Text 4
tokenāmīlitākṣeṇa
pūtanāyā mahaujasaḥ
pītaḥ stanaḥ saha prāṇaiḥ
kāleneva vayas tanoḥ
tokena — by the young child; ā-mīlita — almost closed; akṣeṇa — whose eyes; pūtanāyāḥ — of the witch Pūtanā; mahā-ojasaḥ — whose power was very great; pītaḥ — drunk; stanaḥ — the breast; saha — along with; prāṇaiḥ — her life air; kālena — by the force of time; iva — as; vayaḥ — the life span; tanoḥ — of a material body.
As a mere infant who had hardly yet opened His eyes, He drank the breast milk of the powerful demoness Pūtanā and then sucked out her very life air as well, just as the force of time sucks out the youth of one’s body.
The word vayaḥ in this verse indicates youth or life span in general. With irresistible power, time takes away our life, and that time is actually Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself. Thus in the case of the powerful witch Pūtanā, Lord Kṛṣṇa accelerated the time process and within an instant withdrew the duration of her life. Here the cowherd men mean to say, “How could a mere infant who could barely open His eyes so easily kill a very powerful demoness?”