Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.12.18
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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vṛndāvana-śriyam
—
the beauty of Vṛndāvana
Compound: Vṛndāvana + śrī (beauty, splendor). The boys mistake the demon for vana-śobhā — they read everything in Vraja as beautiful. Gauḍīyas: this is the rasika eye, the antithesis of Aghāsura's envious one.
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ajagara-tuṇḍena
—
by a python's mouth
Compound: ajagara (python) + tuṇḍa (snout, beak, mouth). Even when they correctly read the form, they treat it as art — a model python — not a threat. Sakhya-rasa has no fear because its support is Kṛṣṇa.
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utprekṣante
—
they imagine, they fancifully suppose
From ut + prekṣ- (to look up, imagine). The technical term for poetic fancy. Śuka tells us the boys are doing poetry as they walk into the demon's mouth — the entire līlā runs at the level of alaṅkāra.
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līlayā
—
as play
From līl- (to play). Everything in Vraja is līlā. The boys treat the demon as part of their game — and from Kṛṣṇa's perspective, that is exactly what it is.
Some of the boys, upon seeing this wonderful phenomenon, thought that it was in fact a python, and they were fleeing from the spot. But others said, “Why are you fleeing? It is not possible that a python like this is staying here. This is a spot of beauty for sporting.” This is what they imagined.
Some of the boys on seeing Aghasura started to run away, thinking it was a big snake. Other boys however considered that Aghasura was one of the wonders of Vrndavana. They comforted their fearful friends by saying, "Oh fools, a snake can never be this big. It is something created by the Lord out of clay so that we can appreciate the splendor of Vrndavana even more. He has made it in the form of a huge snake with a big gaping snout." In this way they thought of the Lord’s creation as something like the gaping mouth of the serpent (upreksyanta), without fear (lilaya).
The word hi indicates certainty. They compared it to snake as a jest.
Picture children walking into what they think is a stage-prop cave at a temple festival — painted lips, painted teeth, all part of the décor. Their unawareness is not stupidity; it is the structural sweetness of Vraja, where nothing can actually harm them and everything is interpreted as Kṛṣṇa's play. The cowherd boys' fearlessness is the proof of where they are.
My note
Source: vedabase.io