Srimad Bhagavatam – day 629
Demon Baka attacks Krishna
“One morning, as the calves were thirsty, all the cowherd boys walked towards the lake with each boy managing his herd of calves. Balarama and Krishna too took their respective herds and went along with them”.
Unlike now, in that era, ponds and lakes existed everywhere. This is the Lord’s way of providing drinking water to living entities. In the present era, the atmosphere is filled with negative vibrations. Trees are being chopped at the drop of a hat. Enmity has intensified among people. Anger, restlessness, swindling and untruthfulness have become rampant. Differences such as elder and younger are wiped out. Sisterly feelings no longer exist. Deceitful behaviour has become a norm. The four members who live within a family try to outsmart each other. These factors collectively cause scanty rainfall.
Suddenly without any warning, the place which is known for its scanty rainfall experiences flooding while the place where they are eagerly awaiting rains continues to remain dry. Either due to flooding or due to drought, crops are destroyed. This happens because the climatic conditions have been toppled up-side down due to pollution. The number of industries, buses, cars and other vehicles has increased significantly leading to unmanageable pollution levels. These pollutants enter into the layer of atmosphere that surrounds the earth.
Sitting at home we presume the Earth is vast enough to handle the little pollution we generate and thus brush it off as irrelevant. But the truth remains that industrial pollution is not limited to any one particular country. All countries collectively contribute thereby polluting the entire Earth. Polluted air from any place has to travel upwards. This polluted air in turn pollutes the atmosphere surrounding the Earth. With this, the air loses its energy to cause the rain-bearing clouds to shower rainfall. Polluted air pushes away rain-bearing clouds and tosses them back and forth. As such, even though the clouds are formed, they are unable to stabilize there and cause rainfall. They drift away. Hence even though thunder, lightning and the cloudy weather predict imminent showers, it fails to rain.
In those eons, such problems did not exist. In those lands where the Lord wandered freely, could there be any shortage of drinking water?
“After the calves had quenched their thirst, the boys drank water from the lake. All of a sudden, the boys noticed a gigantic living entity resembling an enormous mountain whose wings had been chopped off by a powerful thunderbolt. Seeing this mean-looking form, the boys were unnerved. The menacing form was so huge that it could, at one go, gobble all the cowherds along with their calves.
Even as they were watching, this monster, who was none other than demon Baka, assumed his original form which was that of a gigantic, frightening crane with a razor-sharp long powerful beak that could simultaneously and effortlessly pierce through innumerable humans and animals. It had long legs and powerful wings.
Baka, the friend of Kamsa, who had come there to kill Krishna, swiftly rushed towards Him and in the blink of an eye, with his beak he swiftly swallowed Krishna. Watching Krishna go into the mouth of the crane, all the boys including Balarama trembled. The thousands of friends of Krishna, including his mighty brother Balarama, felt helpless in front of its might. They wailed and swooned. Even the calves fell unconscious.
Brahma is the father for this universe. Brahma’s father is Sri Mahavishnu. Such Supreme Lord incarnated as the son of Nanda in Gokula”.
How fortunate was Nanda! He had performed limitless penance in his earlier births to be bestowed with this rarest of the rare opportunity to have the Lord as his son. Nanda was no ordinary cowherd. Likewise, these friends of Krishna were no ordinary cowherd children. All of them were divine celestials. For the purposes of destruction of demons, all of them were collectively enacting a drama by taking on human forms.
“Just as the crane was trying to swallow Krishna, He decided to use His transcendence. Suddenly the boy got stuck in in the crane’s beak”.
After entering the beak, Krishna at first stood up. He then increased his size.
Krishna