Canto Ten / CHAPTER FOUR

The Atrocities of King Kamsa

The activities of Yoga-māyā are distinctly visible in this chapter, in which Devakī and Vasudeva excuse Kamsa for his many devious, atrocious activities and Kamsa becomes repentant and falls at their feet. Before the awakening of the watchmen and the others in the prison house, many other things happened. Krishna was born and transferred to the home of Yaśodā in Gokula, the strong doors opened and again closed, and Vasudeva resumed his former condition of being shackled. The watchmen, however, could not understand all this. They awakened only when they heard the crying of the newborn child, Yoga-māyā.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura has remarked that the watchmen were just like dogs. At night the dogs in the street act like watchmen. If one dog barks, many other dogs immediately follow it by barking. Although the street dogs are not appointed by anyone to act as watchmen, they think they are responsible for protecting the neighborhood, and as soon as someone unknown enters it, they all begin to bark. Both Yoga-māyā and Mahā-māyā act in all material activities (prakriteh kriyamānāni gunaih karmāni sarvaśah), but although the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead acts under the Supreme Lord’s direction (mayādhyakshena prakritih sūyate sa-carācaram), doglike watchmen such as politicians and diplomats think that they are protecting their neighborhoods from the dangers of the outside world. These are the actions of māyā. But one who surrenders to Krishna is relieved of the protection afforded by the dogs and doglike guardians of this material world.

Kamsa was very anxiously waiting because of the prophecy that the eighth child of Devakī would kill him. This time, naturally, he was awake and waiting, and when the watchmen approached him, he immediately took action to kill the child.

The word kālah is significant. Although the child was born to kill Kamsa, Kamsa thought that this was the proper time to kill the child so that he himself would be saved. Kāla is actually another name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead when He appears only for the purpose of killing. When Arjuna inquired from Krishna in His universal form, “Who are You?” the Lord presented Himself as kāla, death personified to kill. By nature’s law, when there is an unwanted increase in population, kāla appears, and by some arrangement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, people are killed wholesale in different ways, by war, pestilence, famine and so on. At that time, even atheistic political leaders go to a church, mosque or temple for protection by God or gods and submissively say, “God willing.” Before that, they pay no attention to God, not caring to know God or His will, but when kāla appears, they say “God willing.” Death is but another feature of the supreme kāla, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. At the time of death, the atheist must submit to this supreme kāla, and then the Supreme Personality of Godhead takes away all his possessions (mrityuh sarva-haraś cāham) and forces him to accept another body (tathā dehāntara-prāptih). This the atheists do not know, and if they do know, they neglect it so that they may go on with their normal life. The Krishna consciousness movement is trying to teach them that although for a few years one may act as a great protector or great watchman, with the appearance of kāla, death, one must take another body by the laws of nature. Not knowing this, they unnecessarily waste their time in their occupation as watchdogs and do not try to get the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As it is clearly said, aprāpya mām nivartante mrityu-samsāra-vartmani: without Krishna consciousness, one is condemned to continue wandering in birth and death, not knowing what will happen in one’s next birth.

Kamsa had previously excused Devakī because he thought that a woman should not be killed, especially when pregnant. But now, by the influence of māyā, he was prepared to kill a woman — not only a woman, but a small, helpless newborn child. Devakī wanted to save her brother from this terrible, sinful act. Therefore she told him, “Don’t be so atrocious as to kill a female child. Let there be all good fortune for you.” Demons can do anything for their personal benefit, not considering what is pious or vicious. But Devakī, on the contrary, although safe because she had already given birth to her own son, Krishna, was anxious to save the daughter of someone else. This was natural for her.

Here we see that Devakī first focused Kamsa’s attention on his atrocious activities, his killing of her many sons. Then she wanted to compromise with him by saying that whatever he had done was not his fault, but was ordained by destiny. Then she appealed to him to give her the daughter as a gift. Devakī was the daughter of a kshatriya and knew how to play the political game. In politics there are different methods of achieving success: first repression (dama), then compromise (sāma), and then asking for a gift (dāna). Devakī first adopted the policy of repression by directly attacking Kamsa for having cruelly, atrociously killed her babies. Then she compromised by saying that this was not his fault, and then she begged for a gift. As we learn from the history of the Mahābhārata, or “Greater India,” the wives and daughters of the ruling class, the kshatriyas, knew the political game, but we never find that a woman was given the post of chief executive. This is in accordance with the injunctions of Manu-samhitā, but unfortunately Manu-samhitā is now being insulted, and the Āryans, the members of Vedic society, cannot do anything. Such is the nature of Kali-yuga.

