Bhagavatam tenth canto study 21 – 10.4.1-10 Heartless Kamsa rejects Devaki’s heartfelt plea

Atrocities of Kim Kamsa. So 1.4.1 now. So this incident has been completed.
Now again, Shukadeva Goswami starts speaking. Shri Shukavach bahir anta purva-dvara, sarva purva-vadavrata, tato bala-dhvani-mishvatva, gruha-pala-samuddhita-ham. So then, to bahir anta purva-dvara, so when the outside and inside doors, they were in a particular enclosed chamber in the house, Vasudev and Devaki.
So those doors had to be opened and the main doors of the house also had to be opened so that Vasudev could escape. But now, all those doors closed down. Purva-vad, as it was in the past, it appeared like that.
Avrata discovered. Tato bala-dhvani-mishvatva. Normally when children are born, children cry.
And normally, crying is not a pleasant emotion. And when a child stops crying, the parents become peaceful. But if a newborn baby doesn’t cry, the parents become agitated.
And when the baby starts crying, the parents become joyful. Because at that time, the crying indicates the child is alive. If a child is born and is not crying, that means maybe the child is stillborn.
So crying normally causes distress, but crying can bring joy. Actions are so context-sensitive. So here, Krishna, when he was born, he didn’t cry.
He actually manifested his divine opulence and he spoke profound words of wisdom, exhibiting omniscience far beyond what to speak of an ordinary child, baby, what to speak of even an adult. He did exhibit knowledge of previous lives also. And after speaking that, Krishna became silent and Krishna was taken.
But now the baby that had appeared, the Sootika, the daughter of Yashoda, she started crying. And bala-dhvani-mishvatva. On hearing that sound, gruhapala-samutthitaha, the guards of the house who had been asleep, they awoke.
The start, oh, what happened? They woke up, this baby is born. And te tu turnam upavrajya, devakya garbha janmatad, ācakyur bhoja rājāya, yad udvīgnah pratīkṣate. So now, those, what did they do? Te tu turnam upavrajya, immediately they went, turnam, devakya garbha janmatad, that the child in the womb of Devaki was now born.
And ācakyur bhoja rājāya, they informed him, they submitted this information to him, yad udvīgnah pratīkṣate. He was very agitated and he was in agitation waiting. You know, there can be, there can be waiting which is an anticipation of something good.
And there can be waiting which is an agitation because we are expecting something bad. So here, Kamsa had lived in fear of this ashtam garbha, this eighth child who was just trying to kill him. And finally, when the eighth child is born, Kamsa, when he was about to be born, Kamsa was in great anxiety, waiting, waiting.
So while he was waiting, as soon as he got the information, just waiting for that information, so immediately he took action. So he was brutal. What action did he take? Satalpāt, text three, satalpāt turnam utthāya, kāloyam iti vivvala, sūti gruham agāt turnam, praskhalan mukta mūrdhā jahā.
So satalpāt, he got up, he was, he was also, because all this was night, all this had happened in the night time, so he was asleep. So the guards went to near his bed chambers and informed him, turnam utthāya, so immediately got up from his bed, kāloyam iti vivvala, kāloyam, oh this is my, this is my time, this is my death that has come. That was a thought that overwhelmed him.
Kamsa signifies or represents devotion performed in fear, the seventh canto and different ways in which one may fix the mind in the Lord as talked about. So Kamsa is given as an example of, gopyakāmādbhaya, kamsodvesha chaityādayanrapah, the gopis, because of conjugal attraction to Krishna, they become absorbed in him. Sushupal and other kings, they out of envy become absorbed in Krishna and Kamsa becomes absorbed in Krishna because of fear.
So that fear was always there and just like a person who is an alcoholic, the moment they wake up in the morning, they think, oh I have to drink. So similarly, Kamsa, the moment he woke up, oh this is my death, that thought was always there, Krishna is going to come and now when he heard that actually Krishna has appeared, that Krishna has born, oh my time has come, my death has come. So although at one level he thought that this is my death has come, he was thinking I will cause the death of my death.
That is what he had been trying and that is why he had killed all the early children and he now went with the plan to do the same to this child of his. He went to the maternity home immediately and his hair was all scattered, his hair was disheveled. Normally when we wake up after a night’s sleep, now we are not very tidy, we have to take a bath, we have to freshen up, we have to clean our body, we have to organize our hair, comb our hair and then we look dignified, then we look proper.
