Saturday, April 14, 2007

Keshi vadh Krishna leaves Vrindavan and retuns to Mathura Kansa vadh
















HARE KRISHNA




















Kansa was Frustrated since all the demons that he sent were killed by Krishna , Kansa's last worrior keshi , Kansa send him to kill Krishna but Krishna kills Keshi too. Keshi death leaves Kansa broken and he gets furious and sends to bring Krishna and Balram to mathura where he plotted to kill them. When Krishna was leaving for Mathura, the gopis wept, they could not bare to be seprated from Krishna , Krishna never returned to Vrindavan again, he stayed in Mathura and then In Dwarka After He Killed Kansa , the Gopis Cried and Cried all of them , without Krishna vrindavan was a place without a soul, Gopis cried so much that there mind purified, all the dirth was washed away by tears and Gopis started seeing Krishna in each and everything and attained Moksha( Salvation,Self-realization). This was what Krishna wanted , tha is why he left so that the gopis can become one with krishna eternally, Moksha is the true destination for everyone in this world.










Now Kansa was trembling with fear at the very thought of Krishna. Every demon sent by him had been killed at Krishna's hands and he was now convinced that his end was quite near too. So, Kansa now deputed Keshi, his strongest demon, to put an end to Krishna's life. This demon used to roam in the form of a dark black horse, very dreadful to look at, so much so that even gods feared to see eye to eye with him. Keshi came to Vrindavan at Kansa s bidding in the form stated above. He started running through the streets of the village neighing furiously. People were so afraid that they shut their doors and the scared cattle broke loose to run for safety. As soon as Krishna heard of this horse, he lost no time to follow that he was a demon sent by his maternal uncle, Kansa. So, with a view to chastising him, he challenged Keshi who was in the lookout for an opportunity for an encounter with Krishna. Seeing Krishna in front, Keshi fell upon him in full fury. Opening his mouth wide, he tried to bite Krishna who pushed his arm into his mouth and broke all his teeth. Then he enlarged the length and girth of his arm to such an extent that Keshi's throat got choked and his belly got inflated. Finally it burst causing the demon to fall down dead on the ground.










Keshi's death broke the back of Kansa. He could not think of any warrior who could undertake the task of putting Krishna to death. So, he decided to take recourse to treachery in order to achieve his objective of killing his nephew Krishna. Akrur, chief of the charity department of Kansa, was a very saintly person. Kansa asked him to go to Vrindavan and bring Nand Baba's family and other respectable milkmen to participate in the Bow-yajna. A godly person as he was, Akrur gladly agreed to go to Vrindavan. He had a keen desire to see Krishna, the incarnate of Lord Vishnu Himself. So, riding a chariot, he proceeded to Vrindavan. Reaching the outskirts of Vrindavan, Akrur caught sight of Krishna's footprints and his heart began to overbubble with devotion for Krishna. Stopping the chariot there, he got down and seeing Krishna's footprints with tearful eyes, paid obeisance to them. He felt proud of being lucky enough to have a chance to do this religious act. Akrur, then, reached Nand Baba's house and delivered Kansa's message to him. Nand Baba entertained him duly. Akrur disclosed everything about Kansa's treacherous plot to kill Krishna.










As mentioned on the foregoing page, Nand Baba and Krishna had become aware of Kansa's plot. So, Nand Baba did not want to take Krishna and Balram to Mathura with him. But Krishna did not want to lose this opportunity of killing sinful Kansa to rid the Mother Earth of his burden. Krishna himself proclaimed the invitation of king Kansa throughout the village. So, all the milkmen got ready with their carts to visit Mathura. On the day fixed for the Bow-yajna, the milkmen loaded their carts with butter, curd and milk to be presented to the king and departed to Mathura. Krishna and Balram were sitting on Akrur's chariot and the procession of carts, led by Nand Baba, got on its way to Mathura. Just at that time, the gopis came running and surrounded Akrur's chariot. They would not allow him to take Krishna into the fold of such a great danger wherein his very life was at stake. Moreover, they feared that Krishna might not come back to Vrindavan. Akrur tried his level best to advise the gopis but they were not ready to hear anything. They were struck with separation from their darling-Krishna-and caught the wheels of the chariot. At last, Krishna himself sermonised and consoled them. They returned to Vrindavan with heavy hearts and the procession advanced on its way to Mathura.
As we know that Kansa invited Krishna and Balram through Akrur to participate in the Bow-yajna after he had lost all the demons in his service and other warriors one by one at Krishna's hands. He wanted to kill Krishna through a trick. Akrur proceeded to Mathura after seating Krishna and Balram in his chariot. Reaching the bank of the Yamuna Akrur stopped the chariot. Seeking the consent of both the brothers, he went to have his bath in the river. When Akrur dipped in the river-water, he saw Krishna and Balram inside the water. But when he drew his head out of the water, he found both the brothers sitting in the chariot. He felt highly amazed indeed. Now Akrur had a second dip and saw Lord Vishnu relaxing on the body of Sheshnaga. He found a close semblance in the faces of Krishna and Vishnu. Akrur felt flattered to have a glimpse of Lord Vishnu in the river-water. Having had his bath, he said his prayers and returned to the chariot. Time and again, he was looking at Krishna with eyes full of devotion. He was thanking his stars to be lucky enough to act as the charioteer of Krishna (Lord Vishnu Himself).










