TEXT 29
tam jighamsum abhipretya
vihaya nrpa-lanchanam
tat-pada-mulam sirasa
samagad bhaya-vihvalah
SYNONYMS
tamhim; jighamsumwilling to kill; abhipretyaknowing it well; vihayaleaving aside; nrpa-lanchanamthe dress of a king; tat-pada-mulamat his feet; sirasaby the head; samagatfully surrendered; bhaya-vihvalahunder pressure of fearfulness.
TRANSLATION
When the personality of Kali understood that the King was willing to kill him, he at once abandoned the dress of a king and, under pressure of fear, completely surrendered to him, bowing his head.
PURPORT
The royal dress of the personality of Kali is artificial. The royal dress is suitable for a king or ksatriya, but when a lower-class man artificially dresses himself as a king, his real identity is disclosed by the challenge of a bona fide ksatriya like Maharaja Pariksit. A real ksatriya never surrenders. He accepts the challenge of his rival ksatriya, and he fights either to die or to win. Surrender is unknown to a real ksatriya. In the age of Kali there are so many pretenders dressed and posed like administrators or executive heads, but their real identity is disclosed when they are challenged by a real ksatriya. Therefore when the artificially dressed personality of Kali saw that to fight Maharaja Pariksit was beyond his ability, he bowed down his head like a subordinate and gave up his royal dress.

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