But in this case, Praskalan Mukta Murdhaja, he had just awoken, he just came out, he was in a disheveled condition and his coming out in a disheveled condition without even considering his appearance indicated that he was so driven by anxiety and this is in a sense parallel and in a sense opposite to how the Gopis also, when Krishna played the flute, when the Gopis played a flute and Krishna played the flute and the Gopis rushed to him, the Gopis were also in a way disheveled, they did not decorate themselves properly, they just ran to see Krishna. So without any mind, without giving any mind to their appearance. Similarly, Kamsa here also gives no mind to his appearance, he doesn’t think about his appearance at all.
So, but their motive is completely different. So, there is similarity in the sense that there’s an overwhelming emotional absorption in Krishna and that emotional absorption in Krishna causes actions which are lokabahaya, where one is not even aware of one’s appearance, one doesn’t care about one’s reputation. A king normally looks regal and majestic and dignified, the king does not come public looking disheveled.
But women also, especially when they’re going to see a lover, they want to dress their best. The Gopis didn’t care, when Krishna called them, they just went straight. Similarly, he also went straight.
So, there is similarity in the overwhelming nature of attraction to Krishna or wanting for a connection with Krishna, wanting to go close to Krishna. But the word attraction here is not exactly approved. He wanted to go towards Krishna because he wanted to kill Krishna.
The Gopis wanted to serve and please Krishna. So, this pratikul absorption in Krishna is unfavorable absorption in Krishna, is not considered devotion. But still, the principle is that Krishna is so attractive that if somehow somebody can get connected with him, then Krishna can attract and absorb the mind, even through negative emotions such as fear.
So, he went straight. Text 4, tam aha bhrataram devi, krupana karunam sati, slushyam tava kalyana, sriyam antum arhasi, tam aha bhrataram devi. So, that Devi, that lady who is Devaki here, she spoke to her brother, bhrataram, krupana karunam sati, helpless, she begged for pity, she was a chaste lady, slushyam tava kalyana, this child, she will be your daughter-in-law, tava kalyana, love of daughter and marriage to your son, sriyam antum arhasi.
Don’t kill her, she is a girl, please don’t kill her, sriyam antum arhasi. So, normally here, they say why is she so concerned? Devaki, she knows that her son is safe, but there is a natural maternal affection that is there, when a mother has just given birth to a baby, then the mother knows the tenderness of the baby, the sweetness of the affection that the baby evokes in her heart and then if she sees any other baby, she wouldn’t want that baby to suffer, because the baby itself is tender and she also thinks that what will the baby’s mother go through if anything happens to this baby. So, Vasudev and Nanda are related and that way Devaki and Ishwara are also related.
So, in that sense, it’s a natural feminine or maternal concern for any baby. On top of it, it’s a fraternal concern, because this baby is the child of her close relative and she is telling that now how to appease Kamsa, don’t kill, she says that actually she is a girl and it’s not, Kshatriyas are meant to protect women and especially, Kshatriyas are meant to protect everyone, especially women and what to speak of a small girl. Normally, whenever we talk about helpless, innocence, sweetness, we talk about children, but even among children, small girls, they evoke that image of helpless, innocent, sweetness and how can anyone kill a girl like that? And he says, even if, you know, what is there in it for me, that’s the typical demoniac mentality.
So, then he says, what is there in it for you? She will become your daughter-in-law. So, normally, whenever kings, whenever there would be some royal families and some agreement would be made between two families, giving a daughter-in-marriage to another family was considered a way by which there would be a formal connection and not just a formal connection, the king or the parents, who would be probably the king, and they give their daughter to another king in the hand of their daughter, that would indicate that they are also entering into some kind of subordinate relationship. Because normally, in a family hierarchy, the boy’s parents are usually considered to be, at least in traditional families, to be higher than the girl’s parents.
And the girl’s parents often serve the boy’s parents in various ways. That was the conventional understanding. And in general, offering a girl’s daughter-in-marriage was considered not just a way of expressing affection and connection, but also seen as a way of expressing one’s subordination.
Many times when some king would conquer another king or king would want to subordinate another king to the emperor who wants to have another king as his vesu, as a subordinate, and the subordinate would agree to that and a tribute would be given. And one part of the tribute would be that they would have their daughter marry the king. That’s how many kings for them.
Polygamy was also a tool for political consolidation. So here, Devaki offered that to Kamsa. She said, she’ll become your daughter-in-law.
Please don’t kill her. So she spoke further. Oh my dear lord, there are many of my children you have killed.
They were all so beautiful. They were comparable to pavaka. Pavaka is fire.
When describing the spiritual world in 515.6, Krishna uses the word pavaka to describe fire. So you killed all of those children. So because of being fearful of the influence of destiny, that a child will kill you, you have killed many of my children.
But this is a girl. You don’t have to kill her. Please give this to me as a gift.
