Can Abhimanyu’s getting trapped in Chakravuha be compared to our getting trapped in samsara-cakra?
Question can the chakra view in which abhimanyu got trapped be compared to the samsara chakra and this is abhimanyu was didn't know about that and so he got trapped in it he could go in but couldn't come out but krishna and arjuna knew and similarly the lord and the devotees know how to take us out of the samsara chakra but if we don't connect with them don't take their shelter then we can't get out of it we will also get trapped in it answer it's an interesting parallel actually if we want we can compare anything with anything and we have to just see what are the similarities and what are the dissimilarities and if in a metaphor or in any kind of comparison if the dissimilarities are more than similarities then that is considered to be a weak comparison so it's not necessary to encourage philosophical speculation that means we use our intelligence to try to make sense of what is given in scripture and we use our intelligence to explain to others that things make sense to them also so now let's look at the similarities in the samsara chakra we keep going round and round up and down so it's like a ferris wheel on which we are in the circumference and we are going up and down up and down whereas in the chakra view the point is that it's not that you go round and round you go deep inside so the point that both are circles are similar but what happens in the circle is very different in the samsara chakra there is no going into the center of the chakra it is just we keep staying on the circumference and keep going round and round on the circumference so they have circularity but the nature of movement within them is different another point is that it is that Abhimanyu he went inside samsara chakra or the chakra view for a specific service usually when we enter into the samsara chakra it is or say we are in a particular situation we enter into a more entangling situation because samsara chakra can be at various levels it is not so much because of the desire to serve sometimes it can be but it is often because of our own desire for gratification now as far as the connection now again the point is that we have to get out of the chakra that is also so that there is circularity and that we have to get out of that circle both of them are important but in the case of Abhimanyu there was a valid reason he had a service for getting into the circle just that he didn't know how to come out for most of us we don't have any reason to get into the circle we just get into it because we want some pleasure sometimes of course we may have some service and there is other similarities we need to get out of it now having said that how do we what are the similarities about getting out Krishna and Arjuna knew about how to get out and if you say Krishna is God and Arjuna is a pure devotee is a dedicated devotee then yes they knew how to get out of the samsara chakra and it was somebody it was others had to learn from him Abhimanyu had to learn from him but Abhimanyu had not learned it now Abhimanyu being trapped actually was not because of his fault it was not because Abhimanyu fell asleep it was Subhadra fell asleep and Arjuna was describing and seeing her fall asleep Arjuna stopped speaking the description of the chakra view and that's how Abhimanyu had half knowledge now we could say that if we fall asleep if we don't show interest then not only would we not know but others would also not know because if somebody is speaking and they stop speaking because some prominent part of the audience is uninterested so others speaker just stop speaking so we will have to have that caveat over there that in a sense we could say Abhimanyu was a victim of the circumstance whereas Subhadra he did not stop sleep it was Subhadra who fell asleep but the point is we could say that there is vigilance which is needed for both vigilance is needed to know how to get out and for the samsara chakra for coming out of it ultimately we need to have a bigger purpose outside the samsara chakra that's the best if you become attached to Krishna and his service in this world and beyond this world then even if we are in this world we are not trapped and when we come out of this world we get completely out of the scope of the trap also out of the reach of the forces of illusion also that may trap us so Abhimanyu had a specific service and as soon as he did this his service was actually specifically not just to enter into chakra view but to break the chakra view from within our purpose is not to break the chakra view to break the samsara chakra it cannot be broken even in the 15th chapter it is said that the tree of material existence is to be cut by the sword of detachment that essentially means not so much the tree has to be cut it is more that our entanglement with the tree has to be cut or you could say if that our connection with the tree has to be cut detachment is a weapon for that so in that sense there is some similarity so the thrust could be that if we can highlight the similar points and we can qualify point out the dissimilarities or make sure that the dissimilarities don't come in people's mind so much that they make the comparisons seem stretched or artificial or invalid so in general any metaphor where the correlations similarities are more than dissimilarities that can be used for conveying some point and connecting abhimanyu with abhimanyu's entrapment chakra view with our entrapment in material existence and abhimanyu's lack of knowledge and lack of access to Krishna and Arjuna with our lack of spiritual knowledge and our lack of access to lord and the devotee that can be it's a good comparison it's creative no doubt so we could make a lesson that even if we are doing a service we have to be mature enough and responsible enough to know that we have to have the resources to not get entangled in the service we have the example of Maharaj Priyavrata in the Bhagavata's fourth canto although he entered into royal responsibility and family responsibility for the sake of service still he got entangled and fortunately by higher guidance he was saved but along with the intention to serve we also need to have the intelligence to equip us with the necessary resources to be able to serve effectively that could be a broad lesson that we can draw through the comparison of abhimanyu with the abhimanyu chakra view with our samsara chakra.