Srimad-Bhagavatam: Canto 10 - Chapter 1 - Verse 22

Sanskrit:

यावद्धतोऽस्मि हन्तास्मीत्यात्मानं मन्यतेऽस्वद‍ृक् ।तावत्तदभिमान्यज्ञो बाध्यबाधकतामियात् ॥ २२ ॥

ITRANS:

yāvad dhato ’smi hantāsmī-ty ātmānaṁ manyate ’sva-dṛktāvat tad-abhimāny ajñobādhya-bādhakatām iyāt

Translation:

In the bodily conception of life, one remains in darkness, without self-realization, thinking, “I am being killed” or “I have killed my enemies.” As long as a foolish person thus considers the self to be the killer or the killed, he continues to be responsible for material obligations, and consequently he suffers the reactions of happiness and distress.

Purport:

By the grace of the Lord, Kaṁsa felt sincere regret for having unnecessarily persecuted such Vaiṣṇavas as Devakī and Vasudeva, and thus he came to the transcendental stage of knowledge. “Because I am situated on the platform of knowledge,” Kaṁsa said, “understanding that I am not at all the killer of your sons, I have no responsibility for their death. As long as I thought that I would be killed by your son, I was in ignorance, but now I am free from this ignorance, which was due to a bodily conception of life.” As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (18.17): “One who is not motivated by false ego, whose intelligence is not entangled, though he kills men in this world, is not the slayer. Nor is he bound by his actions.” According to this axiomatic truth, Kaṁsa pleaded that he was not responsible for having killed the sons of Devakī and Vasudeva. “Please try to excuse me for such false, external activities,” he said, “and be pacified with this same knowledge.”