Study a Verse

• Mosquitoes, jackals, dogs and other varieties of dandaśūka, or animals whose bites are poisonous, drank the poison of the samudra-manthana, the churned ocean, since it was available after it fell from the palms of Lord Śiva.
• Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Eighth Canto, Seventh Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “Lord Śiva Saves the Universe by Drinking Poison.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Danger and ambition → Divine rescue and surprise. Cooperation, rivalry and revelation alternate rapidly.

Chapters 5–12 of Canto 8: Churning the ocean, poison and nectar. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 7: Lord Śiva Saves the Universe by Drinking Poison

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

After he drank the poison, his neck became bluish. A small quantity of the poison dropped from his hands to the ground, and it is because of this poison that there are poisonous snakes, scorpions, toxic plants and other poisonous things in this world.