Kṛṣṇa Chastises the Serpent Kāliya

In this regard the ācāryas explain that the Kāliya lake was situated apart from the main current of the river; otherwise the Yamunā’s waters would have been poisonous even in cities like Mathurā and in other places farther away.

The word sthira, “unmoving creatures,” refers to various types of vegetation including trees, and jaṅgama refers to moving creatures such as animals, reptiles, birds and insects. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has quoted a further description of this lake from the Śrī Hari-vaṁśa (Viṣṇu-parva 11.42, 11.44 and 11.46):

“The lake was quite wide — eight miles across at some points — and even the demigods could not cross over it. The water in the lake was very deep and, like the immovable depths of the ocean, could not be agitated. Approaching the lake was difficult, for its shores were covered with holes in which serpents lived. All around the lake was a fog generated by the fire of the serpents’ poison, and this powerful fire would at once burn up every blade of grass that happened to fall into the water. For a distance of eight miles from the lake, the atmosphere was most unpleasant.”

Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī states that by the mystical science of jala-stambha, making solid items out of water, Kāliya had built his own city within the lake.

According to the ācāryas, Lord Kṛṣṇa also tied back the locks of His hair as He prepared to do battle with Kāliya.

According to the ācāryas, Lord Kṛṣṇa was producing wonderful musical sounds within the water simply by splashing His hands and arms.

Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī explains that the cowherd boys, along with some cowherd men and farmers who happened to be in the vicinity and who were also devotees of Kṛṣṇa, fell to the ground just like trees that had been cut at the root.

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, the omens were as follows: on the earth there were disturbing tremors, in the sky there were meteors falling, and in the bodies of creatures there was shivering, as well as quivering of the left eye and other parts of the body. These omens announce imminent danger.

Śrī Balarāma is the plenary expansion of Lord Kṛṣṇa and is thus nondifferent from Him. They are, in fact, the same Absolute Truth manifest in separate forms. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, Lord Balarāma was laughing because He thought, “Kṛṣṇa never cares to play with Me in My form of Śeṣa Nāga, but now He is playing with this ordinary, mundane snake named Kāliya.”

The question may arise as to why Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma allowed Their loving devotees to suffer such great anguish during Kṛṣṇa’s temporary imprisonment within the coils of Kāliya. It must be remembered that because the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana were completely liberated souls, they did not experience material emotions. When they saw their beloved Kṛṣṇa in apparent danger, their love for Him intensified to the highest degree, and thus they merged completely into the ecstasy of love for Him. The whole situation has to be seen from the spiritual point of view, or it will not be seen at all.

Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī comments as follows: “Since Lord Kṛṣṇa had passed along the path some time previously, why weren’t His footprints, which were surrounded by those of cows, cowherd boys and so on, smudged over and brushed away? Why hadn’t His footprints been obliterated by those of the beasts and birds of Vṛndāvana forest? The answer is indicated by the word viś-pati, master of the cowherd community. Since Lord Kṛṣṇa is actually the wealth of all living beings, all the inhabitants of the forest of Vraja would carefully preserve His footprints as great treasures, the very ornaments of the earth. Thus no creature within Vṛndāvana would ever walk upon Lord Kṛṣṇa’s footprints.”

In their grief and panic, the residents of Vṛndāvana tried to find out whether Kāliya had forcibly dragged young Kṛṣṇa from the shore into the water, or whether Kṛṣṇa had Himself jumped from the shore and fallen into the clutches of the snake. They could not understand anything about the situation, and Kṛṣṇa’s cowherd boyfriends, being unconscious, were unable to tell them anything. The cows and calves were crying out for Kṛṣṇa, and thus the whole situation was overwhelming and created a state of shock and panic among the residents of Vṛndāvana.

Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī explains that Lord Balarāma checked some of the cowherd men by speaking to them, others by physically holding them and still others by casting upon them His potent smiling glance. Distraught over the situation, they were prepared to give up their lives for Lord Kṛṣṇa by entering the serpent’s lake.

Lord Kṛṣṇa moved around the serpent so skillfully that Kāliya could find no opportunity to bite Him. Thus the snake was defeated by Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental agility.

Śrī Hari-vaṁśa states, śiraḥ sa kṛṣṇo jagrāha sva-hastenāvanamya: “Kṛṣṇa grabbed Kāliya’s head with His hand and forced it to bow down.” Most people in this world are quite reluctant to bow down to the Supreme Person, the Absolute Truth. In the contaminated state called material consciousness, we conditioned souls become proud of our insignificant position and are thus reluctant to bow our heads before the Lord. Yet just as Lord Kṛṣṇa forcibly pushed Kāliya’s heads down and thus defeated him, the Supreme Lord’s energy in the form of irresistible time kills all conditioned souls and thus forces them to bow down their arrogant heads. We should therefore give up the artificial position of material life and become faithful servants of the Supreme Lord, enthusiastically bowing down at His lotus feet.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that Lord Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet became red like copper because of their contact with the numerous hard jewels upon the heads of Kāliya. Lord Kṛṣṇa, with those glowing reddish feet, then began to demonstrate His artistic skill by dancing on the unsteady, moving surface of the serpent’s hoods. This extraordinary demonstration of dancing skill was meant for the pleasure of the young women of Vṛndāvana, who at this phase of their relationship with Kṛṣṇa were seriously falling in love with Him.

When the demigods and other residents of higher planetary systems became aware that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was personally putting on a wonderful demonstration of the art of dancing, they immediately came to offer their services. Dancing becomes more enjoyable and beautiful to watch when it is accompanied by expert drum-playing, singing and the chanting of prayers. The artistic atmosphere was also enhanced by the showering of a multitude of flowers upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who was blissfully engaged in dancing upon the hoods of the Kāliya serpent.

In Chapter Sixteen of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that whereas previously Kāliya was vomiting poison, now his poison was exhausted and he began to vomit blood. Thus he had been cleansed of the vile contamination within his heart that had manifested as serpent’s venom. The word smṛtvā, “remembering,” is very significant here. The wives of Kāliya were actually serious devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and according to the ācāryas they had often tried to convince their husband to surrender to Him. Finally, finding himself in unbearable agony, Kāliya remembered his wives’ advice and took shelter of the Lord. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that Kāliya’s archrival had traditionally been Garuḍa, the carrier of Viṣṇu. But now Kāliya realized that he was fighting an opponent who was thousands of times stronger than Garuḍa and who therefore could be only the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus Kāliya took shelter of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, Kāliya’s wives had been disgusted with their husband because of his demoniac activities. They had been thinking, “If this atheist is killed by the punishment of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then let him be killed. We will become widows and engage in the worship of the Supreme Lord.” But then the ladies noticed Kāliya’s facial expression and other bodily features, and they understood that Kāliya had indeed taken shelter of the Lord within his mind. Seeing that he was manifesting symptoms of humility, remorse, regret and doubt, they thought, “Just see how fortunate we are! Our husband has now become a Vaiṣṇava. Therefore we must now endeavor to protect him.” They felt affection for their repentant husband and severe distress because of his miserable position, and thus all together they went into the presence of the Supreme Lord.

Śrīla Madhvācārya points out in this connection that when a pious person suffers in this world, he realizes, “The punishment the Supreme Lord is meting out to me is actually His causeless mercy.” Envious persons, however, even after being punished by the Lord for their purification, continue to envy Him and be resentful, and this attitude is the reason for their continued failure to understand the Absolute Truth.

In this regard Śrīla Prabhupāda comments in his Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Chapter Sixteen: “The Nāgapatnīs confirm that one cannot come in contact with Kṛṣṇa without having executed pious activities in devotional service in his previous lives. As Lord Caitanya advised in His Śikṣāṣṭaka, one has to execute devotional service by humbly chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street and not expecting honor for himself but offering all kinds of honor to others. The Nāgapatnīs were astonished that, although Kāliya had the body of a serpent as the result of grievous sinful activities, at the same time he was in contact with the Lord to the extent that the Lord’s lotus feet were touching his hoods. Certainly this was not the ordinary result of pious activities. These two contradictory facts astonished them.”

