krishNa leelAs and their essence – 37 – Burning down khANdava vana, Building indhraprastha

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After hearing that pANdavas had returned after their exile in forest and living incognito for one year, krishNa along with sAthyaki and other yAdhavas, went to see them at indhraprastha. krishNa became overjoyed on seeing pANdavas. He spoke to them very affectionately. Their wife, dhraupadhi offered obeisance to krishNa and became joyful. He bowed at his aunty kunthi and enquired about her well-being. She was a great devotee of krishNa. She explained all their sufferings to krishNa and told him that by his grace, they are back to normal now.

This indhraprastha was constructed by krishNa’s grace for pANdavas. Let us see its history now.

Once when krishNa and arjuna where together, agni dhEva came in the guise of a brAhmaNa to them and told him that he is very hungry. Both of them told him “You can eat as much as you need”. He then showed his real form and told him that he wanted to consume khANdava vana fully. This forest is a property of indhra which was dear to him. But there were a lot of evil animals. krishNa considered in his heart that these are unnecessary burden on earth, and hence desired that agni destroy it. As per the orders of bhagavAn, agni consumed the whole forest. Many evil animals which were there got killed. Whichever animal came out, was killed by arjuna and krishNa. indhra tried to stop the fire by causing huge rain. Still he could not do anything there. maya (a demoniac sculptor) who escaped from there was saved by arjuna. It is said that such maya built indhraprastha subsequently. dhuryOdhana slipped and fell down in the palace built by maya and was insulted by dhraupadhi for that. This became one of the main reasons for mahAbhAratha war, thakshaka, a snake, which escaped from here, took vengeance towards parikshith, who was the grand son of arjuna, due to its hatred for the kuru vamSam (clan).

thirumangai AzhwAr in his periya thirumozhi narrates the burning down of khANdava vanam in “kANdA vanam enbadhOr kAdu amararkkaraiyan adhu kaNdavan niRka munE
mUNdAr azhal uNNa munindhadhuvum” (sarvESvaran mercifully showed his anger to have the complete fire eagerly consume the forest of the leader of dhEvathAs, indhra’s, which is known as kANdava vanam, which cannot be destroyed by anyone, in front of him, while he was observing).

Essence in this incident:

  • For our every action, unexpected results will occur in future. By thakshaka, who was affected by the burning down of the khANdava forest, after many years, parIkshith became affected. dhraupadhi’s insult of dhuryOdhana became the reason for mahAbhAratha war.
  • bhagavAn does not just use one method to eliminate the burden of earth, but uses many methods.
  • bhagavAn showers his love on pANdavas who are his devotees, and reveals his great love for his devotees.

Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2023/10/13/krishna-leela-37-tamil/

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