HV 37.1
दानवानां तु पिप्रीषुः कालनेमिः स दानवः । व्यवर्धत महातेजास् तपान्ते जलदो यथा ॥
dānavānāṃ tu piprīṣuḥ kāla-nemiḥ sa dānavaḥ | vyavardhata mahā-tejās tap-ānte jalado yathā
That dānava Kālanemi — wishing to please the dānavas — swelled with great splendor, like a rain-cloud at the end of the heat-season.
The Living Words
*Dānavānāṃ piprīṣuḥ*, 'wishing to please the dānavas'. *Kāla-nemiḥ sa dānavaḥ*, 'that dānava Kālanemi'. *Vyavardhata mahā-tejāḥ*, 'swelled with great splendor'. *Tap-ānte jalado yathā*, 'like a rain-cloud at the end of the heat'.
The Heart of It
The simile is deliberate and doubled: Kālanemi *grows like a summer-end monsoon cloud*. A cloud at summer's end brings cooling rain — the very thing the burning devas went to the moon-lake for (HV 35.20). The demon is offering himself as *relief* to his own side. The Warkari reading notices the mirrored structure: both camps have their 'rain-cloud' figure. In the demonic economy it is Kālanemi — relief for *pride*; in the divine economy it will be Kṛṣṇa Himself as *Meghaśyāma*, the dark-cloud-colored Lord — relief for *humility*. Jñāneśvar's Haripāṭh Abhaṅga 22 *megha-śyāmā-varana* — 'dark-cloud-colored one' — is HV 37.1's intended opposition. Same cloud, opposite beneficiaries.