Category:God's Enemies
Theme Analysis
The philosophical essence of this category reveals the supreme, infallible nature of the Absolute Truth and His causeless mercy—even toward those who oppose Him. In reality, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no enemies; He is equal to everyone (samo 'haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu) and cannot be harmed. However, to exhibit His fighting spirit and perform transcendental pastimes, the Lord sometimes arranges for His own exalted devotees, such as Jaya and Vijaya, to descend from Vaikuṇṭha and play the role of His enemies. When the Lord utilizes His divine weapons—like the Sudarśana cakra and His mace—to annihilate these demons, the act of killing is actually a supreme blessing. Because these enemies are constantly absorbed in thoughts of the Lord through fear and enmity (vairānubandhena), they achieve liberation. Generally, the enemies killed by the Lord merge into the impersonal brahmajyoti. Śrīla Prabhupāda makes a profound philosophical connection here: the jñānīs and impersonalists, who undergo severe austerities to merge into the Brahman effulgence, attain the exact same destination as the demons. Consequently, the impersonalists are categorized alongside the Lord's enemies, as both are envious of His supreme, personal opulence.
- The Illusion of Enmity: The Supreme Lord is the supreme controller and has no actual enemies. He is equal to all living entities, and no one possesses the power to defeat or harm Him.
- Transcendental Pastimes: The Lord is complete in all respects, which includes the desire to fight. Because no one in the spiritual world can be an enemy, He arranges for His pure devotees to temporarily act as demons to satisfy His fighting spirit.
- Divine Annihilation: The Lord descends to protect the pious and annihilate the miscreants. His weapons, such as the club and the disc, expertly smash the earthly bodies of the atheists, freeing them from material bondage.
- Liberation Through Fear: Constantly thinking of Kṛṣṇa, even as a bitter enemy (vairānubandhena), is a powerful form of meditation. Demons like Kaṁsa were so absorbed in thoughts of the Lord through fear that they were quickly delivered.
- The Destination of Demons: When the Lord kills an enemy, that soul is instantly purified by the Lord's touch and is awarded sāyujya-mukti, merging into the Lord's impersonal spiritual effulgence.
- Impersonalists as Enemies: Impersonal philosophers who deny the Lord's transcendental form and opulence are classified as enemies of God. Their ultimate spiritual achievement—merging into the brahmajyoti—is exactly the same as the destination awarded to the demons killed by the Lord.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: God's Enemies - The Causeless Mercy of the Absolute Truth.
Pages in category "God's Enemies"
The following 67 pages are in this category, out of 67 total.
A
- A fortunate child in the womb of his mother prayed to Krsna as follows: "O enemy of Kamsa, I am suffering so much because of this material body. Now I am trapped within a mess of blood, urine and liquid stool, within the womb of my mother"
- A person who can speak sweetly even with his enemy just to pacify him is called a pleasing talker. Krsna was such a pleasing talker that after defeating His enemy, Kaliya, in the water of Yamuna, He said
- Although born of his dead father, King Prthu would still remain just like fire. Just as fire is not easily approached, King Prthu would be unapproachable by his enemies, even though they would appear to be very near him
- Although Hiranyakasipu treated the Lord (Nrsimhadeva) as his bitterest enemy, he was the Lord's faithful servant in Vaikuntha, and therefore the Lord had no hesitation in sitting on the throne that Hiranyakasipu had so laboriously created
- Although the SPG is time, fearful to everyone, He flees Mathura in fear of His enemy to take shelter in a fort; and although He is self-sufficient, He marries 16,000 women. These pastimes seem like bewildering contradictions, even to the most intelligent
- Anything done by those who have taken the attitude of enemies will be baffled
- As mud is kneaded with water and earth, so the earthly bodies of the enemies of the Lord, or the atheists, are smashed by the club of the Lord, which becomes muddied with the blood of such demons
B
- Bali Maharaja was indeed a fully surrendered devotee, but even some demons who were not at all devotees but merely enemies of the Lord attained the same exalted position achieved by many mystic yogis
- Being all-powerful, He (God) never comes under the control of material nature. Indeed, material nature is but one display of His inconceivable energies
- Being very pleased by the unalloyed devotion of Maharaja Ambarisa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead gave the King His disc, which is fearful to enemies and which always protects the devotee from enemies and adversities
