Arjuna and the Brāhmaṇa’s Sons
In Dvārakā lived a learned brāhmaṇa whose newborn children kept dying the moment they were born. This account retells how Arjuna promised to protect the next child, how he failed, and how Kṛshṇa then took him far beyond the edge of the cosmos to the great Bhagavān Purushottama, who had taken the children.
The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells this in the tenth skanda, chapter 89.
The grieving brāhmaṇa
In Dvārakā there lived a brāhmaṇa of great learning. His wife gave birth to child after child, but each one died the moment it touched the earth. The grieving father carried each dead newborn to the royal gate and laid it there. He cried out his charge against the king:
“This king is a low-born enemy of brāhmaṇas. His mind is consumed by greed and his intelligence is corrupted. His karma is the reason my children die. A king who allows brāhmaṇas in his kingdom to suffer the loss of children and wealth is a king only in dress. He earns his living by the title while doing nothing.”
The second and third children died the same way. Each was laid at the gate with the same bitter cry. Each time the brāhmaṇa’s grief was a public charge against the Yādava rulers.
Arjuna’s vow
One day Arjuna was at Kṛshṇa’s side when the brāhmaṇa’s ninth child died and the cry was heard at the gate. Arjuna was stung. It seemed that no warrior in Dvārakā could protect a brāhmaṇa’s child. He spoke up:
“O Maharshi, I will protect your next child. If I fail, I shall enter the fire. No kshatriya worthy of the name stands by while a brāhmaṇa’s household suffers. What is a warrior for, if not for this?”
The brāhmaṇa did not believe him:
“Even Kṛshṇa, Balarāma, Pradyumna and Aniruddha could not protect my children. How will you, who are none of these, do what they could not? I do not believe your words.”
Arjuna answered firmly:
“I am not Balarāma or Kṛshṇa. I am Arjuna, who bears the Gāṇḍīva. I have satisfied Maheśvara in battle. I have defeated Yama himself in combat. Do not disrespect me. I will return your children.”
The arrows fail
When the time came, Arjuna purified himself with water and called on Maheśvara. He recalled all his divine weapons and strung the Gāṇḍīva with care. Then he built a cage around the delivery room. Dense arrows were woven above, below and to every side, with no gap left. No wind could pass through. No force, divine or human, should have been able to enter or leave.
The brāhmaṇa’s wife gave birth. The newborn cried once, twice, three times. Then it was gone, body and all, straight up through the sky, as if the arrows had never been there.
The brāhmaṇa turned on Arjuna and called him a braggart and a worthless maker of vows, a man who promised what he could not keep:
“What is the point of this Gāṇḍīva? What good is Arjuna? The rulers of the universe themselves could not do this, and he thought he could?”
Arjuna said nothing. He took his chariot and went out to search.
The search through all the worlds
Arjuna used his yogavidyā (yogic knowledge) to travel through all the realms and searched them one by one.
He went to Saṃyamanī, the great city of Yama, the dharmarāja. The children were not there.
He went to the realms of Indra, Agni, Nirṛti, Soma, Vāyu and Varuṇa, the six rulers of the directions. He entered Pātāla, the realm of the serpents. He rose to the upper reaches of svarga and beyond, to all the yaksha realms and other worlds. The brāhmaṇa’s children were nowhere to be found.
Arjuna could not keep his vow. He came back and prepared to enter the fire, as he had sworn.
Kṛshṇa takes Arjuna to Vaikuṇṭha
Kṛshṇa stopped him:
“Do not do this. I will show you the children. Do not dishonour yourself. The very people who humbled us will be the ones to restore our glory.”
Kṛshṇa’s own shining divine chariot was waiting. It was drawn by the great horses Śaibya, Sugrīva, Meghapushpa and Balāhaka. Kṛshṇa and Arjuna mounted it and flew westward.
They crossed the seven dvīpas (continents) and the seven great oceans. They crossed the Lokāloka mountain, the great ring at the edge of the known cosmos. Beyond it lay thick, total, primeval darkness. It frightened and confused even the divine horses, and they lost their way.
Kṛshṇa sent the Sudarśana Cakra into the darkness. It blazed with the light of ten thousand suns. It went forward like an arrow from Rāma’s bow and split the darkness with a corridor of light a thousand times stronger than the darkness was thick.
They followed the light of the Cakra. Beyond the darkness they came to the shore of an immense causal ocean. It was vast and silent, and only cosmic winds moved its great waves. In that ocean stood a magnificent palace beyond all description. Its pillars were set with gems that shone from within, and it hummed with a deep, primeval sound.
Inside the palace lay Ananta Śesha, the great cosmic serpent. He had a thousand hoods, and each hood bore a blazing jewel. His two thousand eyes gleamed in the light, and his white body was huge as a mountain. His form was fearful and auspicious at once.
On the great couch of Ananta’s coils sat the Supreme Purushottama. He was dark as deep clouds. He wore green and gold garments, the Śrīvatsa mark and the Kaustubha gem, a great crown and earrings. His eight long arms held all his divine weapons and emblems. Around him stood his attendants Sunanda and Nanda, and the śaktis in person: Pushṭi, Śrī, Kīrti and Māyā.
Arjuna was overcome with awe and closed his eyes. Kṛshṇa bowed before this form, which was his own full divine svarūpa (true form). Arjuna bowed too.
Bhagavān Purushottama speaks
Bhagavān Purushottama smiled and spoke in a deep, calm voice:
“I brought these brāhmaṇa’s sons here simply because I wished to see both of you. You are Nara and Nārāyaṇa, the two great ṛshis who came down to the earth to protect dharma and to destroy the asura-like kings who had become a burden to her. Your work is nearly complete. Finish what remains and return here to me swiftly.
“You are āpta-kāmas: you have nothing left to desire. Yet, for the sake of the world’s example, go on practising dharma as we have taught it.”
Kṛshṇa and Arjuna bowed and accepted the command. They took the ten brāhmaṇa children, unchanged in age and form since the moment of their birth, and returned the way they had come, to Dvārakā. They placed the children in the brāhmaṇa’s arms.
Arjuna’s reflection
Arjuna stood looking at the returned children and at Kṛshṇa with deep wonder. He thought:
“Whatever small heroism I have ever shown, at Kurukshetra, in the contest halls, on my tīrtha-yātrā, none of it came from me. It was entirely Kṛshṇa’s grace flowing through my hands. Without him I am nothing. With him, even the darkness at the end of the cosmos opens before a single Cakra. This is the truth.”
The Bhāgavatam adds that Kṛshṇa showed through this episode, as through all his countless līlās in this world, that even the smallest paurusha (individual effort) in any being is only his anugraha (grace) at work. He performed great yajñas for the Supreme. He lived the full life of a householder as an example to all. He destroyed kings who had turned from dharma, both himself and through others. He upheld dharma through Yudhishṭhira and Ugrasena. He did all this at the same time, with perfect ease.
Sources
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 89