Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.16.1. Kaliya-damana-lila
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2021
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Opening prayers and class introduction
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya nārāṁ namaskṛtya naraṁ caiva narottamaṁ devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsam.
tato jayam udīrayet naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata- sevayā bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī, bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī. yaṁ pravrajantam anupetam apeta-kṛtyaṁ dvaipāyano viraha-kātara juhāva putreti tanmayatayā taror abhinedus, taṁ sarva-bhūta-hṛdayaṁ munim nato 'smi Hare Kṛṣṇa.
So today, few days before Janmashtami, we are asked to speak on some Krishna's pastimes in Vrindavan. And I will tell today Kaliya Daman Lila. Very famous lila of Krishna's childhood pastimes.
And I will read before speaking the first verse from the 16th chapter of the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Krishna punishes Kaliya snake. Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells the story.
śrī-śuka uvāca vilokya dūṣitaṁ kṛṣṇo yamunāyās toyaṁ viṣeṇa ugra- tasyāviśuddhim anvicchan sarpam udvāsayat sāt. Śukadeva Gosvāmī said, just one second. Really sorry for this.
Sukadeva Gaswami said, Lord Shri 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.
yac-chaktaya-ś codayatīdaṁ sva-dhāmny amṛta-sūkta-sañjīvitākhila-śakti-dhāraka-svarūpam anyam sahasrāṁśaḥ.
So, this particular pastime is very important for us practicing devotees, sādhakas, because Kaliya snake according to Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura represents envy, specifically envy towards other devotees.
This envy contaminates and poisons our heart as much as the poison of the Kaliya snake poisoned Yamuna. Our consciousness is compared with Yamuna River. The pure consciousness.
The consciousness of the soul is pure, naturally pure. By its own nature, it's pure, it's benevolent. We have natural virtues like kindness, compassion, desire to help. This is all very natural qualities of the soul.
But when we come in contact with the material energy, this material energy contaminates our consciousness. And in contaminated consciousness, envy becomes a very important and prominent characteristic.
Envy is this feeling when you see somebody who is nice, who is flourishing, who has good life, and you feel some bad feeling towards him and you wish him bad.
And if something bad happens to such a person, especially if he is glorious, if he is famous, if he is rich, if he is happy, then you also feel happy. It's called parasukha dukkhi.
You feel bad when somebody is happy, and para-duḥkha-sukhi. And you feel happy when somebody is not very happy. When something bad has happened.
So according to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, when we listen the pastimes of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, specifically Krishna's Vraja-līlā pastimes, pastimes in Vrindavan.
And when we identify with what is going on, these propensities which contaminate our heart, anarthas, something which is not really valuable but by some mistake we consider it valuable,
they become weakened and ultimately they will be removed as much as all the demons who sometimes invade Vrindavan are killed by Krishna himself.
Qualifications for understanding Srimad Bhagavatam
So listening, this pastime will free us from this envy, and envy is actually the last impediment for us to see Krishna. Śrīla Vyāsadeva, while writing maṅgalācaraṇa, the invocation verses to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he
says: dharmaḥ projjhaitavaḥ paro nirmatsarāṇāṁ satām.
In the second verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he explains the qualification by which you will be able to understand the essence or the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And this qualification is very significant, very simple,
and at the same time is very profound. This qualification is nirmatsarāṇāṁ satām. One has to be satam. Satam means our consciousness has to be concentrated on sat, on the reality.
Without being too much distracted by the temporary illusions of this world, temporary display of something which appears to us as pleasurable in this world. This basically illusory happiness of this world.
So we have to be satam means our consciousness has to be fixed on reality. And to be fixed on reality, we have to be nirmatsaram. Nirmatsaram means free from matsary,
free from this idea or from this notion or from this emotion that I can only be happy if somebody else is suffering. I can only be happy.
Completely stupid idea, but nevertheless everyone to certain extent cherishes this stupid idea. If somebody else is suffering, it means that I'm okay. So, this particular pastime is important for us for this reason.
But besides that, it's a beautiful pastime which reveals many other features of Lord Krishna, many beautiful qualities of Lord Krishna, and the foremost quality of Lord Krishna, which we have to meditate upon, is his love towards Vrajavasis.
That's the most important quality of God because we are following the path of Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And the path of Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu, it's very interesting.
Because our particular line of bhakti is quite different from other schools of bhakti. Like for example, in Madhva Sampradaya, whom we are a branch of, nevertheless, quite different branch of Madhva Sampradaya.
They say, what is bhakti? Bhakti is this devotion towards Lord which is coupled or conjoined with the understanding of His greatness.
When we understand Mahima, the glory, the greatness of the Lord, then only we can develop bhakti.
But according to our acharyas, the understanding of the greatness of the Lord, Ishwarya of the Lord, is actually an impediment to Bhakti. Because the inhabitants of Vrindavan they have no knowledge of Krishna's opulence.
They do know that Krishna is very powerful, but they don't really appreciate this quality so much because Krishna's sweetness completely overshadows in Vrindavan his opulence, his Aishwarya.
And therefore, this pastime, when we meditate on this pastime and meditate on the relationship between Krishna and the inhabitants of Vrindavan, we will be able to emulate the same sort of mood or the same sort of relationship towards the Lord.
And that is called Raganuga Bhakti. Raganuga Bhakti is the path which is proclaimed by Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu as the most powerful and direct way to approach Krishna, to reach Krishna in his spiritual abode.
