How can demons killed by the Lord get the same destination as the devotees?

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Transcript

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Vishnu Prabhupada says in the purport that the demons get the same destination on being killed by the Lord as do the devotees who serve the Lord. So, how does this happen? Here, Prabhupada is talking in terms of general principles that there is material existence, there is spiritual existence, and the practice of bhakti takes one beyond material existence to spiritual existence. So, that is what happens.
Now, usually, those who have an inimical attitude towards Krishna, the demons, they have very little, if any, disposition to serve Krishna, and because of that, even if they get liberated, the contact with Krishna, which happens with them at the time of death when Krishna kills them, that contact cleanses them of their material impurities, because Krishna is all-pure, all-purifying. So, he is very pure, purifying. So, that means the negative contamination that are there, which keep them bound to their material existence, they get cleansed away.
But, for entering the spiritual world proper, that means going beyond Brahma Jyoti to the Goloka planets, to the Vaikuntha planets, for that, one needs not just freedom from material contamination, one also needs a service attitude. So, just by being killed by Krishna, the demons will go to the spiritual plane of existence, but they will go usually to the Brahman level. In some special occasions, say for example, Putana, she had a malevolent intent, but she also acted at least in a mood of service.
She wanted to feed Krishna her breast milk like a nurse. So, at that time, Krishna focused on that microscopic service attitude that was there, and Krishna magnified that, and that’s how she was able to go to the spiritual world. And similarly, it is said that Aghasura, because his body acted like a play field for the Gopas, Gopas were just playing and entering into his mouth.
So, because he took Krishna in, so Krishna took him in. So, Vishwanath Chakrathakur says that some demons who unintentionally, unwittingly served Krishna, they may also get liberated and they attain the spiritual world, not just Brahmajyoti, but a spiritual world. But usually those who are inimical towards Krishna, being killed by Krishna, grants them Brahman liberation, not the attainment of Vaikuntha planets.
Now, regarding their past lives, yes, we have to look at different demons and we have to see whether there is any, in the Puranas, described anything from the previous lives. So, Garga Samhita talks a lot about the various demons in Krishna Nila and who they were in their previous lives. So, by this, we can know about their previous lives and then we can understand that they also had some spiritual inclination from the previous life but they were cursed or they did something wrong because of which they were demons.
At the same time, not everybody in Krishna Nila was already a great soul. It could be that there are also ordinary souls who are there and just by contact with Krishna, they become liberated. So, the liberation is Krishna’s mercy.
If they get liberated, it is not because they were already great sages in the previous life. There are great sages that they were and they did something wrong because of which they were cursed and that may have enabled them to be present when they got Krishna’s kripa. It is Krishna’s mercy.
Their liberation is not because of whatever they were in the past life. So, it could be that some of the demons were great sages or something like that in the past life. But the act of Krishna liberating the demons is an extraordinary act of mercy on the part of Krishna and that should not be forgotten when we look at their, when we try to inquire about their past life antecedents.
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