Story, Shri Krishna
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Entry of Kaliyug
Once upon a time in Brahmalok (the eternal residence of Lord Brahma), Lord Brahma was seated on a white lotus. Goddess Parvati was sitting next to Him. Just then Devrishi (sages who are living in the abode of Gods) Narad came and bowed to Lord Brahma. Narad was worried. When Brahmaji asked Devrishi, Devrishi said that he had been to the “Kumbhmela” at Haridwar where he bowed to Gangaji and then went to Vrindavan where he heard a lady crying. Two people were sleeping next to the lady. When Naradji asked her for the reason she was crying, she said that she was Bhaktimata (Goddess) and the two people next to her were her sons, knowledge and asceticism who had become very weak due to the impact of Kalyug. All three were sad. She wanted to know if there was any way out wherein all three- devotion, knowledge and asceticism could live together.
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Krishna sends Udhav to Gopis
Uddhav was Shri Krishna’s cousin brother. The deities’ teacher Brihaspati gave Brahmagyan (divine knowledge) to his disciple Uddhav. Uddhavreceived knowledge par excellence. After this, he stopped praying to God and meditated only for the formless (spiritual) divine being. He was very proud about his knowledge. Krishna, to break his ego created an act and told Uddhav, “I have come to Mathura but still my mind is fascinated with Radha and the Gopis. You are very knowledgeable, please get me relieved from this fascination and let the Gopis free from my affection.” According to Uddhav, this was the fascination of love; a knowledgeable person does not get carried away with emotions. Then Krishna told him to go to Gokul and free the Gopis from the emotion of affection.
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Droupadi Vastraharan
Duryodhan was very jealous of the grandeur of Indraprasth, capital of the Pandavas. Shakuni uncle gave him an idea that the Pandavas would come to Hastinapur for the Holi festival. On this occasion he must invite Yudhishthir for gambling. Yudhishthir loved to gamble and so he would be ready to play. Later Shakuni would defeat him by cheating him and then support Duryodhan in snatching away the kingdom of the Pandavas. On getting the invitation from Duryodhan, Yudhishthir played the game. The condition of the game was that whoever lost the game would go in exile for twelve years and one year living incognito.
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Shri Krishna in Kauravas court as envoy of peace
Shri Krishna went to court of the Kauravas being the peace messenger and explained toDhritrashtra and others to side the truth and let the Pandavas enjoy their rights. Duryodhan was adamant about fighting a war. Then he ordered Dushashan to make Krishna his captive. Krishna appeared in his Viraat (gigantic) form and frightened everyone and met Kunti and Vidurbefore returning. Kunti advised her sons to fight for their rights and prepare for war.
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Characters
Devas
Other names- Parth, Dhananjay, Jishnu,Arjuna
Arjun was the son of Pandu, the King of Hastinapur and his wife Kunti. Kunti had summoned for Lord Indra (Lord of the Devtas in the heaven) with the help of the mantra given to her by Sage Durvasa. With the conjunction of Indra and Kunti, Arjun was born. One of the names of Kunti was Prutha. That is why Arjun is also known as Parth. Arjun was third of the five Pandavas. Arjun had also excelled in using his left hand for archery. That is why he was called “Savyasachi”. Arjun took over many regions and earned lots of wealth and so came to be known as “Dhananjay”. Arjun was such a peerless archer that he is often referred to as “Jishnu” - the invincible.
Arjun is considered to be an incarnation of Nara, the younger brother of Narayan. He is sometimes referred to as the 'fourth Krishna' of the Mahabharata.
Arjun was the favourite student of Guru Dronacharya. Arjun was an expert in archery. A well known story about Arjun exemplifies his powers of concentration. Guru Dronacharya once decided to test his students in their skills of archery. He hung a wooden bird from the branch of a tree and then summoned his students. He asked the first one to aim for the bird's eye but not shoot just yet. He then asked the student to describe what he could see. The student replied that he could see the garden, the tree, flowers, etc. Drona asked him to step aside and not shoot. He repeated the same process with a few other students. When it was Arjun's turn, Arjun told his Guru that the only thing he could see was the bird's eye. This satisfied the Guru and he allowed Arjun to shoot the bird. The lesson here is the power of focus. Arjun once noticed his brother, Bhima, who was a voracious eater, eating in the dark as though it was daylight, and realized that if he could practice archery in the dark he would be a master.