Chronology of Vrindavan pastimes corrected
And that's why all his pastimes in Vrindavan are very precious and valuable for us followers of Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
So this pastime, this particular pastime of the Lord is described in the 16th chapter of the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the first verse of this chapter we read.
However, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī makes a very significant correction towards the chronology of the pastimes described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And he has a very solid basis to make this correction.
He says that Śukadeva Gosvāmī, while describing, especially describing Krishna's pastimes in Vrindavan, he is completely oblivious of the chronology.
He is just telling this pastime one after another, not according to strict chronology, how they happened in Krishna's real life, but according to the mood.
He tells one pastime, and this one pastime invokes a certain mood, and this bhāva mood in the heart of Śukadeva Gosvāmī impels him to tell some other pastime which may happen before the particular one which he just told, because they're connected not by the chronology, not by the line of time, but they're connected
by the bhāva, by the loving sentiment, by the emotions which Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī feels in his heart. So the particular correction which Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī
makes is that first Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes Dhenukāsura-vadhā- līlā when Krishna and Balarāma, specifically Balarāma killed this ass demon, Dhenuka, who lived in Tālavana.
But Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says and then he describes Kāliya- damana-līlā. But Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says no, Kāliya-damana-līlā happened first practically a year before Dhenukāsura-vadhā-līlā. And he explains this.
He says that both of these lilas, both of these pastimes of Krishna happened during Krishna's pogaṇḍa, his childhood. When he started herding cows, it's a very significant event.
When Krishna was five years old, he was allowed to herd little cows, but when he became very strong, he became six years old. And in case of Krishna, six years old, you know, he's exceptionally strong.
After so much reluctance, ultimately his father and mother, Yaśodāmaiyyā and Nanda Mahārāja, they allowed him to herd cows. On the insistence of Nanda Mahārāja's brothers.
Nanda Mahārāja's brothers said, your son is so strong. He has to become the real cohort.
He has to take up our family tradition, he has to take cows and I said, no, no, it's not possible. Cows have big horns. They're very dangerous. Especially if the bulls will be there. It will be very dangerous. No way.
He was resisting for a long time, but ultimately Krishna somehow rather forced him to allow him to take cows in the forest.
So both of these pastimes, both the Dhenukasura-līlā and Kāliya līlā happened during his pastimes with the cows, so when he was six years old.
But Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells that Kāliya-vadha-līlā happened—Kāliya-damana-līlā happened on Śrāvaṇa Pūrṇimā, on Balaram's birthday.
And that's one of the main reasons why this whole pastime happened because Balaram on that particular day he remained at home. He didn't accompany Krishna together with the other friends in the forest.
And that played a significant role in the whole līlā. So that happened in Śrāvaṇa Pūrṇimā. And Śrāvaṇa Pūrṇimā is before the tālas become ripened.
The whole pastime of the Dhenukasura-vadha was happened because Kṛṣṇa and his friends wanted to taste these tāla fruits. But tāla fruits they ripen around September time. Now they're not yet ripened.
So and uh and because uh uh Krishna started herding cows uh on Kartik Day uh on Gapashtami Day uh in the bright part of the kartic, second part of the kartic. So that can only happen a few months after that.
So basically, these two līlās they separated practically by one year.
First, Kṛṣṇa danced on the snake Kāliya, and then more than one year after that, Dhenukasura- vadha-līlā happened with Balarāma and other friends. Why it is significant.
You know, we are you know we're sitting here five thousand years after this happened and you know is it important? When did it happen? Uh what is the importance?
But actually the every minute detail of Kṛṣṇa-līlā is important for our ācāryas because every minute detail of his līlā invokes certain emotions and, and when we become attentive to all these details, the same emotions will be reflected in our heart as well.
That's the bonus which we may have. And specifically, why this particular chronology is important is that at the end of the 15th chapter after Krishna and Balaram returns from
the forest after killing this as demon, Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes the first glance between Krishna and young girls of Vrindavan. We know that love starts from the first glance. There is even an expression.
The love from the first glance. So in case of Gopis and Krishna, there was this love from the first glance.
And this first glance happened after when they really were allowed to see Krishna very close by after Krishna killed the Dhenukāsura, Balarām killed the Dhenukāsura and they returned from the forest.
It's a long story, I'm making it a little short. But before that first glance, there was something which happened immediately after Krishna curbed demon Kāliya between Krishna and the little girls of Vrindavan.
So that was the very beginning, the first little seed of love which was planted by Krishna during this pastime.
And therefore, the chronology is important because actually, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam explains the development of bhāva, the development of attachment towards the Lord.
And if we attentively read the pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavan, and if we follow the mood which is described there, gradually, gradually the same feelings could be invoked within our heart.
Krishna's friends and cows drink poison
Anyway, so coming back to our talk. And we read the first verse of the sixteenth chapter of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, but the whole pastime Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī started describing at the end of the 15th chapter.
It says that at the end of the 15th chapter that there was one day, and then on this one day Krishna and his friends went to a little forest near the bank of Yamuna River.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains in more details what happened. As I said, it was Shravan Purnima Day, the birthday of Balaram. And Balaram was kept home.
Abhishek was supposed to be done, and many many guests were invited, brāhmaṇas were invited, auspicious invocations were chanted, all the Vedic mantras were chanted, and Krishna, we all know he is bored by the Vedic mantras.
