Mahabharata Characters 41 – Arjuna 04 – All the gods bested at Khandava

This talk is a part of the “Fascinating Mahabharata Characters” series. To know more about this course, please visit: bhakticourses.com

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the Mahabharata character series. We are now entering the heart of the character of Arjuna’s actions.
So, Arjuna has won the hand of Draupadi. Then he has also won the hands of several other queens, especially Subhadra. Subhadra and Draupadi have been reconciled.
And then Krishna comes to meet Arjuna and his sister Subhadra. And he comes with several of his family members. Balram comes and Satyaki and Akrura and many other family members come along.
And they bring a huge number of gifts. In fact, the gifts appear to be like a sea following the procession of the chariots of the Yadavas. And the Pandavas get the news that the Yadavas are coming.
Then Nakula and Sahadeva go out right at the gates to meet and welcome Krishna and Balram and their guests. And then they are all brought in. All the citizens are waiting, eager to have a darshan of Krishna.
And then Yudhishthira offers respect to Balram. Krishna offers respect to Yudhishthira and Bhima. And Krishna and Arjuna embrace each other.
And then Yudhishthira gratefully, gracefully accepts all the gifts and then allocates palaces for all of them to live. And then they meet Subhadra. And then after living for a few days, everybody else decides to return.
But Krishna decides to stay on. And Krishna and Arjuna go into the… they are in the Khanda area only now, which has now become the Indraprastha. So they decide to go near the forest.
And they are staying there. Let’s go near the forest, there are lakes over there. We’ll go near the bank of the Yamuna.
Yamuna flows in that area. And there they sit and discuss about the various wars that they have fought, the various weapons they have used, the various weapons they know. And they’re having deep intimate Kshatriya renounces.
So once at the edge of the forest, an ivory seat has been put. And there they sit. And they’re talking and suddenly, they see a tall, powerful looking Brahmana priest walking straight towards them.
And his effulgence coming from his body. And he’s looking majestic. And as he comes, Krishna and Arjuna both get up.
Kshatriyas respect Brahmanas. And then he says, I’m a Brahmana who is a voracious eater. And I need food.
So keeping a straight face, Krishna and Balram… Krishna and Arjuna enquire, what kind of food would you like to have? He says, I cannot have ordinary food. No need to be Agni. He says, and I need the herbs that are going in this Khanda forest.
Now Khanda Prastha is a large area. It’s almost half of the Kuru kingdom. It had been given by Dhritarashtra to the Pandavas.
And out of it, actually a small part had been made into inhabited zone. But still the vast Khanda forest remained. And Agni pointed to a large patch of that Khanda forest, especially one part which is quite dangerous.
And he said, there are herbs inside this forest. And Brahmaji had told me that if I can consume these herbs, then my indigestion will be cured. He said, there was another king, Sveketu, and he had done a heavy, big sacrifice in which he offered so much ghee into the sacrificial fire that taking it all, I have developed indigestion.
And the only cure is this. And I have tried several times to consume this forest myself, but Indra’s friend, the snake Takshaka, lives in this forest. And because of that, Indra constantly protects him.
And so, whenever I try to set fire to this forest, he immediately showers down water and baffles me. So, I need your help. Krishna and Arjuna look at each other and look at Agni in surprise.
And Agni added, Brahma has told me that these animals who are inhabiting, animals and creatures who are inhabiting this forest are all sinful beings. Many of them are rakshasas, daityas, dhanavas who have taken the form of the animals. So, actually, when animals do violence, animals kill human beings, animals kill other animals, there is no bad karma.
If humans do that, there is bad karma. If rakshasas do that, they also earn a law of karma to a significant extent. But when the rakshasas and daityas, they take the body of animals and then they kill, then they can do bad karma with impunity because they have immunity.
So, this is how they are misusing. And therefore, killing them will actually do good to the world. So, Arjuna and Krishna look at each other and Arjuna says, the task that you have set up for us, we will definitely do it.
But I need a proper bow, I need inexhaustible quiver of arrows and I will need a chariot. If you can provide me these, then I will definitely do as you are bidding. So, Agni closed his eyes and he summoned and there Varuna appeared.
