Chapter 46 - Baladeva Visits Vraja

1. Vaishampayana said:—After some days had thus elapsed, Rama, recollecting his friendship with Gopas, alone went to Vraja with Krishna’s consent.

2-3. Clad in a beautifully wild attire and quickly entering into Vraja Krishna’s elder brother, the slayer of his enemies, saw first his charming and extensive forest that had been enjoyed by him before and the well-scented tanks.

4-5. Thereupon delighting the Gopas with his sweet behaviour according to age and previous conduct he held various charming conversations with the milk-women.

6. Thereupon the elderly milk-men said to Rama, the foremost of sporters, who had just returned from a foreign land in sweet words. "

7. Welcome to you, O you of large arms, O descendant of Yadu. We have been pleased with seeing you to-day.

8. O hero, you are dreadful unto enemies and celebrated in the three worlds. We have been pleased for your return to Vraja.

9. O hero, O descendant of Yadu, we deserve protection from you or (it may be) that creatures cherish attachment for their native place.

10. O you of a pure countenance, no sooner we desired for your arrival than you had come and seen us. Forsooth we have been rendered worthy of the honor of gods.

11. By your good luck and by your own greatness the wrestlers and Kamsa were slain and Ugrasena has been installed as a king.

12. We have heard of your encounter, in the ocean, with Timi-like Pancajana, of his destruction and your battle with Jarasandha and other Kshatriyas on Gomanta.

13. We have also heard of Darada’s death, Jarasandha’s defeat and of the descension of weapons in that great battle.

14. O hero, we have also heard, that slaying the king Shrigala in the charming city of Karavira you didst place his son on the throne and console the subjects.

15. Your entrance into the city of Mathura is worthy of being narrated even by the gods. By it the earth has been established and all the kings have been brought to subjection.

16. With your arrival here, we have been, along with our friends, pleased, delighted and favoured as before".

17. Rama then replied to all the Gopas stationed around him saying:—"You are our better friends than even the Yadavas.

18. We had been reared by you and spent our boyhood in sporting here.

19. We took our meals in your houses and tended the kine. You all are our firm friends".

20. When Halayudha gave vent to these words in the midst of Gopas, marks of joy were visible on the faces of their women.

21. Thereupon repairing to the forest, the highly powerful Rama, conversant with the knowledge of spirit, began to sport there with Gopa women.

22-29. Then the milk-men, conversant with the knowledge of time and place, brought Varuni wine to him. Rama, of the hue of a pale cloud, drank that wine in the forest along with his friends. Thereafter the cow-herds brought to him diverse beautiful forest fruits, flowers, meat, sweet juice and full blown lotuses and lilies just collected. As the mount Mandara is adorned by the Kailaga hill so Rama shone, with Kundalas hanging from his cars, with diadem placed a little askance, with locks and head and breast besmeared with sandal and decked with garlands of wild flowers. Clad in an apparel dark-blue like a cloud his white person appeared like the moon enshrouded by darkness. The plough-share, attached to his hands like the hood of a serpent and the burning mace fixed to his finger, increased his beauty the more. Thus with his eyes rolling in intoxication, Rama, the foremost of the strong, began to enjoy there like the moon in an autumnal night.

30. Thereupon Rama said to Yamuna:—"O great river, going to the ocean, I wish to marry you by bathing in your water;come to me therefore in your bodily form."

31. Out of her womanish habit and ignorance Yamuna disregarded his words as being the out-come of drunkenness and did not come to him.

32. Thereat filled with anger and maddened with drunkenness the powerful Rama took up his plough share and sat with his head looking down in order to drag her.

33. The garland of flowers, that fell down on earth, began to pour, through the leaves, clear water.

34. There upon bending down the head of his plough-share Rama began to drag the bank of the great river like unto a wife following her inclination.

35. At that time the currents of the river were upset and all the fishes and the acquatic animals grew bewildered. And Yamuna too followed the course of the plough-share.

36-41. Dragged with force by Rama the powerful river Yamuna, going to the ocean, like unto a drunk woman going astray in a high-road and over whelmed with fear, began to follow the way pointed out by the plough-share. She had the bank for her hip, dark-blue lotuses for her lips, the foams driven by the water for her girdle, the grave currents for her moving limbs, the bewildered fishes for her ornaments, the white geese for glances, the rising Kasa flowers for her silken raiment, the trees grown on her back for the ends of her hairs, the current for her slippery gait, and the mark of the plough-share for the outer corner of her eye, and the Cakravakas for her breast. Although she goes by the lower ground she was made to go up and brought to the forest of Vrindavana.

42. When the river Yamuna was brought to Vrindavana the water-fowls, as if weeping, followed her.

43. When she crossed the forest of Vrindavana, Yamuna, assuming the form of a woman, said to Rama:—"

44. Be propitiated with me, O lord. I have been terrified at these your unfavourable actions. Behold, this my watery form has been changed.

45. O you of large arms, O son of Rohini, you have dragged me away from my own path. Therefore I have become unchaste amongst the rivers.

46. When I shall go to the ocean, other rivers, co-wives with me, proud of their course, will smile at me, with their foams and call me an unchaste river.

47. Show me the favour, O hero, I beg you, O elder brother, of Krishna. Be you delighted at heart, O foremost of the celestials. I have been dragged here with your weapon. Do you assuage your ire. O you of large arms, O you, the wielder of plough-share, I fall at your feet. Do you command me, by what path I shall go."

48-49. Beholding Yamuna, the wife of the ocean fallen at his feet the holder of plough-share, inebriate with wine, said:—"

50-51. O beautiful Yamuna of fair eye-brows, O auspicious damsel seeking union with the ocean, I command you to follow the way pointed out by my plough-share and water this province. Be you at peace, O noble one, and do you proceed at your pleasure. As long as the world will exist my glory will flourish."

52-54. Beholding the dragging of the ocean all the inhabitants of Vraja said to Rama, exclaiming "Well done! Well done!" and bowed unto him. Leaving aside the noble Yamuna, thinking for a moment and taking leave of all the inhabitants of Vraja, Rama, the foremost of strikers, again repaired to the auspicious city of Mathura.

55. Repairing to Mathura Rama saw the slayer of Madhu, the eternal essence of the universe, stationed in his own house.

56. In his wild attire and with his breast covered with garlands of fresh wild flowers he embraced him.

57. Beholding the holder of plough-share Rama arrived there Govinda too rose up soon and offered him the seat.

58. After Rama had taken his seat, Jarasandha, in sweet words, enquired of him about the well-being of his Vraja friends and cows.

59. Rama then replied to his brother of sweet words, saying:—"O Krishna, they, of whose well-being you enquire, are all well?"

60. Thereupon Rama and Keshava held conversations on various ancient and profitable subjects in the very presence of Vasudeva.