Krsna Book Audio Dictation - Chapter 06
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Sixth Chapter: "Pūtanā Killed."
While Nanda Mahārāja was returning home after meeting Vasudeva in Mathurā, he was thinking within himself on the way that the statement made by Vasudeva that there might be some disturbance in Gokula certainly was not false; there is some truth in it. Therefore, he began to take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead out of fear. It is quite natural for a devotee, whenever they are in danger, they think of Kṛṣṇa, because they have no other shelter. Just like when a child is in danger, he takes the shelter of the mother or the father. Similarly, a devotee, when they contemplate some danger, they are already under the shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and specifically at that time they get opportunity to remember the Lord very rapidly.
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Kaṁsa, after consulting with his chief demon ministers, instructed one witch of the name Pūtanā who knew the black art of killing small childrens by his (her) ghastly sinful activities. So after being thus engaged by Kaṁsa, the Pūtanā began to kill all kinds of children in the cities, in the villages, in the pasturing ground and similar other places. But such witches could only play their black art where there is scarcely chanting and hearing of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. It is said that wherever the chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is done, even neglectfully, without any seriousness, all bad elements—witches, ghosts and dangerous calamities—immediately disappear. And what to speak of the place where the chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is done very seriously. And above all, what to speak of Vṛndāvana when the Supreme Lord is personally present. Therefore, the doubts of Nanda Mahārāja was certainly on the point of affection for Kṛṣṇa, but actually there was no danger out of the activities of Pūtanā.
Such kind of witches are called khecarī. Khecarī means one who can fly in the sky. This witchcraft black art is still practiced by some women in the remote northwestern side of India. They can transfer themselves from one place to another taking on the branch of an uprooted tree. This Pūtanā knew this witchcraft, and she is also described in the Bhāgavatam as khecarī.
She one day took the opportunity of entering the county known as Gokula, the residential quarter of Nanda Mahārāja, and without any permission of the householder he (she) entered the house of mother Yaśodā, dressing herself just like one beautiful woman. She appeared very beautiful, because she exposed her hips very much raised, breasts also nicely swollen, with ornaments on the earring, some flowers pushed on the bunch of hair, and she looked very beautiful on account of her middle portion of the body being thinner. She was glancing over everyone with very attractive eyesight and smiling face, and all the residents of Vṛndāvana were being captivated by her, and the innocent cowherds women thought that the woman was personally a goddess of fortune appeared in Vṛndāvana with a lotus flower in her hand, and she has personally come to see Kṛṣṇa, who is her husband. On account of her exquisite beauty, nobody doubted her movements, and therefore she freely entered the house of Nanda Mahārāja.
Thus after entering into the house of Nanda Mahārāja, Pūtanā the killer of many, many children, saw baby Lord Kṛṣṇa lying on a small bed, and she could perceive that the baby was hiding His unparalleled potencies exactly like fire covered by ashes. Pūtanā within herself could understand that "This child is so powerful that He can destroy the whole universe immediately."
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This understanding of Pūtanā about Kṛṣṇa is very significant. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is situated in everyone’s heart and as such, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that He gives necessary intelligence, as well as He causes one to forget by the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead sitting within one's heart. So Pūtanā was immediately reminded that the child whom he (she) was observing in the house of Nanda Mahārāja was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. He was lying there as a small baby, but that does not mean that He was less powerful.
The materialistic theory that God worship is anthropomorphism is not correct. No living being become God by undergoing some such certain kind of meditation of austerities. God is always God. Kṛṣṇa as a child, baby, is as good as He is in His full-fledged youthhood. The Māyāvāda theory that the living entity was formerly God but now has become overcome by the influence of māyā, therefore he is not God, but again, when the influence of māyā, or the cover, is taken away he becomes God, this thesis can be applicable on the minute living entities. Living entities are minute part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as there are many minute particles of sparks of the original fire. So these sparks can be covered by the influence of māyā, but not the original fire, or Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead from the beginning of His appearance in the house of Vasudeva and Devakī.
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Kṛṣṇa, however, and showing the nature of a small baby, closed His eyes as if not to see the face of Pūtanā. This closing of eyes of Kṛṣṇa is interpreted and studied by different devotees very deeply. Somebody says that Kṛṣṇa closed His eyes because He did not like to see the face of Pūtanā, who had killed so many children and now she had come to kill Him; therefore He did not like to see her face and closed His eyes. Another interpretation is that Pūtanā was hesitating to take the baby on her lap because from within something extraordinary was being dictated. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, in order to give her assurance, closed His eyes so that she may not be frightened by the opening of His eyes.
