Text 23]
The Atrocities of King Kamsa
297
TRANSLATION
In the bodily conception of life, one remains in darkness, without self-realization, thinking, “I am being killed” or “I have killed my enemies.” As long as a foolish person thus considers the self to be the killer or the killed, he continues to be responsible for material obligations, and consequently he suffers the reactions of happiness and distress.
PURPORT
By the grace of the Lord, Kamsa felt sincere regret for having unnecessarily persecuted such Vaiṣṇavas as Devakī and Vasudeva, and thus he came to the transcendental stage of knowledge. “Because I am situated on the platform of knowledge,” Kamsa said, “understanding that I am not at all the killer of your sons, I have no responsibility for their death. As long as I thought that I would be killed by your son, I was in ignorance, but now I am free from this ignorance, which was due to a bodily conception of life.” As stated in  Bhagavad-gītā  (18.17):
yasya nāhaṅkṛto bhāvo buddhir yasya na lipyate hatvāpi sa imāl lokān na hanti na nibadhyate
“One who is not motivated by false ego, whose intelligence is not entangled, though he kills men in this world, is not the slayer. Nor is he bound by his actions.” According to this axiomatic truth, Kamsa pleaded that he was not responsible for having killed the sons of Devakī and Vasudeva. “Please try to excuse me for such false, external activities,” he said, “and be pacified with this same knowledge.”
TEXT 23
क्षमध्वं मम दौरात्म्यं साधवो दीनवत्सलः । इत्युक्त्वाश्रुमुखः पादौ श्यालः स्वस्रोरथाग्रहीत्॥२३॥
kṣamadhvaṁ mama daurātmyaṁ sādhavo dīna-vatsalāḥ