86 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
checked by the Sudargana-cakra of Lord Krsna, and being defeated in his
attempt to devastate the city of Dvaraka, he turned back.

Having failed to set fire to Dvaraka, he went back to Varanasi, the
kingdom of Kaégiraja. As a result of his return, all the priests who had
helped instruct the black art of mantras, along with their employer,
Sudaksina were burned into ashes by the glaring effulgence of the fiery
demon. According to the methods of black art mantras instructed in the
Tantra, if the mantra fails to kill the enemy, then, because it must kill
someone, it kills the original creator. Sudaksina was the originator, and the
priests assisted him; therefore all of them were burned to ashes. This is the
way of the demons: the demons create something to kill God, but by the
same weapon the demons themselves are killed.

Following just behind the fiery demon, the Sudarsana-cakra also entered
Varanasi. This city of Varanasi had been very opulent and great for a very
long time. Even now, the city of Varanasi is very opulent and famous, and
it is one of the important cities of India. There were then many big
palaces, assembly houses, marketplaces and gates, with very important
large monuments by the palaces and gates. Lecturing platforms could be
found at each and every crossing of the roads. There was a treasury house,
and elephant heads, horse heads, chariots, granaries and places for distribu-
tion of foodstuff. The city of Varanasi had been filled with all these
material opulences for a very long time, but because the king of Kasi and
his son Sudaksina were against Lord Krsna, the Visnu-cakra Sudargana
(the disc weapon of Lord Krsna) devastated the whole city by burning all
these important places. This excursion was more ravaging than modern
bombing. The Sudargana-cakra, having thus finished his duty, came back
to his Lord Sri Krsna at Dvaraka.

This narration of the devastation of Varanasi by Krsna’s disc weapon,
the Sudargana-cakra, is transcendental and auspicious. Anyone who narrates
this story or anyone who hears this story with faith and attention will be
released from all reaction to sinful activities. This is the assurance of
Sukadeva Gosvami who narrated this story to Pariksit Maharaja.

Thus ends the Second Volume, Eleventh Chapter, of Krsna, “Deliverance
of Paundraka.and the King of Kasi.”
