Bhagavatam tenth canto study 23 – 10.4.17.24 Others’ past bad karma doesn’t rationalize our present misdeeds towards them

This is Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 4. That is Atrocities of Kamsa. And he is speaking to Devaki and Vasudeva after having seen Devaki’s child turn into the goddess and disappear into the sky.
So in the previous set of verses, he has acknowledged his culpability. But now that, oh, I have done a grievous wrong. But now he will also try to justify whatever wrong he has done.
So he says, दैवं अप्य अन्धृतम् वक्ति नमर्त्या एव केवलं यत् विश्रंभाद अहं पापः स्वसुर्णिहत् वान्चिषून् चिषून् So, now, let’s see, what is his reasoning he gives? दैवं अप्य अन्धृतम् वक्ति Oh, it’s also the providence, it’s also the celestial beings that speak lies. नमर्त्या एव केवलं It’s not just the human beings who speak lies. Not just the mortal beings on the earth.
Normally the gods are considered much more virtuous than us humans. And the gods, it is said that they will not normally speak lies. But here he is saying that they, now what has happened? When he sees the eighth child turning out to be a girl, and that girl turns out to be a goddess who just manifests her opulence and disappears.
So he starts thinking, maybe this whole prophecy that the eighth child will kill me was an elaborate hoax. Now the Acharyas explain that the gender was not mentioned when the prophecy came. अश्टम गर्भाईट was said.
It is assumed, he thought that how can a woman kill me? So he thought it will be a boy, that boy will grow up to be a warrior and that warrior will kill me. But when he sees that it’s a girl who is born, still at that time that doesn’t cause him much hesitation. He says, boy or girl, let me kill her.
But now when he says it turns out to be a goddess, he starts thinking that maybe this whole thing was just an elaborate hoax. That the eighth child of Devaki will kill me. And he starts thinking that, oh alas, just see what time has come.
We know that humans sometimes speak lies. But here we are seeing even the gods speak lies. दैवं पे अन्रतम् वक्ति, अन्रतम् वक्ति, they also speak lies.
Normally the gods are considered to be worshipable beings for mortals. And the gods give a benediction, then it’s understood that that benediction will come true. The gods’ words are true.
And if the gods curse someone, then that is also the higher will of providence. That is also going to happen. Now in this case, he’s not just using the word gods.
दैवं is not exactly an adjective for देव, he says providence. Because he did not know who spoke that voice. That आकाश्वानी, that voice in the sky which he heard, saying that the eighth child of Devaki will kill him.
That was some higher voice. So it is mystical voice for him on this earth. And he had assumed that this was the higher voice of some higher being.
And who that higher being was, he didn’t know. He wasn’t sure. So he says that दैवं, it is whatever that voice of providence was there, which spoke that, oh, it’s shocking that the voice of the providence can also be false.
यत्विश्रम्भाद अहं पापः And believing that voice, I became so sinful, स्वसूर्णिहत्वान्शिषुन् that I killed my own children, my own sister’s children, who are like my own children. So he says that I was यत्विश्रम्भाद, that I believed the voice of the providence. And that was my mistake.
I became sinful because I believed that voice. So now it’s interesting, the logic that he uses to rationalise his actions. So he says to Devaki, in the next verse, something which is quite amazing.
So he draws on some philosophy, but let’s see how he rationalises his grievous actions. So, text 19 now. भूवि भवमानि भूतानि यतायान्त्य अपयान्तिच नायं आत्मा तथै तेशु विपर्येत्य थैवभून् शुभूवि भवमानि भूतानि On the earth, he backs his philosophy now.
He speaks philosophically. On the earth, we see भवमानि, things made of the earth. There is a beautiful rhyme over here.
The three letters of the first line, they all start and end with the same sound. भ, भ, भ is the beginning and ई, ई, ई is the ending. भूवि भवमानि भूतानि So it’s just as the products of earth, such as say clay pots, earthen pots, when they are made, भूतानि, they manifest and यथायान्त्य अपयान्तिच they appear and then they disappear.
