Sanathana Dharma: Srimadh Bagawatham - Krishna and Jarasandha Part 1

Continued From:

Krishna and Jarasandha:

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After Kamsa’s death, his wives Asti and Prapti rushed to their father king Jarasandha of Magadha. Jarasandhan wished to avenge Kamsa’s death and waged war against Lord Krishna. Jarasandhan was defeated by Lord Krishna or 17 times and on the eighteenth time, Lord Krishna created the city of Dwaraka in the west, transported all the subjects of Mathura to Dwaraka by His yogic powers. He remained in Mathura with Balarama. Jarasandhan’s friend Kala Yavanan came to help Jarasandhan in the war. Kala Yavana saw Lord Krishna come out of the city of Mathura. Kala Yavana followed lord krishna. He soon started to chase Lord Krishna wishing to overpower the Lord. Lord Krishna entered a cave and hid inside the cave. Kala Yavana followed the Lord in to the cave and saw a shrouded sleeping figure. Mistaking the figure to be the Lord, the Yavana kicked the figure. The figure woke up with a start and looked upon Kala Yavanan thus reducing him to ashes.

The main question many people have after reading this narrative is why should the Lord run away from Jarasandha and Kala Yavana?

We can answer the above question by examining the hidden purport of the story.

There seem to be many hidden esoteric meanings in this story. The name Kamsa means “copper” or “bronze”. In ancient times many alchemists preyed on innocent people with their claims to convert “copper” or “bronze” to “gold”. Thus “Kamsa” seems to represent materialistic illusion wedded to Asti (existence) and Prapti (attainment). In the company of materialism existence and attainment are materialistic in nature.

True Identity of Jarasandhan:

Jarasandhan represents Agni/Sun. Thus his city is Magadha in the East. Jara is a name of Agni. At birth Jarasandhan was split into two halves but was revived when a woman named Jara joined the two halves. The birth of Jarasandhan seems to signify the weakened Agni or the small spark left in the wood which is revived by bringing in contact with new fuel (Jara). Jara. or old age of the fuel makes Agni

into a young, united flame. Jarasandhan took birth from two mothers and Agni has two mothers as well. Jarasandhan is the sacrificial fire maintained by a person.

Jarasandhan approached by his daughters wages a war against the Lord.The war is but a sacrifice. It could probably be said that the object of this sacrifice is to obtain permanent existence and attain the Supreme Being as Jarasandhan wages war to fulfil his daughters’ wish. Lord Krishna is also called as Yagna or Sacrifice and is represented by the Orion constellation. The Orion constellation is square in shape and is poetically used to represent the sacrificial altar in which the Lord of the Sacrifice, Lord Krishna is found.. The city Mathura meany “honey town” and is the earthly representation of Orion. The regent of Orion is Soma the Lord of Sacrifice. Lord Krishna incarnated in the lunar dynasty and is hence Soma. The soma juice is obtained from the soma creeper and offered in the sacrificial fire. As the altar contains the soma juice, it is said to contain the elixir or nectar of sacrifice. Thus Mathura as honey town or nectarine town represents Orion.

Jarasandha (Agni) enters the sacrificial altar (Orion Constellation) from the East. The sacrificer who performs the daily agnihothram ritual has to enter the altar from the East. The three belt stars of the Orion represent the three fires of Agnihotra called as Garhapatya, Dakshina and Ahavaniya. The Ahavaniya fire is always used to make oblations to the God and is kept in a square altar in the East. This square altar is Orion and in our case Mathura.

Thus Jarasandhan attacking Mathura from East is the Ahavaniya ritual performed in the morning. The Eastern Star is Ardra which is associated with Rudra who is also Agni. The star to the west of the constellation is Sravana whose regent is Vishnu. The shift in sacrifice from East to West shows that the object of the Sacrifice is to attain the Lord who presides over the Western star. At night, the sacrificer goes west to worship the Garhapatya fire indicated by Lord Krishna the object of sacrifice moving to the West in to the Garhapatya fire. Thus the sacrifice is shown to shift from one belt star to the other.

The Garhapatya fire is maintained in a circular container kept by a householder in the west and is worshiped in the evening. The cave entered by the Lord represents the circular container with the Garhapatya fire. A sacrificer who regularly worships the Ahavanya and the Garhapatya fires and walks between them everyday is freed from all evil. The sacrificer's sins are also destroyed. In order to show this, Kala Yavana is seen to be drawn away by the deity of Sacrifice (Krishna). Yavanas usually have fair complexion and this particular Yavana is named Kala Yavana to show that he represents evil tendencies; :”kala” means black and indicates pollution in the form of evil tendencies. Upon entering the cave, Kala Yavana is burnt by Sage Muchukunda.

Sage Muchukunda is the jeevatma. Sage Mukunda had assisted the Devas win a war against the Asuras and in return had obtained a boon of uninterrupted sleep. The Deva Asura war is the struggle between the sense-organs against desires. After controlling desires, the jeevatma(sage Muchukunda) is able to meditate shown in our story as uninterrupted sleep.The Cave also represents our heart which is the residence of the jeevatma as well as Paramatma. The evil tendencies in the form of Kala Yavana are unable to out run/over power Paramatma. Upon entering the heart-cave, the jeevatma strengthened by the daily Agnihotra sacrifice along with the blessing of Lord Vishnu, obtains the power to destroy the evil tendencies. The jeevatma achieves samyam with the Lord. As it is elevated to the status of the Lord by the Lord’s Supreme Grace, the Kala Yavana is shown to mistake Sage Muchukunda as Mukuntha. By achieving samyam the jeevatma becomes apahatapapman, one who kills all evil. Thus the jeevatma is freed from its sins and gets a darshan of the Antaryami in its heart-cave. After this the jeevatma attains Mukthi.

The narrative about the war waged by Jarasandha teaches us about the importance of performing the daily agnihothra sacrifice without fail.

We have seen that Jarasandhan was defeated seventeen times and on the eighteenth time Lord Krishna drawn out of Mathura granted Moksham to Sage Muchukunda. The purpose of the war with Jarasandhan seems to be to grant Moksham to Sage Muchukunda. Why didn’t Perumal grant this the very first time? Jarasandhan was defeated seventeen times i.e he was sent back to Magadha seventeen times. The eighteenth attempt yielded fruit to Sage Muchukunda. Why did it take eighteen tries? The number eighteen is very significant. There are 18 chapters in bagawad Geetha, 18 Parvas in Mahabharata and 18 Puranas. Above all there are 18 steps leading a jeevatma up towards Perumal. These eighteen steps have ben shown as eighteen tries by Jarasandhan.