HV 56.2
कृष्णः कदम्बशिखराल् लम्बमानो ऽम्बुदाकृतिः । ह्रदमध्ये ऽकरोच्छब्दं निपतन्न् अम्बुजेक्षणः ॥
kṛṣṇaḥ kadambaśikharāl lambamāno 'mbudākṛtiḥ | hradamadhye 'karoc chabdaṃ nipatann ambujekṣaṇaḥ
Kṛṣṇa, hanging from the top of the kadamba in the form of a cloud, lotus-eyed, made a sound falling into the middle of the pool.
The Living Words
The verse is built on two compounds. *Ambudākṛtiḥ*, 'of the form of a cloud' — Kṛṣṇa's complexion drawn as the same color as the water he is about to enter. *Ambujekṣaṇaḥ*, 'lotus-eyed' — and the water he is about to enter is the pool where the lotus grows. The falling body is not alien to the water. It shares the water's colors. *Hradamadhye 'karoc chabdam* — 'made a sound in the middle of the pool.' The Harivaṃśa is careful about this: the chapter's action begins not with a declaration but with a sound. A child falls into the water. That is enough for Kāliya to know he has been visited.
The Heart of It
Notice that the verse does not describe what Kṛṣṇa intends; it describes what he looks like. *Ambuda-ākṛti*, *ambuja-īkṣaṇa*: cloud-form, lotus-eye. These are not warrior's attributes; they are the attributes of a thing that belongs to the water. The Harivaṃśa is making a small theological point by this choice. What goes into the poisoned water is not an outsider come to fight it; it is the same dark blue, the same lotus — it is what the water was always trying to become before Kāliya lived there. The Varkari reading of this image in later centuries is unchanged: the Name does not descend into the heart as a foreigner. It descends into the heart as its own substance, returning to what the heart was made for.