Near Govardhana, Krishna gathered the gopis with the sound of His flute. Then cries from Vraja announced the danger caused by Arishta. Krishna and the gopis returned by their respective paths. The account recalls that the demon was defeated. Afterward Krishna struck the ground with His heel. A cleft opened and became a sacred pool. The water is described as rising from the lower world. Krishna bathed there with His friends and returned to Vraja.
He greeted Nanda and the others with affection and respect. Then He entered His chamber as though to rest. His signaling flute sounded again. Radha set out and met Him. The danger He had faced had filled her with anxiety. Seeing Him safe, she embraced Him. Krishna responded with the same deep feeling. Their companions at last soothed Them.
Krishna showed Radha the pool He had made. He praised it in a string of poetic comparisons. He compared its radiance with the moon that opens water lilies. Then He playfully asked what corresponding accomplishment she could show. Radha's companions answered with a joke about atonement. They had not killed a bull. Why, they asked, should they need to undertake expiation? Their reply turned His praise into a lively exchange.
Krishna answered with a smile. Arishta, He said, had been a demon disguised as a bull. He had opposed dharma rather than embodied it. Krishna playfully turned the argument back upon the companions. If they took the demon's side, He suggested, the fault would lie with them. He invoked the rule that a ruler bears responsibility for the subjects. Radha was their queen. In His teasing argument, she would therefore have the chief responsibility.
The companions accepted the argument only to answer it in their own way. If any such fault had arisen, they said, it had come through association with Him. To remove it, they would imitate His deed. They praised the beautiful pond their friend would have. Their poetic comparisons answered the comparisons Krishna had used. Krishna gently lifted Radha's chin. He praised her face and smile through an image of the moon. Then the company went toward the spring celebration near Govardhana.
The account returns to the pond on the following morning. Radha's many companions had helped her. The pond is described as fashioned by her own lotus hands. Radha and Krishna found joy there together. The verses remember Them at the water, on the bank, and in the surrounding groves. A sacred verse says that her pond is as dear to Krishna as Radha herself. The closing recollection explicitly joins the making of the two ponds. Thus this exchange is preserved beside the waters cherished by Them.