Nand Baba and the other milkmen had reached Mathura much earlier than Akrur and both the brothers because Akrur had stopped with his chariot for a bath in the Yamuna. Nand Baba had set up his camp in a garden outside the town. When Akrur reached there, Krishna and Balram got down while Akrur advanced further. He informed the king of the arrival of Nand Baba's group and then made for his home. Krishna and B8lrama had their meals and rested for some time in the garden. Then they sought Nand Baba's permission and went sight-seeing round the town of Mathura along with their team of cowboys. Roaming about, they came across the royal washer man who was going to deliver the wash in the palace. Krishna said to the washer man by way of joke, "Wassermann! Give us some of these clothes to wear." The Wassermann was very proud of his being in the royal service. So, he snubbed Krishna and Balrama using disgraceful and abusive words for them. Krishna could not tolerate the insult and decided to teach him a lesson. Krishna advanced towards the Wassermann and gave such a hard blow with the side of his palm on his neck that he fell down dead on the spot. Seeing this, the other washerwomen took to their heels.All the clothes of the royal Wassermann and those of others who had run away, were lying near the dead body of the washerman. So, Krishna and Balram opened the bundles of clothes and all of them put on multi-colored beautiful dresses. Having done this and leaving the rest of the clothes as they were, the team of cowboys advanced further. Evidently, the clothes did not fit on them properly. They had been attracted by their colors only. The cowboys were pointing out to each other about the clothes, they had worn. One said to the other: "Your clothes are very loose!" While the other said, "This shirt is very tight for you." So, they decided to put off the clothes and throw them away. A tailor, sitting near by, was seeing all this. The tailor, when he saw Krishna and Balram, was struck with their handsome personalities. Going up to them, he said, "Pray I mend these clothes for you z" Then without waiting for the answer, he set about mending the clothes and in a short time he did the job. Now the clothes looked very nice on each cowboy. Krishna was very pleased with the tailor and conferred on him the boon of becoming a noble godly person. So, he felt very pleased and praised Krishna a lot.
Krishna made up his mind to go to the site of the Bow-yajna. So, they Enquirer about this site from the people and soon advanced in that direction. Reaching the site of the yajna, Krishna and Balram looked at the bow that was very heavy--so much so that even Kansa could lift it with difficulty after worshipping it daily. He had put brave soldiers to guard the bow. Krishna and Balram, despite the presence of the soldiers, went near the bow. Krishna at once lifted it and pulled its string with such a force that it broke into two with a loud twang. Seeing this, the soldiers fell upon both the brothers who beat them with the pieces of the bow. So they went running to their master Kansa and told him about what had happened. Kansa got furious and he dispatched a regiment of armed soldiers to deal with Krishna and Balram who eliminated the entire regiment in no time. Now Krishna and Balram returned to Nand Baba's camp and related to him the entire incident. Then having had their bath, they took their meals and went t~ sleep. Kansa was cut to the quick over the lot of his regiment.










