yamāṣṭakam (narasiṃhapurāṇe)

Eight verses from the Narasimha Purana in which Yama speaks, and what he says is that his authority has limits. Seeing his servant with the noose in hand he tells him, in his ear, to keep away from those who have gone for refuge to Madhusudana: I am lord of other men and not of the Vaishnavas. The verses after it are stranger still, because the god of death argues his own case. He was appointed by the Creator to the good and ill of the world, so he governs mortals who are turned away from Hari and his teacher — and bows to those who bow at Hari's feet. He says he himself desires a good state, that his inner self rests in the devotee, that he is under Krishna's control and not independent, and that Krishna has power over him too, even in the restraining.