So they are temporaries, the pots or dolls which will be made of earth. From the earth they appear and into the earth they disappear. They are temporary.
नायं आत्मा तथै तेशु विपर्येत्य थैवभू So he says similarly, for the Atma, there are various bodies and the bodies are like the clay pots. The clay pots come and go, similarly the bodies come and go, but the Atma remains unchanging. नायं आत्मा तथै तेशु विपर्येत्य थैवभू So what is the nature of the earth and the products of the earth? That they keep changing, but the nature of the soul is not like that.
The nature of the soul is different. Actually, I missed one verse, went to the 19th, so let’s go back to the 18th verse. That’s what actually he’s thought about.
Providence, which he had started in the 17th verse saying that, Oh, Providence also lies, that he carries on to rationalise how he is not the wrongdoer, all of the wrongdoing is done by him. So he says, text stating, माशोचतं महाभागाव आत्मजान् स्वकृतां भुजः जान्तवो नसदईकत्र दैवाधीनास्ततास्तदासते महाशोचाव महाभागाव Therefore, माशोचतं, Oh, do not lament, Oh, महाभागाव, Oh, greatly fortunate one, Oh, you who are learned, you are fortunate. So here, in a sense, he’s flattering his sister and his brother-in-law so that they will not blame him for the wrongdoing.
महाभागाव That actually, you are learned, you are fortunate. And we say, what is fortunate for a couple who have lost eight children, who have lived in great fear, who, despite being born in royalty, have been living under arrest. But the महाभागाव refers here to the he’s trying to appeal to their philosophical knowledge.
So he’s saying that you know the truth. So in a sense, he’s going to speak the truth and he wants them to believe the truth. So he’s saying that actually you are wise enough to understand the truth that I’m going to speak.
You’re fortunate because you’re enriched with spiritual knowledge. So this is how those who are self-serving, when they flatter also, they flatter so that the flattery will serve some purpose. Their purpose is always to make themselves look good in the world’s eyes.
And for that purpose, whatever is needed, they do that. So he says that what is the truth that I’m going to speak? What is the truth that you are wise enough to understand? That आत्मजान् स्वकृतं भुजः That your relatives, that your children, आत्मजान्, those who are born of you, स्वकृतं भुजः that they actually endure their own karma. If they have died, it is because it was their own karma to die.
That is the reason for their death. I’m not responsible for their death. And he says, जान्तवो न सदईकत्र जान्तवो, those who are living beings are born in this world.
The word जन्तु is often used to refer to living beings who are in this material world and who are bound in this material world and they have very little control over themselves. The living beings in this world are simply, they just appear and they disappear, there is very little that they can do about it. So, because they are thus controlled, so, it’s very difficult for them, for them to be in control, they are embodied, they have a particular body and that body works according to its own condition and conditionings.
So, he said that they cannot stay together for long, they come together and they get separated. दैवाधीनस्तदासते They are all दैवाधीन, they are all under destiny. दैवाधीन means, because they are under destiny and as destiny wills, they come together as destiny wills, they get separated.
This just can’t be changed. So, it’s interesting the use of word दैवा in the previous text and in this text. It’s meant to convey some point.
So, he’s saying, oh, दैवा lied, destiny or providence lied. Now, why would providence lie? So, he says that probably this was providence way of acting in your life. So, providence lied because there was a providence arrangement that you were meant to be separated from the children and providence acts according to people’s karma.
So, that means it was the karma of your child that the child would be separated from you. And that is what happened. So, he’s saying, don’t blame me.
So, जन्तोऽवो तसदाई कत्र They anyway can’t stay long for very long together. So, दैवाधीनस्तदासते We are always under destiny. So, he’s saying destiny acted in this peculiar way, speaking lies.