Next day, Kansa invited Krishna and Balram to see the bouts among his wrestlers. Before their arrival, Kansa got his most dangerous tusker-Kublayapeed intoxicated with wine and ported it on the gate of the wrestling arena along with its mahout. This was done with a plan to incite the intoxicated elephant to attack Krishna and Balram as soon as they reached the gate of the arena. Evidently, the beast was supposed to trample both the brothers to death under its feet. So, as soon as both the brothers turned up before the arena gate, the mahout incited the mad elephant and it fell upon them in fury. It curled its trunk round Krishna's body and tried to lift him up but all in vein. Krishna and Balram broke both its tusks and the beast screamed in pain and feeling very weak trumpeted aloud. Taking full advantage of this opportunity, Krishna caught hold of its trunk and flung it on the ground. Then both the brothers beat it to depth with its own tusks. Now it was the turn of the mahout. He too was given a sound beating so much so that he succumbed to the thrashing. The people standing around took to their heels out of immense fear.Sinful Kansa had pinned great hopes on his tusker- Kublayapeed, but they had been dashed to the ground by Krishna and Balram. So, he asked his famous wrestlers to challenge both the brothers for bouts. These wrestlers were named Mushtik and Chanur. Having done away with Kublayapeed and its mahout, Krishna and Balrama went inside to see the wrestling bouts. Chanur and Mushtik challenged them for bouts. How could they afford not to accept the challenge after all? So, they took off their clothes, entered the arena and the bouts began. Both the wrestlers were using deceptive moves to checkmate the brothers but all to no purpose. Kansa's wrestlers did not aim at free and fair wrestling, but their objective was to kill both the brothers who were well on their guard. They rendered each unfair move on the part of the wrestlers useless. When Chanur got awfully tired, Krishna lifted him on his hands well above his head and flung him onto the ground with such a force that he was killed instantly. Chanur's death did away with Mushtik's courage and Balram soon killed him. Some other wrestlers- Kout, Shala, Toshal etc.--also met with the same fate.Having seen his strongest wrestlers being killed before his very eyes, Kansa began to tremble out of Krishna's fear. At the same time, he flew into a rage and ordered all the playing drums and bugles to be silent. Then he bucked up his soldiers saying, "What are you seeing now? Catch hold of these two rascals and do away with them!" Not only this, Kansa asked his soldiers to put Vasudeva and Ugrasena to death as well and to seize all the carts of the milkmen that had come with Nand Baba and then put them to the sword too. How could Krishna brook such words for Nand Baba and his dear mates? He flew into a violent rage and challenged Kansa and jumped on to the dais where he was sitting. Kansa trembled all over in fright and tried to run away. But Krishna at once held him by the hair and flung him on the ground with a jerk. Then Krishna sat on his chest and began to rain blows on his sides. Kansa cried for-help saying, "Save me! Save me!" When nobody came for his help, he implored Krishna to be spared. He looked his death dancing before him. Krishna then strangled him to death. Seeing their brother being killed, all the eight brothers of Kansa fell upon Krishna and Balram who did away with all of them too one by one.










Having killed sinful Kansa, Krishna and Balram made for the prison-room where Devaki and Vasudeva were imprisoned. The guards were struck with fear to see them and opened the gates of the prison-room at once. Both the brothers went inside and untied the fetters of Vasudeva and Devaki. The parents kept gazing at their sons with tearful eyes out of filial affection. How handsome, captivating and well -built they indeed were! Devaki and Vasudeva hugged them closely out of love. Then Krishna and Balram escorted them to the site o~ yajna where a large crowd of people had assembled to raise slogans in Krishna's admiration, "Glory be to Krishna! Glory be to Balram!" Praising the courage and bravery o both the brothers, the crowd greeted them and their parents with profound respect and devotion. Not only this, they raised slogans condemning sinful Kansa as well. Krishna pacified the crowd raising his hands and asked for their opinion regarding the enthronement of some one on Kansa's throne. It was decided that the old king Ugrasena-(Kansa's father) should be enthrone as the rightful King of Mathura. Respecting the opinion of the people, Krishna decided to set Ugrasena free. So, he and his brother Balram went to the prison-room where the old king was behind the bars and untied his chains. Ugrasena was given a bath and dressed in a stately robe. Then escorting him to the court, Krishna and Balram seated him on the throne and placed his usurped crown on his head. At once people started raising slogans of glory to Ugrasena and Krishna and of condemnation to Kansa. King Ugrasena embraced Krishna and Balram and showered blessings on them. Seeing this, all the courtiers too began to admire both the brothers for what they had done. A large number of noble persons had fled Mathura because of Kansa's excesses. They had settled at other places. Now that Kansa had disappeared from the scene, these people returned to their respective homes in Mathura. King Ugrasena began to rule as before taking due care of his people and observing all religious norms essential for an ideal king. As a result, people became fearless, prosperous and happy again. So, they began to fulfill their duties towards the state gladly.

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