Thursday, February 8, 2007

BG3

yotsyamanan avekse ’ham
ya ete ’tra samagatah
dhartarastrasya durbuddher
yuddhe priya-cikirsavah

Sloka 23.

In today's sloka Arjuna tells Sri Krishna, let me see with whom I have to fight and who are with me to foght [my enemies].

We should see that the Lord obeys the orders of His devotees. In Ramavatara , in the Thretha yug[ 2n
d of the chathur yug] sage Vishwamitra arrives at Dasaratha's palace and the King welcomes the sage and expresses his happiness as sams as when rains come in a rainless area [since in the earlier periods sage Vasishta, the kula Acharya of Ikshvaku dynasty, and Viswamitra were foes Dasaratha presumed that Viswamira will never visit Ayodhya or his palace] and without any provocation promises to give whatever Viswamitra asks. Catching this point Viswamitra asks Dasaratha to depute Sri Rama with him to protect the yagna he is doing. Dasaratha is shocked and declines saying that Sri Rama had not completed even 16 years and so He may not be able to help him but Dasaratha offered himself to accompany the sage to protect the yagna. Viswamitra says that with his penance [thapas] he himself can destroy Thataka and other demons but since he was doing yagnam he could not divert his attention to anger etc and further said that Sri Rama could fill this task and other tasks kept waiting for Him.Dasaratha out of extreme love for Sri Rama refuses and so Viswamitra gets angry and starts leaving the palace in a huff. Noting that Viswamitra is seeking Sri Rama to perform more noble deeds like His marriage with Sri Sita, Vasishta immediately intervenes and advises the King to stop Viswamitra from leaving and hand over Sri Rama as requested. Dasaratha accepts this and Sri Rama is sent with Viswamitra. At the yagna , Viswamitra orders Sri Rama to destroy Thataka. Sri Rama hesitates as this was His first real test of valour and He does not want to use His bow and arrows against a woman. Viswamitra advises Sri Rama saying that she can not be considered as a woman and it was right to kill her. Sri Rama at that time remembered His father's words to obey Viswamitra and takes aim and kills the demon.As Sri Narasimha , to obey and make true the words of the Asura kid Prahalada, He appeared from the same pillar Hiranyakashipu bombarded.Thus He always obeys His devotees commands and so here Sri Krishna agrees to park the chariot between the two armies. [Kaurava side had 11 Akshouhinies of army and Pandava had 7 Akshouhinies. One Akshouhiny consists of thousands of elephants, thousands of horses, thousands of chariots and lahs of infantry]

1 comment:

Ranjani said...

In the Blog posted by you, about His soulabhyam is indeed touching.The fact that, Sri Bhagawan listens to the request of His bhagtas is truly overwhelming.