Please spare her life. So, bratha, she refers to him as a brother. She reminds him that this is a relationship.
Normally, it is said that the maternal uncle, the mama is considered very affectionate to one’s nieces and nephews. So how self-centeredness, selfishness can pervert even that which is considered to be a very affectionate relationship. Kamsa becomes the murderer of his own nieces and nephews.
She said, you already did that. You killed so many children out of the fear of destiny. But this is a girl.
The girl is no threat to you. Please give me this one girl as a gift. Please don’t kill her.
She’s fervently begging using various ways of reasoning. Just as Vasudeva tried to reason in various ways when Kamsa was trying to, Kamsa wanted to behead Devaki on hearing the prophecy. So now here Devaki is using various reasonings to try to protect her child.
So, I am your avaraja. I am your sister, younger sister. And I am in a very afflicted condition because I am deprived of all my children.
Therefore, please, you deserve to give one gift to me. Angemam, Charamam Praja, Angemam. Oh, my brother, she’s first telling his sister, I’m an avaraja, I’m your sister and you’re my brother.
You’re my close relative. Charamam Praja. Actually, Kamsa was not exactly a brother.
He was a cousin of Devaki. Kamsa’s father was Ugrasen. Devaki’s father was Devak and Devak and Ugrasen were brothers.
So they were cousins. But anytime there’s a joint family or a close family and the cousins are almost like brothers. So for all practical purposes, the Bhagavatam treats Kamsa to be like the brother of Devaki and that’s how he’s referred to throughout.
So here, Angemam, Charamam Praja. This is my last child. Please give this as a gift.
It’s interesting that Devaki and Vasudev, they live together for many years. After this also, after the eighth child is born, that is Krishna and then Krishna departs to Vrindavan. They do not beget any other child.
There could be multiple reasons for this. One is that they didn’t want the further children to be killed. Kamsa would have well have done that.
And then eventually, so as long as Kamsa was a threat, they didn’t beget any other child in the fear that he would be killed. And eventually Krishna came back. Krishna, at that time, they had also grown older and Krishna was also a sweet child.
He was a sweet child. Krishna even brought back, he explained the story and he brought back the dead son so that they could suckle the milk of Devaki, fulfill those desires also. That we will discuss in due course.
But here, the theme is that she is fervently begging that this is going to be my last child. You know, eight children is a lot for a woman to go through and then to lose seven children. This is going to be my last child.
Please don’t kill it. So, she is begging in multiple ways to Kamsa to have mercy. But unfortunately, Kamsa has become heartless.
Shri Shuka Vacha Upaguhiyat Majam Evam Rudhatya Dina Dina Vat Yachitastam Vinir Brashtam Hastad Aachit Chhide Kalaham So, Upaguhiyat. So, in this way, as Devaki was holding that child tightly to her bosom, not wanting that child to go away. Aachit Chhide Kalaham.
Rudhatya Dina Dina Vat and she was crying piteously. Yachitastam Vinir Brashtam. So, Yachitastam.
She was begging him, please spare this child. But Vinir Brashtam, he used harsh words. He paid no attention to her piteous pleas.
Give that child to me, spoke fiercely and then grasped and pulled that child from her grasp, from her hands and forcibly took that child. He was extremely cruel person. When any one particular emotion dominates our consciousness, then it practically deadens us to all other emotions.
When somebody becomes a drug addict and the emotion, the craving for that drug becomes so dominant in their consciousness that sometimes they may steal and even kill to just get some money for the drugs. You know, normally they would consider such things unconscionable. We may do it.
So here, that one emotion of fear had so dominated Kamsa’s consciousness, that although Devaki was making very sensible pleas to him and very sensible and emotional pleas. What are you going to lose by sparing this child? She’s a girl. She’s not going to harm you.
And on top of that, I will offer this girl as your daughter-in-law in future. Please spare her. This is my last child.
So all these are very, very sensible and intense emotional pleas. But he was completely dead to that. He was completely dead because he had become unidimensional.
I had to protect my life. I had to kill his child, kill Devaki’s child. So then text 8, He grabbed him.
He took the child by the legs. Just been born. He’s a newborn baby, barely a few hours old.
And it was his own sister’s daughter. He smashed that child. That house was made of stone and there was a stone over there, which he had kept for that purpose.
Smashed that child against that Chilaprishti. Because of his self-centeredness. So all his positive emotions, his friendship, his family relationships, his benevolent disposition, all of that.
It was not just gone at the surface. It was gone from the root. Sometimes some people may behave very harshly towards us or very roughly rudely towards us because maybe they’re circumstantially under very great pressure.