Nothing happens unless ordained by destiny.

(Bhāg. 1.5.18)

Devakī knew very well that because the killing of her many children had been ordained by destiny, Kamsa was not to be blamed. There was no need to give good instructions to Kamsa. Upadeśo hi murkhānām prakopāya na śāntaye (Cānakya Pandita). If a foolish person is given good instructions, he becomes more and more angry. Moreover, a cruel person is more dangerous than a snake. A snake and a cruel person are both cruel, but a cruel person is more dangerous because although a snake can be charmed by mantras or subdued by herbs, a cruel person cannot be subdued by any means. Such was the nature of Kamsa.

Although Devakī was crying like a very poor woman, actually she was not poor, and therefore the word used here is dīnavat. She had already given birth to Krishna. Therefore, who could have been richer than she? Even the demigods had come to offer prayers to Devakī, but she played the part of a poor, piteously afflicted woman because she wanted to save the daughter of Yaśodā.

Kamsa tried to dash the child downward against a piece of stone, but since she was Yoga-māyā, the younger sister of Lord Vishnu, she slipped upward and assumed the form of the goddess Durgā. The word anujā, meaning “the younger sister,” is significant. When Vishnu, or Krishna, took birth from Devakī, He must have simultaneously taken birth from Yaśodā also. Otherwise how could Yoga-māyā have been anujā, the Lord’s younger sister?

The goddess Durgā is celebrated in Calcutta as Kālī, in Bombay as Mumbādevī, in Vārānasī as Annapūrnā, in Cuttack as Bhadrakālī and in Ahmedabad as Bhadrā. Thus in different places she is known by different names. Her devotees are known as śāktas, or worshipers of the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whereas worshipers of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself are called Vaishnavas. Vaishnavas are destined to return home, back to Godhead, in the spiritual world, whereas the śāktas are destined to live within this material world to enjoy different types of material happiness. In the material world, the living entity must accept different types of bodies. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūdhāni māyayā (Bg. 18.61). According to the living entity’s desire, Yoga-māyā, or Māyā, the goddess Durgā, gives him a particular type of body, which is mentioned as yantra, a machine. But the living entities who are promoted to the spiritual world do not return to the prison house of a material body (tyaktvā deham punar janma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna). The words janma na eti indicate that these living entities remain in their original, spiritual bodies to enjoy the company of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the transcendental abodes Vaikuntha and Vrindāvana.

Kamsa was astonished because the goddess Durgā had become the daughter of Devakī. Since Devakī was a human being, how could the goddess Durgā become her daughter? This was one cause of his astonishment. Also, how is it that the eighth child of Devakī was a female? This also astonished him. Asuras are generally devotees of mother Durgā, Śakti, or of demigods, especially Lord Śiva. The appearance of Durgā in her original eight-armed feature, holding various weapons, immediately changed Kamsa’s mind about Devakī’s being an ordinary human. Devakī must have had some transcendental qualities; otherwise why would the goddess Durgā have taken birth from her womb? Under the circumstances, Kamsa, struck with wonder, wanted to compensate for his atrocities against his sister Devakī.

Rākshasas are understood to be accustomed to eating their own sons, as snakes and many other animals sometimes do. At the present moment in Kali-yuga, Rākshasa fathers and mothers are killing their own children in the womb, and some are even eating the fetus with great relish. Thus the so-called civilization is gradually advancing by producing Rākshasas.

Kamsa addressed his sister and brother-in-law as mahā-bhāgau because although he killed their ordinary children, the goddess Durgā took birth from them. Because Devakī bore Durgādevī in her womb, Kamsa praised both Devakī and her husband. Asuras are very devoted to the goddess Durgā, Kālī and so forth. Kamsa, therefore, truly astonished, appreciated the exalted position of his sister and brother-in-law. Durgā is certainly not under the laws of nature, because she herself is the controller of the laws of nature. Ordinary living beings, however, are controlled by these laws (prakriteh kriyamānāni gunaih karmāni sarvaśah). Consequently, none of us are allowed to live together for any long period. By speaking in this way, Kamsa tried to pacify his sister and brother-in-law.

