9/ The Story of King Nrga

Once the family members of Lord Krsna, such as Simba, Pradyumna,
Carubhanu and Gada, all princes of the Yadu dynasty, went for a long
picnic in the forest near Dvaraka. In the course of their excursion, all of
them became thirsty, and so they began to try to find out where water was.
available in the forest. When they approached a well, they found that there
was no water in it, but on the contrary, within the well was a wonderful
living entity. It was a large lizard, and all of them became astonished to see
such a wonderful animal. They could understand that the animal was
trapped and could not escape by its own effort, so out of compassion they
tried to take the large lizard out of the well. Unfortunately, they could not
get the lizard out, even though they tried to do so in many ways.

When the princes returned home, their story was narrated before Lord
Krsna. Lord Krsna is the friend of all living entities. Therefore, after
hearing the appeal from His sons, He personally went to the well and easily
got the great lizard out simply by extending His left hand. Immediately
upon being touched by the hand of Lord Krsna, that great lizard gave up
its former shape and appeared as a beautiful demigod, an inhabitant of the
heavenly planets. His bodily complexion glittered like molten gold. He was
decorated with fine garments, and he wore costly ornaments around his
neck.

How the demigod had been obliged to accept the body of a lizard was
not a secret to Lord Krsna, but still, for others’ information, the Lord
inquired, “My dear fortunate demigod, now I see that your body is so
beautiful and lustrous. Who are you? We can guess that you are one of the
best demigods in the heavenly planets. All good fortune to you. I think
that you are not meant to be in this situation. It must be due to the
results of your past activities that you have been put into the species of
lizard life. Still, I want to hear from you how you were put in this

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