Putana Killed A5

tion to the devotees, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita: paritranaya
sddhiunam vindsdya ca duskrtam. The first demon to be killed was a
woman. According to Vedic rules, the killing of a woman, a brahmana,
cows, or of a child, is forbidden. Krsna was obliged to kill the demon
Piitana, andbecause the killing of a woman is forbidden according to Vedic
Sastra, He could not help but close His eyes. Another interpretation is
that Krsna closed His eyes because He simply took Putana to be His
nurse. Piitanad came to Krsna just to offer her breast for the Lord to suck.
Krsna is so merciful that even though He knew Pitana was there to kill
Him, He took her as His nurse or mother.

There are seven kinds of mothers according to Vedic injunction: the
real mother, the wife of a teacher or spiritual master, the wife of a king,
the wife of a brahmana, the cow, the nurse, and the mother earth. Because
Piitana came to take Krsna on her lap and offer her breast’s milk to be
sucked by Him, she was accepted by Krsna as one of His mothers. That is
considered to be another reason He closed His eyes: He had to kill a nurse
or mother. But His killing of His mother or nurse was no different from
His love for His real mother or foster mother Yasoda. We further under-
stand from Vedic information that Pitana was also treated as a mother and
given the same facility as Yasoda. As Yasoda was given liberation from the
material world, so Piitana was also given liberation. When the baby Krsna
closed His eyes, Pitana took Him on her lap. She did not know that she
was holding death personified. If a person mistakes a snake for a rope, he
dies. Similarly, Pitana killed so many babies before meeting Krsna, but
now she was accepting the snake that would kill her immediately.

When Pitanda was taking baby Krsna on her lap, both Yagoda and Rohini
were present, but they did not forbid her because she was so beautifully
dressed and because she showed motherly affection towards Krsna. They
could not understand that she was a sword within a decorated case. Putana
had smeared a very powerful poison on her breasts, and immediately after
taking the baby on her lap, she pushed her breastly nipple within His
mouth. She was hoping that as soon as He would suck her breast, He would
die. But baby Krsna very quickly took the nipple in anger. He sucked the
milk-poison along with the life air of the demon. In other words, Krsna
simultaneously sucked the milk from her breast and killed her by sucking
out her life. Krsna is so merciful that because the demon Piitana came to
offer her breast-milk to Him, He fulfilled her desire and accepted her
activity as motherly. But to stop her from further nefarious activities, He
immediately killed her. And because the demon was killed by Krsna, she
got liberation. When Krsna sucked out her very breath, Piitana fell down
