296
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 10, Ch. 4]
karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām govindam ādi-puruṣam tam aham bhajāmi
Everyone, beginning from the small insect known as  indra-gopa  up to Indra, the King of the heavenly planets, is obliged to undergo the results of his fruitive activities. We may superficially see that one is suffering or enjoying because of some external causes, but the real cause is one's own fruitive activities. Even when someone kills someone else, it is to be understood that the person who was killed met the fruitive results of his own work and that the man who killed him acted as the agent of material nature. Thus Kaṁsa begged Devakī's pardon by analyzing the matter deeply. He was not the cause of the death of Devakī's sons. Rather, this was their own destiny. Under the circumstances, Devakī should excuse Kaṁsa and forget his past deeds without lamentation. Kaṁsa admitted his own fault, but whatever he had done was under the control of providence. Kaṁsa might have been the immediate cause for the death of Devakī's sons, but the remote cause was their past deeds. This was an actual fact.
TEXT 22
यावद्धतोऽसि हन्तासीत्यात्मानं मन्यतेऽस्वदृक् । तावत्तदभिमान्यज्ञो वाध्यवाधकतामियात् ॥२२॥
yāvad dhato 'smi hantāsmī- ty ātmānam manyate 'sva-dṛk tāvat tad-abhimāny ajño bādhya-bādhakatām iyāt
yāvat—as long as; hataḥ asmi—I am now being killed (by others); hantā asmi—I am the killer (of others); iti—thus; ātmānam—own self; manyate—he considers; a-sva-dṛk—one who has not seen himself (because of the darkness of the bodily conception of life); tāvat—for that long; tat-abhimānī—regarding himself as the killed or the killer; ajñaḥ—a foolish person; bādhya-bādhakatām—the worldly transaction of being obliged to execute some responsibility; iyāt—continues.