He doesn't like to sit and listen to Vedic mantras. So he said, I'll go to have fun in the forest.
And Balarām before that, he knew that Krishna always wanted to come to this Kāliya lake. For a long time, the serpent Kāliya was living in this lake and poisoning the lake.
And Krishna wanted to punish this serpent Kalia, but Balaram didn't allow him to come. And Balaram knew that on this day, when he's not there, Krishna will definitely go to this lake.
So before Krishna left home, Balaram told him, okay Krishna, I know you're going, you want to go to Kali Lake. You can go to Kali Lake, but please don't go near
and especially don't go to the water because the water of Kali Lake is very poisonous. Don't do this.
And of course, Krishna, the first thing which he did, of course, he jumped in the Kali Lake. But what happened before is very significant. Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains it in the end of the 15th chapter.
He said that the cows and the friend it's uh it's a summer time. Sravanpurnima, around this time. The heat is very strong.
Of course, the rainy season already started, but sometimes there is no rain in Vṛndāvana even during rainy season. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that cows after grazing in the little forest fresh grass which was still there.
It was still there because they were they would never go there close to this lake. But cows felt a very strong thirst.
And completely uncontrolled, this cows ran towards Yamuna and started drinking the poisonous water from this Kali Echrada, the lake of Kalia.
Actually, Jīva Gosvāmī also explains that this lake must have been in a certain separate branch of Yamuna. Otherwise, the whole water of Yamuna would be poisoned downstream. In Madhura it would also be poisoned.
So it was a separate kind of lake and separate branch which was not connected with the main stream of Jamuna. And it is said that the poison there was fiery. The water was boiling from the poison.
Kalia was so poisonous, and he was emitting poison, and so much poison was there that this water was constantly bubbling.
It was just boiling, and the poison would be would be spread would spread all around the lake so that when the birds would fly over the lake, they would fall and they would fall dead into the lake.
And of course there was no trees, there was nothing around, only the snakes were living there.
And if any animal would approach this lake, the snakes would bite this animal and you know it was a dead lake, completely dead lake.
But the cows were so thirsty that they ran and they drank this water and they immediately fell dead. And Krishna's friends they ran behind the cows they they couldn't control them. They ran behind the cows, but when they came to this lake it was too late.
The cows were already lying dead on the bank of this lake. And Krishna's friends started lamenting and started crying, you know, what happened.
The cows were so dear to them, and the cows were so, you know that they had such a strong emotional attachment. Because the question is: why the friends also drank the same water?
They already knew that it's poisonous water, they already knew they had discrimination, you know, they knew that it's dangerous. But Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says they wanted to commit suicide.
The Krishna's friends were so shocked by the death of their cows, they couldn't imagine how they can return to the village and say, you know, all our cows are dead.
And they were emotionally attached to this cow, so they followed the cow's footsteps, which was not very wise, and they drank the same water, the same poisonous water, and they also fell unconscious after that.
And Krishna was a little late.
And Śukadeva Gosvāmī also reconciles all the uh all the can uh apparent contradictions of this pastime because he says that it was Daiva or Krishna's līlā śakti who impelled Kaus and Krishna's friends to do this?
Krishna Lila Shakti wanted to arrange this past time, and therefore, all the friends of Krishna and cows drank this poisonous water and ultimately were laying there on the bank of this lake.
Krishna revives his friends and cows
So Krishna came and when Krishna saw his friends and all his cows, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that he revived all the cows and all the friends by the nectar by Amrita which was emanating from his eyes.
So sometimes different ācāryas explain this particular detail of this pastime in a different way. So some of they say of them say that Krishna was just looking compassionately upon his friends.
And by looking, he revived his glance is so powerful. The glance of Krishna is so full of life that he revived them. He invoked life in these dead bodies of the cows and the friends just by looking at them.
And that's what Śukadeva Gosvāmī, according to them, is called Vrishti: the shower of the reign of mercy, the reign of Amrita.
But Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says, no, no, it was real rain. What happened? Krishna was coming to his friend, and he saw his friend, this was Sridham. And he saw Sri Dhamma as that, and Krishna started crying. Because he saw his dead.
And his tears started falling on Sridham. And Sridam uh became completely he came back to life because of the tears of Krishna.
And one after another, Krishna would come to every one of his friends and to every one of his cows. And of course, Krishna's līlā śakti made it possible because Krishna you know multiplied himself.
Otherwise, it would take him a long time to revive everyone, to to cry over every boy and every cow. So Krishna was touching him, his friend would rise, stand up.
You know this from this swoon, from this unconscious state, he would uh he would be so happy to see Krishna again. And they would embrace each other and they would cry at the shoulder of each other.
So it was a very beautiful scene. Krishna is reviving everyone and everyone is celebrating that Krishna is there.
Vallabhācārya in his commentary to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam makes a very beautiful point and this point of the līlā. It's a very beautiful point, therefore, I decided also to tell this little detail.
He says that this revival of Krishna's friends When they fall dead and then come back because Krishna looks as at them or Krishna showers them with the tears,
is actually symbolic because according to him, snake of Kāliya, many hooded snake of Kāliya represents the desire of the living entity to enjoy the senses. Sometimes our senses are compared with the snakes. You know, they are and they are poisonous.
When we interact with the objects of this world by our glands, by our ears, by our nose, by our tongue, you know, all these interactions with the objects of the senses actually poison us.
And Vallabhācārya makes a very beautiful point.
