Subduing Kāliya
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inevitable material tendencies. Now You can punish me or save me as You desire.”
After hearing this, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who was acting as a small human child, ordered the serpent thus: “You must immediately leave this place and go to the ocean. Leave without delay. You can take with you all your offspring, wives and everything that you possess. Don’t pollute the waters of the Yamunā. Let it be drunk by My cows and cowherd boys without hindrance.” The Lord then declared that the order given to the Kāliya snake be recited and heard by everyone so that no one need fear Kāliya any longer.
Anyone who hears the narration of the Kāliya serpent and his punishment will need fear no more the envious activities of snakes. The Lord also declared: “If one takes a bath in the Kāliya lake where My cowherd boy friends and I have bathed, or if one, fasting for a day, offers oblations to the forefathers from the water of this lake, he will be relieved from all kinds of sinful reaction.” The Lord also assured Kāliya: “You came here out of fear of Garuḍa, who wanted to eat you in the beautiful land by the ocean. Now, after seeing the marks where I have touched your head with My lotus feet, Garuḍa will not disturb you.”
The Lord was pleased with Kāliya and his wives. Immediately after hearing His order, the wives began to worship Him with great offerings of nice garments, flowers, garlands, jewels, ornaments, sandal pulp, lotus flowers, and nice eatable fruits. In this way they pleased the master of Garuḍa, of whom they were very much afraid. Then, obeying the orders of Lord Kṛṣṇa, all of them left the lake within the Yamunā.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Sixteenth Chapter of Kṛṣṇa, “Subduing Kāliya.”