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KB 1970-1-4 / Kamsa Begins His Persecutions

4 / Kamsa Begins His Persecutions

After Vasudeva adjusted

all the doors and gates

, the gatekeepers awoke and heard the newborn

child crying. Kamsa was waiting to hear the news of the child's

birth, and the gatekeepers immediately approached him and

informed him that the child was born. At that time, Kamsa got

up from his bed very quickly and exclaimed, "Now the cruel

death of my life is born!" Kamsa became perplexed now that his

death was approaching, and his hair stood on end.

Immediately he proceeded toward the place where the child was

born.

Devaki, on seeing her brother approaching, prayed in a very

meek attitude to Kamsa: "My dear brother, please do not kill

this female child. I promise that this child will be the wife

of your son; therefore don't kill her. You are not to be killed

by any female child. That was the omen. You are to be

killed by a male child, so please do not kill her. My dear

brother, you have killed so many of my children who were just

born, shining as the sun. That is not your fault. You have

been advised by demoniac friends to kill my children. But now I

beg you to excuse this girl. Let her live as my

daughter."

Kamsa was so cruel that he did not listen to the beautiful

prayers of his sister Devaki. He forcibly grabbed the newborn

child to rebuke his sister and attempted to dash her on the

stone mercilessly. This is a graphic example of a cruel brother

who could sacrifice all relationships for the sake of personal

gratification. But immediately the child slipped

out of his hands, went up in the sky and appeared with eight

arms as the younger sister of Visnu. She was decorated with a

nice dress and flower garlands and ornaments; in her eight

hands she held a bow, lancet, arrows, bell, conchshell, disc,

club and shield.

Seeing the appearance of the child (who was actually the

goddess Durga), all the demigods from different planets like

Siddhaloka, Caranaloka, Gandharvaloka, Apsaroloka, Kinnaraloka,

and Uragaloka presented her articles and began to

offer their respective prayers. From above, the goddess

addressed Kamsa: "You rascal, how can you kill me? The child

who will kill you is already born before me somewhere within

this world. Don't be so cruel to your poor sister." After this

appearance, the goddess Durga became known by various names in

various parts of the world.

After hearing these words, Kamsa became very much overwhelmed

with fear. Out of pity, he immediately released Vasudeva and

Devaki from the bondage of their shackles and very politely

began to address them. He said, "My dear sister and brother-in-

law, I have acted just like a demon in killing my own nephews

I have given up all

consideration of our intimate relationship. I do not know what

will be the result of these acts of mine. Probably I

shall be sent to the hell where killers of the brahmanas go. I

am surprised, however, that the celestial prophecy has not come

true. False propaganda is not found only in the human society

. Now it appears that even the

celestial denizens speak lies. Because I believed in the words

of the celestial denizens, I have committed so many sins by

killing the children of my sister. My dear Vasudeva and Devaki,

you are both very great souls. I have nothing to

instruct you, but still I request that you not be sorry for the

death of your children. Every one of us is under the control of

superior power, and that superior power does not allow us to

remain together. We are bound to be separated from our friends

and relatives in due course of time. But we must know for

certain that even after the disappearance of the different

material bodies, the soul remains intact eternally. For example,

there are many pots made of earthly clay, and they are

prepared and also broken. But in spite of this, the earth

remains as it is perpetually. Similarly, the bodies of the soul

under different conditions are made and destroyed, but the

spirit soul remains eternally. So there is nothing to lament

over. Everyone should understand that this material body is

different from the spirit soul, and so long as one does not

come to that understanding, he is sure to accept the processes

of transmigration from one body to another. My dear sister

Devaki, you are so gentle and kind. Please excuse me -- don't

be aggrieved by the death of your children, which I have caused.

Actually this was not done by me because all these are

predestined activities. One has to act according to the

predestined plan, even unwillingly. People misunderstand that

with the end of the body, the self dies, or they think that one

can kill another living entity. All these misconceptions oblige

one to accept the conditions of material existence. In other

words, as long as one is not firmly convinced of the eternality

of the soul, one is subjected to the tribulation of being

killer and killed. My dear sister Devaki and brother-in-law

Vasudeva, kindly excuse the atrocities I have committed against

you. I am very poor-hearted, and you are so great-hearted, so

take compassion upon me and excuse me."

