In Gokul all was silent, except for the pouring rain. Men, women and children slept safe and dry inside their homes. Vasudev found his way to Nand's house. Here too, all was silent. Vasudev shook Nand awake, and explained the prophecy and told him what the voice had asked him to do. Nand led him unquestioningly to his newborn child.

A lamp burned low in the room where Nand's wife Yashodha slept with her newborn baby daughter. Silently, quietly, Vasudev entered the room. He laid his baby son down beside Yashodha and picked up her baby daughter. Just as silently as he had come, Vasudev returned to Mathura with the baby girl.

In Mathura, all was as he had left it - everyone slept, deep in an enchanted sleep. The prison guards snored over their weapons, the prison doors stood wide open, the palace was silent. Only Devaki waited, awake and anxious, for Vasudev's safe return.

Vasudev entered his prison, and laid the baby girl beside Devaki. The prison doors shut on their own, Vasudev's chains fastened themselves around his ankles, and the prison guards woke up, stretching and yawning, and amazed that they had fallen so sound asleep. The guards hurried to the prison door to make sure their prisoners were still safe and secure, and saw Devaki holding a newborn baby in her arms.

'The eighth child, the eighth child has been born!' cried the guards. A messenger went running to summon the demon king Kansa.

Krishna's birth cont'd... 
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