Killing the Demon Putana

In the sixth chapter Putana assumes a beautiful form and appears in Vraja. Upon dying, she assumes her raksasi form. She attains liberation by Krsna’s mercy. Her body is burned and Nanda approaches.

3.This verse is spoken to allay the fears of Maharaja Pariksit for Krsna’s safety. In those places where people engage in scriptural duties like sacrifices without devotional acts such as hearing stories of the Lord, who is the life of the devotees, the raksasis become powerful. Then what to speak of places where these devotional acts are the primary means? There the raksasis can have no influence. And what to speak of the place where the Lord is personally present?

4 In order that the pastime of killing Putana be performed, by the inspiration of the lila sakti of the Lord, Putana entered Gokula as if invited by death to be killed. With this intention the verse is spoken. One day in the evening, flying from the sky (utpatya), she entered Gokula. An alternate reading is upetya (arriving). By illusion she took on the form of a beautiful women (yosita). All were so much enamored with her beauty that she had access to all the houses and towns. Though the Lord’s illusory energy has no desire to bewilder the eternal devotees of Vraja, in order execute the pastimes of Krsna, Putana was able to exert her illusions, like a magician, by the will of the Lord.

Seeing that beautiful woman with marks of lotus on her hands, the gopis concluded that she was the embodiment of all wealth and jewels. She must have come to see her husband, Narayana, the istadeva of Nanda Maharaja. Putana had broad waist and breasts contrasted to her thin waist. She was attractive (vanita). She was so attractive that the Vrajavasis let her enter the inner chambers of their houses without obstruction.

Putana, the killer of children (bala graha -baby catcher) saw the child (balam) who, though the killer of the wicked (asad antakam), appeared easy to kill. At that time he appeared like a fire covered by ash, hiding his powers.

Here is shown an opportunity for the Lord’s power of omniscience (sarvajnata sakti) to render service at the time of approaching evil. Though Krsna could understand Purana’s identity, he lay there with his eyes closed like a normal child. Why did he close his eyes? To show his fearfulness as a small child, to avoid seeing such an inauspicious person, to avoid making the violence become auspicious through the touch of his auspicious glance, to avoid shame of killing a woman acting as a mother, and to avoid seeing the inauspiciousness of Putana’s death. Then Putana placed him in her lap. He is called ananta, without end, and antakam, he who brings about the end. This was an opportunity for his destructive energy (samhara sakti) to operate. That person who is without limit in all space and time, Putana held on her lap. Antakam and ananta are also contradictory words to express this wonder, adbhuta rasa. As a foolish person holds a sleeping snake, thinking it is a rope, so Putana foolishly held Krsna, thinking him an ordinary, helpless child.

9 Why did Yasoda and Rohini not stop Putana? This verse answers the question. She acted like a very attentive mother. Though inside inwardly she was cruel, externally she was gentle. She was like a sharp knife in a soft leather sheath. Yasoda and Rohini were overwhelmed by her influence (tat prabhaya), thinking that Ambika, Indrani or Laksmi of the three worlds had come to feed Krsna out of motherly love. Thus they stood there watching her, not preventing her from holding the child.

10 In that place (tasmin) Putana (ghora—fierce woman) offered to the baby (sisoh) her breast covered with poison (durjaram viryam). He held her breast so tightly with his two hands that she could not pull him away (gadham prapidya). Filled with anger that she was going to kill all the children of Vraja by offering her breast to them, his sakti of destruction (samhara sakti) sucked out her impure life. He did not personally do this. Though we say a man cuts down the tree, actually it is the axe held by the man that cuts down the tree. Similarly it is stated that Krsna sucked out her life airs, though actually it was his samhara sakti that performed the work.

Being squeezed by the child in all her sensitive points, she began flailing her hands and legs.

Rasa means rasatala and other lower planets.

Because of the pain of death, the raksasi could not maintain her disguise as a beautiful woman and reverted to her raksasi form.

Because of the pain, Putana ran out of the house, passed out of the village and fell on the outskirts. The word “api” is used here to signify that not only while living, but even in dying, she was killing other living entities. All the trees within an area of six krosas were crushed. It was remarkable that only the trees were crushed, her body having avoided crushing the houses of the village. These trees belonged to Kamsa’s garden, whose fruits were for his enjoyment, according to Vaisvana Tosini (Jiva’s commentary).

15 –17 Seeing her body, the cowherd men and women became frightened. Her teeth were as large as ploughshares. Her nostrils were as deep as mountain caves. Her waist was like the bank of a river. All of this was terrible to see. Her hands, feet and thighs were like bridges and her belly was like a dried up lake. Already having their hearts, ears and heads shattered by her sound, on seeing her form they became more frightened.