D
- Dear Krsna, just as the elephant while taking bath in the lake destroys all the lotus stems within the water by swinging its trunk, so simply by moving Your arms, which are compared to the trunks of elephants, You have killed so many lotus-like enemies
- Dear Lord, You have no enemies or friends. Therefore You are equal to everyone. You cannot be contaminated by sinful activities, and Your transcendental form is always beyond the material creation
G
H
- He (God) is so kind that He awards salvation even to His enemies because they come into contact with Him and are indirectly absorbed in Him by their inimical thoughts
- He (Krsna) took His arrows from their quiver, and one after another He set them on the bowstring and shot them toward the enemy. They were so accurate that the elephants, horses and infantry soldiers of Jarasandha were quickly killed
- Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa were formerly Jaya and Vijaya, the gatekeepers in Vaikuntha, but by the desire of the Lord, they became His enemies for three lives
- Hiranyakasipu's coming to this earth and acting as the Lord's enemy was prearranged. Jaya and Vijaya were cursed by the brahmanas Sanaka, Sanat-kumara, Sanandana and Sanatana because Jaya and Vijaya checked these four Kumaras
I
- If enemies try to be liberated or to merge into the existence of Brahman, if they desire to be elevated to the higher planetary systems as karmis, or even if they desire to return home, back to Godhead, they will certainly be baffled
- If even the enemies of the Lord achieve salvation by constantly thinking about the Lord, what is to be said of pure devotees who always engage in the Lord's service and who think of nothing but the Lord in every activity
- If the son is already an enemy of Visnu, how, in such an inimical mood, can he offer sacrifice (to deliver his father) unto Lord Visnu's lotus feet? Lord Krsna is directly the Personality of Godhead, Visnu, and Duryodhana was inimical to Him
- If we analyze, what is the fault of Jesus Christ, there is no fault. The only fault he was preaching about God. And still he'd find so many enemies. He was cruelly crucified
- Impersonalists and the enemies of the Lord are, because of attraction to God, allowed to enter into His kingdom, but they are not allowed to enter into the Vaikuntha planets or the Goloka Vrndavana planet of the Supreme Lord
- In Bhagavad-gita (BG 9.29) the Lord says, I am equal to everyone. No one is dear to Me, nor is anyone My enemy
- In spite of his strenuous efforts to attain perfect knowledge, the impersonalist attains merging into the impersonal oneness of the brahmajyoti of the Lord, which is also attained by the enemies of the Lord simply because of their being killed by Him
- In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that the Lord, being equally disposed toward every living being, has no enemies and no friends but that He has special affection for a devotee who always thinks of Him in love
- It appears that Kamsa, although a great enemy of the SP of Godhead, was aware of the Vedic culture and conscious of the fact that the soul transmigrates from one body to another and that one suffers in the next life according to the karmas of this life
- It is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gita that the Lord is equal to everyone; no one is His enemy and no one is His friend. But to one who surrenders unto Him, He is especially inclined
K
- Kamsa was a great giant, and Vasudeva and Devaki never thought that Krsna and Balarama (Baladeva) would be able to kill such a great and strong enemy
- Kamsa was attached to bhakti-yoga by dint of fear of his death. Thus bhakti-yoga is so powerful that even becoming an enemy of the Lord and always thinking of Him can deliver one very quickly
- Kasyapa Muni advised his wife, Aditi, to begin worshiping Lord Vasudeva, who is situated in everyone's heart. He is the friend of everyone and is known as Janardana because He can kill all enemies
- Krsna said, "My dear friends, you know that Lord Balarama and I left Vrndavana just to please Our relatives and family members. Thus We were long engaged in fighting with Our enemies and were obliged to forget you, who were so much attached to Me"
N
- No one can be the Lord's enemy, since who could be more powerful than the Lord? There is actually no question of anyone's being His enemy
- No one is allowed to enter the Vaikuntha planets unless he has developed one hundred percent his mentality of devotional service to the Supreme Lord. No enemy of the Lord can enter Vaikunthaloka
O
- O protector of the universe, you are engaged by the S P of Godhead as His all-powerful weapon in killing the envious enemies. For the benefit of our entire dynasty, kindly favor this poor brahmana. This will certainly be a favor for all of us
