Who were the six sons of Devaki killed by Kamsa in their previous lives?

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Discover the fascinating facts about the previous lives of the six sons of Devaki killed by Kamsa.

Sage Vyasa is narrating the birth of Sri Krishna.

When Janamejaya heard that Kamsa killed six siblings of Krishna, he wanted to know what sin they must have committed in their past births to get killed as soon as they were born.

It was Devarshi Narada who instigated Kamsa to kill these children also.

When Vasudeva came to Kamsa with his first child, Kamsa told him to take it back.

Only the eighth child would be a threat to him.

That’s when Narada came in and told Kamsa not to take a risk.

Narada is always on the side of the Devas.

Then why did he do this?

Why did he make Kamsa kill the six brothers of Krishna?

There is a reason behind this.

These six sons of Vasudeva and Devaki were the rebirths of six Munis from Swayambhuva Manvantara.

Swayambhuva Manvantara is the very first Manvantra of this Kalpa.

Kalpa is the period of existence of the universe.

It is 4.32 billion years.

This is divided into 14 Manvantaras.

Currently, we are in the 7th Manvantara.

So these 6 Munis belonged to the very first Manvantara.

They were called the Shadgarbhas.

They were all sons of Mareechi.

Mareechi is one among the 10 ManasaPutras of Brahma.

They were all great scholars.

One day, the Shadgarbhas laughed at Brahma for something.

Brahma got offended.

He cursed them to take birth as the sons of an Asura called Kalanemi.

Then, they again took birth as the sons of Hiranyakashipu.

But then they had a faint memory that they were taking birth as Asuras because their grandfather had cursed them.

They wanted to propitiate Brahma and get relief from the curse.

So they performed tapas.

Brahma was pleased and told them to ask for a boon.

But they were still Asuras.

They wanted that no one including Devas, Gandharvas and
Asuras should be able to kill them.

Brahma granted them that boon.

When their father, Hirnyakashipu heard about this, he became furious.

How can these Asura sons of his propitiate a Deva, their sworn enemies?

Now, it was Hiranyalkashipu’s turn to curse them.

He banished them to Pathala and said that they would sleep there for hundreds of thousands of years.

Then Kalanemi would be reborn as Kamsa.

The Shadgarbhas would take birth from the womb of Devaki one by one.

Kamsa would kill them all and thus they would get permanent relief from Brahma’s curse,

Sage Narada intervened when Kamsa said that he was not interested in the first seven sons of Devaki.

Narada was only trying to help the Munis.

If Kamasa wouldn’t kill them, then how would they get relief from the curse?

All events in our Puranas are interlinked. 

You should not look at them in isolation.

If you just see that Narada instigated Kamsa to kill the six children, then you will get confused. 

Narada is often wrongly portrayed as an instigator of trouble. 

When you look at the whole picture, you will understand that he was only helping them. 

All his actions have been good in the long term.

Other languages: Hindi