Bhagavatham Stories

As Krishna continued his childhood in Vrindavan, the demonic forces sent by the fearful Kamsa became increasingly aggressive in their attempts to destroy the child they saw as a threat. Not all attacks came in obvious forms; some came disguised as natural phenomena, as accidents waiting to happen, as circumstances that might seem coincidental to the unaware but which revealed the hand of malevolent intelligence directing events. Among these attacks was the appearance of a demon named Trinavarta, who had the power to assume the form of a powerful whirlwind.

One afternoon, as Yashoda was carrying baby Krishna through the courtyard of Nanda's home, the demon Trinavarta appeared in the form of a tremendous whirlwind. The dust rose up in enormous clouds, the wind became violent and terrifying, and the entire landscape seemed to be consumed by chaos. Yashoda, caught in the whirlwind, felt the child being torn from her arms by the tremendous force. She cried out in terror, but her voice was lost in the roar of the wind. The whirlwind spiraled upward, carrying Krishna high into the sky, while Yashoda fell to the ground, her heart shattered with the belief that her beloved son was being taken from her forever.

What Yashoda and the other villagers could not perceive was that Krishna, though appearing to be carried helplessly by the whirlwind, was actually in complete control of the situation. As the demon Trinavarta lifted Krishna higher and higher into the sky, Krishna began to increase in weight exponentially. What had begun as an easy abduction became increasingly difficult for the demon to maintain. Krishna's body grew heavier and heavier, until Trinavarta found himself unable to bear the weight. The demon strained with all his supernatural power, but it was useless. Krishna was pressing down with a weight that was nothing less than the weight of infinity itself, the weight of the entire cosmos, the gravitational force of the Absolute.

As Trinavarta struggled in desperation, his grip began to weaken. He realized that he had made a terrible mistake, that the child he had sought to abduct was not an ordinary baby but something far beyond his capacity to comprehend or control. In his panic and desperation, the demon tried to escape, but it was too late. Krishna, with a force that could have destroyed a thousand warriors, simply let go. Trinavarta, unable to support his own weight in mid-air, plummeted downward from an enormous height and crashed to the earth below, his body broken and lifeless. The whirlwind dissipated as suddenly as it had appeared, and silence returned to Vrindavan.

Yashoda, seeing the dust settle and the sky clear, rushed to the spot where the whirlwind had disappeared. There she found Krishna, completely unharmed, sitting peacefully on the ground as if nothing had happened. When she lifted him into her arms, he smiled at her innocently and asked why she looked so frightened. The entire village rushed to the scene, and they found the body of the demon, recognizable by its massive form and obvious supernatural nature. The people of Vrindavan understood that they had witnessed another miraculous deliverance, another demonstration that Krishna was protected by forces beyond ordinary comprehension.

What made this incident particularly significant was the theological principle it revealed. The demon Trinavarta had attempted to use the natural force of wind and whirlwind—elements of creation that even great saints could not easily control—as instruments of destruction. Yet Krishna, the source of all creation, the one who had created wind and all the elements, was perfectly capable of turning these very forces against those who misused them. The attempt to use creation against the creator resulted not in the creator's destruction but in the destroyer's own annihilation. This became a teaching that appeared again and again in the scriptures: those who attempt to thwart the divine purpose inevitably become instruments of their own downfall.

For the parents and villagers of Vrindavan, the incident with Trinavarta added to the growing mystery surrounding the child. How many more demons would come? How long could this continue? Yet beneath their anxiety was a growing faith that Krishna, despite appearing vulnerable and dependent, was somehow protected by a power greater than any force arrayed against him. They did not yet consciously know that they were witnessing the pastimes of the Supreme Lord himself, but their hearts were beginning to recognize a truth that transcended rational understanding—that in the presence of this child, the forces of the cosmos itself were rearranged to serve his protection and well-being.