And he told Varuna that in your depths, Varuna is the god of water, in your depths there are many treasures. So, please from there, get the bhogandiva and also get two inexhaustible quivers and kindly also go to Somadev and from him get a very powerful chariot he has got. And that chariot with steeds, with very powerful horses, silvery steeds, that will serve this purpose.
And within a matter of moments, Varuna did that. And in Arjuna, Varuna gave the bow to Agni, Agni gave it to Arjuna. And Arjuna, it was a huge bow, almost as tall as a man.
And it was majestically shaped with effulgence to it. Arjuna took it and twanged it and just the sound of the twanging was like a thunder. And it sent tremors in the environment all around.
Arjuna was jubilant. The perfect weapon and its twanging could cause terror in his opponents. And then he looked at the majestic chariot.
It was ornamented with jewels and there were a huge, large reservoir of weapons already there. And of course, he had already got two quivers inexhaustible. And he saw on top, the main standard was an emblem of Hanuman.
And Hanuman seemed about to scream in anger and put terror into the hearts of the enemies. So actually, there was the image of Hanuman already there. And later on, when Bhima and Hanuman meet each other, and Bhima requests Hanuman to be present on Arjuna’s chariot, that means, here there was the emblem and there’s some level of presence in it.
But Hanuman manifested his personal presence over there when Bhima requested. But here the symbol was already there and there were other ferocious beasts also all around it on top. And Krishna said that, I will become his charioteer.
And Varuna, Agni also gave Krishna a mace, Kaumodaki, a powerful mace which could pulverize whatever it hit. And Krishna said, as he said, I’ll become the charioteer. Arjuna circumambulated the chariot respectfully and then he ascended on it.
It was almost like he was ascending to the heavens. And then he told Agni, start your work. He said, set the forest on fire.
And as soon as he set the forest on fire, the flames started blazing high up in all directions. And Krishna got on the chariot of Arjuna. This was actually the first time that Krishna acted as the charioteer of Arjuna, Parthasarathi, he became.
And then they started going at high speed around the forest, going around it. And whichever beasts would try to escape, he shot arrows ferociously. And by shooting arrows, he started killing them.
And actually, because they were killed in the presence of Krishna, they attained the supreme destination. So they were sinful and they were going to do a lot of trouble for others and also get into karmic bondage. But Krishna and Arjuna were delivering them.
And as the creatures started burning and the forest started blazing, the news reached Indra. And Indra said that, oh, this forest is blazing. My friend Dakshaka is there.
And immediately, he ordered the rains, cloud, shower rains. And as rain started falling, by this time, the forest had been so much ablaze that the rainwater just simply evaporated away because of the heat. And Indra shot more rains.
And as the rain started pouring down on the fire and threatening to extinguish the fire, Arjuna started shooting arrows, arrows, arrows. And he shot in such swift succession that the arrows created an umbrella. And all the rain that was falling, it just slid off from that umbrella onto the side of the forest.
And below the forest kept burning. So just as Krishna had improvised an umbrella using a mountain during the Govardhan Leela, now Arjuna improvised a mountain using a, sorry, Arjuna improvised an arrow umbrella. So there, of course, the purpose was different.
Here, Krishna’s purpose was to protect what was under the umbrella, under the improvised umbrella. And Arjuna’s purpose was to ensure the destruction of what was under the arrow umbrella goes on. So although externally one thing was protection, the other was for destruction, but ultimately the purpose was the same.
The purpose was to protect and spread dharma in the world. And in both cases, Indra was acting as the antagonist. And Arjuna kept shooting arrows and arrows for two arrows to be so close to each other that water will not go through it.
It’s an incredible achievement. But Arjuna used his mystic powers. Dronacharya during his education had already given him mystic powers.
And he used those powers and he did a stupendous feat. And when Arjuna saw this, when Indra saw that, he became angry. And then at that moment, as Arjuna was also whirling around, so Arjuna saw Arjuna from an escape way.
Takshika’s wife and his son were escaping. And as they were escaping, Arjuna knew that they were evil creatures. So Arjuna shot an arrow.
