taṁ jighāṁsum abhipretya vihāya nṛpa-lāñchanam tat-pāda-mūlaṁ śirasā samagād bhaya-vihvalaḥ
Synonyms
tam—him; jighāṁsum—willing to kill; abhipretya—knowing it well; vihāya—leaving aside; nṛpa-lāñchanam—the dress of a king; tat-pāda-mūlam—underneath his feet; śirasā—by the head; samagāt—fully surrendered; bhaya-vihvalaḥ—under pressure of fearfulness.
Translation
When the personality of Kali understood it that the king was willing to kill him, he at once gave up the dress of a king and under pressure of fearfulness completely surrendered unto him by his head.
Purport
The royal dress of the personality of Kali is artificial. The royal dress is suitable for king or Kshatriya but when a lower class man artificially dresses himself as a king his real identity is disclosed by the challenge of a bonafide Kshatriya like Maharaj Parikshit. A real Kshatriya never surrenders. He accepts the challenge of his rival Kshatriya and he fights either to die or to win. Surrender is unknown to a real Kshatriya. In the age of kali there are so many pretenders dressed and posed like administrator or executive head but their real identity is disclosed when they are challenged by a real Kshatriya. Therefore when the artificially dressed personality of Kali saw it that to fight with Maharaj Parikshit was beyond his capacity he bowed down his head like a subordinate and gave up his royal dress.