In those days, when Love was predominant and held no place for that
which overcame and destroyed that which could not hold sway there,
because when love is strong and active, then doth evil become feeble and
weak and slinketh away into darkness and deep places, where the light of
love cannot reach in to reveal its blackness unto the light of the sky.
In the river, on whose bank Krishna, Rāma and the cowherd boys often sat
and sang the deeds of their hero, there dwelt a huge serpent monster
with a thousand hoods, who by the venom of his hideous body did permeate
the water of the lake with deadly poison and filled the air of the
vicinity with a pestilent atmosphere that was deadly in its influence.
Krishna one day led the boys and cows to this pool, and they, being
athirst, drank of the deadly water that lay still and without a ripple.
Ever is evil inviting in its outward calm.
But lo! in an instant, the thousand-headed monster lifted its hoods, and
the deadly poison having done its ghastly work, the boys and cows lay on
the bank lifeless, and motionless they fell at the feet of Krishna.
With a glance of life-giving Love cast upon the dead ones, Krishna
walked to a tree that was close by, while the boys, alive again, in
amazement and wonder gazed at each other, forgetting, in the joy of the
Love in the look that Krishna had cast upon them, the moment before.
On reaching the top of the tree, Krishna stood for an instant and gazed
at the boys, His world and the serpent, and a light as of molten gold
seemed to come from that body, more lovely than the sun to look upon.
Thus it was for a moment, then into the deadly pool he plunged, while
the thousand heads of the serpent darted their venomous tongues' and
struck the body till the boys fell into unconsciousness and the cows
groaned in pain, and the men and women, with eyes bulging with fear and
tearing their hair, almost swooned at the sight of the boy, who was God,
crushed in the poisonous embrace of the monster; yet, even as stricken
with horror, they gazed.
Krishna a glance like light on them cast, and breaking away from the
grasp of the monster, He lightly sprang upon its hooded head and danced
like the stars upon its hoods, till one by one low they were laid; and
vomiting blood that was thick and black, defeated and broken, the
monster sank beneath the waves.
And with a bound Krishna stood in the midst of His friends who knelt at,
His feet. Then they drew Him within their arms, in the madness of joy at
His safety.