Another interpretation is that Kṛṣṇa, of course, appeared to kill the demons and give protection to the devotees. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8): the Lord appears just to give protection to the devotees and to kill the demons.
So His first beginning of killing the demons was a woman. According to Vedic rules, killing of woman, killing of brāhmaṇa, killing of cows, killing of child…, and there are many other items the killing of which are forbidden. Especially killing of women and killing of brāhmaṇa and killing of cows is strictly prohibited. So Kṛṣṇa was obliged to kill this demon Pūtanā, so He might be thinking that "The beginning of My killing was a woman." And because killing of women was forbidden according to Vedic śāstra, He could not but close His eyes.
Another interpretation is that Kṛṣṇa closed His eyes because He took Pūtanā as His nurse, because Pūtanā came to Kṛṣṇa just to offer her breast to be sucked by the Lord. So Kṛṣṇa is so merciful that even though He knew that Pūtanā was there to kill Him, but He took her as her (His) nurse or mother, because nurse is also considered as mother. There are seven kinds of mother, according to Vedic injunction: a real mother, the wife of a teacher or spiritual master, the wife of the king, the wife of a brāhmaṇa, the cow, the nurse and the mother earth. They are seven kinds of mothers. So Pūtanā, she came to take Kṛṣṇa on the lap and offer her breast milk to be sucked by Kṛṣṇa, she was accepted by Kṛṣṇa as one of the mothers. So that was His another cause of closing the eyes, that He had to kill a nurse or mother. But the killing of mother by Kṛṣṇa or the killing of the nurse by Kṛṣṇa was not differentiated from His real mother or foster mother, Yaśodā, because we understand from further Vedic information that both Pūtanā was also treated as mother and given the same facility like Yaśodā. As Yaśodā was given liberation from the material world, Pūtanā was also given liberation from this material world.
Now, when the baby Kṛṣṇa closed His eyes, Pūtanā took Him on his (her) lap. She did not know that she was taking on her lap death personified. In this connection, a nice example has been given that a person without knowing a snake lying as dead and accepts it as a rope, this mistake causes such mistaken person, similarly, Pūtanā killed so many babies before meeting Kṛṣṇa; now she was accepting Kṛṣṇa as one of the babies, but actually she was accepting the snake who would kill her immediately.
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When Pūtanā was taking baby Kṛṣṇa on her lap, there were both Yaśodā and Rohiṇī present, but they could not forbid her, on account of so beautifully dressed and showing the motherly affection towards Kṛṣṇa. They could not understand that she is a sword within the decorated case. She was so beautifully decorated that the two mothers, Rohiṇī and Yaśodā, could not place any doubt on her while acting as a beautiful mother. Pūtanā, however, smeared on her breast a very powerful poison, and immediately after taking the baby on her lap pushed her breastly nipples within the mouth of Kṛṣṇa, thinking that as soon as He would suck the breast, immediately the child would die.
Baby Kṛṣṇa also, taking this opportunity, very strongly caught up her nipples with anger, and He sucked the milk-poison along with the life air of the demon. In other words, Kṛṣṇa simultaneously sucked the milk from her breast, at the same time killed her by sucking her life also. Kṛṣṇa is so merciful that the demon Pūtanā came to offer her breast milk to the Lord, so He fulfilled her desire and accepted her activity as motherly. But to stop her from further nefarious activities, He immediately killed her. And because the demon was killed by Kṛṣṇa, she got immediately liberation.
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The demon Pūtanā, while she was being pressed on her chest by Kṛṣṇa to pull out her very breathing of life, immediately fell down on the ground, spreading her legs and hands, and began to cry, "O the child, leave me, leave me!" While crying like this she was perspiring, the whole body became wet, and spreading her legs and hands she began to cry continuously and very loudly.
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By her fierce dying and screaming, there was a tremendous vibration both on the earth, in the sky, or down the earth planet or up the earth planet, from all direction, and people thought it as the falling of thunderbolt. Thus the nightmare, the Pūtanā witch fell down, assuming her real feature as great demon, opening her fierceful mouth and spreading hands and legs all over, exactly as Vṛtrāsura fell down being struck by the thunderbolt of Indra. While she was lying down, her long hairs on the head were all scattered over the body. While falling down like this, she extended her body up to twelve miles and smashed all the trees thereof into pieces.
Everybody throughout became struck with wonder by seeing the extension of gigantic body of the demon. Her teeth appeared just like ploughed roads, and her nostrils appeared just like mountain caves. Her breasts appeared just like small hills, and her hair appeared vastly reddish bunch just suitable to the gigantic body. The sockets of the eyes appeared just like a blind well, and the two thighs appeared just like two banks of the river. The two hands appeared just like two strongly constructed bridge, and her abdomen appeared just like dried-up lakes. All the cowherds men and women became struck with awe and wonder by seeing the gigantic body of the demon Pūtanā, and before this, they heard the falling down of the body with tumultuous sound which affects their brain and ears and rendered the heart strongly beating.