And because of the lies that destiny spoke, which I believed, the result was that I ended up killing your children. So, don’t blame me in a sense he’s saying. And then he says, in order to evoke some detachment in them, he goes on and says that actually, just as the earth and dolls are created and destroyed, similarly, in this world, there are things which are, people get bodies and lose bodies.
So, it’s temporary. Beyond that, the soul is eternal. And it is that soul which is the real person.
So, do not lament for the soul. So, in a sense, Krishna, he’s speaking a philosophy similar to the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita that a soul is different from the body. But his purpose is not to inspire his audience to surrender to God.
His purpose is to get himself off the hook. Text 20, यथानेवं विदो भेदो यत्यात्मविपर्ययादेहयोगो योगवियोगऊच संस्मृतिर्णनिवर्तते So, यथानेवं विदो भेदो So actually, here Krishna is…Kamsa is continuing to talk about the philosophy of the difference between the body and the soul. And he says, यत्… Just as, अनेवं विदह हा यथा अनेवं विदह एवम् means what was described earlier One who doesn’t know about this, one who doesn’t know that the soul is different from the body.
भेदो यथानेवं विदो भेदो One who does not know the difference between body and soul. that the ātma-viparyaya, therefore that person gets a viparyaya, a wrong conception about the self. Instead of thinking, understanding that the soul is different from the body, that person starts thinking that the soul and the body are the same.
With ātma-viparyaya, deha-yoga-viyoga-ucha, so at that time this causes connection and separation among different bodies and he thinks that that is itself samsmṛtir na nivartate. And for that person, samsmṛti doesn’t end. That means what happens that person equating the self with the body, becomes attached to the body and becomes elated when there is union with the loved ones and becomes devastated when there is separation from the loved ones.
And thus that person lives in great illusion. Say somebody is not to live in illusion like this, then for them it is vital that they should be able to learn to see beyond the body. So it’s vital for people to recognise that they are themselves beyond illusion.
That they have to be, if they want to be liberated, as long as they continue to mistake the body and soul to be the girl, samsmṛtir na nivartate, samsmṛti will go on. They’ll continue to stay bound in material existence. So here is indicating them to Kamsa and Vasudeva and Devaki that if you do not want to be bound in material existence then don’t be attached to the body.
Understand this difference between the body and the soul and thus live with knowledge. Therefore, text 21 goes on. tasmād bhadre sotalayān mayāvyāpāditān api mānuṣo choyataḥ sarva-sakṛtam vindate avaśyam tasmād bhadre.
Therefore, O auspicious woman, O wise woman, it’s a praise, it’s a form of address which involves some praise. tasmād bhadre sotalayān for your own children mayāvyāpāditān api. So although I killed them, although they were killed by me, do not lament for that.
It was mayāvyāpāditān, it was unfortunate that I believed Providence and I killed them but mānuṣo choyataḥ, but don’t lament for this because sarva-sakṛtam vindate avaśyam. Everybody reaps the fruits of their actions helplessly. So he’s trying to justify and say that actually even my actions were helpless.
They were ordained by destiny. Your sons by their past karma were meant to die and I, Providence, somehow in a deceptive way by speaking a lie used me to become an instrument for killing them and therefore because now by their karma they’ve been killed there is no need for you to lament for them. So externally it may seem as if he’s concerned for Devaki and he’s trying to give her some reason for not lamenting but actually speaking he’s also saying that I am simply an instrument of destiny which lied and destiny is in a sense responsible and we are all helpless.
Well, Kamsa did not have to kill the children. Vasudev tried to persuade him and surely there would be elders and sages and brahmanas, wise people who would have tried to persuade Kamsa that don’t kill. So Kamsa misused his free will to kill the children.
Now it’s quite a brutal and monstrously insensitive thing to say that after we do some harm to someone and then we tell the relatives of those who have been harmed that they were reaping their own karma. We are not meant to consider an act based on what is whose past life karma. We are meant to act based on what is our present life dharma and from the perspective of present life dharma what he did was grievously wrong.