The 10 things have gone wrong in their life and then they just speak something to us in a harsh way that hurts us. But in that case, it’s just a surface. Other times they will just act normally with us.
But sometimes some people’s negative behavior may be surface, while at the core, they are positive attitude towards us. But in some cases, their core attitude itself is negative. So all affection is just completely uprooted from their hearts.
And such was the condition of Kamsa. Swarthonmulitha, unmulitha, from the moon, from the root, all affect, Sauradha was removed. So just as we say that we don’t want to just cut the shoots of our wrong desires, we want to uproot them.
And that is what happens by the purification through bhakti. So here it is said that that’s what they were seeking. That kind of in a perverse way had happened to Kamsa, that there was absolutely not even a drop of affection, the drop of compassion, and drop of any positive emotion left.
Then after that, what did you do? So actually speaking, when the previous verse says that, he took apothya, he smashed the child. Now, what it means there is that he tried to smash the child. That’s what he had done in the past.
And that’s what he was planning to do now also. But in this case, something miraculous happened. But as he was thinking the child is helpless and he held the child by the legs to smash it down.
So why held by the legs? Because then when he smashes the child, the child’s head will get smashed. And normally injuries to the upper parts of the body are more likely to be fatal than to the lower part. So he wanted to smash the head.
But as he had raised that girl up to smash her on the ground, suddenly she slipped out of his hand. And then that girl slipped out and what happened? And she appeared in the sky as a goddess. Adrushyata, Anuja, Vishnu, she appeared there as the younger sister of Vishnu.
She had various weapons with her and ashta, she had eight arms. So it’s interesting, in that same place, Krishna had appeared earlier with the ayudha, with various weapons. And Krishna had appeared in the chaturbhuja form, four arms.
But here the goddess appeared in the ashtabhuja form. So this srutikagram, this maternity home, this cell which had become like a prison cell for Kamsa and Devaki, this is a witness to, this is the arena for many mystical visions. So first Krishna, Krishna’s appearance in chaturbhuja form, which was just for Vasudeva and Devaki to see, but the goddess form, who is the younger brother of Krishna, her form, manifestation was there for Kamsa, even the demoniac to see.
So Krishna’s darshan is for his devotees. Maya’s darshan is for the non-devotees. Now Maya, of course, may not reveal her personal form, the goddess may not reveal her form to materialistic people, but actually Maya also represents not just a person, but a principle.
That principle is the force of illusion. So Krishna’s attractive form is revealed to devotees so that they can get attracted to him. And the illusory forms of this world are revealed so that materialistic people can reciprocate accordingly with them, according to their desires, according to their karma, whatever.
So now the relationship of the goddess with Krishna is complex. The goddess is usually considered to be Parvati. Actually, the goddess has two forms.
She has a gentle form when she is with her husband, and she has a fierce form when she is without her husband. So when she is worshipped as Parvati with Shiva, then she is with a gentle, smiling, benevolent form. But when she is without her husband, when she is worshipped alone as Kali, Durga, Chandi, she is usually fierce.
She is ferocious. And at that time, she is considered to be quite a formidable force. So here, of course, she has appeared alone.
So she is having her weapons, Ayodhya. Normally Parvati is not seen with weapons. When she is with Shiva, just like we don’t see Sita with weapons, we don’t see Radha with weapons.
We see their consorts with weapons. So when they are with their husbands, their husbands take responsibility of protecting them. They simply perform pastimes.
But the goddess is sometimes worshipped alone, and when she is worshipped alone, then she manifests her form with many weapons. So here, she is, so now we could say that the goddess is usually the associate or the consort of Shiva. But that is only when she is with him.
When she is worshipped separately, she is still the consort. She is often worshipped as a separate tattva, that is Shakti. The tattva, Shaktas are quite prominent worshippers.
So we say that Shiva is an expansion of Vishnu. And Shiva is also considered to be the, for him Vishnu or Ram or Krishna are his masters. He chants their names.
And the Devi tattva, they are considered to be expansions of Radharani. So we could say that the goddess is an expansion of the consort of Vishnu or the goddess is the consort of an expansion of Vishnu, whichever way you want to trace the relationship. But in this particular manifestation, because Krishna and this goddess, the goddess, they had both appeared from the womb of Yashoda or more or less, they were like together.
So here, she is considered to be the sister. So this, that she is mentioned here, sister also indicates that she was born with Krishna. Sri Yukteswar Swami gives various evidences that there were two children born.
These are indirect references. So now, she appeared with all these weapons. And she appeared very, very fierce.
So then thereafter, what she spoke and how she acted and how the events transpired thereafter, we’ll discuss in a future class. Thank you. Hare Krishna.