only 10 years old when He perform the Raas Leela and 8 years old when He lifted the Govardhana hill. So, when, Krishna arrived at Mathura, He had not yet reached the age of ‘majority’.
The wrestlers argued, “Well, these two boys have just killed that mighty elephant, so they are very strong.” Krishna replied, “Okay fine, we’ll meet you in the ring.”
Krishna started fighting with Chanura, and Balarama started fighting with Mustika. However, upon seeing those two huge wrestlers fighting with Balarama and Krishna, the crowd objected loudly. They said, “This is not a proper match! Those giants fighting with two frail kids!”
When Krishna heard all those people calling Him, paining for Him, longing for Him – even here, He captivated everybody, and made them long for Him – at that moment, He caught hold of the hand of the wrestler, whirled him around and threw him on the ground. The poor wrestler was dead. Balarama did the same thing and killed Mustika with just one blow. At first, everybody was shocked in amazement, but then all of a sudden, they all started clapping their hands and screaming happily. Afterwards, three more wrestlers came to fight with Krishna and Balarama, but they sorted them out easily.
The ego seated in the mind, controlled by the five senses, in the form of Chanura, Mustika and other three wrestlers, was easily defeated.
Canto 10, Chapter 44, Verse 32-33
niḥsārayata durvṛttau
vasudevātmajau purāt
dhanaṁ harata gopānāṁ
nandaṁ badhnīta durmatim
vasudevas tu durmedhā
hanyatām āśv asattamaḥ
ugrasenaḥ pitā cāpi
sānugaḥ para-pakṣa-gaḥ
Kamsa says, Banish the two wicked sons of Vasudeva from the city! Confiscate the cowherders’ belongings and arrest that fool Nanda! Kill that most vile fool Vasudeva! And also kill my father, Ugrasena, and his followers, who have all sided with our enemies!
Since the wrestlers were easily defeated and killed by Krishna and Balarama, Kamsa was very unhappy. He ordered all the trumpets and the drums to stop, in effect saying, “Don’t make any joyful sounds!” Then, He commanded, “Banish these two boys out of Mathura and kill their father Vasudeva!” When Krishna listened to such an order, He became very angry. So in no time, He jumped from where He was and landed on the throne of Kamsa. Kamsa drew his sword to attack Krishna, but Krishna caught hold of his hand, and twisted him around until all his bones were broken.
Here, even time stopped, when everybody saw the Lord in that aspect. They had previously known about His Leela of Gokul and Vrindavan. However, here the Leela was different; the Lord had come especially to kill Kamsa. Everyone was totally shocked.
Then, Krishna took the body of Kamsa, lifted it up and threw him on the ground. As Kamsa laid on the ground full of pain due to all the broken bones, Krishna jumped and stepped on Kamsa’s body. At that moment, Kamsa had a vision of the Supreme Lord Narayana in His Chaturbhuja form with four arms. When he saw the Feet of the Lord – the same Feet, which Vamana Avatar had put on the head of Bali – coming towards him, Kamsa folded his hands. Thus, Kamsa died under Krishna’s Feet.
At first, there was absolute quiet in the arena. Then, suddenly the crowd started applauding loudly and laughing, throwing flowers on Krishna and Balarama. They all shouted joyfully, “Glory be to the saviour Krishna! Glory be to the saviour of the Yadavas!”
Canto 10, Chapter 44, Verse39
sa nityadodvigna-dhiyā tam īśvaraṁ
pibann adan vā vicaran svapan śvasan
dadarśa cakrāyudham agrato yatas
tad eva rūpaṁ duravāpam āpa
Kamsa had always been bothered by the thought that the Supreme Lord was going to kill him. Thus, when drinking, eating, moving around, sleeping or simply breathing, the King always saw the Lord before him with the Sudarshana Chakra in His hand. Because of this, Kamsa achieved the rare boon of attaining the Lord.
Thus, Krishna delivered Kamsa and he ascended into heaven.
After killing Kamsa, Krishna stood calm in spite of the chaos around him. After all, Kamsa was his uncle, so He pacified Kamsa’s queens and the family. All the arrangements were made for the funeral rites of the dead ones. Meanwhile, Krishna rushed to the prison to free His mother and father, Devaki and Vasudeva, as well as His grandfather Ugrasena. Likewise, when one is released from the three gunas, only the Lord stays.
Upon seeing Krishna and Balarama, both Devaki and Vasudeva remembered everything. Krishna had made them remember everything, so they rushed towards their sons and hugged them. All the emotions gathered in their hearts were expressed as tears of joy. After Ugrasena had been released from prison, he was restored as king of Mathura.
Krishna and Balarama were finally united with their earthly parents, Devaki and Vasudeva. Nanda could not understand what was happening. Then, Krishna revealed the truth to Nanda. Nanda was surprised with this unexpected news, but he accepted it. Krishna embraced him with deep affection and said, “Even if Devaki and Vasudeva are My earthly parents, I will also be known as ‘Nandalala’ and ‘Yashodalala’, since I grew up with you.” ‘Lala’ means ‘the dearest one’, so there is a special sweetness in this Name, related to the Leela of Krishna’s childhood. The whole Bala Leela is contained in the word ‘lala’.
When Nanda heard that revelation, he said, “I will stay here. I will not go back to Vrindavan. How can I leave You here amongst all these people? Even if they are Your parents, You don’t know them. They are not Yours. We are Yours! So how can we leave You? Even if You are now a prince, all those years You were our son. We can’t leave You here.” Then, Krishna said to Nanda, “Please go back to Vrindavan not for your sake, but because mother Yashoda needs you.” Nanda got scared and said, “How will I face Yashoda? When she will hear the news, for sure she will die. I’d better die here, now, rather than facing Yashoda. She had warned me, ‘You’d better not come without my son.’ What will I say to her? How can I go back? The gopis will eat me alive.” Krishna pacified Nanda saying, “Listen, go now, and I will come later on! Tell mother Yashoda that I have some work to do here, that’s why I have to stay. Devaki and Vasudeva still have some enemies, and I have to protect them. After I have finished My duty here, I will come back to Vrindavan.”
All the gopas who knew Krishna as their friend, now realised that He is a prince. The one who they used to play with, is now royalty. However, Krishna told them, “There is no difference between Me and you. I am still your friend. For you, I shall always be a friend. Never look at Me as a prince! For everyone else, I will be the prince, but for you, I’m still your friend. My relationship to you is still the same and it will never change.” Thus, Krishna sent Nanda and the gopas back to Vrindavan. Nanda and the gopas said farewell to Krishna, and with a heavy heart, they all left Mathura.
As soon as Yashoda heard that news, she fainted. She was ready to die. Then Nanda told her, “Don’t leave this body now. If something happened to you, when Krishna comes, what will I say to Him?” So, having this thought inside of them, they lived every day as if Krishna would come back on that day. Krisha was always on their minds, and they were always waiting for Him to come back.
After Ugrasena had been crowned king, Mathura became a peaceful place. Now, Krishna and Balarama were princes. All those years before coming to Mathura, they enjoyed themselves in the forest among cows and gopas. They didn’t receive a proper education. But, now Vasudeva wanted them to receive a royal education. So they went to Ujjain, to the ashram of Sandipani, the best sage of the Yadavas.