While Kamsa was speaking to his brother-in-law and sister,

tears flowed from his eyes and he fell down at their feet.

Believing the words of Durga-devi, whom he had tried to kill,

Kamsa immediately released his brother-in-law and sister. He

personally unlocked the iron shackles and very sympathetically

showed his friendship, just like a family member.

When Devaki saw her brother so repentant, she also became

pacified and forgot all his atrocious activities against her

children. Vasudeva also, forgetting all past incidents, spoke

smilingly with his brother-in-law. Vasudeva told Kamsa, "My

dear fortunate brother-in-law, what you are saying about the

material body and the soul is correct. Every living entity is

born ignorant, understanding this material body to be his

self. This conception of life is due to ignorance, and on the

basis of this ignorance we create enmity or friendship.

Lamentation, jubilation, fearfulness, envy, greed, illusion and

madness are different features of our material concept of life.

A person influenced like this engages in enmity due only to

the material body. Being engaged in such activities, we forget

our eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of

Godhead."

Vasudeva took the opportunity of Kamsa's benevolence and

informed him that his atheistic activities were also due to

this misconception of life -- namely taking the material body

to be the self. When Vasudeva talked with Kamsa in such an

illuminating way, Kamsa became very pleased, and his guilt

for killing his nephews subdued. With the permission of his

sister Devaki and brother-in-law Vasudeva, he returned to his

home with a relieved mind.

But the next day Kamsa called all his counsellors together and

narrated to them all the incidents that had happened the night

before. All the counsellors of Kamsa were demons and eternal

enemies of the demigods, so they became depressed upon hearing

their master speak of the night's events. And although they

were not very much experienced or learned, they began to give

instructions to Kamsa as follows: "Dear sir, let us now make

arrangements to kill all children who were born within the last

ten days in all towns, countries, villages and pasturing

grounds. Let us execute this plan indiscriminately. We think

that the demigods cannot do anything against us if we perform

these atrocities. They are always afraid of fighting with us,

and even if they wish to check our activities, they will not

dare to do so. Because of the immeasurable strength of your

bow, they fear you. Indeed, we have practical experience

that whenever you stood to fight with them and began to shower

your arrows on them, they immediately begin to flee in all

directions just to save their lives. Many of the demigods were

unable to fight with you, and they immediately surrendered

themselves unto you by opening their turbans and the flag

on their heads. With folded hands they begged you to spare

them and said, 'My lord, we are all afraid of your strength.

Please release us from this dangerous fight.' We have also seen

many times that you would never kill such surrendered fighters

when they were all fearful, their bows, arrows and chariots

broken, forgetful of their military activities and unable to

fight with you. So actually we have nothing to fear from these

demigods. They are very proud of being great fighters in

peacetime outside of the warfield, but actually they

cannot show any talent or military power on the warfield.

Although Lord Visnu, Lord Siva and Lord Brahma are always ready

to help the demigods headed by Indra, we have no reason to be

afraid of them. As far as Lord Visnu is concerned, He has

already hidden Himself within the hearts of all living entities,

and He cannot come out. As far as Lord Siva is concerned, he

has renounced all activities; he has already entered into the

forest. And Lord Brahma is always engaged in different types of

austerities and meditation. And what to speak of Indra -- he is

a straw in comparison to your strength. Therefore we have

nothing to fear from all these demigods. But we must not

neglect them beause the demigods are our determined enemies.

We must be careful to protect ourselves. To root them out from

their very existence, we should just engage ourselves in your

service and be always ready for your command."

The demons continued to say: "If there is some disease in the

body which is neglected, it becomes incurable.

Similarly, when one is not careful about restraining the senses

and lets them loose, it is then very difficult to control them

at all. Therefore, we must always be very careful of the

demigods before they get too strong to be subdued. The

foundation of strength of the demigods is Lord Visnu,

because the ultimate goal of all religious principles is to

satisfy Him. The Vedic injunctions, the brahmanas, the cows,

austerities, sacrifices, performances of charity and

distribution of wealth are all for the satisfaction of Lord

Visnu. So let us immediately begin by killing all the brahmanas

who are in charge of the Vedic knowledge and the great

sages who are in charge of sacrificial ritualistic performances.

