Devanagari
अहो बतास्य बालस्य बहवो मृत्यवोऽभवन् ।
अप्यासीद् विप्रियं तेषां कृतं पूर्वं यतो भयम् ॥ ५५ ॥
Verse text
aho batāsya bālasya
bahavo mṛtyavo ’bhavan
apy āsīd vipriyaṁ teṣāṁ
kṛtaṁ pūrvaṁ yato bhayam
Synonyms
aho bata
—
it is very astonishing
;
asya
—
of this
;
bālasya
—
Kṛṣṇa
;
bahavaḥ
—
many, many
;
mṛtyavaḥ
—
causes of death
;
abhavan
—
appeared
;
api
—
still
;
āsīt
—
there was
;
vipriyam
—
the cause of death
;
teṣām
—
of them
;
kṛtam
—
done
;
pūrvam
—
formerly
;
yataḥ
—
from which
;
bhayam
—
there was fear of death .
Translation
The cowherd men, headed by Nanda Mahārāja, began to contemplate: It is very astonishing that although this boy Kṛṣṇa has many times faced many varied causes of death, by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead it was these causes of fear that were killed, instead of Him.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The cowherd men, headed by Nanda Mahārāja, began to contemplate: It is very astonishing that although this boy Kṛṣṇa has many times faced many varied causes of death, by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead it was these causes of fear that were killed, instead of Him.
KB 10.11.55
The gopīs and the men began to converse amongst themselves about how wonderful it was that child Kṛṣṇa had been attacked in so many ways and so many times by so many demons, and yet the demons themselves had been killed and Kṛṣṇa had remained uninjured.
Purport
The cowherd men innocently thought, “Because our Kṛṣṇa is innocent, the causes of death that appeared before Him were themselves killed instead of Kṛṣṇa. This is the greatest grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Three verses describe the amazement of the cowherd men in discussing Krsna’s exploits. "The boy has had many causes of death (mrtyavah). Because (yatah) they first caused danger to our innocent boy (bhayam krtam), they were destroyed."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The cowherds speak till verse 58. They verses will be explained separately. The cowherd men began speaking with amazement among themselves. Aho expresses astonishment and bata expresses lamentation. There have been many causes of death for this young boy. They call him bālasya out of affection. Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that demons were killed because they caused fear in others. Another explain of the last phrase is “They were killed because after coming, they first caused Kṛṣṇa fear.”
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
The cowherds speak among themselves with astonishment in three verses. Aho indicates astonishment or lamentation. Or aho bata indicates extreme lamentation. He has had many causes of death. They thought of him always as a small child (bālasya) out of great affection.
Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that demons were killed because they caused fear in others. Or they wonder about the reason. Perhaps (api) the death of Baka and others (teṣam) was previously arranged (kṛtam) because (yataḥ) they caused us fear.