Chapter Sixteen
Krishna Chastises the Serpent Kaliya
1. Sukadeva Gosvami said: Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, seeing that the Yamuna River had been contaminated by the black snake Kaliya, desired to purify the river, and thus the Lord banished him from it.
2. King Pariksit inquired: O learned sage, please explain how the Supreme Personality of Godhead chastised the serpent Kaliya within the unfathomable waters of the Yamuna, and how it was that Kaliya had been living there for so many ages.
3. O brahmana, the unlimited Supreme Personality of Godhead freely acts according to His own desires. Who could be satiated when hearing the nectar of the magnanimous pastimes He performed as a cowherd boy in Vrndavana?
4. Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said: Within the river Kalindi [Yamuna] was a lake inhabited by the serpent Kaliya, whose fiery poison constantly heated and boiled its waters. Indeed, the vapors thus created were so poisonous that birds flying over the contaminated lake would fall down into it.
5. The wind blowing over that deadly lake carried droplets of water to the shore. Simply by coming in contact with that poisonous breeze, all vegetation and creatures on the shore died.
6. Lord Krishna saw how the Kaliya serpent had polluted the Yamunä River with his terribly powerful poison. Since Krishna had descended from the spiritual world specifically to subdue envious demons, the Lord immediately climbed to the top of a very high kadamba tree and prepared Himself for battle. He tightened His belt, slapped His arms and then jumped into the poisonous water.
7. When the Supreme Personality of Godhead landed in the serpent’s lake, the snakes there became extremely agitated and began breathing heavily, further polluting it with volumes of poison. The force of the Lord’s entrance into the lake caused it to overflow on all sides, and poisonous, fearsome waves flooded the surrounding lands up to a distance of one hundred bow-lengths. This is not at all amazing, however, for the Supreme Lord possesses infinite strength.
8. Krishna began sporting in Kaliya’s lake like a lordly elephant—swirling His mighty arms and making the water resound in various ways. When Kaliya heard these sounds, he understood that someone was trespassing in his lake. The serpent could not tolerate this and immediately came forward.
9. Kaliya saw that Sri Krishna, who wore yellow silken garments, was very delicate, His attractive body shining like a glowing white cloud, His chest bearing the mark of Srivatsa, His face smiling beautifully and His feet resembling the whorl of a lotus flower. The Lord was playing fearlessly in the water. Despite His wonderful appearance, the envious Kaliya furiously bit Him on the chest and then completely enwrapped Him in his coils.
10. When the members of the cowherd community, who had accepted Krishna as their dearmost friend, saw Him enveloped in the snake’s coils, motionless, they were greatly disturbed. They had offered Krishna everything—their very selves, their families, their wealth, wives and all pleasures. At the sight of the Lord in the clutches of the Kaliya snake, their intelligence became deranged by grief, lamentation and fear, and thus they fell to the ground.
11. The cows, bulls and female calves, in great distress, called out piteously to Krishna. Fixing their eyes on Him, they stood still in fear, as if ready to cry but too shocked to shed tears.
12. In the Vrndavana area there then arose all three types of fearful omens—those on the earth, those in the sky and those in the bodies of living creatures—which announced imminent danger.
13-15. Seeing the inauspicious omens, Nanda Maharaja and the other cowherd men were fearful, for they knew that Krishna had gone to herd the cows that day without His elder brother, Balarama. Because they had dedicated their minds to Krishna, accepting Him as their very life, they were unaware of His great power and opulence. Thus they concluded that the inauspicious omens indicated He had met with death, and they were overwhelmed with grief, lamentation and fear. All the inhabitants of Vrndavana, including the children, women and elderly persons, thought of Krishna just as a cow thinks of her helpless young calf, and thus these poor, suffering people rushed out of the village, intent upon finding Him.
16. The Supreme Lord Balarama, the master of all transcendental knowledge, smiled and said nothing when He saw the residents of Vrndavana in such distress, since He understood the extraordinary power of His younger brother.
17. The residents hurried toward the banks of the Yamuna in search of their dearmost Krishna, following the path marked by His footprints, which bore the unique signs of the Personality of Godhead.
18. The footprints of Lord Krishna, the master of the entire cowherd community, were marked with the lotus flower, barleycorn, elephant goad, thunderbolt and flag. My dear King Pariksit, seeing His footprints on the path among the cows’ hoofprints, the residents of Vrndavana rushed along in great haste.
