Shloka 18
कुब्जानुग्रहः, धनुर्भङ्गः, कुवलयापीडवधः, मल्लयुद्धं, कंसवधः, स्तुतयः
गोपालदारकौ प्राप्तौ भवद्भ्यां तौ ममाग्रतः मल्लयुद्धे निहन्तव्यौ मम प्राणहरौ हि तौ
gopāladārakau prāptau bhavadbhyāṃ tau mamāgrataḥ mallayuddhe nihantavyau mama prāṇaharau hi tau
“Those two cowherd boys have arrived. In my very presence, you must strike them down in the wrestlers’ combat—for they are, indeed, the takers of my life.”
Kamsa (commanding his wrestlers, in the narration relayed by Sage Parashara to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Teaching: Historical
Quality: authoritative
Avatara: Krishna
Purpose: Kṛṣṇa accepts the public challenge so that Kaṃsa’s murderous intent ripens into an open confrontation culminating in his downfall.
Leela: Yuddha
Dharma Restored: Protection of the innocent and overthrow of tyrannical adharma in the arena of public justice
Concept: Tyrannical power reveals itself by treating the innocent as enemies and by sanctifying violence through public spectacle.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Refuse to normalize injustice masked as ‘sport’ or ‘duty’; recognize and resist dehumanizing rhetoric.
Vishishtadvaita: Even when the Lord appears as a ‘boy,’ divine sovereignty operates within history to protect dharma through embodied action.
Vishnu Form: Krishna
FAQs
It signals Kamsa’s recognition that his adharmic rule is nearing its destined end; the verse frames Krishna and Balarama as the inevitable agents of cosmic justice.
By presenting Kamsa’s command as driven by fear and fate, the narrative implies that human power cannot override the higher order upheld by Vishnu’s avatara.
Krishna (as Vishnu’s avatara) embodies the Supreme Reality restoring dharma; Kamsa’s hostility becomes the stage on which divine order reasserts itself over oppressive kingship.