He says that when the friends of Krishna fell dead due to the poison of Kalia, it's the same which happens with the conditioned living entity, when the conditioned living entity becomes absorbed in sense gratification.
We know when somebody becomes immersed in sense gratification, his consciousness becomes he becomes practically unconscious.
He practically loses his life and ultimately really in a real sense the sense gratification kills one.
When somebody is overindulged with the sense gratification, he is you, know over,uses his senses. It's basically he becomes dead in a literal sense.
So Vallabhacharya makes this point. When the Krishna comes and when he glances on these dead bodies of living entities who indulged in sense gratification, then they come back to senses.
And when they are revived, their body is completely different. They are revived by this spiritual energy which emanates from which Krishna emanates from his eyes. And when we come to Krishna consciousness, it's a revival.
After being in this long life devoted to sense gratification, when we come close to Krishna, when we get his merciful glance in the form of deity in a temple, we feel as if we are revived.
We feel that the new life is coming to us. So that's a very beautiful detail of this pastime, which is explained by
Sukadeva Goswami's emotional absorption
Vallabhacharya. uh uh and then uh you know Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī he didn't want to describe uh this pastime more because already
happy end is there, why should he describe the sad pastime or the continuation of this pastime. But uh, and you know, it's see we are listening to this pastime and we are more or less in a neutral emotional stage.
We are kind of considering this pastime from a neutral position, from taṭastha point of view.
But Śukadeva Gosvāmī, when he explains this pastime, he is completely totally immersed into the feelings which are going on during this pastime. And this pastime for Śukadeva Gosvāmī is very difficult to tell.
Because during this Kāliya-damana-līlā, Krishna, for one muhūrta, for 48 minutes, he was in the coils of the Kāliya snake. And all the vraja-vāsīs were practically dying from the fear and from anxiety about Krishna.
And when Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains this, the same feelings are there in his heart. He doesn't think, oh, Krishna is God, nothing happens with him. I know. You know, everything will be alright. No. He is there.
He sees the small, uh very soft body of Krishna, soft like butter, in this, you know, still like embrace coils of Kāliya's neck. Envious, you know, envious and very powerful Python.
You know, even now pythons they are so strong they can they can even uh they can even kill an elephant. When there is a big python snake, you know, he started coiling around elephant and uh he strangles elephant to death. Strong, huge body of elephant, uh and some snake is killing him.
So when uh and and Krishna is small, he's six years old, his body is soft like butter and he is so you know so vulnerable. He's a little boy.
So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he didn't want to tell this pastime. It was too emotionally disturbing for him to tell this whole pastime. Therefore, in this verse which we read, he basically says, he rounds up the whole pastime.
He says, Oh Krishna, Vilokya Dushitam Krishna. It's interesting that here the word Krishna is used three times for different reasons. Vilokya Dushitam Krishna. First Krishna here is Yamuna. Why Yamuna is called Krishna?
Because Yamuna is black. And therefore she is called Krishna.
When Krishna saw that Krishna, Jamuna is duṣitam is poisoned by the snake of Kāliya, Vilokya duṣitam Krishna, Kṛṣṇa, Krishna himself, Kṛṣṇāhina Vibhuḥ. This Vibhu, who is Krishna, he Kṛṣṇāhina uh he knew that uh the Yamuna who is Krishna. Uh Krishna knew that Yamuna who is Krishna was poisoned,
but the black snake, Kṛṣṇāhina. Kāliya is called here black snake and therefore he is called Kṛṣṇāhina. So why he's called Krishna? Krishna is called Krishna because he's attracting everyone.
Kāliya is called Krishna because he's black and because he's poisonous.
So here, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he says, anyway, Krishna was dealing with this black snake who poisoned Yamuna, who is also black. And they're all black. Krishna is black, snake is black, Yamuna is black.
So somehow or other So that's that's basically the idea.
And he says what he did, he viśuddhim, tasya viśuddhim Anvichan, uh he wanted to purify this lake, Yamuna, and therefore he drove away this Kāliya's snake. So he tells in this one verse the whole pastime.
He is not initially planning to go into details of this pastime, but when Maharaja Parikshet hears this, he says, no, no, no, no. Please tell me in details what happened there.
In the next verse, Maharaja Pariksit will tell him, please explain me in all the little minute details what happened uh when
this happened because uh Krishna's pastimes are like nectar and I want to hear all these pastimes uh because even though I know it will be emotionally difficult for me.
Even though I know that it will be difficult for me to bear these emotions
of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, but I still want to know this pastime in detail because this pastime ultimately even though the emotions may not be apparently pleasant, but still, because they're connected with Krishna, they bring the ananda the bliss within the heart of a devotee.
And when he expresses this, when he says this to Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, okay you want to hear? If you want to hear, I I want to tell you.
Because you know when somebody is speaking and when he sees that somebody is eagerly listening what he wants to tell then the speaker will become very eager to tell as well.
And Śukadeva Gosvāmī after that starts describing what happened there.
So he says that he describes this what we already told that the serpent Kāliya was living in this lake in Yamuna and he was poisoning this whole lake, and how the wind was distributing this poison all over the place.
Krishna jumps into the poisonous lake
And Krishna, it's very interesting. Krishna wanted to, for a long time, Krishna wanted to punish Kāliya because as Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, that was one of the purposes why Krishna came to the earth.
Krishna came to the earth to punish all the demonic people. People who poisoned the atmosphere of this world by their envy, by their evil feelings. But he didn't want to do it before. He didn't do it before.