19. As they hurried along the path to the bank of the Yamuna River, they saw from a distance that Krishna was in the lake, motionless within the coils of the black serpent. They further saw that the cowherd boys had fallen unconscious and that the animals were standing on all sides, crying out for Krishna. Seeing all this, the residents of Vrndavana were overwhelmed with anguish and confusion.
20. When the young gopis, whose minds were constantly attached to Krishna, the unlimited Supreme Lord, saw that He was now within the grips of the serpent, they remembered His loving friendship, His smiling glances and His talks with them. Burning with great sorrow, they saw the entire universe as void.
21. Although the elder gopis were feeling just as much distress as she and were pouring forth a flood of sorrowful tears, they had to forcibly hold back Krishna’s mother, whose consciousness was totally absorbed in her son. Standing like corpses, with their eyes fixed upon His face, these gopis each took turns recounting the pastimes of the darling of Vraja.
22. Lord Balarama then saw that Nanda Maharaja and the other cowherd men, who had dedicated their very lives to Krishna, were beginning to enter the serpent’s lake. As the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Balarama fully knew Lord Krishna’s actual power, and therefore He restrained them.
23. The Lord remained for some time within the coils of the serpent, imitating the behavior of an ordinary mortal. But when He understood that the women, children and other residents of His village of Gokula were in acute distress because of their love for Him, their only shelter and goal in life, He immediately rose up from the bonds of the Kaliya serpent.
24. His coils tormented by the expanding body of the Lord, Kaliya released Him. In great anger the serpent then raised his hoods high and stood still, breathing heavily. His nostrils appeared like vessels for cooking poison, and the staring eyes in his face like firebrands. Thus the serpent looked at the Lord.
25. Again and again Kaliya licked his lips with his bifurcated tongues as He stared at Krishna with a glance full of terrible, poisonous fire. But Krishna playfully circled around him, just as Garuòa would play with a snake. In response, Kaliya also moved about, looking for an opportunity to bite the Lord.
26. Having severely depleted the serpent’s strength with His relentless circling, Sri Krishna, the origin of everything, pushed down Kaliya’s raised shoulders and mounted his broad serpentine heads. Thus Lord Sri Krishna, the original master of all fine arts, began to dance, His lotus feet deeply reddened by the touch of the numerous jewels upon the serpent’s heads.
27. Seeing the Lord dancing, His servants in the heavenly planets—the Gandharvas, Siddhas, sages, Caranas and wives of the demigods—immediately arrived there. With great pleasure they began accompanying the Lord’s dancing by playing drums such as mrdangas, panavas and anakas. They also made offerings of songs, flowers and prayers.
28. My dear King, Kaliya had 101 prominent heads, and when one of them would not bow down, Lord Sri Krishna, who inflicts punishment on cruel wrong-doers, would smash that stubborn head by striking it with His feet. Then, as Kaliya entered his death throes, he began wheeling his heads around and vomiting ghastly blood from his mouths and nostrils. The serpent thus experienced extreme pain and misery.
29. Exuding poisonous waste from his eyes, Kaliya, would occasionally dare to raise up one of his heads, which would breathe heavily with anger. Then the Lord would dance on it and subdue it, forcing it to bow down with His foot. The demigods took each of these exhibitions as an opportunity to worship Him, the primeval Personality of Godhead, with showers of flowers.
30. My dear King Pariksit, Lord Krishna’s wonderful, powerful dancing trampled and broke all of Kaliya’s one thousand hoods. Then the serpent, profusely vomiting blood from his mouths, finally recognized Sri Krishna to be the eternal Personality of Godhead, the supreme master of all moving and nonmoving beings, Sri Narayana. Thus within his mind Kaliya took shelter of the Lord.
31. When Kaliya’s wives saw how the serpent had become so fatigued from the excessive weight of Lord Krishna, who carries the entire universe in His abdomen, and how Kaliya’s umbrellalike hoods had been shattered by the striking of Krishna’s heels, they felt great distress. With their clothing, ornaments and hair scattered in disarray, they then approached the eternal Personality of Godhead.
32. Their minds very much disturbed, those saintly ladies placed their children before them and then bowed down to the Lord of all creatures, laying their bodies flat upon the ground. They desired the liberation of their sinful husband and the shelter of the Supreme Lord, the giver of ultimate shelter, and thus they folded their hands in supplication and approached Him.
