SrI: SrImathE satakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama: SrI vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:
anirudhdha was the son of pradhyumna, who was the son of krishNa. He was also very beautiful. bANa was the eldest among mahAbali’s hundred sons. He was ruling SONithapura. ushA who was the daughter ofbANa, desired for anirudhdha and married him. bANa became angry and jailed them. At that time a great battle occurred. Let us enjoy this incident now.
bANa was very devoted towards rudhra. He had thousand hands. Once when rudhra was joyfully dancing, bANa beautifully played drums and pleased rudhra. rudhra promised to bANa that whenever bANa is in danger, he will come and help.
bANa’s daughter ushA, saw a beautiful man in her dream, while sleeping, one day. She immediately fell in love with him. But she was feeling sad since she did not who he was. Seeing her state, her friend chithralEkhA came forward to help her. She had amazing powers. She could draw very beautiful drawings. Hearing ushA’s narration, she first drew dhEvas, gandharvas et al. But ushA did not accept them. She then drew krishNa’s picture. ushA thought that was close but not exactly matching. She then drew pradhyumna’s picture. ushA thought that was closer, but still not matching. Finally when she drew anirudhdha’s picture, she agreed that that was it. Immediately, chithralEkhA took the aerial route to reach anirudhdha’s place in dhvArakA where he was sleeping, lifted him up along with the cot on which he was resting, and brought him to ushA’s private quarters. ushA informed anirudhdha about her love towards him and he accepted her proposal. They married immediately and started living there joyfully.
While this was going on, a few of ushA’s maids observed some changes in ushA and informed bANa about it. He immediately came to her private quarters and observed that they were together joyfully. He became angry and subdued anirudhdha with nAgAsthra and jailed him,
Here in dhvArakA, everyone was worried due to anirudhdha’s absence. nAradha came there and informed that anirudhdha was imprisoned in SONithapura. Immediately krishNa took a huge army along with him and reached SONithapura.
Seeing krishNa’s huge army, bANa prayed to rudhra. rudhra at once came with his family to help in the war. But as the war began, they could not compete with the valour and strength of krishNa and yAdhavas. rudhra, dhurgA, skandha, jvaram et al lost and ran away from the battlefield. krishNa severed all but four of the thousand hands of bANAsura, Subsequently, bANAsura accepted his defeat. rudhra returned and praised bhagavAn and begged for forgiveness.
Then, bANa sent ushA along with anirudhdha and many gifts to dhvArakA.
AzhwArs have enjoyed bANAsura vadham in many places.
- periyAzhwAr in his thiruppallANdu says “mAyap poru padai vANanai Ayiram thOLum pozhi kurudhi pAyach chuzhaRRiya Azhi vallAnukkup pallANdu kURuthumE” (We praise that emperumAn who is holding aloft chakkraththAzhwAr who was spun to make the demon bANAsuran to bleed from his thousand shoulders, like a flood).
- pEyAzhwAr in his mUnRAm thiruvandhAdhi says “magan oruvarkkallAdha mAmEni mAyan maganAm avan magan than kAdhal maganai siRai seydha vANan thOL seRRAn kazhalE niRai seydhu en nenjE ninai” (Oh my mind! krishNa who does not have to be born as a son to anyone, but having a great divine form and amazing activities, was born as a son for vasudhEva; his son pradhyumna’s son anirudhdha was imprisoned by bANa; krishNa severed that bANa’s shoulders).
- thirumazhisai AzhwAr in his thiruchchandha viruththam elaborately explains this in “mOdiyOdu ilachchaiyAya sAbam eydhi mukkaNAn kUdu sEnai makkaLOdu koNdu maNdi venjamaththu Oda vANan Ayiram karam kazhiththa AdhimAl pIdu kOyil kUdu nIr arangam enRa pEradhE” (Along with dhurgA whom the sAthvika people would shy away from, and his sons, three-eyed rudhra brought his army and engaged in the war; krishNa, the cause of all, made such army headed by rudhra run away by severing the thousand hands; the great temple of such krishNa with lots of water is known as SrIrangam).
- nammAzhwAr in his thiruvAimozhi explained this in “parivinRi vANanaik kAththumenRu anRu padaiyodum vandhedhirndha thiripuram seRRavanum maganum pinnum angiyum pOr tholaiyap poru siRaip puLLaik kadAviya mAyanai Ayanaip poRchakkaraththu ariyinai achchudhanaip paRRi yAn iRaiyEnum idar ilanE” (On that day (when krishNa himself arrived for anirudhdha, his grand son), rudhra who is proud about destroying thripura (the three towns) came and stood against krishNa saying “I will protect bANAsura, removing his sorrows” along with his son subrahmaNya who is having the greatness of being the commander-in-chief of the army of dhEvathAs (celestial beings) and agni (who resembles rudhra in his anger); krishNa, the amazing personality in the guise of incarnation, one who positions himself in a lowly stature (as a cowherd boy) having the attractive divine disc and riding periya thiruvadi (garudAzhwAr) who is having attacking divine wings, made them all (rudhra et al) run away saying “we will never fight again”; I, who enjoy such emperumAn who destroys the enemies and never abandons his devotees, do not have even a little bit of sorrow).
- thirumangai AzhwAr in his periya thirumadal explains this incident beautifully in “sUzhkadaluL ponnagaram seRRa purandharanOdu Erokkum mannavan vANan avuNarkku vAL vEndhan thannudaiya pAvai ulagaththuth thannokkum kanniyarai illAdha kAtchiyAL thannudaiya innuyirth thOzhiyAl emperumAn InthuzhAy mannum maNivaraith thOL mAyavan pAviyEn ennai idhu viLaiththa IriraNdu mAl varaiththOL mannavan than kAdhalanai mAyaththAl koNdu pOy kanni than pAl vaikka maRRavanOdu eththanaiyO manniya pErinbam eydhinAL” (indhra (the head of celestial entities) who entered oceans and destroyed the demons of hiraNyapura and attained the name purandhara; bANAsura, who is king among the kings and a radiant leader among asuras, matches such indhra; ushA, who is so extremely beautiful, with none in the world equalling her in beauty, is the daughter of such bANAsura; with the help of her dear friend chithralEkhA, anirudhdha who is the dear grandson of krishNa who is having divine shoulders adorned with divine thuLasi garland and matching a mountain of gemstones, united with ushA and she attained great pleasure with him).
Essence in this incident:
- Having the help of other dhEvathAs and opposing bhagavAn, will lead to losing everything. Hence it is best to be fully devoted to bhagavAn and be glorious.
- Though dhEvathAs know the greatness of bhagavAn, when their rajO and thamO guNam are on the rise, they dare to oppose bhagavAn. But after a while, they realise their mistake and beg for forgiveness from bhagavAn.
- bhagavAn previously promised prahlAdha that he will not kill prahlAdha’s descendants. Also ushA should not lose her father and suffer. These are the two reasons why bhagavAn just severed all but four of the thousand hands of bANa.
Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2023/10/16/krishna-leela-40-tamil/
adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan
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