Although Kamsa is described as a demon, he had good knowledge of the affairs of ātma-tattva, the truth of the self. Five thousand years ago, there were kings like Kamsa, who is described as an asura, but he was better than modern politicians and diplomats, who have no knowledge about ātma-tattva. As stated in the Vedas, asango hy ayam purushah: the spirit soul has no connection with the changes of the material body. The body undergoes six changes — birth, growth, sustenance, by-products, dwindling and then annihilation — but the soul undergoes no such changes. Even after the annihilation of a particular bodily form, the original source of the bodily elements does not change. The living entity enjoys the material body, which appears and disappears, but the five elements earth, water, fire, air and ether remain the same. The example given here is that pots and dolls are produced from the earth, and when broken or destroyed they mingle with their original ingredients. In any case, the source of supply remains the same.

As already discussed, the body is made according to the desires of the soul. The soul desires, and thus the body is formed. Krishna therefore says in Bhagavad-gītā (18.61):

“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.” Neither the Supersoul, Paramātmā, nor the individual soul changes its original, spiritual identity. The ātmā does not undergo birth, death or changes like the body. Therefore a Vedic aphorism says, asango hy ayam purushah: although the soul is conditioned within this material world, he has no connections with the changes of the material body.

As confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.6):

The word dharma means “engagement.” One who is engaged in the service of the Lord (yato bhaktir adhokshaje), without impediment and without cessation, is understood to be situated in his original, spiritual status. When one is promoted to this status, one is always happy in transcendental bliss. Otherwise, as long as one is in the bodily concept of life, one must suffer material conditions. Janma-mrityu jarā-vyādhi-duhkha-doshānudarśanam. The body is subject to its own principles of birth, death, old age and disease, but one who is situated in spiritual life (yato bhaktir adhokshaje) has no birth, no death, no old age and no disease. One may argue that we may see a person who is spiritually engaged twenty-four hours a day but is still suffering from disease. In fact, however, he is neither suffering nor diseased; otherwise he could not be engaged twenty-four hours a day in spiritual activities. The example may be given in this connection that sometimes dirty foam or garbage is seen floating on the water of the Ganges. This is called nīra-dharma, a function of the water. But one who goes to the Ganges does not mind the foam and dirty things floating in the water. With his hand, he pushes away such nasty things, bathes in the Ganges and gains the beneficial results. Therefore, one who is situated in the spiritual status of life is unaffected by foam and garbage — or any superficial dirty things. This is confirmed by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī:

“A person acting in the service of Krishna with his body, mind and words is a liberated person, even within the material world.” (Bhakti-rasāmrita-sindhu 1.2.187) Therefore, one is forbidden to regard the guru as an ordinary human being (gurushu nara-matir … nārakī sah). The spiritual master, or ācārya, is always situated in the spiritual status of life. Birth, death, old age and disease do not affect him. According to the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, therefore, after the disappearance of an ācārya, his body is never burnt to ashes, for it is a spiritual body. The spiritual body is always unaffected by material conditions.

As stated in the Brahma-samhitā (5.54):

Everyone, beginning from the small insect known as indra-gopa up to Indra, the King of the heavenly planets, is obliged to undergo the results of his fruitive activities. We may superficially see that one is suffering or enjoying because of some external causes, but the real cause is one’s own fruitive activities. Even when someone kills someone else, it is to be understood that the person who was killed met the fruitive results of his own work and that the man who killed him acted as the agent of material nature. Thus Kamsa begged Devakī’s pardon by analyzing the matter deeply. He was not the cause of the death of Devakī’s sons. Rather, this was their own destiny. Under the circumstances, Devakī should excuse Kamsa and forget his past deeds without lamentation. Kamsa admitted his own fault, but whatever he had done was under the control of providence. Kamsa might have been the immediate cause for the death of Devakī’s sons, but the remote cause was their past deeds. This was an actual fact.

