Karmsa Begins His Persecutions 39
with them and began to shower your arrows on them, they immediately
began to flee in all directions just to save their lives. Many of the demigods
were unable to fight with you, and they immediately surrendered them-
selves unto you by opening their turbans and the flag 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 chariets
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 of the warfield, but
actually they cannot show any talent or military power on the warfield.
Although Lord Visnu, Lord Siva and Lord Brahma are always ready to
help the demigods headed by Indra, we have no reason to be afraid of
them. As far as Lord Visnu is concerned, He has already hidden Himself
within the hearts of all living entities, and He cannot come out. As far as
Lord Siva is concerned, he has renounced all activities; he has already
entered into the forest. And Lord Brahma 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 all these demigods. But we must not neglect them because the demi-
gods are our determined enemies. We must be careful to protect ourselves.
To root them out from their very existence, we should just engage our-
selves 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 becomes incurable. Similarly, when one is not care-
ful about restraining the senses and lets them loose, it is very difficult to
control them at all. Therefore, we must always be very careful of the
demigods before they get too strong to be subdued. The foundation of
strength of the demigods is Lord Visnu, because the ultimate goal of all
religious principles is to satisfy Him. The Vedic injunctions, the brahmanas,
the cows, austerities, sacrifices, performances of charity and distribution
of wealth are all for the satisfaction of Lord Visnu. So let us immediately
begin by killing all the brahmanas who are in charge of the Vedic know-
ledge and the great sages who are in charge of sacrificial ritualistic per-
formances. 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 Visnu are the
brahmanas, the cows, Vedic knowledge, austerity, truthfulness, sense and
