SB 10.16.38

Srimad-Bhagavatam - Tenth Canto - Chapter 16: Kṛṣṇa Chastises the Serpent Kāliya

SB 10.16.37 - SB 10.16.39

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Please note: The synonyms, translation and purport of this verse were composed by disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda

TEXT 38

tad eṣa nāthāpa durāpam anyais

tamo-janiḥ krodha-vaśo 'py ahīśaḥ

saṁsāra-cakre bhramataḥ śarīriṇo

yad-icchataḥ syād vibhavaḥ samakṣaḥ

SYNONYMS

tat — that; eṣaḥ — this Kāliya; nātha — O Lord; āpa — has achieved; durāpam — difficult to achieve; anyaiḥ — by others; tamaḥ-janiḥ — who was born in the mode of ignorance; krodha-vaśaḥ — who was under the sway of anger; api — even; ahi-īśaḥ — the king of serpents; saṁsāra-cakre — within the cycle of material existence; bhramataḥ — wandering; śarīriṇaḥ — for the embodied living entity; yat — by which (dust of Your lotus feet); icchataḥ — who has material desires; syāt — manifests; vibhavaḥ — all opulences; samakṣaḥ — before his eyes.

Translation and purport composed by disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda

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TRANSLATION

O Lord, although this Kāliya, the king of the serpents, has taken birth in the mode of ignorance and is controlled by anger, he has achieved that which is difficult for others to achieve. Embodied souls, who are full of desires and are thus wandering in the cycle of birth and death, can have all benedictions manifested before their eyes simply by receiving the dust of Your lotus feet.

PURPORT

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.

SB 10.16.37 - SB 10.16.39