It is very rare for a conditioned soul to free himself from the contamination of illusion and thus become established in perfect consciousness of the Absolute Truth. And yet this benediction was achieved by the serpent Kāliya because the Lord personally danced upon the serpent’s hoods with His lotus feet. Although we conditioned souls may not receive the mercy of having the Lord dance on our head, we can receive the dust of the lotus feet of the Absolute through the Lord’s representative, the bona fide spiritual master, and thus go back home, back to Godhead, forever freed from the misery and ignorance of the mundane universe.

The beautiful Sanskrit poetry of this verse should be chanted out loud for the transcendental pleasure of the reciter and the hearer.

Those who consider themselves intellectual, philosophic or rational should carefully note here that the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the ocean of all knowledge and consciousness. Thus surrendering unto the Supreme Lord does not entail giving up the method of rationally comprehending reality. Rather, one merges into the ocean of rational, logical comprehension. The Supreme Lord is the perfection of all sciences and all forms of knowledge, and only envious and trivial minds would deny this obvious fact.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, although appearing in different incarnations, can never be limited by time, since He is time itself, the shelter of time, and the witness of time in all its phases.

If we did not have the powers of perception and cognition, evidence could not be transmitted, and if we had no tendency to believe in particular modes of evidence, persuasion could not take place. All of these processes — perception, cognition, persuasion and transmission — take place through the various potencies of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa is Himself the greatest scholar and intellectual being. He manifests the transcendental scriptures within the hearts of great devotees like Brahmā and Nārada, and in addition He incarnates as Vedavyāsa, the compiler of all Vedic knowledge. In multifarious ways the Lord generates a variety of religious scriptures, which gradually bring the conditioned souls through the various phases of reentry into the kingdom of God.

The word guṇa conveys various meanings: the three basic qualities of material nature, i.e., goodness, passion and ignorance; excellent qualities one manifests because of piety and spiritual achievement; or the internal senses, such as the mind and intelligence. The word pradīpāya means “unto Him who manifests or illumines.” Thus here the Nāgapatnīs are addressing the Supreme Lord as “He who manifests all material and spiritual qualities and who causes the living entities to be conscious.” One can see the Lord by going beyond the screen of material nature, and therefore He is called guṇātma-cchādanāya. If one methodically and intelligently studies the functioning of the material qualities, he will ultimately conclude that there is a Supreme Personality of Godhead and that He exhibits His illusory potency to bewilder those who do not surrender unto Him.

The Lord is never affected by the modes of nature, being their witness, and thus He is called guṇa-draṣṭre. The word sva indicates “one’s own,” and thus sva-saṁvide means that Lord Kṛṣṇa can be known only by His own people, the devotees, and also that ultimately only the Lord can know Himself perfectly. Therefore we should take Lord Kṛṣṇa’s instructions in Bhagavad-gītā and immediately come to the right conclusion: full surrender to the Lord’s lotus feet. Thus we should humbly glorify the Lord, following the example of the Nāgapatnīs.

The words para and avara indicate superior, subtle elements and inferior, gross ones. The words also indicate superior personalities — devotees of the Lord — and inferior personalities, who are unaware of the glories of God. Lord Kṛṣṇa knows the destiny of all superior and inferior entities, animate and inanimate, and as the Supreme Absolute Truth He remains in His unique position above everything, as indicated by the word sarvādhyakṣāya.

Sceptics may question why the Supreme Lord has created the material world, which is full of birth, maintenance and death. Here the Nāgapatnīs point out that the Lord’s pastimes are amogha, beyond any discrepancy. Śrī Kṛṣṇa actually desires that all conditioned souls live with Him in His eternal kingdom, but those forgetful souls who are inimical to their loving relationship with God must go to the material world and be subjected to the conditions of time. The fortunate conditioned souls are startled into remembrance of their actual position as loving servants of the Lord, and from within the heart the Lord then encourages them to come back home, back to Godhead, where time is conspicuous by its absence and where eternal, blissful existence supersedes the dramatic but disturbing functions of cosmic creation and annihilation.

