This chapter describes how Kaliya left the island of the snakes and how the sleeping residents of Vrindavana were saved from a forest fire.

When King Parikshit inquired about Kaliya's leaving Ramanaka Island, the abode of the serpents, and about why Garuda acted inimically toward him, Sri Sukadeva Gosvami replied as follows: All the serpents on the island were afraid of being devoured by Garuda. To placate him, every month they would leave various offerings for him at the foot of a banyan tree. But Kaliya, puffed-up as he was with false pride, would eat these offerings himself. Hearing of this, Garuda became furious and went to kill Kaliya, whereupon the snake began biting the great bird. Garuda fiercely beat him with his wing, sending Kaliya fleeing for his life to a lake adjoining the Yamuna River.

Prior to the above incident, Garuda had once come to the Yamuna and started eating some fish. Saubhari Rishi had tried to stop him, but Garuda, agitated by hunger, had refused to heed the sage's prohibitions, and in response the sage had cursed Garuda that if he ever came there again he would immediately die. Kaliya had heard of this, and thus he lived there without fear. In the end, however, he was driven out by Sri Krishna.

When Lord Balarama and all the residents of Vrindavana saw Sri Krishna rise up out of the lake, beautifully decorated with many different gems and ornaments, they embraced Him in great pleasure. The spiritual masters, priests and learned brahmanas then told Nanda Maharaja, the king of the cowherds, that although his son had been caught in the grips of Kaliya, it was by the king's good fortune that He was now free again.

Because the people of Vrindavana were quite worn out by hunger, thirst and fatigue, they spent that night on the banks of the Yamuna. In the middle of the night, a fire happened to blaze up within the forest, which had become dry during the hot season. As the fire surrounded the sleeping inhabitants of Vrindavana, they suddenly awoke and rushed to Sri Krishna for protection. Then the unlimitedly powerful Lord Sri Krishna, seeing His dear relatives and friends so distressed, immediately swallowed up the terrible forest fire.