krishNa leelAs and their essence – 45 – Killing of SAlva and dhanthavakra

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<< Killing of SiSupAla

SAlva was a king who ran away after losing the battle when krishNa was snatching away rukmiNi. He vowed to somehow kill krishNa and yAdhavas. He performed a penance towards rudhra for one year. Becoming pleased, rudhra asked SAlva to get his wish fulfilled. He prayed for a flying city. rudhra had maya construct a flying city named Sauba and handed it over to SAlva. SAlva boarded it  and went towards dhvArakA and started attacking the city.

pradhyumna, sAthyaki and many warriors came out and started fighting with SAlva. pradhyumna tormented SAlva and attacked his flying city as well. The city started flying in a directionless manner. But dhyumAn, a warrior from SAlva’s army attacked pradhyumna’s chest and made him faint. pradhuyumna’s charioteer brought him out of the battlefield. After regaining consciousness, pradhyumna became angry that he was brought out and went back to the battlefield. He killed dhyumAn. In this manner the battle was raging for twenty seven days. At that time, krishNa returned to dhvArakA and immediately entered the battlefield. Seeing krishNa, SAlva came to attack him. krishNa launched his chakra and severed SAlva’s head and killed him. All the dhEvathAs glorified his act, at that time.

At that time, SAlva’s friend dhanthavakra entered the battlefield. He insulted krishNa and came to attack krishNa. krishNa killed him using his mace named kaumaOdhakI, Then, his brother vidhUratha came and was killed by krishNa who severed his head using his chakra.

In this manner, as krishNa killed many demoniac persons, dhEvas, yakshas, kinnaras et al became joyful.

pEyAzhwAr in his mUnRAm thiruvandhAdhi highlights dhanthavakra’s killing in “pongarava vakkaranaik konRAn vadivu” (emperumAn killed dhanthavakran who came with lot of tumult).

Essence in this incident:

  • The gate keepers jaya and vijaya in kshIrAbdhi (milk ocean) which is known as vishNu lOkam, which is in this samsAram, were cursed by brahmA’s mAnasa puthras (children who were born from brahmA’s mind) to be born thrice in this world and oppose bhagavAn. Of those births, SiSupAla and dhanthavakra were the last.
  • bhagavAn’s avathArams are to protect noble people, destroy evil people and establish dharma. Among these goals, krishNa eliminated many evil persons and reduced the burden of earth.

Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2023/10/21/krishna-leela-45-tamil/

adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan

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