- Anugraha : H.H. Sri Vidyadheesha Teertha Sripadaru
- Author : Smt. Gayatri Sudarshana, Chennai
- Image of Arjuna beheading Jayadratha : Wikimedia
The compassion that the Lord has on us is boundless, blemish less and timeless. Sri Raghavendra Teertha has praised our Lord in Pratha Sankalpa Gadya as “Karuna samudra Hari”. Many incidents in Srimad Bhagavata bear testimony to this wherein the Lord has given refuge to the ones who surrender firmly unto Him with unshakeable faith and has protected them from unforeseen mishappenings by means which are totally unimaginable and impossible by us. We can quote numerous examples as in the cases of Draupadi, Sudhama, Prahallada, Dhruva, Gajendra etc. He is our true saviour, protector and our caring companion at all times and places. He is the giver of pure love and the forgiver of our deadly sins – “Bhakta aparada sahishnu”. Brahma devaru praises Lord Sri Krishna as “Satyavrata”- the one who has taken sankalpa of a vrata of protecting and bestowing fearlessness to His devotees by all means and at all times and places. He would never forsake this promise of His and upkeeps His vrata sankalpa as ‘Satya’ always. For that, we must be His true devotee, we must offer our sincere devotion to Him with the right knowledge about Him.
One such instance is Sri Krishna protecting Arjuna from an unforeseen incident at the warfront. Jayadrata, husband of Duryodhana’s sister, Dushala, is an atrocious and wicked ruler who joins the Kauravas in the Mahabharata war. When Abhimanyu came singly in the warfront, Jayadrata, along with the other Kauravas killed Abhimanyu, without abiding by the rules of war. Arjuna became ferocious on seeing his son being killed by his deadly enemies. He resolved to cut off Jayadrata’s head before sunset that evening, failing which he pledged to get into the fire. Frightened by this dare venture of Arjuna, the Kauravas kept Jayadrata hidden. As the night was creeping in, Jayadrata came out of hiding and faced Arjuna. Krishna wanted to save Arjuna who was dear to Him, so made the sun come out of the clouds, brought the sunlight again and ordered Arjuna to cut off Jayadrata’s head but not to let it fall on the ground. So Arjuna shot arrows powered by mantras that cut off Jayadrata’s head and safely let it fall on the lap of Jayadrata’s father who was doing his sandyavandana on the banks of the Yamuna river. Jayadrata’s father saw his son’s head falling on his lap, put it down on the ground and his head split into 1000 pieces. Krishna then revealed the fact to Arjuna that Jayadrata’s father was bestowed a boon by Rudra devaru that any one who lets his son’s head down on the ground would have his head split into 1000 pieces. Krishna said, “O Arjuna, you are one of my dearest devotees. I wanted to save you from falling into Agni. So I made the sun appear again in the sky, recreated the evening and let you kill Jayadrata. Also, I did not want your head to split, so I made Jayadrata’s head fall on his father’s lap”.
This is the mercy of our dear Lord. Just as a mother always keeps an eye on her child and protects it from unpredictable dangers, our Lord’s love is also so pure amd He takes us in His arms and protects us, as said by Jagannatha Dasaru, “MadhusUdananu tannavaru iddeDege baMdodagi salahuvanu”.
