Bhaktisandesam / How Krishna fought the demon king

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Banasura and Krishna

 

 

Banasura, a mighty demon once ruled over a large kingdom. So strong

and fierce was his influence that all the kings and even some of the

gods shuddered in front of his might. An ardent devotee of lord

Shiva, Banasura once worshipped Shiva with great devotion. The god

was so pleased with him that he promised to grant Banasura a boon.

Banasura, in turn asked Shiva to come and guard the gates of his

city.

 

Shiva was furious but he had to give in to Banasura's wish, as he had

already given his word to him. Bana was not only pleased with his

achievement, but with Shiva at his service, he became all the more

arrogant. One day Banasura told Lord Shiva that he wanted to fight

with somebody who was as strong and as mighty as him. " Yes, yes, "

replied Shiva. " You will certainly get the chance to fight. Whenever

you see your flag-staff broken and the flag fallen down then you will

know that the chance for a fight is coming. " But Shiva also warned

him, that he would be a great warrior who will curb Banasura's pride.

 

Banasura had a beautiful daughter named Usha, who had received many

proposals for marriage but Bana had refused to get him married to

anyone of them. Usha had a very clever and talented friend,

Chitralekha, who was the daughter of Bana's minister. One night Usha

dreamt of a handsome prince. She fell in love with him instantly. But

on not finding the prince on waking up, she started crying for him

and said that she would die without him. Chitralekha thought deeply

over the matter. She knew that her friend had only been dreaming, but

decided to help her on seeing Usha's pathetic condition.

 

She wrote down the names of all the gods, kings and princes whom Usha

might have seen in her dream and started drawing portraits of each

one of them. She drew Indra, Brahma and many other devas. But Usha

rejected them all. It was only when she drew the picture of Krishna's

grandson Anirudha that Usha smiled and said that he was the prince

who had come in her dreams.

 

At midnight, Chitralekha, set out on her mission to search for the

prince. With her magical powers she carried the sleeping Anirudha,

out of Krishna's palace and brought him to Bana's city. The next

morning, when Anirudha woke up in Usha's palace, he was surprised but

at the same time enamored by the princess' beauty and expressed the

desire to marry her. Usha immediately agreed to it, but when they

went for Bana's consent, he not only refused but put Anirudha in

prison.

 

Narada, meanwhile went and told Krishna about the whole event. When

Krishna came to know about it, he knew that the only way to free his

grandson was by waging a war against Banasura. So Krishna gathered a

large army and declared war on him by breaking his flagstaff.

 

Seeing the flagstaff broken Bana was overjoyed, as he knew the time

for a fight had come. A terrible fight then ensued between the two

till they met in a one to one battle. Krishna proved to be much more

powerful and as he was about to kill Bana, Shiva came forward and

requested Krishna to spare his live. Krishna accepted the request

only on the condition that Bana would mend his ways and apologise to

Shiva for his wrong doings. Bana realising his mistake apologized to

both Shiva and Krishna. Krishna then arranged for their marriage and

graciously accepted Usha as his grand daughter-in-law.

 

 

 

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Jai Shree Krishna !