Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare,
Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare,
And now, Chapter
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 a
nd 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."