Putana’s chest was raised like a hill, suitable for playing on. Entering the maternity ward, the gopis could not see Krsna there (Yasoda and Rohini had fainted). Desiring to see him they went outside the house, and saw him playing on Putana.

19 This verse mentions that the gopis, along with Yasoda and Rohini performed rituals of protection. Yasoda and Rohin did not take a leading role because they were extremely affected by anxiety for Krsna’s safety. They protected him in all limbs (sarvatah), by waving a cow tail and other items such as mustard seeds and touching him with the edge of the winnowing basket.

20 Using cow dung, they protected Krsna by touching twelve places on his body while pronouncing twelve names of Visnu starting with Kesava on the forehead.

21 In the beginning, because of great fear, they began the rituals for protection without doing acamana. After calming down, they then performed the rituals in the proper way, by first performing acamana (samsprsta salila). They then performed anga nyasa and kara nyasa on their own bodies and hands. Then, on the child’s limbs such as feet, they invoked bijas. The bija consists of the first syllable of the name with an anusvara. Example: am namah, “May Aja protect your feet.” Mam namah, “May Maniman protect your knees.”

They protected Krsna’s limbs using this verse. Anghri stands for the two feet (anghrii). Maniman is a particular avatara of the Lord. Janu stands for both knees. Hrt refers to the lotus holding the jiva in the heart region. Uro means chest.

23 In this verse the directions around Krsna are protected. May the holder of the cakra protect you in front. May Sahagada, the holder of the club, protect you behind. May Madhusudana holding the bow and aja holding a sword protect your sides. May Sankha urugaya, holding the conch, protect you in the four corners (north east, northwest, south east south west). May Upendra protect you above and Tarska (garuda) protect you below. May Haladhara protect you in all directions.

Thus the gopis completed the rituals for protection, bound to Yasoda’s house by affection. Yasoda then made Krsna drink milk from her breast. By his drinking she could understand that he was in good health. Then she put him to sleep.

31 The cowherd men were astonished. Perhaps by mistake, a mountain with unclipped wings fell from the sky and crushed all the huge trees. Perhaps, under the spell of some witch we have come to the wrong place. Or perhaps this is just a magical illusion. In this way many doubts arose in their minds.

32 “Certainly (nunam) Vasudeva is a rsi in our family; being all knowing, he has predicted correctly. Through practice of astanga yoga (yogesa) he has developed the eyes to see the future. He shines preminently (sam asa).”

33 At the order of Upananda and others, lower rank men (vrajaukasa) burned up the body completely , for fear that it would come to life again. The influence of poisonous creatures is extinguished when their bodies are burned up.

34 This verse describes how Putana’s body became sanctified by the touch of Krsna’s mouth. Her body became purified of all sins (ahata papma) at the moment (sapadi) that Krsna began drinking from her breast (krsna nirbhukta).

35–36. If a person offers service with an attempt to kill and attains the goal of life, how much more will a person attain who offers with a neutral attitude. And how much more will a person attain who offers with faith? And how much more will a person attain who offers with pure bhakti? (kum uta concerning bhakti). And if a person offers to an avatara of the Lord he will attain the supreme destination. How much more will a person attain who worships the source of all avataras, Krsna? (kim uta concerning visaya) If one offers a poison breast to Krsna and attains the supreme, how much more one will attain by offering a more poisonous object? If one offers a dear object certainly one will attain a higher destination. But if one offers a dearer object, then how much more he will attain. And if one offers the dearmost object, certainly he will attain the highest destination. (kim uta concening the offering)

If Putana, a raksasi, could attain the highest destination, what should a human being attain? If one is devotee, how much more he will attain. And if he is lover of the Lord (rakta), will he not attain attain the highest award? Then what to speak of the elderly gopis who had extreme affection for the Lord during the stealing of the calves by Lord Brahma ? (offering their breast milk to Krsna favorably though they were not his mother.) (kim uta concerning the asraya) Paying respects to Yasoda from a distance, having put her in the highest position, I will write no more , because it is beyond words.

In two verse is expressed the greatness of Putana’s attainment through the mercy of the Lord. Putana whose body was treaded upon by the feet of Krsna which are situated in the heart of the devotees and worshiped by those worthy of worship (devatas) and from whose breast Krsna drank milk, though being a rakasi, attained the supreme abode as a mother of the Lord. Those feet are situated only in the hearts of the devotees (bhakta hrdi sthabhyam) but Putana was not a devotee,-- she was not even a non devotee. She was an enemy of Krsna. Those feet are worshiped by entities worthy of worship such as Brahma and Siva (vandabhyam loka vanditaih), but Putana did not worship those feet, nor did she not worship those feet (she did worse). Rather at the time of her death she tried to dislodge those feet from her chest, and unable to do so, with her hands she began to beat them with all her strength. He stepped on her with his feet with force, not just touching her (samakramya samyak—completely).

She attained svarga. This is explained in Bhagavatam 11.7.1 “ Brahma, Siva and the loka palas now pray to live in vaikuntha dhama (svarga).” And in 10.14. 35 Brahma says, “Putana attained you along with her vamsa.” According to these two verses, svarga must mean vaikuntha, not the temporary heavenly sphere called svarga.

What is that vaikuntha? Janani gatim--what mother Yasoda attained. It was Goloka. So Putana attained Goloka, but a position predominated by happiness and reverence. She did not attain the place predominated by service in prema. One cannot say that she attained the status of a mother. 10.6. 36 says that place is reserved for those who are anuragi (rakta). And verse 38 says that the cows and motherly gopis who fed Krsna milk during the brahma mohana lila attained a higher destination than Putana. How could Putana, whose enmity was equal to Kamsa’s though she imitated the dress and emotion of a gopi, attain the same status as Yasoda? Therefore Uddhava says that she attained a status like a nurse (gataim labhe dhatry ucitam). Thus in the present verse some interpret the word janani (mother) in the present verse to be dhatri (nurse). But even then one should not say that she was a direct nurse, but rather attained a form like a nurse in a Goloka filled with sukhaisvarya.

By saying that the elder gopis attained more than Putana in going to Vaikuntha there is a contradiction to the statement that enmity and affection lead to the same goal. That statement taken literally would lead to criticism of the Lord for lack of discrimination. If it is true that the elderly gopis attained more than Putana who attained Vaikuntha, what did they attain? That should be explained. With this in mind the present verse is spoken.

Though he is the bestower of all sorts of goals such as liberation, he drank the breast milk with extremely rare awareness (alam). As bhagavatam 10. 14.31 says, “Fortunate are the cows and gopis whose sweet breast milk he drank in great bliss.” With this rare awareness he thinks, “Whatever they want I will give, and as well, whatever I want, they are willing to give.” Since whatever is desired is easily attained, Krsna certainly will give to the cows and gopis a suitable reward. More than Vaikuntha or even Goloka, he will grant them Vraja on this earth which is the most attractive of all. Though born as the son of Devaki, he did not drink her milk, but the milk of the gopis. Thus by mentioning Krsna as Devaki putra in this verse there is the implication that the gopis were more attractive to him. One should not think that he bestowed on them liberation from samsara, for already they had no material bondage. There is no bondage for those engaged in the Lord’s service. That is for those attached to house, husband and sons. Krsna drank from the breasts of the bodies of these gopis. He played in their houses. Krsna’s father was their husband. Krsna was their son. This attachment did not breed samsara. That is the intent of verse 40. Suteksana means they looked on him as their son. For them samsara did not occur ( na punah kalpate).

Samsara is born of ignorance. By the jnani’s knowledge of Brahman, samsara ceases. However better than that is the santa bhakta’s realization of bhagavan as Brahman. Better than that however is the dasya bhakta who realizes the lord as his master. By that, the Lord becomes controlled. Superior to that is the sakhya bhakta who realizes the Lord as friend. Higher that that is the vatsalya bhakti who realizes the Lord as a son (mentioned in this verse). Here there is gradation of release from samsara according to the degree of surrender of the Lord to the devotee.

41 After settling the philosophical issues, Sukadeva returns to the topic at hand. Kata means burning of the dead body. Kutah kim idam. Where does this smell come from? Is this aguru incense coming from Indrapuri down through earth and trying to enter Sutala? Or is it ascending from Bali’s abode on Sutala through the earth up to Svarga? Or is it coming from Kuvera’s city in the north or from Varuna’s city in the west? In this way the cowherd men entertained many questions.

42 The returning cowherd men were very astonished. “Vasudeva has spoken correctly.” In discussing amongst themselves they said, “Who else but Narayana could protect the baby?”

43 Returning from his visit (prosyagatah), Nanda began to lament, “In my absence so much misfortune as occurred. Why did I go to Mathura?” Udara dhi indicates that he began to criticize everyone’s intelligence: “How could the dull doorkeepers not prevent anyone from entering the house?”

44 He who hears with faith the childhood pastimes of Krsna (krsnasya arbakam) and the liberation of Putana, and takes them as most astonishing, attains attraction for Govinda. An alternate reading for srnuyat (hears) is nisamya (hearing). Taking that reading let us take the meaning: He who, hearing the childhood pastimes of Krsna and the liberation of Putana with faith, attains attraction to Govinda, then attains attraction for everything related to Govinda.