ŚB 10.16.56
Devanagari
कालिय उवाच
वयं खला: सहोत्पत्त्या तामसा दीर्घमन्यव: ।
स्वभावो दुस्त्यजो नाथ लोकानां यदसद्ग्रह: ॥ ५६ ॥
वयं खला: सहोत्पत्त्या तामसा दीर्घमन्यव: ।
स्वभावो दुस्त्यजो नाथ लोकानां यदसद्ग्रह: ॥ ५६ ॥
Verse text
kāliya uvāca
vayaṁ khalāḥ sahotpattyā
tamasā dīrgha-manyavaḥ
svabhāvo dustyajo nātha
lokānāṁ yad asad-grahaḥ
vayaṁ khalāḥ sahotpattyā
tamasā dīrgha-manyavaḥ
svabhāvo dustyajo nātha
lokānāṁ yad asad-grahaḥ
Synonyms
kāliyaḥ uvāca — Kāliya said; vayam — we; khalāḥ — envious; saha utpattyā — by our very birth; tāmasāḥ — of ignorant nature; dīrgha-manyavaḥ — constantly angry; svabhāvaḥ — one’s material nature; dustyajaḥ — is very difficult to give up; nātha — O Lord; lokānām — for ordinary persons; yat — because of which; asat — of the unreal and impure; grahaḥ — the acceptance.
Translation
The serpent Kāliya said: Our very birth as a snake has made us envious, ignorant and constantly angry. O my Lord, it is so difficult for people to give up their conditioned nature, by which they identify with that which is unreal.
Purport
Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī points out that because of his wretched condition, Kāliya was unable to compose original prayers to the Lord, and thus he paraphrased some of the prayers offered by his wives. The word asad-graha indicates that a conditioned soul seizes upon impermanent and impure things such as his own body, the bodies of others, and other countless varieties of material sense objects. The ultimate result of such material attachment is frustration, disappointment and anguish — a fact that has now become crystal clear to the poor serpent Kāliya.