Practical Krishna - Big problem different solutions

             Life at times appears to be an endless battle. To some it looks like when one problem is solved, few tougher ones have replaced the original.  In Krishna’s life – a saga of problem solving, we saw how he was besieged with a series of problems, and many times, they had to be resolved at the same time. One such mega problem that lasted for decades was Jarasandha.  Krishna had to come with three different solutions before he could get rid of him permanently.

One of the most unsung villains in Mahabharata and Bhagavatam is Jarasandha. In this Practical Krishna series, we will focus on the practical lessons His tenacity and organizing skills were so legendary that Krishna used it to his advantage.

 

Storytime:

            After the death of Kamsa, his wives Asti and Prapti who were both daughters of Jarasandha, the King of Magadha, returned back with their woes and widowhood due to Krishna. Enraged by this tragedy, Jarasandha commanded twenty-three akshauhinis to lay siege on Mathura. For context, the entire Mahabharata war was fought with only eighteen akshauhinis, with eleven on the side of Kauravas and seven on Pandavas side.  An Akshauhini comprises of 21,870 chariots (rathas), 21,870 elephants (gaja), 65,610 horses (thuraga) and 109,350 foot soldiers (pada).

            As panic was in the region, Krishna thought of merely wiping out the army and letting Jarasandha alive as he was bound to bring raise more armies. (मागधस्तु न हन्तव्यो भूय: कर्ता बलोद्यमम् - māgadhas tu na hantavyo bhūyaḥ kartā balodyamam SB – 10-50-8). Krishna recalled the very purpose of his avatara, to eliminate the evil forces burdening the earth and protection of the pious. (एतदर्थोऽवतारोऽयं भूभारहरणाय मे । संरक्षणाय साधूनां कृतोऽन्येषां वधाय च ॥ etad-artho ’vatāro ’yaṁ bhū-bhāra-haraṇāya me saṁrakṣaṇāya sādhūnāṁ kṛto ’nyeṣāṁ vadhāya ca SB – 10-50-9)

            Two chariots descended from the heavens, with all sorts of divine weapons and charioteers. Krishna reminded Balarama that these were his familiar weapons and to recall the purpose of his avatara. Krishna led Balarama and a small army to face the ocean of Jarasandha’s endless army. Faced with an impossible task and endless rain of arrows, Krishna twanged his Saranga bow and attacked the enemy forces from seemingly multiple locations. Balarama put his famous plough to its maximum use. The endless mighty ocean of Jarasandha’s army could not hold long before the play of Krishna.

            Balarama caught hold of the lone Jarasandha, tied him up with the intent to kill, when Krishna stopped him, having conceived a long term plan (वारयामास गोविन्दस्तेन कार्यचिकीर्षया ॥ vārayām āsa govindas tena kārya-cikīrṣayā SB- 10-50-31). An utterly dejected and humiliated Jarasandha was bent of renouncing the worldly life, but was convinced by his vassal kings. He was completely convinced that his past karmas were behind his defeat. Krishna and Balarama were joyously received even as everyone celebrated these heroes in different ways. Jarasandha thus led seventeen expeditions with twenty-three akshauhinis each. They all met the same fate at the hands of Balarama and Krishna and only Jarasandha’s life was spared.

            On the eve of Jarasandha’s eighteenth attack, another enemy, Kalayavana, amassed huge numbers of army to attack Mathura. Sensing the dual grave danger, Krishna had Viswakarma, the architect for devas, to build a beautiful planned city in Dwaraka and had the citizens relocated through his yogic powers. Having dealt with Kalayavana and his army, his small group started carting the spoils of the war, when Jarasandha came for the eighteenth time with twenty three akshauhinis.

            Krishna and Balarama acted as if afraid and ran as if afraid and ran for many yojanas (विहाय वित्तं प्रचुरमभीतौ भीरुभीतवत् । पद्‍भ्यां पद्मपलाशाभ्यां चेलतुर्बहुयोजनम् ॥ - vihāya  vittaṁ pracuram abhītau bhīru-bhīta-vat padbhyāṁ palāśābhyāṁ celatur bahu-yojanam - SB – 10-52-8). They climbed a huge mountain named, Pravarshana. Unable to find the pair, he asked his army to set the mountain on fire. Jarasandha assumed that they must have certainly died in the conflagaration and was happy to return to Magadha. Krishna and Balarama escaped the fire and returned to Dwaraka.