Let us kill all the cows which are the source of butter

which is so necessary for performing sacrifices. Please give us

your permission to kill all these creatures."

Actually the limbs of the transcendental body of Lord Visnu

are the brahmanas, the cows, Vedic knowledge, austerity,

truthfulness, sense and mind control, faithfulness, charity,

tolerance and performance of sacrifices. Lord Visnu is situated

in everyone's heart and is the leader of all demigods,

including Lord Siva and Lord Brahma. "We think that

to kill Lord Visnu is to persecute the great sages and

brahmanas," said the ministers.

Thus being advised by the demonic ministers, Kamsa, who was

from the very beginning the greatest rascal, decided to

persecute the brahmanas and Vaisnavas, being entrapped by the

shackles of all-devouring, eternal time. He ordered the demons

to harass all kinds of saintly persons, and then he entered his

house. The adherents of Kamsa were all influenced by the modes

of passion as well as illusioned by the modes of ignorance, and

their only business was to create enmity with saintly persons.

Such activities can only reduce the duration of life. The

demons accelerated the process and invited their deaths as soon

as possible. The result of persecuting saintly persons is not

only untimely death. The act is so offensive that the

actor also gradually loses his beauty, his fame and his

religious principles, and his promotion to higher planets

is also checked. Driven by various kinds of mental concoctions,

the demons diminish all kinds of welfare. An offense at

the lotus feet of the devotees and brahmanas is a greater

offense than that committed at the lotus feet of the Supreme

Personality of Godhead. Thus

a godless civilization becomes the source of all

calamities.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Fourth Chapter of

Krsna, "Kamsa Begins His Persecutions."

 
 
KB 4: Kamsa Begins His Persecutions
 
CHAPTER FOUR
 
Kamsa Begins His Persecutions
 
After Vasudeva adjusted things as they had been before he 
carried Krsna to Gokula, and all the doors and gates became 
similarly closed, the gatekeepers awoke and heard the newborn 
child crying. Kamsa was waiting to hear the news of the child's 
birth, and the gatekeepers immediately approached him and 
informed him that the child was born. At that time, Kamsa got 
up from his bed very quickly and exclaimed, "Now the cruel 
death of my life is born!" Kamsa became perplexed now that his 
death was approaching, and his hair scattered. 
Immediately he proceeded toward the place where the child was 
born.
 
Devaki, on seeing her brother approaching, prayed in a very 
meek attitude to Kamsa: "My dear brother, please do not kill 
this female child. I promise that this child will be the wife 
of your son; therefore don't kill her. You are not to be killed 
by any female child. That was the prophecy. You are to be 
killed by a male child, so please do not kill her. My dear 
brother, you have killed so many of my children who were just 
born, shining like the sun. That is not your fault. You have 
been advised by demoniac friends to kill my children. But now I 
beg you to excuse this girl at least. Let her live as my 
daughter."
 
Kamsa was so cruel that he did not listen to the pitiful 
prayers of his sister Devaki. He forcibly grabbed the newborn 
child to rebuke his sister and attempted to dash her on the 
stone mercilessly. This is a graphic example of a cruel demon 
who could sacrifice all relationships for the sake of personal 
gratification. But the child immediately slipped 
out of his hands, went up into the sky and appeared with eight 
arms as the younger sister of Visnu. She was decorated with 
nice garments and flower garlands and ornaments; in her eight 
hands she held a bow, lance, arrows, sword, conchshell, disc, 
club and shield.
 
Seeing the appearance of the child (who was actually the 
Goddess Durga), all the demigods from different planets like 
Siddhaloka, Caranaloka, Gandharvaloka, Apsaroloka, Kinnaraloka 
and Uragaloka presented her with various articles and began to 
offer their respective prayers. From above, the goddess 
addressed Kamsa: "You rascal, how can you kill me? The child 
who will kill you is already born before me somewhere within 
this world. Don't be so cruel to your poor sister." After this 
appearance, the Goddess Durga became known by various names in 
various parts of the world.
 
