Shloka 7
कालियदमना: यमुनाशुद्धिः, करुणा-निग्रहः, स्तुति-तत्त्वम्
तेनेयं दूषिता सर्वा यमुना सागराङ्गना न नरैर् गोधनैर् वापि तृषार्तैर् उपभुज्यते
teneyaṃ dūṣitā sarvā yamunā sāgarāṅganā na narair godhanair vāpi tṛṣārtair upabhujyate
By him this entire Yamunā—she who is the ocean’s bride—has been defiled; therefore she is no longer used for drinking, even by men or by cattle, though they be tormented by thirst.
Sage Parāśara (narrating to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: How Kāliya’s presence harmed the Yamunā and prompted Krishna’s protective action.
Teaching: Historical
Quality: revealing
Avatara: Krishna
Purpose: Krishna intervenes because Kāliya’s poison has rendered the Yamunā unusable, threatening the lives of humans and cattle in Vraja.
Leela: Loka-rakshana
Dharma Restored: Safeguarding communal welfare and the righteous pastoral order dependent on pure water.
Vishnu Form: Krishna
Bhakti Type: Vatsalya
FAQs
It personifies the river as a divine being whose purity and dignity matter within dharma; her “marriage” to the ocean underscores sacred geography as part of cosmic order.
He frames pollution as a real dharmic consequence: the river becomes unusable even for the thirsty, showing that adharma disrupts what should sustain life.
Even when Vishnu is not named in the verse, the Purana’s worldview assumes a Vishnu-governed moral cosmos where purity, order, and the welfare of beings depend on alignment with dharma.