What he did was outrageous. If we start acting with each other, we act according to our lust, our anger. Now tomorrow person A might just slap and slam and beat up B and then it is a misunderstanding because of which and then he realises actually B was not at fault at all and he beat him up and then if he justifies, you know, actually, you know, why did I get this misunderstanding? It was because of prior past karma you were meant to be beaten up and I was simply an instrument for the past karma.
Well, maybe you were an instrument for the past karma but you are going to get the present karma and that is what is important for you to recognise. You cannot justify our actions based on calling up to some past karma. We have to be responsible for our actions and being responsible for our actions means that we have to carefully consider what is the right course of action in our particular situation and act accordingly.
To the extent we act that way, to that extent we are protected. Now, he is saying that the children had their own karma because of which they had to die but now karma doesn’t act in isolation. Yes, in a sense that each person has to bear their own karma.
So all of us are born alone unless of course you’re born as twins and all of us die alone unless we die in some mass calamity. So basically all of us have to bear our karma individually and yet while we are living in this world, we live collectively as a unit. So if a child dies, is the child’s death only because the child’s bad karma? It may be but then the parents also have to suffer and what is the cause of the parent’s suffering? You may say, oh, it’s the parent’s past karma.
They had to have a child which would die so soon. Well, okay, then the emotions get involved and the child dies. So we can’t wish away the death of that child.
We can’t wish away the bond that has been formed between the parents and the child when the child is born. So what do you do with that? There are emotions involved and those emotions have to be dealt with appropriately. We can’t wish them away.
So here comes Kamsa’s attempt to console Devaki, our very self-serving, based on a misappropriation of philosophy to justify his actions. He goes on and talks about his philosophy now. यावध्धतोस्मिहन्तास्मि त्यात्मानंमन्यतेस्वद्रोक् तावत्तऽभिमान्यक्यों बाध्यः बाधकतामियाद् यावध्धतोस्मि As long as one thinks, oh, I am being killed by someone or somebody else thinks, यावध्धतोस्मिहन्तास्मि I am the killer of someone, त्यात्मानंमन्यतेस्वद्रोक् Those people, they do not understand themselves.
अस्वद्रोक् They are not seeing the reality of who they are. तावत्तऽभिमान्यक्यों Till that time, अस्वद्रोक् तावत्ताभिमान्यक्यों As long as they are having that conception that I am the doer, अग्यों They are ignorant. So, he is saying that the doership, the idea of that things happening to the body are happening to me or things done by the body are done by me, this is ignorance.
बाध्याबाधकताम्यात् So, actually in this world, people are bound and as long as he thinks that I am the doer, they stay bound till then. बाध्याबाधकताम्यात् So, if you do not want to stay bound, do not think like this. So, people continue in that relationship of bondage, thinking either I am the oppressor or I am the oppressed.
One person thinks that I am the victimiser, the other thinks I am the victim. Now, at one level, everything that Srikakamsa says is true. But at another level, his purpose for saying this is misled.
And in this way, he tries to act in a way that will mend things, that will, he tries to get rid of the guilty feeling that he may be having or of the aversion that Kamsa and Devaki and Vasudeva may have for him. So, then he is concluding his philosophical discourse, which is actually containing valuable insights for us to apply. But we don’t see reality only at the material level.
We also see that there is a bigger picture and there are bigger forces in action beyond what we know in whatever happens in our life. So, text 23 now. क्षमध्वम्मं दुरात्मयं साधवो दीन वच्चलः इति उप्त्वाश्रु मुखः पादो शालः स्वसरोर अथाग्रहेत् क्षमध्वम्मं दुरात्मयं क्षमध्वम्, please forgive me.
दुरात्मयं, oh, I am a very, I have done a grievous wrong. दुरात्मयं, like दुराचार is bad behaviour, दुरात्मयं is bad action for me, the action that I am such a bad person. I am a bad person, but साधवो दीन वच्चलः, you are saintly people and you are always kind to the fallen.
