Srimad Bhagavatham

After knowing that the child destined to kill Kamsa was already born, Kamsa sent his soldiers through the place to search for new-born babies. He ordered all the new-born babies to be killed. A demon named Pootana came to Nandagopal's place to kill Krishna. Instead she was killed by Krishna who bit her nipples (she had decided to give milk to Krishna which was poisoned thereby trying to kill Krishna). Thus it was almost certain that the child who was destined to kill Kamsa was Krishna.

Explanation

We see here Kamsa again trying his best to get rid of the Lord. There is one thing that we all fear in the world and which is beyond our reach - that is death or mrityu. Even if a person is as rich as Bill Gates or as powerful as George Bush, still he cannot overcome death. There will be a time when any person will be taken away by death or yama. As we learnt yesterday, the one and only way to overcome death is by totally surrendering unto the ultimate reality of Lord. When we surrender completely to the Lord, we will come to know that there is only the Lord present here - that the duality of names and forms that we see is only an illusion in the reality of Lord. Thus there is no body or birth or death - therefore there is nothing to be afraid of.

It is keeping this truth in mind that Upanishad proclaims that fear arises out of duality. As long as there is nobody apart from oneself, what to fear and whom to fear? It is therefore that saints who have realized their very nature of ultimate reality of Lord are never afraid - instead they are ever blissful as they know that only the Lord exists here, one without a second.

But ignorant people on the other hand don't realize or heed to the truth that there is only Lord here - those are people who either are too bound into their eyes or intellect that they don't believe anything apart from that. It is foolish to believe one's eyes as the eyes may seem to show water in desert when there is no water at all. But the wise will not merely heed to one's eyes - instead he will use his discrimination faculty to find out what is real and what is not real. Though the discrimination faculty of intellect is there for each of us, still very few use it to discriminate between real and unreal. Real is that which is eternal and without any changes. Unreal is that which is temporary and thereby constantly changing. The world of objects that we perceive through our five senses is constantly changing and temporary. We see people and objects this moment and the very next moment they all vanish. It is this truth that the Lord tries to make us realize through the harsh way of natural calamities like earthquake, tsunami etc. There were many people and places that were there just before tsunami hit. The moment tsunami hit, everything vanished leaving no trace at all - as if they never really existed but only seemed to exist.

Man is a special being endowed with intellect to discriminate between real and unreal; as well as the free-will to choose his actions instead of animals which don't have any choice but to do the regular activity of barking or roaring etc. As long as we don't use our intellect to discriminate and our free-will to work towards the real entity, we are but one with animals. It is through these stories that the Lord proclaims the futility of worldly activities. They will not lead us anywhere but finally only to death. Therefore wise people should completely surrender unto the Lord by knowing that the Lord alone exists. Thereby wise people will be always contemplating on the Lord.

After it was sure that Krishna was the boy who would kill Kamsa, Kamsa's followers came to kill Krishna but it ended up by Krishna killing all of them.

Explanation

In the past few days we looked at the perspective of man trying to overcome death by fighting against the Lord. Today we will look at this from a different perspective and as to how through the stories of asuras getting killed, we find the way to get liberated from the bondages of the world.

The Lord proclaims in one sloka about Maya and the way to overcome it:

Daivi hi esha gunamayee mama maayaa duratyayaa
Maameva ye prapadhyanthe maayaam etaam taranthi te

This divine power of mine which is called Maya and is composed of the three gunas of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas is tough indeed to overcome. But those who take refuge in me by totally surrendering, they overcome this Maya.

In another place the Lord proclaims that this Maya is very tough and deceiving; everyone is under the clutches of Maya whether they want it or not.

Thus the problems in our life are due to being under the control of Maya. Maya is that power which makes the impossible possible, the non-existing existing and existing non-appearing. Maya makes the impossible possible by making the world appear to be fully logical so much that the scientists of all times think that everything in the world is perfectly explained. But a little bit of analysis will show us that the world is totally illogical. People and things take birth and die. We don't know from where they come or where they go. We don't know as to what is ruling the world - whether it is the intelligent humans or nature or some other supernatural power. Though laws have been proclaimed by Newton and others, those are deviated depending on time and space. Time and space are termed eternal as we are unable to find out their source. Thus the entire world is filled with illogicalities only. It is Maya that makes this impossible and illogical world possible and logical. The world is impossible because there cannot be any such world arising out of Consciousness (upon which the world depends). It is Consciousness or Lord which makes the world exists and appears as if real. Thus it is Consciousness from which the world has come. The world is ever changing whereas Consciousness is changeless. How is it possible for the changing world to have come from a changeless source of Consciousness? It is impossible. Maya not only makes the impossible possible, but it makes the non-existing or unreal world as existing or real. The world is unreal because there cannot be any such world existing. That which is not there in the beginning (even as the dream world is not there before dreaming) and in the end (once the dreamer wakes up) but only seems to be present as changing in the middle cannot be real. But it only has a temporary existence and thereby is ultimately unreal. Maya makes it as if this unreal world is real. Try speaking to a worldly person about the world being unreal and the Lord being real, he will laugh at you and tell that the world is real whereas the Lord is unreal. This is the power of Maya. Maya also makes the real Lord as if unreal - thereby we don't perceive the real Lord but perceive the unreal world. We consider the unreal world as real whereas the real Lord as unreal or non-existing.

All problems in life arise out of the effects of Maya. When we consider the unreal world as real, we depend on the world. This dependency leads to expectations which finally end up in sorrow as the world is not real. It is like running after the water in desert expecting water (as water is considered real). This will end up only in sorrow when we don't find water. Instead the problems are solved if we apprehend the reality of desert or the reality of Lord beneath the unreal changing world.

Thus the way out of all problems in life is by overcoming Maya which is through seeking the ultimate reality of Lord. Even as the delusion of water is overcome when we seek the substratum of desert, similarly when we totally surrender unto the Lord remembering that the Lord alone exists here all sorrows will vanish.

We find in these asuras the thirst to seek the Lord even if it is for killing the world. The attitude with which we seek the Lord doesn't matter; what matters is constant seeking of the Lord - that thirst like the fish on land seeking water. It is this thirst that lead the asuras to seek the Lord trying to kill the Lord. Instead when they seek the Lord, the Lord overpowers them and kills them. This killing is not killing of the Self as the Self is the Lord alone (the Lord is the indwelling Self of all beings). The killing is killing of the Ego or jeeva which perceives the world and is under the control of Maya. When the Ego is killed, the effect of Maya vanishes thereby only the Lord remains behind. The Ego then merges into the Lord thereby ever rejoicing in bliss. It is this killing of the Ego when we seek the Lord that is symbolically pointed out through the killing of the asuras by the Lord. If only we had the thirst of the asuras towards the Lord, we would be instantly liberated from the bondages of Maya thereby rejoicing in bliss.

The aspect of killing the Lord is one among the various aspects towards the Lord which finally leads to constant contemplation and thereby to realization. Similarly another attitude is that is pure love which we find in the Gopis. We will see this in the next day.