After hearing these words, Kamsa became very much overwhelmed 
with fear. Out of pity, he immediately released Vasudeva and 
Devaki from the bondage of their shackles and very politely 
began to address them. He said, "My dear sister and brother-in-
law, I have acted just like a demon in killing my own nephews --
 your children -- and thereby I have given up all consideration 
of our intimate relationship. I do not know what will be the 
result of these envious acts of mine. Probably I shall be sent 
to the hell where killers of brahmanas go. I am surprised, 
however, that the celestial prophecy has not come true. It
 is not only in human society that false 
propaganda is found. Now it appears that even the celestial 
denizens speak lies. Because I believed in the words of the 
celestial denizens, I have committed so many sins by killing 
the children of my sister. My dear Vasudeva and Devaki, you are 
both very great souls. I have no instructions to give 
you, but still I request that you not be sorry for the death of 
your children. Every one of us is under the control of superior 
power, and that superior power does not allow us to remain 
together. We are bound to be separated from our friends and 
relatives in due course of time. But we must know for certain 
that even after the disappearance of the different material 
bodies, the soul remains intact eternally. For example, there 
are many pots made of earthly clay, and they are prepared and 
also broken. But in spite of this, the earth remains as it is 
perpetually. Similarly, the bodies of the soul under different 
conditions are made and destroyed, but the spirit soul remains 
eternally. So there is nothing to lament over. Everyone should 
understand that this material body is different from the spirit 
soul, and so long as one does not come to that understanding, 
he is sure to accept the processes of transmigration from one 
body to another.
 
"My dear sister Devaki, you are so gentle and kind. Please 
excuse me -- don't be aggrieved by the death of your children, 
which I have caused. Actually this was not done by me, because 
all these are predestined activities. One has to act according 
to the predestined plan, even unwillingly. People misunderstand 
that with the end of the body the self dies, or they think that 
one can kill another living entity. All these misconceptions 
oblige one to accept the conditions of material existence. In 
other words, as long as one is not firmly convinced of the 
eternality of the soul, one is subjected to the tribulation of 
being killer and killed. My dear sister Devaki and brother-in-
law Vasudeva, kindly excuse the atrocities I have committed 
against you. I am very poor-hearted, and you are so great-
hearted, so take compassion upon me and excuse me."
 
While Kamsa was speaking to his brother-in-law and sister, 
tears flowed from his eyes, and he fell down at their feet. 
Believing the words of Durga-devi, whom he had tried to kill, 
Kamsa immediately released his brother-in-law and sister. He 
personally unlocked the iron shackles and very sympathetically 
showed his friendship for his family members.
 
When Devaki saw her brother so repentant, she also became 
pacified and forgot all his atrocious activities against her 
children. Vasudeva also, forgetting all past incidents, spoke 
smilingly with his brother-in-law. Vasudeva told Kamsa, "My 
dear fortunate brother-in-law, what you are saying about the 
material body and the soul is correct. Every living entity is 
born ignorant, misunderstanding this material body to be his 
self. This conception of life is due to ignorance, and on the 
basis of this ignorance we create enmity or friendship. 
Lamentation, jubilation, fearfulness, envy, greed, illusion and 
madness are different features of our material concept of life. 
A person influenced like this engages in enmity only due to 
the material body. Being engaged in such activities, we forget 
our eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of 
Godhead."
 
Vasudeva took the opportunity of Kamsa's benevolence and 
informed him that his atheistic activities were also due to 
this misconception of life -- namely taking the material body 
to be the self. When Vasudeva talked with Kamsa in such an 
illuminating way, Kamsa became very much pleased, and his guilt 
for killing his nephews subsided. With the permission of his 
sister Devaki and brother-in-law Vasudeva, he returned to his 
home with a relieved mind.
 
