Canto 10: The Summum BonumChapter 16: Kṛṣṇa Chastises the Serpent Kāliya

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.16.56

kāliya uvāca

vayaḿ khalāḥ sahotpattyā

tamasā dīrgha-manyavaḥ

svabhāvo dustyajo nātha

lokānāḿ yad asad-grahaḥ

SYNONYMS

kāliyaḥ uvācaKāliya said; vayam — we; khalāḥ — envious; saha utpattyā — by our very birth; tāmasāḥ — of ignorant nature; dīrgha-manyavaḥ — constantly angry; svabhāvaḥ — one's material nature; dustyajaḥ — is very difficult to give up; nāthaO Lord; lokānām — for ordinary persons; yat — because of which; asat — of the unreal and impure; grahaḥ — the acceptance.

TRANSLATION

The serpent Kāliya said: Our very birth as a snake has made us envious, ignorant and constantly angry. O my Lord, it is so difficult for people to give up their conditioned nature, by which they identify with that which is unreal.

PURPORT

Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī points out that because of his wretched condition, Kāliya was unable to compose original prayers to the Lord, and thus he paraphrased some of the prayers offered by his wives. The word asad-graha indicates that a conditioned soul seizes upon impermanent and impure things such as his own body, the bodies of others, and other countless varieties of material sense objects. The ultimate result of such material attachment is frustration, disappointment and anguish — a fact that has now become crystal clear to the poor serpent Kāliya.

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