When the gopīs saw little Kṛṣṇa was fearlessly playing on her lap, they at once, very dexterously, they came there and picked up the child. Mother Yaśodā, Rohiṇī, along with other elderly gopīs, immediately performed the auspicious rituals by taking the tail of a cow and circumambulated all over the body. The child was completely washed with the urine of cows, and after this, the dust created by the hooves of cows were thrown all over the body just to save little Kṛṣṇa from all kinds of inauspicious accidents.
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This incidence gives us a clear indication how much cow is important to the family, to the society and to the living beings in general. Although the transcendental body of Kṛṣṇa did not require any protection from anything material, still, to instruct us how much important is cow, the Lord was smeared over with cow dung, washed with urine of cow, and the dust caused by the walking of the cows were thrown over His body.
After this purificatory process, the gopīs, headed by mother Yaśodā and Rohiṇī, chanted twelve names of Viṣṇu just to give the body full protection from all inauspicious influence. Thus, after washing their hands and feet and sipping water three times, as is the custom before chanting mantra, as follows: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is unborn may protect Your legs. The Lord who is known as Maṇimān may protect Your thighs. Lord Viṣṇu who is known as Yajṣa may protect Your legs. Lord Acyuta may protect Your arms. Lord Hayagrīva may protect Your abdomen. Lord Keśava may protect Your heart. Lord Viṣṇu may protect Your arms. Lord Urukrama may protect Your face, and Lord Īśvara may protect Your head. Lord Cakradhara may protect Your front. Lord Gadādhara may protect Your back side. Lord Madhusūdana, who carries a bow in His hand, may protect Your right side. Lord Viṣṇu who carries a conchshell may protect Your left side. The Personality of Godhead Upendra may protect Your upside, and Lord Tārkṣya may protect You from the down side of the earth. Lord Haladhara may protect You from all sides. The Personality of Godhead known as Hṛṣīkeśa may protect all Your senses. Lord Nārāyaṇa may protect your life-air, and the Lord of the Śvetadvīpa, Nārāyaṇa, may protect Your heart, and Lord Yogeśvara may protect Your mind. Lord Pṛśnigarbha may protect Your intelligence. The Supreme Personality of Godhead may protect Your soul. While You are playing, Lord Govinda may protect You from all sides, and when You are sleeping, Lord Mādhava may protect You from all dangers. When You are walking, the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha may protect You from falling down, and when You are sitting, the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha may give You all protection. And while You are eating, the Lord, the eater of all sacrifices, may give You all protection." The gopīs began to say there are many enemies of the little babies, known as Ḍākinī, Yātudhāna, Yātudhā...
37:17 Tape number eight, Kṛṣṇa. Tape number eight, Kṛṣṇa.
First mother Yaśodā began to chant different names of Viṣṇu to protect the child Kṛṣṇa in His different parts of the body. Mother Yaśodā was firmly convinced that different kinds of evil spirits of the name Ḍākinī, Yātudhāna, Kūṣmāṇḍā, host of all kinds evil spirits, Yakṣa, Rākṣasa, Vīṇāyaka, Koṭarā, Revatī, Jyeṣṭhā, Pūtanā, Mātṛkā, Unmāda and similar other evil spirits who cause persons forgetfulness of his own existence and gives troubles to the life air and the senses. Sometimes they appear in dream and causes much perturbation. Sometimes they appear as old women and sucks of the blood of small children. All such ghost and evil spirits cannot remain where there is chanting of the holy name of God.
Mother Yaśodā was firmly convinced of the Vedic culture about the importance of cows and holy name of Viṣṇu. Therefore she took all protection from the cows and by the name of Viṣṇu to protect his (her) child, Kṛṣṇa. She said, "All the holy names of Viṣṇu may save the child." This Vedic culture about taking advantage of keeping cows and chanting the holy name of Viṣṇu is current since the beginning of the history of the human society, and persons who are still following such Vedic culture, especially the householders, they keep at least dozens of cows and worship Lord Viṣṇu, installed in every house. These are some of the instruction for the persons advancing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how much they should be interested in cows and the holy name of Lord Viṣṇu.