            Jarasandha tried to create a political marriage by having his vassal Sishupala, the King of Chedi with Rukmini, the princess of Vidarbha. Rukmini sent a wonderful message to Krishna to kidnap and marry her. When Jarasandha, Sishupala and other assembled kings put a strong fight to intervene Krishna who was eloping with Rukmini, they met more than a fierce match from the Vrishnis headed by Balarama, who had followed Krishna. (Read more on Secrets hidden in Rukmini vivaha) Jarasandha consoled Sishupala how he had to wait eighteen encounters to wrest a victory and that time is the greatest leveler.

            Many years passed. One day a person came to Krishna and explained the misery to the countless Kings rotting in Jarasandha’s prison.  At the same time, Maharishi Narada brought the message of Yudhishtra’s desire to perform Rajasuya yagna and become an emperor. Krishna sought Uddhava’s opinion. Uddhava opined that Yudhishtra deserved to be an emperor, but not until Jarasandha is challenged in a duel and eliminated. Since Jarasandha is known to give any gift to a Brahmana and hence Bhima should ask for duel in disguise and fight in the presence of Krishna.

            Having spent few months with the Pandavas and eventually Krishna brought the topic of Rajasuya yagna and the need to eliminate Jarasandha. Per Uddhava’s plan, Krishna was joined by Bhima and Arjuna and they went disguised as Brahmanas. They approached Jarasandha and wanted him to bestow their desire. Gauging their voice, demeanor and scars on their hands from handling bow strings, Jarasandha inferred their Kshatriya origin and granted their unsought desire. As Krishna introduced Bhima and Arjuna and asked Jarasandha to pick one for a duel. Jarasandha felt Krishna was a coward as he left for Dwaraka Island and Arjuna was younger, thus choosing Bhima as he was co-equal in physical strength.

            They came out of the city and selected an arena and commenced their duel with maces. Having broken they continued with their wrestling and fist fights. They were equally matched in skill and courage and were in a stalemate. The fight continued for twenty seven days when the contestants fought bitterly and spent the nights in a friendly manner. The puzzled Bhima enquired why it was so difficult to tackle Jarasandha and had given up hope on the twenty eighth day. Jarasandha was born due to the blessing of Rishi Chandakausika to the heirless King Brihadratha. As he loved his two wives equally, he gave the blessed mango cut in half and each queen delivered half a child. Shocked at this, they got rid of the born dead half infants. A rakshasi Jara, eager to eat picked up the two infants and placed it together. Suddenly this revived the newborn, which she was happy to return to the King, who named it after her, Jarasandha – joined by Jara.

            Having considered Jarasandha’s orgins, Krishna infused his own tejas into Bhima. (पार्थमाप्याययन् स्वेन तेजसाचिन्तयद्धरि: ॥ pārtham āpyāyayan svena tejasācintayad dhariḥ SB-10-72-40(42)). He communicated the strategy while the fight was ongoing to Bhima by splitting a twig. Bhima took his hint and ripped Jarasandha into two parts just like he was born, thus ending the decades long problem. They installed Jarasandha’s son, Sahadeva as the next King and went to on to discharge the countless Kings languishing in the prisons free. Having Krishna installed in their hearts as Paramatma, they went back to their Kingdoms to rule them justly.

 

Understanding Krishna – applying in our lives

• Big problem different solutions – Jarasandha was a bigger problem to tackle than Kamsa’s minions or Kamsa himself. Krishna first let the problem linger till it threatened to merge with another bigger problem. Till then what was a sport, needed a different solution. He bought some peace by letting Jarasandha’s ego satisfied by feigning cowardice and also acts like they were destroyed by the fire. The cover blew up at Rukmini’s wedding. Finally when another pair of opportunities arose, Krishna resolved the problem once and for all.

• Think outside the box – Krishna desired to use Jarasandha as a tool to fulfill his plans (कार्यचिकीर्षया). He used his mortal enemy to carry out his mission to eliminate the evil. Using Jarasandha’s great organizing and administrative skills he influenced him to raise an evil army to flush out all the tamasic and rakshasic tendency people. Thus Krishna’s mission was well served with little effort having delegated the task of assembling the ones marked for elimination.

