In plain words
‘Today I have need of you for a task. You must do that work for Me,’ said Kṛṣṇa. ‘What could You need? That You should have work done by me: what is this? This is a great wonder to me. I am bound by Your command. So I will bear Your command on my head, but I will not speak Asatya. Satya itself is Your very nature, so for such Satya I am indeed ready,’ he said. ‘As for Me, I never teach anyone to speak Asatya. You may speak only Satya. But within Satya, you must act the way I tell you,’ said Kṛṣṇa. Well then, Durvāsa asked Him to tell him what He wished. Then Kṛṣṇa said, ‘Tonight you must protect the Pāṇḍavas.’ When Durvāsa asked, ‘How am I to protect them?’, Kṛṣṇa said, ‘Aśvatthāmā has vowed to destroy the Pāṇḍavas before daybreak,’ and so told him to keep the Pāṇḍavas by him tonight. Then Durvāsa spoke: ‘If Aśvatthāmā somehow comes here and asks whether the Pāṇḍavas are here, how can I say they are not? I will never set about Asatya,’ he said. ‘You need not speak Asatya. I will tell you a fine plan for this. Dig a good deep pit. Put these Pāṇḍavas inside that pit. Lay a plank over it, set your throne on top and sit there. In another three ghaṭikās Aśvatthāmā will come. He will come and may ask you, ‘Where are the Pāṇḍavas?’ Then speak like this,’ and He told him something in his ear. ‘Very well! I am ready,’ said Durvāsa. Just as Kṛṣṇa had said, at three o'clock Aśvatthāmā, having searched on every side and found the Pāṇḍavas nowhere, came to this Durvāsa and sought his darśan, because a thought had prompted him in some measure that Durvāsa, who knows past, present and future, could tell him. Durvāsa was ready, as Kṛṣṇa had commanded. Aśvatthāmā came: ‘Swami! You know the three times; I have urgent business with the Pāṇḍavas. So tell me where the Pāṇḍavas are, and bless me,’ he asked. The moment he heard these words, keeping in mind the words Kṛṣṇa had told him, he changed his tone: ‘The Pāṇḍavas? They are under me!’ he said. As he spoke Satya with his tone changed like this, Aśvatthāmā: ‘Durvāsa is in a great rage.