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The elderly gopīs of Vṛndāvana were so much absorbed in the affection for Kṛṣṇa that they wanted to save Kṛṣṇa, although there was no need of protecting Him; He had already protected Himself. But they could not understand that Kṛṣṇa was the Supreme Personality of Godhead playing as the child. And after performing the formalities for protecting the child, mother Yaśodā took Kṛṣṇa and let Him suck his…, her own breast. When the child was thus saved by viṣṇu-mantra, mother Yaśodā become..., felt safety of the child. In the meantime, all the cowherds men who went to Mathurā to pay tax came back home and were struck with wonder at seeing the gigantic dead body of Pūtanā, who was killed before their arrival.
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Nanda Mahārāja, thus realizing the foretelling of Vasudeva, considered him some great sage or mystic yogī. Otherwise, how he could foretell such incidences to be happened during his absence in Vṛndāvana? After this, all the inhabitants of Vraja cut the gigantic body of Pūtanā into pieces and piled them up with wood for burning. When the complete limbs of Pūtanās body was being burned, the smoke emanating from the fire was fuming good flavor of aguru. This flavoring of the smoke was caused due to her being killed by Kṛṣṇa. This means that the demon Pūtanā, being killed by Kṛṣṇa, was washed of her all sinful activities and attained the quality of celestial body.
Here is an example how the Supreme Personality of Godhead is all-good. The demon Pūtanā came to kill Kṛṣṇa by poisoning her breast, but because Kṛṣṇa sucked her milk, immediately she was purified and the dead body immediately attained the transcendental qualities. Her business was only to kill a small children; she was only fond of blood. But in spite of her being envious of Kṛṣṇa, because she gave her milk to be drunk by Kṛṣṇa she got salvation like this. Then what to speak of others, who are affectionate to Kṛṣṇa in relationship of mother, who always served Kṛṣṇa with great love and affection for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, who is the Supersoul of every living entity.
It is concluded, therefore, that even a little energy of any living entity engaged in the service of the Lord gives him immense transcendental profit. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, svalpam apy asya dharmasya (BG 2.40)
That this devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so sublime that even a little service to Kṛṣṇa, knowingly or unknowingly, gives one the greatest transcendental profit. The system of worshiping Kṛṣṇa by offering flower from the tree (is) also beneficial for the living entity who is undergoing the bodily existence of a tree. Flower, fruits offered to Kṛṣṇa from the tree also indirectly so much beneficial. The arcana process, or worshiping procedure, is therefore so much beneficial for everyone, for whatever is offered to Kṛṣṇa, the source from which the thing comes also benefited. Kṛṣṇa is worshipable by big demigods like Brahmā and Lord Śiva, and Pūtanā was so fortunate that the same Kṛṣṇa played on her body as a little child.
The lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, which is worshiped so much by great sages and devotees, was placed on the body of Pūtanā, and people worship Kṛṣṇa to offer foodstuff with so much great reverence and devotion. But automatically He sucked the milk from the body of Pūtanā. Devotees therefore pray that simply by offering something in a position of an enemy Pūtanā got so much benefit, then what to speak of worshiping Kṛṣṇa in love and affection. Therefore, nobody should worship anybody except Kṛṣṇa, because so much benefit is awaiting to the worshiper.
Although Pūtanā was an evil spirit, still, she got elevation like the mother of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is clear, however, that the cows and the elderly gopīs who offered milk to Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, how much were they elevated to the transcendental position. Kṛṣṇa can offer anyone beginning from liberation to anything materially conceived. Therefore, there cannot be any doubt about salvation of Pūtanā, whose bodily milk was sucked by Kṛṣṇa for so long time. How there can be any doubt about the salvation of the gopīs, who were so much fond of Kṛṣṇa? Undoubtedly it is concluded that all the gopīs and cowherds boys and cows and everyone in Vṛndāvana who served Kṛṣṇa with so much love and affection, certainly they're all liberated from the miserable condition of material existence.
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When all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana were smelling the good flavor out of the smoke of burning Pūtanā, they inquired from each other, "Wherefrom this good flavor is coming?" And while conversing with one another, they were given to understand that it is the burning fume of Pūtanā, and the story of Pūtanā was discussed amongst them deliberately. All of them were too much fond of Kṛṣṇa, and as soon as they heard that the demon Pūtanā was killed by Kṛṣṇa in this way, all of them offered blessings to the little child out of affection. Nanda Mahārāja, after the burning of the body of Pūtanā, came home and immediately took up the child on his lap and began to smell on His head, and he was very much satisfied that his little child was saved in this great calamity. Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī has blessed all persons who would hear the narration of killing of Pūtanā by Kṛṣṇa would surely attain the favor of Govinda, Kṛṣṇa.
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Thus end the Sixth Chapter of Kṛṣṇa in the matter of "Killing of Pūtanā."