Why should we study Krsna’s pastimes?• Purifies the heart• Most potent way of reviving our memory about the

Lord SB 11.24.26• We see through hearing SB 1.8.18- SB 1.8.24• Overcome material nescience SB 11.6.22 to 24• Delivered from the ocean of material miseries SB

12.4.40, SB 3.25.23• Overcome fear• Overcome hankering, envy and anxiety SB 4.30.35-37• Saved from the danger of bad elements SB 10.6.3• Increases attachment for the Lord

SB 10.31.9tava kathāmrtam tapta-jīvanamkavibhir īditam kalmasāpaham

śravana-mańgalam śrīmad ātatambhuvi grnanti ye bhūri-dā janāh

The nectar of Your words and the descriptions of Your activities are the life and soul of those suffering in this material world. These narrations, transmitted by learned sages, eradicate one's sinful reactions and bestow good fortune upon whoever hears them. These narrations are broadcast all over the world and are filled with spiritual power. Certainly those who spread the message of Godhead are most munificent

Why are we reading about demon pastimes

• Historically:– Pastimes are real– Krsna’s wonderful pastimes and qualities– His protection of devotees

• Symbolically:– Demons represent the obstacles in the path of

Bhakti , in cultivating the mood of Vraja• (Sri Krsna Samhita- Chapter 8, Text 13 by Srila bhakti

Vinoda Thakur)

KILLING OF PUTANA KRSNA BOOK CHAPTER 6

Demons in Vrindavan

• Nanda maharaja ponders on Vasudeva’s warning

• Kamsa instructs putana

Putana’s qualification

• Black Magic:– knew the black art of killing small

• Khechari– Fly from one place to another on the branch of a

tree• Witchcraft useless in places where there was

chanting and Hearing.

Putana takes the form of a very beautiful woman and gets the opportunity to nurse Krsna

Pūtanā thought, “This child is so powerful that He can destroy the whole universe immediately.”

• A deceitful, so-called guru who preaches sense gratification or liberation or both.

• engaged in some Krsna conscious activity but has not realized the course of pure devotional service

• gives instructions to his disciples beyond his own understanding, or without regard for their situations.

Putana represents a pseudo Guru

• Bhaktisiddhanta also equates Putana with religious careerists who, pretending to be devoted and with intention to deceive, use religious institution to fulfill their selfish motives. Veneered in humility, faithfulness and loyalty to God, their only motive is public reputation, desire for name, fame or high position.

Putana represents a pseudo Guru

Putana –pseudo Guru (externally)Putana Pseudo Guru – External, Internally the

mindDressed very beautifully like Goddess of fortune. Came in unchecked

Externally looks like perfect acarya. Sweet words mesmerize us. We are not able to discriminate

Promised to nourish the child to give them nutrition health and growth

Promise milk of knowledge to help us in spiritual life

Covered her breast with poison Knowledge laced with Mayawad , approaching God for Sense Gratification, using bhakti for personal gains. Acts like slow poison, e.g milk touched by a serpent, Ramanujacarya

•Propensity for real loving service is poisoned even if you are most elevated person.•One should not be enchanted by the forms and the words but should check if you are being nourished right thing.

The inwardly manifest "spiritual" guide, in the form of the mundane empiric reasoning faculty (the material mind), is also like Putana. Putana

represents falsity within - worldliness and desire for sensual pleasures.

To the degree we have that attraction we will fall for such things

Putana –pseudo Guru (internally)Putana Internally the mind

She understood Krsna by Krsna's grace We know Krsna through Guru, Sadhu and Shastra

Because of her demoniac mentality she was convinced she could kill him.

Our own mind is trying to interpret in various ways creating doubt and deviation. E.g cannot trust terrorists

We know Krsna is watching us and we know His instructions.Still due to our conditionings the mind focusses on egoistic or sensual aspirations and due to the mind the intelligence becomes corrupted and we act abominablyThe mind covers that intelligence and impels us to act contradictory to what is right.

• As soon as a child is born , it falls into the clutches of so many pseudo teachers– Religion careerists– Atheists– Other who take the child away from God

Krsna closes His eyes

• Because she had killed so many children

• She was coming in the mood of being His mother.

• She was a woman

Krsna is Supremely merciful• Putana’s moment of sincerity- motherhood– She felt some affection – Some milk, mostly poison

• How does this relate to us?– Service with right mentality• Gopis

– Service with wrong mentality

3.2.23

aho baki yam stana-kala-kutamjighamsayapayayad apy asadhvilebhe gatim dhatry-ucitam tato 'nyamkam va dayalum saranam vrajemaTRANSLATION

Alas, how shall I take shelter of one more merciful than He who granted the position of mother to a she-demon [Putana] although she was unfaithful and she prepared deadly poison to be sucked from her breast?

Service with wrong mentality• We will be purified– Krsna sucked, squeezed and

kicked– Suffering purified Putana• All her sinful tendency removed• What was left was only affection

for Krsna

• Srila Prabhupada’s preaching to the hippies

Service with Right motivation

• Gopis

See everyone from Krsna’s point of view

World is a mirror of our own heart

Gratefully accept suffering• Krsna is purifying us. Wants us back sooner. He

is pulling us fast– All that will be left is love for Krsna

What is our qualification?

We have received some opportunity to appreciate Krsna

Putana Runs out• False Guru will be exposed automatically• Our own fakeness will be exposed by Krsna

Krsna sucks out her breath

• All misgivings will leave us if we offer even little service to Krsna

From Krsna Book:As she died screaming, there was a tremendous vibration on the earth and in the sky,

on the upper and lower planets, and in all directions, and people thought that thunderbolts were falling. Thus the nightmare of the Pūtanā witch was over, and she assumed her real feature as a great demon. She opened her fierce mouth and spread her arms and legs all over. She fell exactly as Vṛtrāsura did when struck by the thunderbolt of Indra. The long hair on her head was scattered all over her body. Her fallen body extended up to twelve miles and smashed all the trees to pieces, and everyone was struck with wonder upon seeing this gigantic body. Her teeth appeared just like plows, and her nostrils appeared just like mountain caves. Her breasts appeared like small hills, and her hair was a vast reddish bush. Her eye sockets appeared like blind wells, and her two thighs appeared like two banks of a river. Her two hands appeared like two strongly constructed bridges, and her abdomen seemed like a dried-up lake. All the cowherd men and women became struck with awe and wonder upon seeing this. And the tumultuous sound of her falling shocked their brains and ears and made their hearts beat strongly.

Purificatory Rituals

• Chant the names of Vishnu• Acaman• Tail of the cow and purifying with cow urine and

dust raised by cow hoofs– Importance of the cow for mode of goodness and

Brahminical culture• Mother Yashoda chants different names of

Vishnu to protect different bodily parts

Putana’s body

• Putana’s body equated to snake’s body• Aguru aroma– Body had become transcendental

HOW DO WE PROTECT OURSELVES FROM THE PUTANAS?

Cheaters and the Cheated• Those are, therefore, greatly mistaken

who are disposed to look forward to the amelioration of the worldly state in any worldly sense from the worldly success of any really spiritual movement. It is these worldly expectants who become the patrons of the mischievous race of the pseudo-teachers of religion. the Putanas, whose congenial function is to stifle the theistic disposition at the very moment of its suspected appearance. But the real theistic disposition can never be stifled even by the efforts of those Putanas. The Putanas have power only over the atheists. It is a thankless but salutary task which they perform for the benefit of their willing victims.

THANK YOU