So the snake woman, she, the arrow cut off her head. And as his son Ashwasena was also flying by, Arjuna was out to shoot an arrow at him also. At that time, Indra sent a violent gust of wind towards Arjuna.
And Arjuna was overwhelmed by that wind. Temporarily rendered senseless. And in that moment, Ashwasena fled from there.
And Ashwasena would later come in the Mahabharata war through the arrow of Karna to try to take revenge. But here he escaped. And as Arjuna came back to his senses, he was enraged at Indra for having interfered like this.
He called out a challenge to Indra. He said, stay and fight. And he started shooting arrows at Indra.
Indra sent down his series of thunderbolts. And Arjuna just countered it with the vayavasthra. And the vayavasthra, whatever thunderclouds were falling, just got dissipated.
And the wind spread. The sky became clear overhead. But below the wind fuelled the fire more.
And as the evil creatures in the Khanda forest were getting burned, their animal flesh was acting as the fuel below. And the wind was spreading the fire. And the fire blazed more and more.
And Indra sent down further weapons. And Arjuna countered those weapons. And seeing this, Indra called other celestials.
So at that time, the Vishwadevas, the Maruthas, the Ashwini Kumaras, all the Asiddhas, Charanas, the various devatas who were there, they all came to assist Indra. And Indra himself was a Lokpal. Along with him, there are other Lokpals.
There is Kubera, there is Varuna, there is Yamaraja. They all came. And Yamaraja used his death-wielding club.
Varuna had his Varunapash. And Kubera had his thunderous mace. And they all discharged the best of their weapons.
And Arjuna countered them one by one by one. And Indra was infuriated. He sent down his Vajra, the most powerful of his weapons.
And Arjuna countered it with his weapons. And seeing this, the devatas were stunned. And all of them together could not stop Indra, could not stop Arjuna.
And Indra at one level was pleased that this was after all his son who was having just stupendous archery skills. But at the same time, he wanted to test. And therefore, he declared to the gods, all of us charge on Arjuna.
And they all charged. Arjuna fought back and held all of them back. And finally, as they were all held back, a voice was heard from the background.
He says, Oh Indra, your friend Takshaka is not there in this forest. Therefore, there is no need for you to interfere. And know that you will not be able to defeat Krishna and Arjuna.
They are actually Narayana and Nara. Arjuna and Krishna are Nar Narayana. And they have come in human form now to do your own mission.
They are undefeatable and do not fight with them anymore. When Indra heard this, Indra desisted. And all the devatas left.
And Agni kept blazing higher and higher and higher. And at that moment, Mayadana, who was also in the forest, he fled away. And as he fled, Krishna lifted his Sudarshan chakra from ahead.
And Agni was chasing him from behind. Mayadana very intelligently just ran to Arjuna. And he fell at his lotus feet.
He says, Please, I surrender to you. Please protect me. Arjuna said, One who surrenders to me, I will never turn that person away.
I will protect you. And he said this. He turned to Krishna.
Krishna put the board on. And Agni also held himself back. And as this happened, Indra came above.
Sky had cleared up. Indra said, Oh Arjuna, he says, Oh Keshava, what you have accomplished has never been accomplished by anyone before. You single-handedly held back all the gods.
It’s an unparalleled feat and I am pleased with you. Please ask for some blessing. So Arjuna said, I want to have your celestial weapons.
So Indra smiled. He said, Yes, you will have those weapons, but not now. In the future, when you please Shiva and from Him, when you get His great Pashupatastra, at that time, you will get my weapon also from me.
I will take you to heavens and you will get my weapon. And then Krishna looked at Arjuna. He looked at Indra and said, I want that my friendship with Arjuna should go on forever and ever without any disturbance.
And Indra smiled and said, So be it. And Indra departed. So now here Krishna is the supreme Lord, but He is playing the role of a human being.
And accordingly, Indra plays the role of a god. And normally, when devatas give darshan, they also give blessings. So the blessing that Krishna asks is so instructive.
Krishna… normally, what do we ask for a blessing? Something that is very important for us. Something that is of small importance. We won’t ask if we are some very big person with whom we get to eat and we have something to ask.
