Bagavatha Purana-Part IV

The stories of Sri Krishna as narrated in the "Bagawatam" is nectar. All the pranks of the boy Krishna is really exhilarating. One of the story is extolled as best. This episode is termed as "Kalinga Nardhana. The literal meaning is dancing on the hoods of fearful snake by name "Kalinga". The story goes like this. In the jungle that abound near Gokulam village, there is a huge lake named after the snake as "Kalinga madu". A most poisonous snake used to live with its consorts in the lake bottom. Any body going near the lake and drink the water invariably die due to the contamination of the lake water by the poisonous snake. Many animals died when they tried to drink the water. Krishna knew about the lake but he feigned his ignorance. That was his stratagem. One day, he took some of his friends and told them that they all will accompany him to the lake and play there. But all the friends of Krishna warned him saying "Oh Krishna! Don't you know that a poisonous snake lives in the lake and its poison has mingled with the water and any body who goes near the lake will swoon due to the emissions there!

Krishna was in no mood to listen. He said, Come on, let us go. His friends were shivering from fear and yet they had to follow him for the sake of companionship. Krishna climbed over a tree that was abutting the banks of the lake. Before any body could guess, he jumped into the water of the poisonous lake and went underneath to search the snake. The snake was hiding itself in a deep pit and due to the disturbance caused by Krishna, It came out of its pit exhibiting the five gigantic hoods. It was hissing and fuming ferociously. Noticing the boy Krishna swimming effortlessly near its pit, it tried to catch Krishna by the huge tail. But Krishna escaped each time from its clutch. This sort of hide and seek went for some time. The snake become furious and it wanted to bite Krishna with its poisonous teeth. In a moment, Krishna came up and jumped over the five hoods of the snake. Though Krishna was looking like a little boy compared to the huge snake, he effortlessly started dancing on the hoods of the snake.Krishna's tender sole exerted an elephant's thrust on the hoods of the snake. It was emitting the entire poison due to the sudden crushing and it became tired. Meanwhile the consorts of the snake Kalinga pleaded with Krishna to spare their husband alive. Then Krishna warned the snake, "Hence forth, you will never harm any body who come to the lake to drink water and take bath. The snake promised Krishna that it will no longer hurt any body or any animals. It requested Krishna to spare its life and it promised that it will lie down in the bottom without harming any.

Meanwhile, the friends of Krishna alerted his parents about the jumping of Krishna inside the water. They came to the banks. Yashodha was wailing and weeping a lot since she could not find Krishna for a long time. Afterwards Krishna emerged victorious. He said that any body can freely come there hereafter and use the lake for bathing and drinking. Every body rejoiced at the miracle Krishna performed. More stories in next part.