But the next day Kamsa called all his counselors together and 
narrated to them all the incidents that had happened the night 
before. All the counselors of Kamsa were demons and eternal 
enemies of the demigods, so they became depressed upon hearing 
their master speak of the night's events. And although they 
were not very much experienced or learned, they began to give 
instructions to Kamsa as follows: "Dear sir, let us now make 
arrangements to kill all children who were born within the last 
ten days in all towns, counties, villages and pasturing 
grounds. Let us execute this plan indiscriminately. We think 
that the demigods cannot do anything against us if we perform 
these atrocities. They are always afraid of fighting with us, 
and even if they wish to check our activities, they will not 
dare to do so. Because of your immeasurable strength
, they fear your bow. Indeed, we have practical experience 
that whenever you stood to fight with them and began to shower 
your arrows on them, they immediately fled in all 
directions just to save their lives. Many of the demigods were 
unable to fight with you, and they immediately surrendered 
themselves unto you by loosening their turbans and the tufts of 
hair on their heads. With folded hands they begged you to spare 
them and said, ‘My lord, we are all afraid of your strength. 
Please release us from this dangerous fight.' We have also seen 
many times that you would never kill such surrendered fighters 
when they were all fearful, their bows, arrows and chariots 
broken, forgetful of their military activities and unable to 
fight with you. So actually we have nothing to fear from these 
demigods. They are very proud of being great fighters in 
peacetime outside the war field, but actually they 
cannot show any talent or military power on the war field. 
Although Lord Visnu, Lord Siva and Lord Brahma are always ready 
to help the demigods, headed by Indra, we have no reason to be 
afraid of them. As far as Lord Visnu is concerned, He has 
already hidden Himself within the hearts of all living entities,
 and He cannot come out. As far as Lord Siva is concerned, he 
has renounced all activities; he has already entered into the 
forest. And Lord Brahma is always engaged in different types of 
austerities and meditation. And what to speak of Indra -- he is 
a straw in comparison to your strength. Therefore we have 
nothing to fear from any of these demigods. But we must not 
neglect them, for the demigods are our determined enemies. 
We must be careful to protect ourselves. To root them out from 
their very existence, we should just engage ourselves in your 
service and be always ready for your command."
 
The demons continued to say, "If there is some disease in the 
body which is neglected, it worsens and becomes incurable. 
Similarly, when one is not careful about restraining the senses 
and lets them loose, it is then very difficult to control them
. Therefore, we must now be very careful of the 
demigods before they get too strong to be subdued. The 
foundation of the strength of the demigods is Lord Visnu, 
because the ultimate goal of all religious principles is to 
satisfy Him. The Vedic injunctions, the brahmanas, the cows, 
austerities, sacrifices, performances of charity and 
distribution of wealth are all for the satisfaction of Lord 
Visnu. So let us immediately begin by killing all the brahmanas 
who are in charge of the Vedic knowledge, along with the great 
sages who are in charge of sacrificial ritualistic performances.
 Let us kill all the cows, which are the source of butter, 
which is so necessary for performing sacrifices. Please give us 
your permission to kill all these creatures.
 
"Actually the limbs of the transcendental body of Lord Visnu 
are the brahmanas, the cows, Vedic knowledge, austerity, 
truthfulness, sense and mind control, faithfulness, charity, 
tolerance and performance of sacrifices. Lord Visnu is situated 
in everyone's heart and is the leader of all demigods, 
including Lord Siva and Lord Brahma. Therefore we think that 
to persecute the great sages and 
brahmanas is to kill Lord Visnu."
 
Thus being advised by his demoniac ministers, Kamsa, who was 
from the very beginning the greatest rascal, decided to 
persecute the brahmanas and Vaisnavas, being entrapped by the 
shackles of all-devouring, eternal time. He ordered the demons 
to harass all kinds of saintly persons, and then he entered his 
house. The adherents of Kamsa were all influenced by the mode 
of passion as well as illusioned by the mode of ignorance, and 
their only business was to create enmity with saintly persons. 
Such activities can only reduce one's duration of life. The 
demons accelerated the process and invited their deaths as soon 
as possible. The result of persecuting saintly persons is not 
only untimely death. The act is so offensive that the 
perpetrator also gradually loses his beauty, his fame and his 
religious principles, and thus his promotion to higher planets 
is checked. Driven by various kinds of mental concoctions, 
the demons diminish all kinds of auspiciousness. An offense at 
the lotus feet of the devotees and brahmanas is a greater 
offense than that committed at the lotus feet of the Supreme 
Personality of Godhead. A civilization that commits such 
sinful activities generally loses all faith in the Supreme Lord,
 and such a godless civilization becomes the source of all 
calamities in human society.
 
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Fourth Chapter of 
Krsna, "Kamsa Begins His Persecutions."
 