By the grace of the Lord, Kamsa felt sincere regret for having unnecessarily persecuted such Vaishnavas as Devakī and Vasudeva, and thus he came to the transcendental stage of knowledge. “Because I am situated on the platform of knowledge,” Kamsa said, “understanding that I am not at all the killer of your sons, I have no responsibility for their death. As long as I thought that I would be killed by your son, I was in ignorance, but now I am free from this ignorance, which was due to a bodily conception of life.” As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (18.17):

“One who is not motivated by false ego, whose intelligence is not entangled, though he kills men in this world, is not the slayer. Nor is he bound by his actions.” According to this axiomatic truth, Kamsa pleaded that he was not responsible for having killed the sons of Devakī and Vasudeva. “Please try to excuse me for such false, external activities,” he said, “and be pacified with this same knowledge.”

Although Kamsa had spoken very nicely on the subject of real knowledge, his past deeds were abominable and atrocious, and therefore he further begged forgiveness from his sister and brother-in-law by falling at their feet and admitting that he was a most sinful person.

Devakī and Vasudeva, both highly elevated personalities, accepted the truth presented by Kamsa that everything is ordained by providence. According to the prophecy, Kamsa would be killed by the eighth child of Devakī. Therefore, Vasudeva and Devakī saw that behind all these incidents was a great plan devised by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because the Lord had already taken birth, just like a human child, and was in the safe custody of Yaśodā, everything was happening according to plan, and there was no need to continue their ill feeling toward Kamsa. Thus they accepted Kamsa’s words.

Everything is done automatically by the laws of nature, which work under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no question of doing anything independently, for one who has put himself in this material atmosphere is fully under the control of nature’s laws. Our main business, therefore, should be to get out of this conditioned life and again become situated in spiritual existence. Only due to ignorance does a person think, “I am a demigod,” “I am a human being,” “I am a dog,” “I am a cat,” or, when the ignorance is still further advanced, “I am God.” Unless one is fully self-realized, one’s life of ignorance will continue.

Krishna is the cause of all causes (sarva-kārana-kāranam), but one who has no connection with Krishna is disturbed by immediate causes and cannot restrain his vision of separation or differences. When an expert physician treats a patient, he tries to find the original cause of the disease and is not diverted by the symptoms of that original cause. Similarly, a devotee is never disturbed by reverses in life. Tat te ’nukampām susamīkshamānah (Bhāg. 10.14.8). A devotee understands that when he is in distress, this is due to his own past misdeeds, which are now accruing reactions, although by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead these are only very slight. Karmāni nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām (Brahma-samhitā 5.54). When a devotee under the protection of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is to suffer because of faults in his past deeds, he passes through only a little misery by the grace of the Lord. Although the disease of a devotee is due to mistakes committed sometime in the past, he agrees to suffer and tolerate such miseries, and he depends fully on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus he is never affected by material conditions of lamentation, jubilation, fear and so on. A devotee never sees anything to be unconnected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Madhvācārya, quoting from the Bhavishya Purāna, says:

The Vedic scripture Candī describes māyā, the energy of the Supreme Lord, as nidrā: durgā devī sarva-bhūteshu nidrā-rūpena samāsthitah. The energy of Yoga-māyā and Mahā-māyā keeps the living entities sleeping in this material world in the great darkness of ignorance. Yoga-māyā, the goddess Durgā, kept Kamsa in darkness about Krishna’s birth and misled him to believe that his enemy Krishna had been born elsewhere. Krishna was born the son of Devakī, but according to the Lord’s original plan, as prophesied to Brahmā, He went to Vrindāvana to give pleasure to mother Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja and other intimate friends and devotees for eleven years. Then He would return to kill Kamsa. Because Kamsa did not know this, he believed Yoga-māyā’s statement that Krishna was born elsewhere, not of Devakī.

There are two different types of men — the asuras and the suras.

(Padma Purāna)

Those who are devotees of Lord Vishnu, Krishna, are suras, or devas, whereas those who are opposed to the devotees are called asuras. Devotees are expert in all transactions (yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair gunais tatra samāsate surāh). Therefore they are called kovida, which means “expert.” Asuras, however, although superficially showing expertise in passionate activities, are actually all fools. They are neither sober nor expert. Whatever they do is imperfect. Moghāśā mogha-karmānah. According to this description of the asuras given in Bhagavad-gītā (9.12), whatever they do will ultimately be baffled. It was such persons who advised Kamsa because they were his chief friends and ministers.

