Hare Krsna,
Devotees of Krsna can appreciate that Krsna performed these pastimes with the Kaliya snake to give impetus to intensified feelings of love for Him. Seeing Krsna in trouble, the devotees in Vrndavana became absorbed in remembering His smiling face, His loving words and His dealings with the various demons He had vanquished. The devotees on the bank of the Yamuna, therefore, demonstrated the highest stage of Krsna consciousness the ecstasy of love in a feeling of separation. Krsna did not want to disturb their mood of concern and anxiety for Him by immediately showing them that there was no need for distress. Therefore He remained wrapped in the serpent’s coils.
Nectar of Devotion (Chapter 28: Existential Ecstatic Love) gives a detailed description of ecstatic symptoms of love for Krsna. When a devotee is always intensely affected by love for Kṛṣṇa in a direct relationship with Him – or even a little apart from Him – his status is called existential ecstatic love.
According to Srila Rupa Goswami, there are eight symptoms of existential ecstatic love: becoming stunned, perspiring, standing of the hairs on the body, faltering of the voice, trembling of the body, changing of bodily colors, shedding of tears and devastation.
In this pastime of Krsna and Kaliya, the symptom of becoming stunned seems, to me, to be more prominent. The symptom of being stunned is caused by ecstatic tribulation, fearfulness, astonishment, lamentation and anger. This symptom is exhibited by a stoppage of talking, a stoppage of movement, a feeling of voidness and an extreme feeling of separation.
Many of these symptoms have been manifested by the Vrajavasis after seeing Krsna enwrapped in the coils of the black serpent, Kaliya. Unaware of the whereabouts of Krsna, Nanda Mahārāja and the other cowherd men were overwhelmed with grief, lamentation and fear.
Seeing the inauspicious omens, Nanda Mahārāja and the other cowherd men were fearful, for they knew that Kṛṣṇa had gone to herd the cows that day without His elder brother, Balarāma. Because they had dedicated their minds to Kṛṣṇa, accepting Him as their very life, they were unaware of His great power and opulence. Thus they concluded that the inauspicious omens indicated He had met with death, and they were overwhelmed with grief, lamentation and fear. (SB 10.16.13-15)
Upon finding that Kṛṣṇa was in the lake, motionless within the coils of the black serpent, the residents of Vṛndāvana were overwhelmed with anguish and confusion.
As they hurried along the path to the bank of the Yamunā River, they saw from a distance that Kṛṣṇa was in the lake, motionless within the coils of the black serpent. They further saw that the cowherd boys had fallen unconscious and that the animals were standing on all sides, crying out for Kṛṣṇa. Seeing all this, the residents of Vṛndāvana were overwhelmed with anguish and confusion. (SB 10.16.19)
The young gopis, attached to Kṛṣṇa in madhurya-bhava, and due to the fire of separation from Kṛṣṇa saw the three worlds turn empty and meaningless.
When the young gopīs, whose minds were constantly attached to Kṛṣṇa, the unlimited Supreme Lord, saw that He was now within the grips of the serpent, they remembered His loving friendship, His smiling glances and His talks with them. Burning with great sorrow, they saw the entire universe as void. (SB 10.16.20)
This is the same state Lord Caitanya, in the mood of Srimati Radharani, displayed in separation from Krsna.
“O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.” (Sri Siksastakam 8)
The elderly gopis (who were in vatsalya-bhava, parental love) became paralyzed like corpses upon seeing Krsna enwrapped in the serpent’s coils. The elderly gopis drowned everyone in the waves from the rivers of their lamentation.
Although the elder gopīs were feeling just as much distress as she and were pouring forth a flood of sorrowful tears, they had to forcibly hold back Kṛṣṇa’s mother, whose consciousness was totally absorbed in her son. Standing like corpses, with their eyes fixed upon His face, these gopīs each took turns recounting the pastimes of the darling of Vraja. (SB 10.16.21)
Thus, we see from this pastime how Lord Krsna reciprocates and intensifies the love of His devotees. A pure devotee’s anxiety caused by thinking that Krsna is in distress is not, however, like the material lamentation of a man in ignorance. The devotee’s emotion is transcendental and purifying because it is in relationship with Krsna. There is no question of danger or distress for Krsna, the Supreme Godhead. Therefore, Krsna’s appearing to be in difficulty with Kaliya was a pretense, but His devotees’ anxiety for Him was a transcendental emotion. When we appreciate Krsna in this mood, we will best understand the significance of this narrative of Krsna and the Kaliya snake. (Reference: Article on Krishna’s Subduing the Serpent Kaliya by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami)
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krsna Katha 