• Team work – For the first seventeen sieges of Mathura he used Balarama as a partner. He also communicated at a high level to release Jarasandha which kept Balarama wondering. High level decisions need not be informed but clear instructions must be given as to the boundaries and expectations of the task. He also used Balarama and the Vrishnis during Rukmini harana. Finally he assembled a team to tackle Jarasandha in the form of Bhima and Arjuna. Arjuna was a pure backup for contingencies and applying psychological pressure. Everybody on the team got to contribute instead of all actions being done by one person.

• Focus on the now, but have a big picture. Alternatively begin with the end in mind – Every encounter of Jarasandha was a lesson in focusing in the now. If Krishna wasted time wondering about the past attacks or future possibilities, Krishna would not have been successful in setting the example for us. It is also important to note that Krishna kept Jarasandha factored in his future plans. This living in the now, with an eye on new possibilities is a powerful takeaway message for us.

• Don’t worry about loser’s tags - Krishna was not afraid to act like a coward and earn the title, ranchor, the one who ran away from battle. Having defeated Jarasandha seventeen times, he had nothing to prove to Jarasandha. Besides having a big task of losing his Jarasandha’s trail away from the newly built Dwaraka, Krishna felt getting bad name in the eyes of a sore loser is not a big deal. Keep the priorities straight and focus on the task at hand.

• Be bold to change your stance – All Kamsa’s minions and Kamsa were tackled one on one. But with the hordes of Jarasandha he had to demolish those enmass. Also for Jarasandha it became a pattern for seventeen sieges where Krishna and Balarama will annihilate the army and free Jarasandha to return.  Krishna was open to change it when circumstances changed. Same solutions for the same old problems do not help. One must be willing to change course, of course with intelligence applied, not merely for the sake of changing.

• Be careful with ego – Krishna was dealing with a very fragile humiliated ego of Jarasandha. It was enraged at the plight of its daughters but disgraced at the repeated losses. Krishna kept his ego intact, so he kept returning again and again with large armies to fulfill Krishna’s mission. Krishna even feigned running away to feed only this ego, which was again disgraced during Rukmini’s marriage. Krishna knew that to make Jarasandha choose Bhima, he had to accompany with Arjuna so the bruised Jarasandha’s ego will be receptive.

• Be prepared – Krishna was prepared with weapons everytime Jarasandha showed up. Also came up with a new plan when Kalayavana overshadowed Jarasandha’s next siege. Dwaraka was built with Viswakarma and people relocated ahead of the conflict. The Dwaraka plan was to ensure safety and prosperity. Krishna was also prepared with Arjuna as backup and also was aware of the history of Jarasandha which provided the solution for his end. Do your homework ahead.

• Be just – During his intrusion in Rukmini’s planned marriage, he took on the assembled kings, but did not go after them. Even Rukmi, who was trying to avenge his sister’s abduction, was forgiven. All the Kings kept in Jarasandha’s prison were released and sent back with due respect to their kingdoms. It was not a political gesture to buy their support for Yudhishtra. Even Jarasandha’s kingdom was left untouched and was handed over to his son Sahadeva.

• Wait for the right time - Jarasandha could have been eliminated during the very first encounter. Yet Krishna waited for the right time. He also left him during the subsequent encounters, including one at Vidarbha. Wait for the right time to do your tasks. Timing is as important as the actual actions.

            Jarasandha’s story is ripe with so many wondrous messages for us to practically apply in our daily lives. Just as one gets better sugarcane juice by repeatedly putting the cane into the press, one must repeatedly ponder over the stories of Sri Krishna. The only difference is sugarcane loses its sweetness after being pressed few times, but Krishna’s madhurya increases the more times we bring to our minds. May we study the scriptures to not only profit for our spiritual quests but also apply the wisdom in everyday living. This alone will enable the holistic evolution of all our faculties, quicker and painless exhaustion of our vasanas even as we traverse this samsara. May Krishnaleelas and his lotus feet be our firm guides in this samsara.

 

 

ॐ तत् सत