There are principles that govern even fighting. If an enemy has no chariot, is unmindful of the fighting art because of fear, or is unwilling to fight, he is not to be killed. Kamsa’s ministers reminded Kamsa that despite his power, he was cognizant of the principles of fighting, and therefore he had excused the demigods because of their incapability. “But the present emergency,” the ministers said, “is not intended for such mercy or military etiquette. Now you should prepare to fight under any circumstances.” Thus they advised Kamsa to give up the traditional etiquette in fighting and chastise the enemy at any cost.

Kamsa’s ministers told Kamsa that all the exalted demigods had fled in fear of him. One had gone to the forest, one to the core of the heart, and one to engage in tapasya. “Thus you can be free from all fear of the demigods,” they said. “Just prepare to fight.”

According to moral instructions, one should not neglect to extinguish fire completely, treat diseases completely, and clear debts completely. Otherwise they will increase and later be difficult to stop. Therefore the ministers advised Kamsa to uproot his enemies completely.

Here is a description of sanātana-dharma, eternal religious principles, which must include brahminical culture, brāhmanas, sacrifices and religion. These principles establish the kingdom of Vishnu. Without the kingdom of Vishnu, the kingdom of God, no one can be happy. Na te viduh svārtha-gatim hi vishnum: in this demoniac civilization, people unfortunately do not understand that the self-interest of human society lies in Vishnu. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninah: thus they are involved in a hopeless hope. People want to be happy without God consciousness, or Krishna consciousness, because they are led by blind leaders who lead human society to chaos. The asuric adherents of Kamsa wanted to disrupt the traditional condition of human happiness and thus defeat the devatās, the devotees and demigods. Unless the devotees and demigods predominate, the asuras will increase, and human society will be in a chaotic condition.

When we offer our obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, we say:

When Krishna comes to establish real perfection in the social order, He personally gives protection to the cows and the brāhmanas (go-brāhmana-hitāya ca). This is His first interest because without protection of the brāhmanas and the cows, there can be no human civilization and no question of happy, peaceful life. Asuras, therefore, are always interested in killing the brāhmanas and cows. Especially in this age, Kali-yuga, cows are being killed all over the world, and as soon as there is a movement to establish brahminical civilization, people in general rebel. Thus they regard the Krishna consciousness movement as a form of “brainwashing.” How can such envious persons be happy in their godless civilization? The Supreme Personality of Godhead punishes them by keeping them in darkness, birth after birth, and pushing them lower and lower into wretched conditions of hellish life. The Krishna consciousness movement has started a brahminical civilization, but especially when it is introduced in the Western countries, the asuras try to impede it in many ways. Nonetheless, we must push forward this movement tolerantly for the benefit of human society.

The demigods and the Vaishnavas especially are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, Vishnu, because they are always obedient to His orders (om tad vishnoh paramam padam sadā paśyanti sūrayah). The demoniac followers of Kamsa thought that if the Vaishnavas, saintly persons and sages were persecuted, the original body of Vishnu would naturally be destroyed. Thus they decided to suppress Vaishnavism. The asuras perpetually struggle to persecute the Vaishnavas because they do not want Vaishnavism to spread. Vaishnavas preach only devotional service, not encouraging karmīs, jñānīs and yogīs, because if one must liberate oneself from material, conditional life, one must ultimately become a Vaishnava. Our Krishna consciousness movement is directed with this understanding, and therefore the asuras always try to suppress it.

Śrīla Locana dāsa Thākura has sung, āpana karama, bhuñjāye śamana, kahaye locana dāsa. Instead of taking good instructions from the sages and the śāstras, godless nondevotees act whimsically, according to their own plans. Actually, however, no one has his own plans because everyone is bound by the laws of nature and must act according to his tendency in material, conditional life. Therefore one must change one’s own decision and follow the decision of Krishna and Krishna’s devotees. Then one is rescued from punishment by Yamarāja. Kamsa was not uneducated. It appears from his talks with Vasudeva and Devakī that he knew all about the laws of nature. But because of his association with bad ministers, he could not make a clear decision about his welfare. Therefore the Caitanya-caritāmrita (Madhya 22.54) says:

If one desires his real welfare, he must associate with devotees and saintly persons and in this way rectify the material condition of his life.

As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (2.13):

“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” Irresponsible persons, surcharged with passion and ignorance, foolishly do things that are not to be done (nūnam pramattah kurute vikarma). But one should know the results of irresponsible actions, as explained in the next verse.