Krishna Story
16
THE DANCE ON
A SNAKE
by J.K. Sivan
The rivers are always enchanting to look at,and especially in
the evenings. if one has a chance to sit on the river sand facing the
running water with friends to talk about on interesting subjects, while
munching ground nuts and baked peas, in cool breeze, there is
nothing equal to it, is n’t it? In summer particularly, such an
opportunity is pleasant, quite enjoyable and most welcome.
At one time, it was not so with the river Yamuna, because people
considered it dangerous to enter the river, or drink its water. Why so,
because Yamuna always had clean crystal clear waters with facilities for people
to bathe and enjoy drinking its water? The reason for fear of
nearing Yamuna was not very difficult to understand. A big
poisonous snake had now taken Yamuna as its refuge and turned the waters
deadly poisonous and killed the animals, birds and innocent beings entering
Yamuna. Even plants too were not growing near the river! This happened all of a sudden recently. Heretofore it
was a paradise for the children of Vrindhavan to swim and play in Yamuna.
The snake which now occupied Yamuna was known as Kaleeyan. He was
in fight with Garuda, the eagleking, his arch enemy, for long and
escaped the attacks of Garuda by taking refuge in the deep Yamuna. Why
Kaleeyan chose Yamuna because there was a curse by a Rishi on Garudan
that if he entered Brindhavan he will meet with his death. So
Garudan cannot threaten the life of Kaleeyan if he is in Yamuna in
Brindhavan!! But Kaleeyan posed a threat to others in Brindhavan by
his presence!
There was a big jamboo tree on the banks of Yamuna which was
very old , Its branches were over hanging the river and the boys used to climb
the tree and jump into the river from the low branches above the river.
Krishna and the boys were always playing there but were prevented by
elders and others not to go near the river now because of Kaleeyan’s
presence in the river.
That evening Krishna and his friends were playing a stick
game. Everyone had a long stick with which they will have
to hit the stick held high by the loser in the game.
The boy has to run and pick up his stick hit away by others, and touch
the nearest one whose turn it will be to hold the stick to be hit by
others. The game was interesting for the boys and they were engrossed in
it. Suddenly Krishna lost the game and he had to hold the stick to be hit
by others. Balarama the strongest boy hit the stick held high
above his head by Krishna. The boys were playing on the river bank
and Krishna was standing with his back to the river. When Balarama
hit the stick of Krishna, it fell deep into the river behind him. Krishna
has to chase the boys only after picking up his stick. He did not
hesitate even for a moment. He immediately jumped into the river
without caring for the warnings of others.
Other boys shouted "Krishna
don’t enter the water, it is poisonous. come ashore. Remember
the huge snake in it which will kill you"
Krishna did not care and jumped into the water and swam towards the
floating stick which was carried away by the river’s current beyond his
reach. Krishna was swimming against the current which pushed him away
from his target. Krishna hesitated for a minute. The stick
was floating somewhere in the mid river. He saw a low branch of the
old jamboo tree above the water level. He caught hold of it
and heaved himself up and climbed the tree. He slowly moved
through another branch to the exact place from where he could jump into the
river to pick up his stick.
Some of the boys in the meantime ran away to their homes and
alerted the elders. Within a few minutes there were many on the banks
wondering what do do and how to save Krishna. Kaleeya, who was
hungry that day with nothing to eat, was very happy to find a boy
in the river to be his lunch.
Dear Children, I forgot to tell you that Kaleeyan was not an
ordinary snake, He had many heads with big hoods well spread like
umbrellas.
When Krishna jumped into the deep mid river from the tree branch,
Kaleeya was directly under him under the water. In no time, he
caught hold of Krishna, encircled and coiled him with his long tail and began
crushing him. Krishna realized that he was in a fix now and had to act
fast to get rid of the huge snake. Kaleeyan was busy to spit
the poison on Krishna to kill him and swallow him.
Krishna suddenly began gaining strength and twisted the snake
away and extricated from its clutches. The grip with which he
twisted it made Kaleeyan feel the pain and he began spitting the venom on
Krishna. Krishna cleverly avoided the snake’s efforts and decided to
press its head down and jump on its spreaded hoods atop its heads.
Before long, Krishna was now on top of Kaleeyan’s heads thumping
and jumping on the spreaded hoods applying crushing weight and pressure
to break the skulls of the snake and damage the brains of
Kalyeeyan. Those standing in awe looking at Krishna imagined
that Krishna was joyously jumping and dancing on Kaleeyan’s head, holding
his tail in one hand and playing his flute which he always kept in the waist
bound by a cloth. The impact of Krishna’s increased weight and
force slowly made Kalyeen lose his consciousness and he was about
to die. His wives who heard the painful cries of Kaleeyan, surfaced
up from down the river and prayed to Krishna to spare the life of Kaleeyan
showing mercy on him for their sake.
Kaleeyan also begged "Krishna”, please
forgive me for my stupid act done without knowing who you are and please
show mercy on me. I will not do any harm to anyone hereafter”
Krishna took a pledge from him to leave the Yamuna river before night to
some other place without harming anyone in future"
Krishna then jumped from Kaleeyan’s heads to the tree branch
and landed ashore, amidst the delightful shoutings of the
boys and appreciation of the elders who were witness to this marvelous feat of
Krishna.
I read somewhere Kaleeyan thereafter moved to some
river or ocean near Fiji islands. But we have not heard anymore about
Kaleeyan and need not worry about entering Yamuna for bathing and worshipping
Krishna thanking him for the redemption of the beautiful and holy river for us.
Children! we all enjoy snake dance by young girls in groups in
many dance programmes, but whenever we see the picture of Krishna dancing on
Kaleeya’s hooded heads, kept and worshipped in our Pooja rooms we
can enjoy the beautify of his beaming face having no fear. Remember when
Krishna is in our minds there will be no fear at all!
The rivers are always enchanting
to look at and especially in the evenings if one has a chance to sit on the
riversand facing the running water with friends to talk about on interesting
subjects, munching ground nuts and baked peas, enjoying the cool breeze, there
is nothing equal to it, is n’t it? In
summer particularly, such an opportunity is heavenly.
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