SrI: SrImathE satakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama: SrI vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:
After bhIshma’s defeat, dhrONa becomes the commander-in-chief for kauravas. The war was going on in full force. Every day many warriors got killed.
gatOthkacha who was born to bhIma and hidumbi arrived in the battlefield and posed a great threat for karuavas’ army. Eventually, he was killed by karNa.
Then, abhimanyU who was born to arjuna and subhadhrA fought with great valour. kauravas devised a great plan to kill him. Under the leadership of dhrONa they prepared the chakra vyUha. abhimanyU could break into chakra vyUha but did not how to come out of it. yudhishtira et al promised that they will follow him and back him up and encouraged him to go in. Hence, he went into the chakra vyUha. Bringing him in, in this manner, many mahArathas (great warriors) gathered together and killed him. Many soldiers stood together and stopped yudhishtira et al who tried to help him. jayadhratha played an important role in killing abhimanyU.
While all of these were happening, arjuna was not present there. When he returned, he found out that his son abhimanyU fought with great valour and was killed in the end in a cowardly manner. He became very sad and angry. He vowed that he will kill jayadhratha who was the main reason for his son’s killing, before the sunset on the subsequent day, failing which, he will kill himself.
On the next day, from the beginning of the battle, kauravas ensured that arjuna could not get close to jayadhratha. Sunset was nearing. At that time, krishNa used his sudharSana chakra and covered the sun. It appeared that the sun had set. dhuryOdhana brought jayadhratha out and asked arjuna “When are you going to kill yourself?”. At that time, krishNa took back his chakra, and ordered arjuna “Now you sever jayadhratha’s head with an arrow and make sure that it goes and falls on his father’s hand”. arjuna obliged and as jayadhratha’s father put down the head which unexpectedly came and fell on his head, he died.
In this manner, krishNa greatly favoured arjuna to avenge abhimanyU’s killing.
AzhwArs have enjoyed bhagavAn changing day to night in their pAsurams.
- poygai AzhwAr in his mudhal thiruvandhAdhi says “muyangu amaruL thErAzhiyAl maRaiththadhu en nI thirumAlE pOrAzhik kaiyAl porudhu” (Oh Sriman nArAyaNa! Why did you cover the sun with the chakra in your hand, in the mahAbhAratha war?).
- thirumazhisai AzhwAr in his nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi says “vengadhirOn mAyappozhil maRaiya thErAzhiyAl maRaiththArAl” (bhagavAn covered the sun to darken the whole world, with his chakra).
- thirumangai AzhwAr in his periya thirumozhi says “pAzhiyAl mikka pArththanukku aruLip pagalavan oLi keda pagalE AzhiyAl anRu angu Azhiyai maRaiththAn arangamA nagar amarndhAnE” (SrI ranganAtha who is present in SrIrangam, showered his mercy on the very strong arjuna by covering the sun in the daytime with his chakra).
Essence in this incident:
- sudharSana chakra is more radiant than sun. Hence, bhagavAn used his chakra to blacken the vision of everyone and made it appear like sunset.
- jayadhratha needs to be killed. One who pushes the head of jayadhratha will die – arjuna should escape from that also. Hence, bhagavAn tactically ensured that arjuna severs the head and makes it fall on the hand of his father.
Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2023/10/31/krishna-leela-55-tamil/
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