Generally, we ask something which we feel is very very important. So Krishna reveals through what He asks Indra, what is most important for Him? What is most cherished for Him? That is His relationship with His devotees. Actually, all of us can be His devotees.
And our relationship with Him and His relationship with us, that is actually our greatest treasure. And as Bhaktivinoda Thakur says in one of his songs, Amito tomara, tumi to amar, ki kaja apar dhane. I am yours and you are mine.
What other treasure do I need? That’s what Krishna is demonstrating. What I want is that my friendship with Arjuna should go on forever and ever. And after Indra departed, Maya was still there.
And He turned towards Arjuna and He said, I am grateful to you that you have saved my life. Please, let me also, let me offer you something in return. So Arjuna said, no, when you surrendered to me, protecting you was my duty.
And I won’t take any reward for having done my duty. Remember this was the same principle that Arjuna had used earlier also when Angaraparan, after he defeated him, but spared him, Angaraparan offered him something. So Arjuna said, no, I will not take anything.
Then only, when exchange was done, then Arjuna accepted it. So here Maya said that, no, no, please don’t think of it as a return that I am giving to you for having saved my life. I simply want to please you.
Please allow me to do something for you. So Arjuna remained firm and he said, I do not want to frustrate your desire, but I cannot accept anything from you for just having done my Kshatriya duty. But if you want to do something for me, please Krishna.
And then he turned expectantly towards Krishna and Krishna smiled, looked at Arjuna and He said, if you want to do something for me, you should please Arjuna. As Maya became a little confused, he said, yes, what will please Arjuna is if you offer something wonderful to Yudhishthira. So he said, you are also one of the architects for the higher beings.
So actually, Vishwakarma is the architect of the gods and Maya is often considered to be the architect of the demons. So he said, make a majestic assembly for Yudhishthira. So Maya became very pleased and he said, yes, I will do that.
And he said that I have got many very good ingredients kept, the perfect ingredients for making a majestic assembly and let me go and get them. And then from there, I will get many other things for you also. He said, Arjuna, I will get a conch shell for you.
And this conch shell, when you blow it, it will break terror in the hearts of your opponents, known as devadatta. So then Maya took permission and he left and soon he came back. He came back with his assistants and they set to work and they made a magnificent assembly hall for Yudhishthira Maharaj.
And eventually, it was in this assembly hall that Narada Muni came and Narada Muni told the story of, told about various assembly halls in various parts of the universe. And when he was telling about the assembly halls in various places, he told about Pandu and he told Pandu’s desire that Yudhishthira do a Rajasuya Yajna. And it was in this same assembly hall that eventually the Rajasuya Yajna sacrifice was performed.
And actually, it was here that the kings came and offered sacrifices. So Arjuna in the Srimad Bhagavatam remembers this whole pastime. So he remembers that how was I able to accomplish this stupendous feat of defeating the devatas.
Because He was close to me, by His presence, by His proximity, He infused me with power, He infused me with intelligence, He infused me with His grace. And that’s how Nayedam. So, Khandav I offered to Agni.
So Indra and along with him Amaragana, all the other devatas. Fought with them, defeated them and by defeating them, I satisfied them. So actually, there was no deep enmity because Indra is a god and Arjuna was a godly being.
He was a devotee. Indra is further, the father and Arjuna are sons and there was no enmity. But through the fighting, by exhibiting his skills, he satisfied Indra.
So after that, he attained the Sabha, Mayakrita. You know, the architecture was so astonishing that we know how Duryodhana got bewildered and slipped and fell. Kings, Digpyo, from the various directions, those who had been defeated, they came.
They offered sacrifice. So this was the first war that Krishna and Arjuna fought together. And Krishna acted in the role of the charioteer of Arjuna.
And what a victory it was! That the devotee with the Lord is more powerful than all the gods combined together. As the Bhagavad Gita says, There is vijaya, there is victory over there. And that was the victory that Arjuna achieved by the presence, proximity and grace of Krishna.
It’s a glorious victory for Arjuna and it brought in eventually the arrangements by which the magnificent Rajasuya Yajna was performed in which Krishna was declared as the Agra Purush, the greatest person in the whole universe. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.