And there was a very interesting reason for this. Kāliya, somehow or other, wives of Kāliya were devotees of Krishna.
And Krishna didn't want to humiliate their husband in front of their wives because he was merciful to their devotional sentiments. You know, sometimes it happens in ISKCON also.
You know, the husband is a devotee and wife is a snake. Or vice versa. Wife is a devotee and husband is a Kāliya. Wife is it happened this way or that way.
But Krishna, you know, even if the husband or a wife is not a devotee, but by the devotion of wife or husband, if they are devotees, they protect their relatives. They actually give a strong protection to them.
So Krishna didn't want to humiliate Kalia in front of their wives, but of his wives. But when he saw what Kalia did with the cows and with his friends, he said, Enough is enough. That's it.
Now I will have to punish this miscreant, this demon. And Krishna decided to jump into this lake despite the request of Balaram, because Balaram said, You can go to this lake, but don't go into the water of this lake.
And Krishna knew, you know, when when Krishna goes with the cows,
before he goes with the cows, Mother Yaśodā, she gathers all his friends, especially elder friends, and she says to them: Please take care of my little child. He's so naughty.
And while I'm not there, you have to really restrict him and please don't allow him to do something stupid. So Krishna knew that his friends would never allow him to go into the Kalia lake.
Therefore, Krishna invented a little trick. Krishna is very tricky. Krishna said to his friends, my dear friends, see this beautiful Kadamba tree. And this Kadamba tree is the only tree which is still alive despite
the poison of this Kāliya snake. Why is it still alive? Because they say that long back Garuda flew to this Kadamba tree. And he was sitting there and he was a little tired.
So Garuda was taking with him the pot of nectar, pot of Amrita. And he was taking some Amrita from this pot on this tree.
And the few drops of this amrita fell on this tree, and they say that they're still somewhere there. So I will climb over this tree and I will take this nectar which is still there.
I will find somewhere in the hole of this tree the nectar is there. And friends said, Yes, yes, Gopāla, please go there and bring some nectar to us. And Krishna climbed over this tree, this Kadamba tree.
He took some kadamba flowers and he took some garland of kadamba flowers because Krishna wants to be beautiful, whatever he does. So, and then without thinking twice, he jumped into this lake from this tree.
And when he jumped on this lake, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that there was a big tsunami. You know, we know when there is an earthquake underneath the ocean, the huge tsunami wave starts coming.
So he says in the same way when you know huge vibu he's called in this first verse which we read Vibu, Vibu means huge, powerful. When this powerful Krishna, despite his appearance as
a small little boy, when he jumped in the lake, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says the huge tsunami waves many meters high started flowing
towards the bank and this tsunami wave uh was threatening the Krishna's friends and Krishna's cows. They were just safe from this poisonous water, and then again the water is coming to sway them completely.
But then Krishna actually stopped this wave. The wave came to the shore, approached his friends, and immediately stopped by the feet of these friends.
And the friends, they didn't even notice that this wave, tsunami wave, came to them because they were so shocked by what Krishna did.
It is said that immediately when Krishna jumped into this lake, his friends they almost lost their consciousness. They couldn't believe their eyes. They started, they they couldn't even say anything.
The emotional impact of this act of Krishna was so strong that they they were stunned. They were standing there as if they're dead, and they were just looking, not knowing what to do.
But the cows, instead of this, the cows started crying. His friends couldn't cry because they were so shocked. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that at this moment the cows and the friends exchanged the roles.
The cows were expressing human emotions, and the friends were like animals. They were just standing there. They couldn't express anything at this moment of time.
This is again Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains this to describe how difficult it was for Krishna's friends and Krishna's devotees to see what is going on.
Anxiety and reactions in Vrindavan
And it is said that around the some inhabitants of Vṛndāvana were ploughing the fields and they also realized that something terrible happened and they came there to the bank of Yamunā and they also practically fell unconscious because they just were too afraid for Krishna. Their love for Krishna was too strong.
And at this very moment, the demigods they thought now it's our time to serve Krishna. And they started manifesting bad omens, shakuns, the bad. The bad omens everywhere. In the sky.
In the sky the stars were falling down, meteors were falling down, and the earth started shaking.
And all the humans in Vrindavan they felt that there is a you know that there is some trembling in their bodies when the right part of female bodies start shaking and trembling, it's a bad omen, and when the left side of male body starts, especially when the eyes start tweaking, then it's a bit important.
And as I said, in the house of Nanda Mahārāja, at that moment there was a big festival because Balaram had his birthday and there was already a bishaq.
And at this very moment, all the people in Nanda Mahārāja's house they started having prasadam. They were sitting in the rows and they were taking some, you know, the Prasad was about to be distributed.
Already Maha Prasada Govinde, Namam Brahmani Vaishnava, some mantras were chanted. But all of a sudden, all these bad omens appeared everywhere in the sky, in the earth, and in the bodies of human beings.
And the first one who was alarmed was Yeshoda. Yeshod started frantically crying. Krishna is not home. Balaram is here. Balaram didn't accompany him. Something bad happened with my son. He was supposed to be back long ago.
And she started running like a mad woman. She didn't really even care, you know, what other people would think about it, about her.
And all the other guests, guests in Nanda Mahārāja's house, they started trying behind her. She was the first one to run towards this lake.
