(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 27 December 2012, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.6.39)
We see that not only is the Lord extremely powerful but Garuda is also very powerful because Garuda has a spiritual body. Garuda’s body is not at all of the same nature of the body of the demigods. Garuda is a spiritual personality and as such, he can carry out things without any difficulty because he is not limited by the material energy.
He is limited by the will of the Supreme Lord but that is another matter. All living beings receive their power from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whether in the material world or in the spiritual world. In the material world, any power that we have is power that is received from Krsna, and equally so in the liberated stage. We don’t have our own power, it is the power that is bestowed upon us by the Supreme Lord, ‘I am the power in man.’ This is a fact.
So in this way, we understand that dependence on Krsna continues not only throughout material life but also in the spiritual world. But in the spiritual world, Krsna promotes his devotees to a platform of equality or even superiority. We see that also when Krsna performs his pastimes on earth. It is said that there was the wrestling match in Mathura and Kamsa invited Krsna and Balarama. At that time, these huge professional wrestlers appeared. They were towering over Krsna and Balarama. They were enormous and they had huge bodies and Krsna and Balarama looked like practically half their size.
So many people in the audience thought that it was a very unfair match and in a way it was because how could these tiny little wrestlers fight with the unlimited Supreme Personality of Godhead!? Anyway, it became a whole thing and different scriptures describe it in different ways. It is described in the Harivamsa, ‘At one point Krsna hit Chanura on the head and the eyes of Chanura popped-out and were dangling.’
So whatever maybe, they definitely defeated those wrestlers. But Jiva Gosvami describes, ‘After that, Krsna and Balarama had a wrestling match with the cowherd boys from Vrndavan and then Krsna lost!’
Just to add insult to injury that made Kamsa feel, ‘Okay, you thought that your wrestlers were powerful. Now see these cowherd boys defeating Krsna.’
So this incited great anger in Kamsa. When Kamsa saw that he became so angry and said, ‘Take everything away from Nanada Maharaja!’
In this way, he was thinking of how to get back at Krsna. That was the point when Krsna jumped over the royal guard and pulled Kamsa by the hair, and that sort of half-killed Kamsa. Then he just threw him on the ground and finished him there, he was dead! It’s like you wouldn’t expect that from such a powerful personality like Kamsa, it was almost like an accident. In this way, Krsna showed his unlimited power and showed that no matter how powerful one is, all that power is coming from the Supreme Personality of Godhead!
