vipruá¹£matÄ viá¹£adormi-
mÄrutenÄbhimarÅ›itÄḥ
mriyante tÄ«ra-gÄ yasya
prÄṇinaḥ sthira-jaá¹…gamÄḥ
vipruá¹-matÄ - containing droplets of the water; viá¹£a-da - poisonous; Å«rmi - (having touched) the waves; mÄrutena - by the wind; abhimarÅ›itÄḥ - contacted; mriyante - would die; tÄ«ra-gÄḥ - present upon the shore; yasya - of which; prÄṇinaḥ - all living entities; sthira-jaá¹…gamÄḥ - both nonmoving and moving.
The wind blowing over that deadly lake carried droplets of water to the shore. Simply by coming in contact with that poisonous breeze, all vegetation and creatures on the shore died.
The word sthira, “unmoving creatures,†refers to various types of vegetation including trees, and jaá¹…gama refers to moving creatures such as animals, reptiles, birds and insects. ÅšrÄ«la ÅšrÄ«dhara SvÄmÄ« has quoted a further description of this lake from the ÅšrÄ« Hari-vaá¹Å›a (Viṣṇu-parva 11.42, 11.44 and 11.46):
dÄ«rghaá¹ yojana-vistÄraá¹
dustaraṠtridaśair api
gambhÄ«ram aká¹£obhya-jalaá¹
niá¹£kampam iva sÄgaram
duḥkhopasarpaṠtīreṣu
sa-sarpair vipulair bilaiḥ
viá¹£Äraṇi-bhavasyÄgner
dhÅ«mena pariveá¹£á¹itam
tṛṇeṣv api patatsv apsu
jvalantam iva tejasÄ
samantÄd yojanaá¹ sÄgraá¹
tÄ«reá¹£v api durÄsadam
“The lake was quite wide — eight miles across at some points — and even the demigods could not cross over it. The water in the lake was very deep and, like the immovable depths of the ocean, could not be agitated. Approaching the lake was difficult, for its shores were covered with holes in which serpents lived. All around the lake was a fog generated by the fire of the serpents’ poison, and this powerful fire would at once burn up every blade of grass that happened to fall into the water. For a distance of eight miles from the lake, the atmosphere was most unpleasant.â€
ÅšrÄ«la SanÄtana GosvÄmÄ« states that by the mystical science of jala-stambha, making solid items out of water, KÄliya had built his own city within the lake.
