Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami
From the book “Sri Vraja-maṇḍala-parikramā”:
The village of Āgiyārā is situated two miles south-west of the village of Kāśraṭa. It is located in the middle of Muñjāṭavī, where Kṛṣṇa used to take the cows to pasture.
Once, Kṛṣṇa was playing with the sakhās in the shade of Bhāṇḍīravaṭa. Nearby, the cows drank water from the Yamunā and began to graze on the lush, green grass in the fields. In doing so, they gradually wandered off to Muñjāṭavī some distance away. It was a summer day, and the scorching heat was drying up the muñja107plants and baking the sand on the ground. The cows had roamed off without Kṛṣṇa, and they now entered this muñja forest, which was devoid of water and shade. This Muñjāṭavī was so dense that they lost track of the path by which they had come. Overwhelmed with thirst and heat, the cows became restless.
In their search for the cows, the sakhās had also left Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma and, entering Muñjāṭavī, they too became agitated by thirst and heat. It was then that the followers of the wicked Kaṁsa set Muñjavana on fire. Within a moment, the wind had spread the fire everywhere, so that it surrounded the cows and the cowherd boys. Seeing no other means of escape, they began to cry out to Kṛṣṇa and Baladeva who heard their call and immediately went to them. “Close your eyes for just a moment,” Kṛṣṇa told them, and in that moment He swallowed the terrible forest fire. Upon opening their eyes, the sakhās saw that they were now standing with Kṛṣṇa and Baladeva in the cooling shade of Bhāṇḍīravaṭa, the cows peacefully lying nearby chewing their cud. The jīva suffering in the forest fire of material existence can similarly be easily delivered from this suffering simply by taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa. Another name for Muñjāṭavī is Īṣikāṭavī. On the other side of the Yamunā is the village of Bhāṇḍīra.
