Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.17.12
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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veda
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knew
Perfect tense of √vid — 'has come to know.' Kāliya alone among serpents possesses this dangerous information. The Bhāgavatam quietly underlines: cunning knowledge without surrender is the worst kind of knowing — it teaches one only where to hide from the Lord.
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lelihaḥ
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serpent (one who repeatedly licks)
Frequentative of √lih (to lick). The serpent is named by the constant flicker of his tongue. Compare Kāliya's tongue in verse 6 with the cowherd boys' tongues that will cry 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa!' in verse 23 — the same organ, two opposite uses.
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bhītaḥ
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afraid
Past participle of √bhī. The arrogant offender of verse 4 is now bhīta — fear is his true nature once his weapon is matched. Gauḍīyas note: the demonic mood is always under the surface a frightened mood.
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vivāsitaḥ
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expelled (by Kṛṣṇa)
Past participle of vi + √vas (to send into exile). The verse foretells in one phrase the entire next ten chapters — Kṛṣṇa is the One who finally moves the snake out. Bhāgavatam style: the resolution is leaked, so the reader rests in confidence while the līlā unfolds.
Only (param) Kāliya knew of this incident. He lived there because of looking for a safe place everywhere, out of fear of Garuḍa’s enmity, and because of hundreds of blessings in previous lives. He was expelled by Kṛṣṇa, who produces all bliss.
- What current 'shelter' for harm in my life or institution is the residue of a well-meaning rule?
- Where does evil exploit a loophole someone created with good intentions?
Kāliya alone hears the rumor and slips through the loophole — the way one cunning soul finds a doctrinal exception and lives inside it for years. The shelter works against Garuḍa; it cannot work against Kṛṣṇa. The fugitive's clever geography always misses the Master's free movement.
Within Canto 10 itself, the chapters immediately before this one (SB 10.15–16) narrate how Kṛṣṇa, hardly more than a boy, leapt into the very lake Kāliya had made his fortress. The serpent's century-long loophole closed in an afternoon.
Gauḍīyas read the sequence as the canonical pattern: every false shelter the jīva has built has an expiry date written into it by Bhagavān Himself. Kṛṣṇa is the loophole's loophole.
My note
Source: vedabase.io