yadhavabhyudhaya-chapter10

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Chapter10-Entry into Mathura and the end of Kamsa

 

 

Krishna and Balarama entered the city of Mathura and seeing them the people thought that they have attained the fruit of all their meritorious deeds and that their eyes have fufilled their purpose.

 

Desika describes the experience of the people who saw them by 15 slokas.

 

They felt as though the months of chaithra and visakha coming together,the two sentiments , veera rasa and adbutha rasa combined , sensory experience and renunciation joined together.

 

The two purified the royal highway by their lotus feet, their beauty was enough to melt even stones, hiding their divinity by their simplicity.

 

Their beauty was that of ten thousands of cupids, they were as fragrant as ten thousands of spring seasons, as graceful as ten thousands of moons and shining like ten thousand suns.The ladies looking from the balconies of the mansions were like painted pictures as their mind as well as body became motionless, attracted by the two youths and the pople who followed them running said that good days have started for them.

Desika briefly mentions the washerman of Kamsa who refused to give the clothes he was carrying for the king and he was overcome by Krishna and Balrama while they accepted the garlands given by the garland maker and graced him and the hunchback girl who gave them inguents and Krishna made her back straight and she requested him to come to her house.

 

Then they entered into the building where the bows were kept, which was deep like the nether regions of Mahabali.Krishna saw a bow which was big and mighty like that of Lord Siva and like the vajra of Indra and as though remniscent of his previous incarnation he took it and broke it trying to string it.The sound was so loud that the minds of their enemies broke with it as well as the big mansions of Mathura which crumbled.

 

Then Balarama and Krishna killed the guards who attacked them in the place where the bows were kept and came to the entrance of the wrestlers-hall.There the elephant Kuvalayapeetam which was fierce like the god of death advanced towards them and Krishna attacked it and overpowered it and they plucked the tusks of the elephant as though it was their weapon against the wrestlers.

 

When they entered the hall the people assembled there saw them as the personification of dhanurveda.Desika says 'thadhAlokAlAbhEnasAmAjikajanasthadhA;anidhampoorvam AhlAdham apavrktha iva anvabhooth,' the common people felt a joy never experienced so far and it was like that of a realised soul. Anidham poorvam means that which has no beginning, that is eternal and also something which was not experienced before.The first meaning refers to the infinite joy of a released soul and the second applies to the people of Mathura who never had such experience of joy before that time.

 

Krishna saw beautiful women and the kings all looking like celestial beings with their beauty, attire and ornaments. Kamsa was seated on a high throne and Krishna saw him and was pleased that his mission was going to be accomplished. Desika says that Kamsa was like a cluster of darkness and an assembly of sins,'thamasAmiva sanghAtham samAharam iva EnasAm.'

 

The wrestlers challenged the brothers and their battle cry seemed like that of jackals compared with the roar of the lions of Yaduvamsa, Balarama and Krishna.Then two well known wrestlers Chanoora and Mushtika came to fight with them and the people were upset that those youths who were unfamiliar with warfare, who had soft limbs, were set against these seasoned wrestlers, who were like two mountains.

 

At the same time having heard about the exploits of Krishna like killing Poothana and others they wondered whether they might win and thought that if that happens it would be proved that Krishna was none other than the Lord who killed Madhu and Kaitabha.

 

Krishna smiled hearing their talk challenged the wrestler ChAnoora who advanced towards him by clapping his shoulders, the sound of which struck terror in the folloewers of Kamsa. Krishna killed Chanoora as he destroyed the demon Madhu and as platfully as he danced on the hoods of kaliya.Balarama also killed the other one, Mushtika.

 

Desika says,

 

rAmarAmAnujAbhyAm thou ravaNEndrajithou iva

namayAmasathuh prthveem nagapAtham nipathithou

 

They, Balarama and Krishna, Rama and Ramanuja , lowered the earth by the weight of the mounainlike wrestlers, as they, (Rama and Ramanuja) have done in their previous incarnation by killing Ravana and Indrajit.Rama denotes Balaramaa as well as Raghurama and similarly ramanuja refers to both Krishna, the brother of Rama and Lakshmana.

 

After defeating the others who attacked him Krishna leaped to where Kamsa was like Garuda flying skyward from the earth.'garuthmAn iva bhoobhAghAth gaganAbhOgam Ayatham;kamsamancham apadhvArAth udhaplavatha kESavah.' Desika says he went by unusual path, apadhvAra, by leaping into the sky and Appayya dishitha commenting on it says ' vaDHArTham Sathrugrham praviSadbhih amArgENa pravEshtavyam ithi prasiddhih.' That is, when one enters the abode of his enemy to kill him he should not go through the normal gate.

 

Desika describes kamsavadha by just one sloka.His work is mainly bhakthi-oriented and he does not dwell upon the evil forces and their destruction at length.He says that Krishna pulled Kamsa by his hair and when he fell down he broke his chest and killed him. Desika describes the kamsavadha in his own way as the vedanthacharya thus:

'mahAmOham ivAkramya mAthulam madhusooDhanah;viveka iva vrtthasTham ugrasEnam vimochayath.' Madhusudhana, .killed his uncle and released Ugrasena, the father of Kamsa, imprisoned by Kamsa when he usurped the kingdom, like the viveka, discrimination, subdues the great delusion, mahamoha and releases the soul which is on the right path.Appayya dlikshitha gives beautiful explanation for the comparison of Ugrasena with the individual self, jiva. He says that the word sEna means the sense organs and they become ugra, inflamed by mahamoha, the ignorance and hence the name Ugrasena. It follows that the jiva is imprisond by its own ignorance causing sensual desires ang discrimination by grace of God frees it from the delusion.