King Kamsa was desperate. Something had to be done. He was just informed by a mysterious goddess that his killer was still alive. Many months ago he had heard a voice from the sky broadcasting that the eighth son of his sister would kill him. At that time even while the royal wedding procession was moving towards Kamsa’s brother-in-law, Vasudeva’s palace, Kamsa had shamelessly caught his sister by her hair and was about to behead her in full public view. He thought that if his sister is no more, then there is no question of a son born from her. But the timely intervention of Vasudeva averted a catastrophe when he very diplomatically argued with Kamsa and promised him that every newborn baby would be brought to him to be disposed at his sweet will. Kamsa liked this proposal and the procession went ahead. In the months that followed, Kamsa did not wait until the birth of the eighth child but killed every child born to Devaki and Vasudeva. However, the eighth pregnancy was not a boy but a girl and this puzzled Kamsa. He thought that cheating and false propaganda exists even in the heavenly society. His guilt laden mind was veering towards despondency when his evil ministers argued that the only solution was to unleash more terror. They said that since his killer was still a newborn baby and could not be more than a few hundred villages away they should murder all newly born children within the entire province without delay. And thus the plot was hatched. But who could carry out such a dastardly act? There was only one person Putana, the child-killer. In fact this was her speciality. She knew the art of flying, so speed was no issue and she had applied deadly poison to her nipples. Whenever she would offer her breast to suck, the innocent child would die an instantaneous death. Additionally, Putana would disguise herself as an extremely beautiful woman so that she gained instant access to every home.
Indeed, this was the way that she entered the village of Nanda Maharaja. Looking at her exquisite beauty the simple village folk even confused her for the goddess of fortune, Lakshmidevi, and marveled at their good fortune that she should even consider to visiting their simple village. Smiling as she entered the inner precincts of the house and seemingly spreading rays of goodwill while hiding one of the most nefarious intentions of all time to come, Putana was now face to face with her victim. Who was to become the nemesis of whom? She thought that today would also be another routine job and as a hardened serial killer approaches another of his hapless victims, she took one look at the baby. This time instead of the confidence and diabolical delight accompanying her act, a strange thought crossed her mind. Putana thought, “This child is so powerful that He can destroy the whole universe immediately.” She too decided to act immediately. At the same time Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, was immersed in His own thought process. He was thinking this woman has come to me with motherly feelings. Although her intentions are criminal, she ought to be rewarded appropriately. Therefore, He looked at her with a little perplexity and then closed His eyes again. As soon as He closed His eyes, it was Putana’s turn to be perplexed. She knew her task. It was to kill this baby, but she realized that this was no ordinary baby. Driven by her fierce and cruel heart she decided to go ahead and kill him.
Why did Krishna close His eyes? Great Vaishnava authorities have analyzed this simple phenomenon from various angles. As Krishna had recently advented on this planet and was still playing the part of a small baby, He closed His eyes as is the nature of small babies. Another reason was that He did not like to see the face of a notorious child-killer like Putana. It should be noted that Putana was ordered by Kamsa to kill all the newborn babies in the province of Mathura but she hesitated when she entered the room where baby Krishna was lying. Thus in order to assure her, Krishna closed His eyes. Still another reason could be that the Lord advents to kill all miscreants and demons, but this demon were in the form of a woman. That’s why He simply closed His eyes. Finally, it could be said that Krishna simply took her to be His nurse and closed His eyes just like a small baby would do so.
She took Krishna on her lap and pushed her nipple into His mouth. Although the nipple was smeared with deadly poison, it had no effect on Krishna. Baby Krishna, becoming very angry at her, took hold of her breast, squeezed it very hard with both hands and sucked out both her poison and her very life.