Banishing Poisonous Ego

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Radhastami, noon class, Siliguri
Translated from Bengali
6 September 2019

Kaliya-nag had ego, "This is my place, nobody can enter it!" So, because of his poison, all birds, beasts, etc. of Vrindavan died when they came close to that place in the Yamuna—even the cows did not go there to drink water for the fear of Kaliya-nag. This is when Krishna showed His pastime to all the Vraja gopis.

Generally, Krishna performed all His pastimes with Balaram and His other friends, and the boys would come to their mothers and tell them, "You know, mom, Gopal has done this today!", "Kanai has done that today!", "He has slain a demon today!", "He went into the stomach of Aghasur!" Their mothers would say, "What are you saying? Today He did this, yesterday that, the day before yesterday something else happened, but we do not see anything!" Then, one day Krishna's friends came to Him and said, "Mothers do not believe us when we tell them about You, so You must show them some pastime!" And Krishna showed them His pastime of Kaliya-daman.

When all the young boys jumped into the Yamuna and died, Krishna pulled them out to the bank and leapt into the water to smash the ego of Kaliya. When Krishna started splashing in the water, Kaliya sensed it and got angry, "Who is disturbing me?!" He saw that a little boy was disturbing the water, but it was not an ordinary boy—He is the Master of the whole universe! Angry, Kaliya-nag slapped Krishna fiercely with his tail and Krishna became senseless, as if dead.

All the Vraja gopis came there and saw Krishna floating in the water dead. The sun stopped shining and the sky became overcast, plunging Vrindavan in darkness—the sky, the demigods, everybody was all in turmoil seeing the scene. There began a storm. Mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaj and all the gopis came to the Yamuna to see this pastime. Anxious, "What has happened to my Gopal?" they were ready to jump into the water, but Balaram stopped them, "Stop, stop! Wait! Krishna will wake up just now!" Then, Balaram told Krishna, "There is no time left! Do not delay, wake up now!" Next, Gopal lifted Himself and jumped onto Kaliya-nag's head to smash his ego. Krishna hit Kaliya-nag with His foot and blood starting flowing from his head. Then, the wives of Kaliya came out and prayed to Krishna, "Prabhu, You have done well! You have smashed his ego, You have done good! We are very pleased with the punishment You gave to our husband."

They did not blame Krishna—they had devotion. When somebody's husband dies, they feel pain and say, "I will not worship God any more! I have called out to God so much, but still my husband has died!" This is not real love for God... Krishna is the master of the universe, He can do anything He pleases. "Sukhe duhkhe bhule nako vadane Harinam koro re: in happiness or sadness always chant the Holy Name." When birth, death, old age, and disease come, who will you blame? When you are born, you have to die, will you blame the Lord for this? The Lord takes care of us, He does everything, so whatever fate one has in store, so be it. If you are destined to live a certain number of years, no one will be able to save you—neither doctors, nor friends, nor anyone else. I have heard the other day that a lady had spent 50-60 lakhs (five-six million rupees) to save her husband's life—did that save him? It did not... We do not have time, we will all leave one day.

উঠরে উঠরে ভাই আর ত সময় নাই
'কৃষ্ণ ভজ' বলে উচ্চৈঃস্বরে

uthare uthare bhai ara ta samaya nai
'krsna bhaja' bale uchchaihsvare

Wake up, wake up, brother, there is no time! Worship Krishna!

So,

জয় দ্বিজপত্নী, জয় নাগকন্যাগণ ।
ভক্তিতে যাঁহারা পাইল গোবিন্দ চরণ ॥

jaya dvija-patni, jaya naga-kanya-gana
bhaktite yanhara paila govinda-charana

"All glory to the brahman's wives and Kaliya's wives! Through their devotion, they attained Govinda's feet."

The wives of Kaliya-nag had devotion, that is why they approached Krishna submitting their prayer, "Please, do not kill our husband altogether. Do not make us widows." When one has devotion, the Lord listens to their prayer. So, Krishna replied, "All right, I will not hit him any more," and He banished Kaliya-nag to Ramanak-dwip. This island (Fiji) is in the Pacific Ocean, not far from Hawaii—Kaliya-nag lives there to this day, there is also a temple of Kaliya-nag there...

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• These excerpts are taken from Sri Radhastami kirtans' recording:

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