And Balaram, you know, it's his birthday, his festival, and he just, you know, all of a sudden in the most important moment when everyone is supposed to take prasadam, you know, everything is spoiled.
And Balaram he sees all this panic. Everyone is panicking. Nanda Mahārāja is panicking, his should is panicking, everyone is you know running there towards Yamuna, and Balaram he starts thinking what to do.
And his first idea was let me tell that oh Krishna is God no problem. Please don't worry.
But then he says then I will spoil the whole the whole pastime. If I tell this now and you know first of all they will not believe me. And second of all, it would not be good because Krishna doesn't want me to say this. It would be a spoiler.
So and Balarama then by his yoga-māyā,
by his, uh, līlā-śakti, uh, this pastime, uh, energy of the Lord enters into the heart of Balarama and pastime energy of the, of the Lord, the līlā-śakti of the Lord, tells Balarama what to do. What does Balarama do?
You know, everyone is running, everyone is completely afraid, and Balarama is running among them. And all of a sudden Balarama starts laughing. He just starts laughing, laughing, laughing. And everyone looks at him.
And everyone by looking at him becomes very calm and peaceful. If he is not afraid, everyone knows that he loves Krishna more than anyone else. And if he is not afraid, so we shouldn't be worried too.
Krishna subdued by Kaliya's coils
So Balarama, he kind of, you know, he pacified them from one side and at the same time he also didn't spoil the whole pastime. Anyway, they came, they arrived and they saw this terrible...
You know, in the meantime what happened to Kaliya when he, uh, felt this disturbance in the Kali lake, Kaliya became very furious, and he just swam towards Krishna and his different hoods were actually wanted to attack Krishna from all sides.
But he decided to strangle him. So he took Krishna's body in his coil and he started strangling him with all his might. And he was powerful. Krishna was a small baby.
And, uh, and when, uh, Yaśodā and Nanda and everyone came they only saw this that there is a huge snake, huge, gigantic snake and Krishna is right there completely packed into the coils of Kaliya.
And you know it's also very interesting how Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes the different reaction of different devotees of Vṛndāvana towards this scene.
Nanda Mahārāja, his, his, you know, his... he immediately started asking Krishna's friend what happened? Tell me what happened. It's a very male reaction to something bad.
You know, the male intelligence wants to know the reason how it happened to find out what to do. The male they are very action-oriented people. So none the more I started asking what happened? How is it happened?
How Krishna ended up in this lake, in the water of this lake.
And Yaśodā she didn't do this. She was just running towards this lake and she wanted to stop Krishna and somehow rather to wanted to do something. She didn't want to find out the reason. She was just totally overwhelmed.
And she would kill herself. And it's also interesting what happened at that time. At that time, all of a sudden, she was on the verge of death.
When she saw this scene, Krishna is in the coils of Kalia and he's in a very dangerous position.
She's she was she was almost dead. She fell on the ground unconscious on the verge of this This on the bank of this lake, and
at that moment, other ladies all of a sudden started singing kīrtana. They started singing glories of Krishna.
And you may ask while reading this, you know, is it appropriate? You know, there is such a dangerous situation. Krishna is in the coils of this dangerous snake.
He is there and all the ladies, you know, village ladies, they started singing kīrtana, you know. Haribol, Haribol. No. But there is a very deep reason behind this.
The deep reason is that they wanted to revive Yaśodā. They knew that the only thing which would revive Yaśodā, which would uh actually uh bring her back to life is uh and uh what they started singing about Pūtanā how Pūtanā came and also wanted to poison Krishna.
And nothing happened. Krishna somehow or was saved. And they started telling about other pastimes. And the implication is that when you hear this, then you know when Yesoda hears this, she gets some hope.
And of course, Balaram was running here and there and saying, you know, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry. You don't know how strong my brother is. Nobody knows how strong my brother is.
Even demigods, Indra doesn't know how strong my brother is. By saying this, Balaram predicts Govardhana līlā. Nobody knows how strong my brother is. Don't worry, don't worry.
So there is this suspense, and everyone is standing there, not knowing what to do. Krishna is there in a swoon. He is not moving.
He looks as if he is dead in the coils of Kāliya. He's not really you know showing any signs of life.
It looks from the bank that he is already dead and everyone is there, Balarām is running, ladies are singing, some kīrtana, Nanda Mahārāja is running, you know, not knowing what to do, trying to mobilize some forces of the of the
other male cowherds to help Krishna, but Krishna is waiting. For 48 minutes he was waiting.
Actually, he was waiting when all the little girls would also run to the bank because he didn't want to show this pastime before all the
spectators are there, especially when uh those who appreciate it the most because he wanted to dance. And actually, it is said that when Krishna was dancing on the snakes
of or on the hoods of Kāliya, which will happen a moment later, at the same time he was looking at the little girls who were standing there.
And by his glance he was saying to them, Now I'm dancing here on the hoods of the snake, but soon I will dance with you, don't worry.
Krishna dances on Kaliya's hoods
And from the bank they were telling him, oh yeah, we wish it would be through. We wish it would come. So uh yeah, and when this happened, all of a sudden when everyone
was there and everyone was watching, and Krishna is right there in the center of their attention, Krishna is somehow rather by uh nobody could even understand how it happened.
He freed himself from the coils of Kāliya and uh he waved his hands to all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. Haribol, Haribol. And when he waved his hand, uh, you know, everyone started, jihai, haribol, haribol.
And all the demigods who were watching, they were also very happy. And the only one who was not really happy was Kali.
Kali was really angry when it happened and he started you know hissing and showing his you know how to say bifurcated tongue you know, he was showing his bifurcated tongue and hissing and emanating poison. And you know all the all his hoods they were trying to attack Krishna and trying to bite Krishna.
But Krishna is very elegantly, you know, he very elegantly freed himself and started dancing on the hoods of Kāliya.
And at that moment, for the third time Balaram started laughing. You know, for Balaram that was the best birthday present because he he found it very hilarious.
He said, initially he was laughing because everyone was so afraid, and he knew that nothing to be afraid because Kṛṣṇa is just doing some another pastime. Then he was laughing when he saw that Kṛṣṇa is there as if dead, and he knew that Kṛṣṇa is just you know pretending that he is not conscious and he is watching from the coils of Kāli if everyone is there or not.
Kṛṣṇa is very carefully watching what's going on.
And for the third time he started laughing because he thought I'm Ananta Śeṣa. Balarām is the partial representation of Ananta Śeṣa. And he says, Kṛṣṇa is just lying on me, sleeping on me. He never danced on me. And here's some, you know, some ridiculous snake, mundane
snake, and Kṛṣṇa is dancing. I wish I could be the snake on which he is dancing. That's why he's laughing for the third time.
So anyway, Kṛṣṇa was dancing and the Gandharvas were playing mṛdaṅgas and karatālas and Kṛṣṇa was showing amazing skill.
It is said Śukadeva Gosvāmī calls Kṛṣṇa the father of all arts. All the arts, all the beautiful things are coming from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa he is the original progenitor of all the different arts and the art of dancing is actually coming from Kṛṣṇa's dance on the hood of Kāliya snake.
And Kṛṣṇa is dancing, everyone is watching. You know, everyone is, and they are just, you know, they they are afraid to lose even a split second of his beautiful dance.
And Kāliya is trying to bite him, and Kṛṣṇa is dancing, and the more Kāliya is biting him, the more happy Kṛṣṇa becomes.
And when Kṛṣṇa tramples over the head of Kāliya snake, the head of Kāliya snake comes a little down, and Kṛṣṇa is happy because he is bowing down to his feet.
And the wives of Kāliya they are just you know around watching this and saying, you know, what did our husband do that? Kṛṣṇa is dancing on his head?
He must have been a very saintly person to get the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa upon his head, it's there must be some special special karma to do this. So the wives of Kāliya snake, they're cursing him and sometimes praising him.
Kṛṣṇa is dancing. Everyone is watching what is going on.
So the whole drama is going on, and Kāliya he is still spitting his poison. He's spitting his poison or spitting his poison. And when all the poisen went out from his body and the blood started coming out.
Then Kalia started thinking, you know, what's going on? Who is that person? Who is that who is dancing on my head? And humility starts dawning upon him. He actually felt some genuine humility.
And when he felt humility and devotion, the wives of snake Kali, they started praying to the Lord. Our dear Lord, our husband is bad, but now we see that he's not hopeless.
There is some hope because little humility is there. There is a very significant teaching behind this. Is that we, being independent and being envious conditioned living entities, don't want to surrender.
And sometimes Krishna, if he is merciful to us, he's helping us to surrender. He arranges something which will happen to our life.
And ultimately, all these bad things which happen sometimes to the devotees is to help us to get rid of all the poison which is there, of all the envy which is there. Because we do have this envy.
And but when we suffer and when we then the humility may counteract the poison of envy. And ultimately we may understand what is our real duty in life, what we're supposed to do here.
We are supposed to surrender to the Lord. And at that moment, all other devotees they will also pray to the Lord.
When we are proud of ourselves, when we think that we're the best, that we should be the center, in the center of other people's consciousness, then it's the same poison of envy which is there in the heart.
But when we become humble due to certain inevitable circumstances and due to the special mercy of Krishna, then something wonderful may happen. We may hear the prayers of other devotees for us.
We may hear how other devotees will say, you know, actually my dear Lord, he is your devotee. He may pretend to be a poisonous snake, but in reality, he is a beautiful soul who wants to serve you.
And at that moment, Kali himself started praying to Krishna. And when Kali was praying, Krishna stopped dancing and he was listening to his prayers. And he was listening and he was hearing the prayers because these prayers were imbued with the mood of surrender.
Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he explains that Krishna, Nanda-kumāra, he only listens to those prayers which are imbued with genuine spirit of surrender.
If somebody just prays for performance sake, just, just out of formality, or because you know everyone is praying because I'm supposed to do this. Krishna does not necessarily hear these prayers.
But when this genuine humility and surrender is there in the prayer. When we call Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare with the spirit of surrender:
I'm yours. I belong to you. I have to surrender to you. I know this. I will do whatever you want me to do, then Krishna immediately pays attention to our prayers and he becomes merciful.
And Krishna, you know, he actually blessed Kali. He said: You just go away from this lake. Don't poison Yamuna anymore. Go to Ramanaka Island where you are from and live there happily, and Garuda will never touch you.
And even if by mistake Garuda will try to touch you, because Kāliya was living there out of fear for Garuda. Garuda doesn't like snakes, especially poisonous snakes, and he eats them.
And Krishna says: No, no, now your heads are beautified by the footprints of my feet. My feet are there and Garuda will worship you. Garuda will take you to his back and will fly you if you want.
