Krishna and Kaaliya

When Krishna was very young, he was the epi center of many miracles and charming stories...

An extremely poisonous King Serpent called Kaaliya made a home for himself in one of the lagoons of the Yamuna near Vrindavan. He was so very poisonous, that all the fish in the lagoon died, and even the plants and trees near the water's edge started to wilt. It is said that the vapours emanating from Kaaliya were so poisonous that even birds flying above the waters would drop dead from the sky. He was horrific and malignant.

Krishna with his friends used to take the cows to graze in the forests of Vrindavan and got to know about this terrible snake. He decided to put an end to the monster and boldly jumped into the lake and made lots of loud noises and splashed about in the water to challenge Kaaliya. Soon the fiercesome beast rose out of the water spitting fire and poison making feral hissing noises intent on the destruction of this insignificant (so he thought) protagonist. He wrapped the little Krishna in his enormous coils and to the horror of Krishna's watching friends dived into the lake with him...

The waters of the lagoon roiled and boiled, and big bubbles came to the surface ans burst and for a long time there was no sign of Krishna... His friends panicked and rushed to the village to call the elders and soon the entire village was assembled at the lake side, praying fervently for Krishna's deliverance... By now the fight must have been very deep in the water or the snake may have overwhelmed Krishna and gone into deep waters... there was no sign of any activity... and many of the gopis were openly bemoaning and crying about their lost little one...



When Suddenly, the waters parted and the enormous, fearsome Kaaliya with his many hoods emerged out of the lake... but his once proud heads were bowed and he looked a little sheepish... when everyone joyously noticed that the young Krishna was merrily dancing on the the hoods of Kaaliya... A great shout and a huge sigh of relief went out from the crowd and big time celebrations started to felicitate this great victory... Krishna went to the shores and charged the defeated great snake to become the guardian of the lake and protect the villagers from other miscreants and demons... and the one time terror of the Yamuna Lagoon became the protector and guardian... All praised and revered and thanked the Little Lord Krishna...

Isn't that a really lovely story? There is an even better interpretation to it... you guessed it, you will read about it tomorrow! :)

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa