View source for The demons said "Let us immediately begin by killing all the brahmanas who are in charge of the Vedic knowledge, along with the great sages who are in charge of sacrificial ritualistic performances"

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{{terms|"So let us immediately begin by killing all the brāhmaṇas who are in charge of the Vedic knowledge, along with the great sages who are in charge of sacrificial ritualistic performances"}}
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{{compiler|Iswaraj}}
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[[Category:Demons]]
[[Category:Say]]
[[Category:Let Us]]
[[Category:Immediately]]
[[Category:Begins]]
[[Category:Kill]]
[[Category:Brahman]]
[[Category:Who Are]]
[[Category:In Charge]]
[[Category:Vedic Knowledge]]
[[Category:Along With]]
[[Category:Great Sages]]
[[Category:Sacrifice]]
[[Category:Ritualistic]]
[[Category:Performance]]
[[Category:Krsna Book Chapter 04 - Kamsa Begins His Persecutions]]
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<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
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<h3>Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead</h3>
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Let us immediately begin by killing all the brāhmaṇas who are in charge of the Vedic knowledge, along with the great sages who are in charge of sacrificial ritualistic performances. Let us kill all the cows, which are the source of butter, which is so necessary for performing sacrifices. Please give us your permission to kill all these creatures.
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[[Vanisource:KB 4|Krsna Book, 4]]
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Vasudeva took the opportunity of Kaṁsa’s benevolence and informed him that his atheistic activities were also due to this misconception of life—namely taking the material body to be the self. When Vasudeva talked with Kaṁsa in such an illuminating way, Kaṁsa became very much pleased, and his guilt for killing his nephews subsided. With the permission of his sister Devakī and brother-in-law Vasudeva, he returned to his home with a relieved mind.

But the next day Kaṁsa called all his counselors together and narrated to them all the incidents that had happened the night before. All the counselors of Kaṁsa were demons and eternal enemies of the demigods, so they became depressed upon hearing their master speak of the night’s events. And although they were not very much experienced or learned, they began to give instructions to Kaṁsa as follows: “Dear sir, let us now make arrangements to kill all children who were born within the last ten days in all towns, counties, villages and pasturing grounds. Let us execute this plan indiscriminately. We think that the demigods cannot do anything against us if we perform these atrocities. They are always afraid of fighting with us, and even if they wish to check our activities, they will not dare to do so. Because of your immeasurable strength, they fear your bow. Indeed, we have practical experience that whenever you stood to fight with them and began to shower your arrows on them, they immediately fled in all directions just to save their lives. Many of the demigods were unable to fight with you, and they immediately surrendered themselves unto you by loosening their turbans and the tufts of hair on their heads. With folded hands they begged you to spare them and said, ‘My lord, we are all afraid of your strength. Please release us from this dangerous fight.’ We have also seen many times that you would never kill such surrendered fighters when they were all fearful, their bows, arrows and chariots broken, forgetful of their military activities and unable to fight with you. So actually we have nothing to fear from these demigods. They are very proud of being great fighters in peacetime outside the war field, but actually they cannot show any talent or military power on the war field. Although Lord Viṣṇu, Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā are always ready to help the demigods, headed by Indra, we have no reason to be afraid of them. As far as Lord Viṣṇu is concerned, He has already hidden Himself within the hearts of all living entities, and He cannot come out. As far as Lord Śiva is concerned, he has renounced all activities; he has already entered into the forest. And Lord Brahmā is always engaged in different types of austerities and meditation. And what to speak of Indra—he is a straw in comparison to your strength. Therefore we have nothing to fear from any of these demigods. But we must not neglect them, for the demigods are our determined enemies. We must be careful to protect ourselves. To root them out from their very existence, we should just engage ourselves in your service and be always ready for your command.”

The demons continued to say, “If there is some disease in the body which is neglected, it worsens and becomes incurable. Similarly, when one is not careful about restraining the senses and lets them loose, it is then very difficult to control them. Therefore, we must now be very careful of the demigods before they get too strong to be subdued. The foundation of the strength of the demigods is Lord Viṣṇu, because the ultimate goal of all religious principles is to satisfy Him. The Vedic injunctions, the brāhmaṇas, the cows, austerities, sacrifices, performances of charity and distribution of wealth are all for the satisfaction of Lord Viṣṇu. So let us immediately begin by killing all the brāhmaṇas who are in charge of the Vedic knowledge, along with the great sages who are in charge of sacrificial ritualistic performances. Let us kill all the cows, which are the source of butter, which is so necessary for performing sacrifices. Please give us your permission to kill all these creatures.

“Actually the limbs of the transcendental body of Lord Viṣṇu are the brāhmaṇas, the cows, Vedic knowledge, austerity, truthfulness, sense and mind control, faithfulness, charity, tolerance and performance of sacrifices. Lord Viṣṇu is situated in everyone’s heart and is the leader of all demigods, including Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā. Therefore we think that to persecute the great sages and brāhmaṇas is to kill Lord Viṣṇu.”

Thus being advised by his demoniac ministers, Kaṁsa, who was from the very beginning the greatest rascal, decided to persecute the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas, being entrapped by the shackles of all-devouring, eternal time. He ordered the demons to harass all kinds of saintly persons, and then he entered his house. The adherents of Kaṁsa were all influenced by the mode of passion as well as illusioned by the mode of ignorance, and their only business was to create enmity with saintly persons. Such activities can only reduce one’s duration of life. The demons accelerated the process and invited their deaths as soon as possible. The result of persecuting saintly persons is not only untimely death. The act is so offensive that the perpetrator also gradually loses his beauty, his fame and his religious principles, and thus his promotion to higher planets is checked. Driven by various kinds of mental concoctions, the demons diminish all kinds of auspiciousness. An offense at the lotus feet of the devotees and brāhmaṇas is a greater offense than that committed at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A civilization that commits such sinful activities generally loses all faith in the Supreme Lord, and such a godless civilization becomes the source of all calamities in human society.
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