Text 28
athāgata-smṛtir abhayo ripuṁ balo
vihāya sārtham iva harantam ātmanaḥ
ruṣāhanac chirasi dṛḍhena muṣṭinā
surādhipo girim iva vajra-raṁhasā
atha — then; āgata-smṛtiḥ — remembering Himself; abhayaḥ — without fear; ripum — His enemy; balaḥ — Lord Balarāma; vihāya — leaving aside; sārtham — the company; iva — indeed; harantam — kidnapping; ātmanaḥ — Himself; ruṣā — angrily; ahanat — He struck; śirasi — upon the head; dṛḍhena — hard; muṣṭinā — with His fist; sura-adhipaḥ — the king of the demigods, Indra; girim — a mountain; iva — just as; vajra — of his thunderbolt weapon; raṁhasā — with the swiftness.
Remembering the actual situation, the fearless Balarāma understood that the demon was tṛying to kidnap Him and take Him away from His companions. The Lord then became furious and struck the demon’s head with His hard fist, just as Indra, the king of the demigods, strikes a mountain with his thunderbolt weapon.
Lord Balarāma’s powerful fist came crashing down upon the demon’s head, just as a huge lightning bolt comes crashing into a mountain, cracking its stone surface into pieces. The words vihāya sārtham iva may also be divided vihāyasā artham iva, meaning that the demon was flying in the sky on the cosmic path, vihāyas, with the purpose of carrying off Balarāma, who was his artham, or object of pursuit.