Krishna's childhood in vrindavan - Krishna kills pootna

HARE KRISHNA

As mentioned in the last post, sri Krishna was safely taken to Gokul to yashodha and the child that vasudev brought back turned into a devi, who in turn iformed kansa that his destroyer had taken birth already in his kindom........

Kansa was extremely worried because of the birth of Devaki's eighth son. In order to get rid of the baby, Kansa sent for a demoness named Pootna and ordered her, "Pootna! Kill all the babies born in Mathura and Gokul during the month of August(Bhandon). My killer is one of these babies but I do not know which one is that. If you kill all of them, who will be there to kill me?" Pootna transformed herself into a beautiful dame and began to roam in Mathura with a view to locating the newborn babies in August. She used to apply poison on her breasts and suckled each baby to death. Having killed all the babies in Mathura she went to Gokul.

There also she killed good many babies and then she came to know of the baby born to Yashoda, Nand Baba's wife. So, she went to Yashoda's house and started talking with her lovingly. Using tact and oily words, Pootna took Yashoda into confidence and lifted infant Krishna info her arms. She said, "How lovely a baby! Isn't it? How old is he? When was he born?" A lady present there said, "He is Nand Baba's son and is named Krishna. He was born on the eighth night of the waning moon during the month of August. As soon as Pootna heard the name of the month, her eyes sparkled with hope. But concealing his evil design, she said, "May I fondle him for a while?". Seeing Pootna s affection towards Krishna, Yashoda could not help agreeing to what she had asked for. So, Pootna took Krishna into her lap and began to fondle him. Giving Yashoda a slip, she slunk away to a lonely corner and began to suckle him from her breasts smeared with poison. Little did she know that instead of being successful in killing Krishna, she would be killed by him. Young Krishna began to suck Pootna's breast.

He sucked it with such a force that Pootna felt as if she were going to die. She screamed in acute pain and instantly fell down dead. Finding Pootna absent with Krishna for long, Yashoda felt worried and came out to look for her son. A number of other dames also joined her in this search. Soon they all reached the spot where Pootna was lying lifeless and Krishna lay smiling by her side. Yashoda gave out a loud cry out of fear as she had already heard of the Pootna's wicked way of killing the infants. Advancing forward, she weaned her son away with a jerk. Soon they come to understand that Pootna had died. The news of Pootna's death spread like wild fire in the whole of Gokul and people flocked to see her lying dead. They began to praise Krishna again and again. As for Kansa, he was shocked to hear of Pootna s death at Krishna's hands.