Arjun had also learnt the science of arms from Parshuram. During the time of Pandavas exile into woods, Arjuna left his other brothers and embarked on a journey to the Himalayas to meditate upon Lord Shiva. Shiva was pleased with his adventurous nature and gifted him Pashupati Astra, Agneya Astra, Gandiv Dhanush and Akshaya Tunir (never finishing quiver to keep arrows). Arjun was also gifted a huge chariot named Nandighosh by Lord Varun (Lord of rain). Arjun was an expert in archery and use of arms and a valiant warrior. He was also famous as a virtuous, justice- loving and a mannered person. Arjun had learnt the art of dance and music from Chitragupta.
The King of Panchal region Drupad had organized a Swayamvar (choice of her husband by a princess in public) for his daughter Draupadi. Drupad held a contest to choose a suitable match for his daughter. A wooden fish was suspended high above a reflective pool of oil; furthermore, the fish rotated. Contestants were required to string a heavy bow and then hit the eye of the rotating fish, but were allowed to aim only by looking at the fish's reflection in the pool of oil. It was Arjun, the peerless archer, who alone was able to accomplish the set task and married Draupadi. He was also married to Subhadra, sister of Shri Krishna. With this marriage, Abhimanyu was born. By marrying Chitraganda, daughter of Manipur king, he became the father of a son named Babhruvahan. While his visit to Indrapuri (Indralok), a heavenly nymph named Urvashi was fascinated by him. Urvashi expressed her love to Arjun but he rejected it saying that as she was the nymph of Indra’s court, she was like a mother to him. At this, Urvashi got angry and cursed him to remain impotent for one year. During the one year stay of living incognito (in disguise), Pandavas were spending their time at King Viraat’s house living in disguise. There, Arjun enduring this curse, taught music and dance to Viraat’s daughter Uttara in the disguise of Vrihannla.
Arjun was fond of Lord Krishna. Even Shri Krishna was very fond of Arjun. It was due to this fondness he became the charioteer of Arjun in the war of Mahabharata. At the beginning of war, on seeing the respectable elders like Bhishma Pitamah, Guru Dronacharya and his brothers Kauravas in front of him, Arjun became emotional with love for his blood relations and kept back his arrows thinking of not to fight the war. Then, Krishna revealed to him the Sermon of Gita and motivated him to fight the war. In Gita, Krishna deemed it Arjun's duty to struggle to uphold righteousness, without consideration of personal loss, consequence or reward; the discharge of one's moral duty, he said, supersedes all other pursuits, whether spiritual and material, in life.
Krishna counseled Arjun on the greater idea of dharma or universal harmony and duty. He began with the tenet that, the soul was eternal and immortal. Any 'death' on the battlefield would involve only the shedding of the body, but the soul was permanent. Arjun's hesitation stemmed from a lack of right understanding of the 'nature of things,' the privileging of the unreal over the real. His fear and reticence became impediments to the proper balancing of the universal dharmic order. Essentially, Arjun wished to abandon the battle, to abstain from action; Krishna warned however, that without action, the cosmos would fall out of order and truth would be obscured.
In order to clarify his point, Krishna expounded the various Yoga processes and understanding of the true nature of the universe. Krishna described the yogic paths of devotional service, action, meditation and knowledge. Fundamentally, the Bhagavad Gita proposes that true enlightenment comes from growing beyond identification with the temporal ego, the 'False Self', the ephemeral world, so that one identifies with the truth of the immortal self, the absolute soul or Atman. Through detachment from the material sense of ego, the Yogi, or follower of a particular path of Yoga, is able to transcend his/her illusory mortality and attachment to the material world and enter the realm of the Supreme.
Arjun played a major role in the victory of Pandavas in the war of Mahabharata.
After the end of war, Arjun along with his brothers and mother Kunti went to Himalayas and left for his heavenly abode.
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