Garuda will serve you because Garuda, Garuda likes the devotees. Garuda will not... You, you, you should not be afraid of Garuda. Actually, it's interesting.
It is said that Garuda represents... represents time. Uh, time is, uh, killing everyone in this world. And, uh, uh, Garuda, being the time, the inevitable and cruel time of this world, he's killing everyone.
Because we're all like snakes. We all have some poison within our heart, some envy within our heart, some ill feelings within our heart.
And unless and until we harbour these ill feelings, this poison within our heart, we will be victims or the prey of Garuda, the cruel time. But when we will completely free ourselves from this poison of envy, then Garuda will not be able to touch us.
It is said in the second canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the time shortens the life of everyone except of the life of those who listen about Krishna.
Who not only listen about Krishna but also feel what is happening in these past times. So, therefore, the best Amrita which is there is listening to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
In Padma Purāṇa, there is a beautiful story that when Mahārāja Parīkṣit was listening to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam somebody demigods I think it was Indra or other
demigods they came to him and they brought a pot of Amrita nectar from the heaven and they wanted to give to Mahārāja Parīkṣit because they were full of respect to him. And they wanted him to live.
And when they brought the amṛta to him and wanted to share it with him, Mahārāja Parīkṣit said, Why do I need this amṛta? I am already drinking other amṛta.
This is much more powerful amṛta than the amṛta which you give to me. Your amṛta may make me live long because material amṛta it's not real amṛta. It gives you just long life, healthy life, the long life of your senses.
But if you really drink Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, pibata bhāgavatam rasa-ālayam, and you know the rasa of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then this is the real amṛta.
And Krishna actually said this to Kāliya Snake: Don't worry, you don't have to be afraid of Garuda.
You live peacefully with your wives there in Ramanaka Island, and you proclaim my glories all over the place, and let all the snakes know who I am. So that was the happy end of this beautiful pastime.
Of course, there are many other details of this pastime. But what happened next when Krishna reconciled with Kāliya? And when just a few more minutes.
Then the snakes, the wives of Kāliya who were there, they went to Kāliya's treasury. Kāliya was very posh and very wealthy person. And they sort different jewels and other valuable things from his treasury.
And one of the things which they brought was a huge gem. It was Kaustubha Gem. And they gave it to Krishna.
Actually, Kaustubha Gem is a part of Vishnu svarūpa. It's a part, it's inseparable from Vishnu. But when Krishna was born, because Krishna was born like a little child.
In Vṛndāvana he is not born like four armed Viṣṇu with all his attire and jewels and all his clothes. He was born in Vṛndāvana without Kaustubha. But how Krishna can be without Kaustubha?
So this whole pastime was also arranged for Krishna to get back his Kaustubha gem which was temporarily kept in the treasury of this Kāliya snake in his hole in the lake of Yamunā.
And then what happened when Kāliya snake was blessed by Krishna and all his wives? Gave all the presents to Krishna, and Krishna with all his you know buddhis, you know, all this presence he came.
It's interesting also, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that Krishna was walking over the water of Yamunā.
But not because he was displaying his supernatural power, but because Yamuna wanted to serve Krishna, and whenever Krishna would step, Yamuna the lotus flower would appear. And Krishna would step on the lotus leaf, and then he stepped on the other lotus leaf,
and in this way he walked through the water of uh Kāliya Lake and Kāliya Lake was huge, it was uh eight kilometers in diameter, uh one yojana in diameter. So he walked.
And uh all the Vraja-vāsīs they started embracing him and kissing him and blessing him and pointing down to him and whatnot and they were so happy and Krishna was so happy.
And there was only one thing which happened which was very important which I have to mention because I started my talk about this.
At that moment when Krishna came successfully being victorious, triumphant after this victory over Kali Snake and after this beautiful dance and after all these emotions which were exchanged during this pastime.
And Krishna came on the bank and everyone was trying to congratulate him and caress him and pamper him. The little girls for whom Krishna displayed all these wonderful pastimes, they were standing there a little behind.
He was going from one to another. He was going from one to another. And ultimately, he came to the place where all those girls stood. And he looked at them.
And when they felt at the glance of Krishna for the first time, they felt the direct touch of Krishna's glance, then they fell unconscious right there on the ground.
And all the brāhmaṇas who were Ayurvedic doctors, they started trying to revive them and you know it was a little strange event at the end.
And they were, you know, trying to revive them, but you know they couldn't do anything. And then they decided probably they were breathing this poisonous air which was there over the lake of Kalia.
And somehow rather, they revived them ultimately. But this was the time when Krishna first looked at the girls of Vṛndāvana.
And one year later, after the Vyomāsura-vadha, when Krishna was returning to the village of Vrindavana, and everyone was totally busy while congratulating Krishna
with this pastime of killing the Vyomāsura, the girls for the first time could look at Krishna.
And in the meantime, for the whole year, they were developing these loving feelings within their heart, the feelings of pūrva-rāga, of love before meeting. But that's the topic for another story.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī elaborately describes this, what was happening during this year in his Gopala Champu. But and this first glance is described at the end of the previous chapter.
And that's why it is important to place the chronology, to put the chronology in the proper place. First there was this Kāliya-damana-līlā and then the Vyomāsura-vadha-līlā.
And first Krishna looked at the gopis and they fell unconscious and then they looked at Krishna and Krishna completely fell in love with them.
Surrender and prayers of Nagapatnis
Anyway, thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda-kī-jaya!