Once on a full moon day, Krishna and Balarama were walking in the forest, it was late. Lord Krishna says to his brother Balarama, “it’s getting dark. And it’s a Dense forest. I think we should take a halt here and resume our journey tomorrow morning.”

“Yes. I agree”, nodded Balarama. “Balarama, I shall go to sleep now while you keep a guard on us, you keep watch until midnight while I sleep, and I will be on watch from midnight till morning.”

A few hours passed, Krishna was sleeping sound. Balarama heard a growl at a distance, it was a terrifying sound. He walked a little further towards the sound. Now he could see a gigantic monster approaching him. The monster growled again, Balarama was very afraid, he trembled in fear.

The frightened Balarama shrinks into size. Every time he trembled, the monster grew double in size. The monster grew bigger and bigger as it approached Balarama. Now the monster was standing very close to Balarama, it growled again. Terrified by the sound, size and terrible smell of the monster Balarama screamed “Krishna! Krishna!” and collapsed and fell unconscious.

Woken up by the call, Krishna followed the sound and found Balarama sleeping, Krishna thought, ‘It must be my turn now and started walking too and fro. Slowly Krishna recognized the monster standing nearby. The monster growled at Krishna.

“What do you want?” Krishna asked unafraid. The size of the monster decreased, it shrunk to half its size. “What are you doing here?” Krishna asked again and the monster shrunk again. Krishna kept questioning it expecting a reply, the monster kept shrinking every time he asked.

“The monster shrinks to a tiny nut size. Krishna picks him and ties him to a knot in his dhoti”. At sunrise, both the brothers resume their journey, Balarama could not resist sharing his horrible experience last night. “You know what. Last night a huge monster had almost killed me!” Krishna, pulling out the tiny monster from his dhoti’s knot asks “are you talking about him?”

“Yes! How come he is so small?”

“Every time I questioned it, it shrunk in size, finally it became this,” Balarama told Krishna how the monster grew yesterday every time he was scared of it.

Krishna replied, “every time we are afraid, our fears grow big, but every time we face them and question them, they become smaller and smaller.“

“When you are frightened of a challenge in life, the challenge becomes bigger than you and takes control over you. When you face the challenge you must face and question them, you become bigger than the challenge and you gain control over it.”

“Decide to face the challenge you must face – the monster of your life”