6/20/25, 12:46 PM Chapter 4
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Chapter 4
Kaṁsa Begins His
Persecutions
After Vasudeva adjusted things as they had been before he carried
Kṛṣṇa to Gokula, and all the doors and gates became similarly
closed, the gatekeepers awoke and heard the newborn child crying.
Kaṁsa 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, Kaṁsa got up from his bed very
quickly and exclaimed, “Now the cruel death of my life is born!”
Kaṁsa became perplexed now that his death was approaching, and
his hair scattered. Immediately he proceeded toward the place
where the child was born.
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Devakī, on seeing her brother approaching, prayed in a very meek
attitude to Kaṁsa: “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. The omen was that 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.”
Kaṁsa was so cruel that he did not listen to the pitiful prayers of
his sister Devakī. He forcibly grabbed the newborn child to rebuke
his sister and attempted to dash her on a 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 Viṣṇu. She was
decorated with nice garments and flower garlands and ornaments;
in her eight hands she held a bow, lance, arrows, sword, conch
shell, disc, club and shield.
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Seeing the appearance of the child (who was actually the goddess
Durgā), all the demigods from different planets like Siddhaloka,
Cāraṇa-loka, Gandharva-loka, Apsarā-loka, Kinnara-loka and
Uraga-loka presented her with various articles and began to offer
their respective prayers. From above, the goddess addressed
Kaṁsa: “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, Goddess
Durgā became known by various names in various parts of the
world.
After hearing these words, Kaṁsa became very much
overwhelmed with fear. Out of pity, he immediately released
Vasudeva and Devakī 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 brāhmaṇas 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
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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 Devakī, 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 Devakī, you are so gentle and kind. Please excuse
me – don’t be aggrieved by the death of your children, which I have
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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 Devakī 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 Kaṁsa 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 Durgādevī, whom he had tried to kill, Kaṁsa 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 Devakī 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 Kaṁsa, “My dear fortunate
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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 Kaṁsa’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 Kaṁsa in such an illuminating
way, Kaṁsa became very pleased, and his guilt for killing his
nephews subsided. With the permission of his sister Devakī and
brother-in-law Vasudeva, he returned to his home with a relieved
mind.
But the next day Kaṁsa called all his counselors together and
narrated to them all the incidents that had happened the night
before. All the counselors of Kaṁsa were demons and eternal
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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 Kaṁsa 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
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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 Viṣṇu, Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā
are always ready to help the demigods, headed by Indra, we have
no reason to be afraid of them. As far as Lord Viṣṇu is concerned,
He has already hidden Himself within the hearts of all living
entities, and He cannot come out. As far as Lord Śiva is concerned,
he has renounced all activities; he has already entered into the
forest. And Lord Brahmā 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
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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
Viṣṇu, because the ultimate goal of all religious principles is to
satisfy Him. The Vedic injunctions, the brāhmaṇas, the cows,
austerities, sacrifices, performances of charity and distribution of
wealth are all for the satisfaction of Lord Viṣṇu. So let us
immediately begin by killing all the brāhmaṇas 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 Viṣṇu are
the brāhmaṇas, the cows, Vedic knowledge, austerity, truthfulness,
sense and mind control, faithfulness, charity, tolerance and
performance of sacrifices. Lord Viṣṇu is situated in everyone’s
heart and is the leader of all demigods, including Lord Śiva and
Lord Brahmā. Therefore we think that to persecute the great sages
and brāhmaṇas is to kill Lord Viṣṇu.”
Thus being advised by his demoniac ministers, Kaṁsa, who was
from the very beginning the greatest rascal, decided to persecute
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the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas, 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 Kaṁsa 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 brāhmaṇas 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 Kṛṣṇa,
“Kaṁsa Begins His Persecutions.”
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Chapter 3 Chapter 5
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