Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami
From the book “Sri Vraja-maṇḍala-parikramā”:
This place lies a little east of Cīra-ghāṭa on the bank of the Yamunā. Kṛṣṇa killed the Keśī demon here. Once, Kṛṣṇa and His sakhās were grazing the cows at this place. Madhumaṅgala joked with Him, “My dear friend, if You give me Your peacock feather, sweet flute and yellow garments, then all the gopas and gopīs will love me and feed me delicious laḍḍūs. Nobody will even ask You if You would like some.” Smiling, Kṛṣṇa personally dressed Madhumaṅgala up in His peacock feather and yellow garments and handed him His flute and staff. Now all dressed up, Madhumaṅgala began to strut about here and there.
At this time, the very powerful Keśī demon assumed the form of a huge horse. Neighing and whinnying, he appeared there to kill Kṛṣṇa. Mahārāja Kaṁsa had instructed him, “Whomever you see wearing a peacock feather on his head and yellow garments on his limbs, and holding a flute in his hand, know that person to be Kṛṣṇa for certain and kill Him.” Upon seeing Madhumaṅgala dressed as Kṛṣṇa, Keśī attacked him with his two hind legs. Kṛṣṇa quickly came to save Madhumaṅgala and killed the Keśī demon. Although the demon’s legs did not so much as touch Madhumaṅgala, he lost consciousness just by the breeze created by the movement of Keśī’s legs. After Kṛṣṇa killed Keśī, however, Madhumaṅgala became embarrassed. He went to Kṛṣṇa and handed back His flute, peacock feather and yellow cloth. He told Him, “I do not want any laḍḍūs.
My life is worth hundreds of thousands of laḍḍūs.” The cowherd boys began to laugh. Even today, the memory of this pastime will enter our hearts by visiting Keśī-ghāṭa.
Rajashekhara Dasa
From the book “Chaurasi-kosa Vraja Mandala Parikrama”:
The Adi-varaha Purana says, “Keshi-tirtha, the place where Keshi was killed by Krishna, is a hundred times more sacred than the Ganges. By offering pinda to the forefathers at Keshi-tirtha, one attains the result of offering pinda in Gaya.” This is the ghata where Krishna bathed after slaying the horse-demon Keshi. The powerful demon arrived in the forest of Vrindavana in the form of a gigantic horse with the intention of killing Krishna. The Keshi demon was a servant of Kamsa and had been given the order to find Krishna and kill Him. This demon had been living in the area of Vraja for a long time and had previously terrorized the inhabitants of the Nandagrama area during the period that Parjanya, the father of Nanda Maharaja had lived near there at Tagada Tirtha, consequently Parjanya’s family had to move away and establish a new residence at Gokula. The great demons like Keshi, Putana, Trinavarta, Vatsasura, Aghasura, and others, having performed many years of severe penance had achieved various siddhis, or mystical powers, and by the siddhi known as kama-rupa siddhi, they could change their physical form at will. In this regard the word ‘kama’ means ‘desire’ and ‘rupa’ means ‘form’, and simply by their desire they could change their form in an instant.
The Vraja-vilasa-stava says, “With his mad neighing Keshi made the three worlds tremble and with the wild rolling of his eyes he set the entire universe in flames. Krishna killed this demon as easily as one splits a blade of grass and then washed the blood from His hands at a place now known as Keshi-tirtha. I worship that sacred place.”