- One gopi told her friend: "It appears that Lord Krsna, the enemy of the demon Agha, has released from His mouth a whirlwind which is acting on your head and is gradually proceeding to do the same to the other lotus-eyed gopis"
- Others, who were in the marginal position, being neither friends nor enemies but slightly in love of Godhead by appreciating the beauty of His face, were at once promoted to the spiritual planets, the Vaikunthas
S
- SB 7.9.38: My Lord, You kill all the enemies of the world in Your multifarious incarnations in the families of men, animals, demigods, rsis, aquatics and so on. Thus You illuminate the worlds with transcendental knowledge
- So from this statement (SB 10.59.13) it appears that Krsna was very expert in counteracting the enemy's arrows
- So it is to be understood that they are of similar classification. And actually the impersonalists are enemies of God because they cannot tolerate the unparallelled opulence of the Lord
- Somewhere else Naradaji found that Lord Krsna was engaged in discussing topics of fighting, and somewhere else in making peace with enemies
- Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura has commented that because the words "bow" and "arrow" are used in this verse (SB 7.15.42), one might argue that the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity have become enemies
T
- The impersonalist philosophers are in one sense like the enemies of the Lord because the out-and-out enemies of the Lord and the impersonalists are both allowed to enter only into the impersonal effulgence of the brahma-jyoti
- The impersonalists, therefore, are no more favored than the enemies of the Lord; rather, they are both on the same level of spiritual salvation
- The impersonalists, yogis and enemies of the Lord enter into the Lord’s transcendental effulgence
- The innumerable living entities merge into that dissolution, which appears to be the dropping of the curtain of the scene of the Supreme Lord's energy, and so everything becomes silent
- The Lord had nothing to fear from anyone, yet He was merciful to His enemy by neglecting him
- The Lord has no duty to perform to oblige anyone. Nonetheless, He appears to act to protect His devotees or kill His enemies
- The Lord is so kind, however, that even though they are His enemies, they are still allowed to enter into the spiritual kingdom and remain in the impersonal brahma-jyoti, the undifferentiated light of the absolute
- The Lord is supremely perfect, and whenever He enacts His transcendental pastimes as a son, a rival or an object of enmity, He plays the part so perfectly that even pure devotees like Uddhava are bewildered
- The Lord, being all that is described above, maintains the affairs of the creation, and by His so doing He gives salvation even to His enemies who are killed by Him
- The Lord, who had appeared from the nostril of Brahma, sprang and aimed His mace at the chin of His enemy, the Hiranyaksa demon, who was stalking fearlessly before Him
- The more a devotee engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord, the more encouragement is supplied by the energy of the Lord
- The personified Vedas continued, "In other words, both the yogis and the great, wise philosophical speculators ultimately attain the impersonal Brahman effulgence, which is automatically attained by the demons who are regular enemies of the Lord"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Your (the Lord's) enemies also concentrate upon You, thinking always of how to kill You, and yogis undertake great penances and austerities just to attain Your impersonal effulgence"
- The Supreme Lord cannot have any enemy, nor can a so-called enemy harm Him because He is ajita, or unconquerable. But still He takes pleasure when His pure devotee beats Him like an enemy or rebukes Him from a superior position
- Then with His mace the Lord (Varahadeva) struck the enemy (Hiranyaksa) on the right of his brow, but since the demon was expert in fighting, O gentle Vidura, he protected himself by a maneuver of his own mace
- This sayujya-mukti is impossible to attain even for great transcendentalists. How then did the enemy of the Lord attain it
W
- We get from sastras: the so-called enemies of God who is killed by God, he also attains perfection
- We should follow in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya as far as possible and try to convince the opposition by quoting from the sastras and presenting the conclusion of the acaryas. It is in this way that we should try to defeat all the enemies of the Lord
- When He (The Lord) desires to fight with someone, He has to find an enemy, but in the Vaikuntha world there is no enemy. Therefore He sometimes comes to the material world as an incarnation in order to manifest His fighting spirit