Because of their extreme anxiety, in this verse Kāliya’s wives mention the same idea twice: that the Supreme Lord should kindly forgive their foolish husband. The Supreme Lord is śāntātmā, the supreme peaceful Soul, and therefore the Nāgapatnīs suggest it would be proper for Him to overlook, at least this once, the great offense committed by the ignorant Kāliya.

The surrender of Kāliya’s wives was now complete, and Lord Kṛṣṇa immediately gave them His mercy, as described in the following verses.

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, Lord Kṛṣṇa, upon reaching His decision, immediately jumped down from Kāliya’s hoods and stood before the serpent and his wives. We should remember that when Lord Kṛṣṇa executed these pastimes, He was just a young village boy in Vṛndāvana.

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.

Commenting on this verse, Śrīla Madhvācārya has quoted the Nārada Purāṇa as follows: “From Hiraṇyagarbha, Brahmā, comes the second creation of this universe, but the universe is primarily created by Viṣṇu Himself. Viṣṇu is thus the primary creator, and four-headed Brahmā is merely the secondary creator.”

Kāliya is here indirectly begging for the Lord’s mercy, realizing that on his own he can never become free from illusion and suffering. Only by surrendering to the Lord and obtaining His mercy can one be released from the painful conditions of material life.

According to the ācāryas, the Lord spoke this verse to make it clear to Kāliya that he could by no means remain in the Yamunā lake. Although the Lord had mercifully pardoned the serpent and ordered him to go to the ocean with all his associates, Kāliya should not even consider requesting to remain in the lake, because it was now to become a holy place for spiritual pilgrims.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura comments as follows on this verse: “The word adbhuta-karmaṇā indicates the Lord’s wonderful activities of saving the residents of Vṛndāvana from Kāliya, saving Kāliya himself from Garuḍa, and bestowing grace upon both the victims of violence and the committer of that violence.” The word kṛṣṇena, “by Kṛṣṇa,” indicates that because Kāliya’s wives were great devotees of the Lord and offered Him loving affection, Kṛṣṇa withdrew (karṣaṇam) both Kāliya’s offense against the Lord’s devotee Garuḍa and that against the residents of Vṛndāvana, who were very dear to Him.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has commented extensively on this verse. To explain the word maṇibhiḥ — “(Kāliya worshiped the Lord) with jewels” — the ācārya has quoted from the Śrī Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā, by Rūpa Gosvāmī, as follows:

“The Lord had made His Kaustubha gem enter the serpent’s lake, and then He arranged for it to be presented to Himself by the hands of Kāliya’s wives.” In other words, because Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted to act just like an ordinary human being, He made the transcendental Kaustubha gem invisible and caused it to enter within Kāliya’s treasury. Then when the appropriate moment came for Kāliya to worship the Lord with many different jewels and ornaments, the serpent’s wives, unaware of the Lord’s transcendental trick, presented Him with the Kaustubha gem, thinking it was simply one of the jewels in their possession.

The ācārya has further commented that the reason Lord Kṛṣṇa is described in this verse as garuḍa-dhvaja, “He whose flag is marked by the symbol of His carrier, Garuḍa,” is that Kāliya also desired to become Lord Kṛṣṇa’s carrier. Garuḍa and the serpents are originally related as brothers, and therefore Kāliya wanted to indicate to Lord Kṛṣṇa, “If You ever have to go to a distant place, You should also think of me as Your personal carrier. I am the servant of Your servant, and in the wink of an eye I can travel hundreds of millions of yojanas.” Thus the Purāṇas narrate that in the course of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s eternal cycle of pastimes, when Kaṁsa orders the Lord to come to Mathurā, He sometimes goes there mounted upon Kāliya.