He himself was not kind to Devaki when she was begging for him to spare her child, but now he is saying, oh, you are very kind. साधवो दीन वच्चलः, इति उक्तवाश्रु मुखः पादवु, इति उक्तवाश्रु, so with tears in his eyes, मुखः, मुखः, he actually, his face was covered with tears, पादवु शाल स्वस्रोर्, अथाग्रहेत् पादवु, so he even fell at their feet, अथाग्रहेत्, he covered their feet, so he is now, he fell at the feet of Vasudev and Devaki, begging for their forgiveness. It’s amazing how his disposition changes, and changes are dramatic, but the changes are also dramatically brief.
Now we could say, some people are good people, but they have attacks of insanity, and suddenly they do certain things and we wonder, who is this person, what have they done? And they themselves look back and say, what have I done? So, some people are like that, they are normally good, but suddenly something happens and they behave in a horrible way. And conversely, we see Kamsa has the opposite characteristic, that for periods of time, he behaves, that for most of the time, he behaves in a demoniac way. But suddenly in between, he has phases of virtue.
So, for example, the first time when Vasudev gives his son, as per his promise, he comes and entrusts his son to Kamsa, Kamsa very charitably says that, oh, you know, you are such a virtuous and truthful person, you actually brought your son to me. He says, but the threat to me was from the eighth child. Therefore, I have nothing to fear from you, you can take this child.
But then, after his associates convince him, after he hears and starts thinking, oh, maybe the devatas have spoken, the voice of providence has tricked me, maybe it is not the eighth son, maybe the first son might also kill me. He thinks like this, and then his charitable disposition, his benevolent disposition all just disappears, and he kills that child immediately. So, similarly for us, we will see that here, he behaves in a grievously wrong way.
And what is that grievous wrong way in which he behaves? He has killed his own children, but now he is acting in such a saintly way, actually falling at their feet and begging forgiveness. So, he released them from the shackles that they were there, he released all of them. So, he fell at their feet and begged forgiveness.
When they fell at their feet, he realised that, oh, their shackles, they are bound, they should not be bound, they haven’t done anything wrong. So, he immediately said, no, no, stop them, release them. And thinking like this, he at once let them go.
And when he let them go, what was his thinking basically? His thinking was that actually to fully believe the words of the goddess. So, Kanyakagira, Kanyakagira. So, she is said to be, the goddess is said to be born from the Himalayas, from the mountain or from the… So, Kanyaka.
So, this is the daughter of the mountain sometimes she is said. So, he, Vishwarabdha. So, earlier he had believed the word of the providence, but now he believed the word of the goddess.
Now, interesting, which part of the words did he believe? He believed that actually, if at all there is an eighth son who is going to be born, who is going to kill me, it is not going to be Devaki’s son. So, that enemy is born somewhere else. So, he focusses here on the part of somewhere else.
And he thinks of what wrong I have done to Devaki and I should not have done this. And he starts lamenting that wrong. And he starts manifesting Darshayan Atma Saurudham.
The Atma Saurudham is the affection that is natural in family relationships. He starts exhibiting that affection in a mood as is familially appropriate. So, we see that some people say that I don’t have any faith.
By this they mean they don’t have faith in God. But they do have faith in maybe the atheists who have told them there is no God. So, everybody has to have faith somewhere or the other.
So, in this case, we will see that the faith which people have varies according to time, place, circumstance. And that means that earlier he had great faith in the voice of Providence when it had said that 8th child is going to kill. And now he has faith in the words of the Goddess.
But we will see his faith will be very fickle. After some time, his associates will tell him that actually, you know, maybe your enemy is born and therefore you should kill all children. And he will actually start killing all children.
But for the time being, he is having a small phase of virtue in which he becomes very affectionate towards the Devaki and Vasudeva and releases them. Now, how Devaki and Vasudeva respond and how the narrative transpires further, narrative progresses further, we will discuss in our future sessions. Thank you.