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KB 1970-2-8 / Lord Krsna Fights with Banasura
8 / Lord Krsna Fights with Banasura
When the four months of the rainy season passed and still
Aniruddha had not returned home, all the members of the
Yadu family became much perturbed. They could not understand
how the boy was missing. Fortunately, one day the great sage
Narada came and informed the family about Aniruddha's
disappearance from the palace. He explained how Aniruddha had
been carried to the city of Sonitapura, the capital of Banasura'
s empire, and how Banasura had arrested him with the
nagapasa, even though Aniruddha had defeated his soldiers.
This news was given in detail, and the whole story
was disclosed. Then the members of the Yadu dynasty, all of
whom had great affection for Krsna, prepared to attack the city
of Sonitapura. Practically all the leaders of the family,
including Pradyumna, Satyaki, Gada, Samba, Sarana, Nanda,
Upananda and Bhadra, combined together and gathered eighteen
aksauhini military divisions into phalanxes. Then they all went
to Sonitapura and surrounded it with soldiers, elephants,
horses and chariots.
Banasura heard that the soldiers of the Yadu dynasty were
attacking the whole city, tearing down various walls, gates and
nearby gardens. Becoming very angry, he immediately ordered his
soldiers, who were of equal caliber, to go and face them. Lord
Siva was so kind to Banasura that he personally came as the
commander-in-chief of the military force, assisted by his
heroic sons Karttikeya and Ganapati. Seated
on his favorite bull, Nandisvara, Lord Siva led the
fighting against Lord Krsna and Balarama. We can simply imagine
how fierce the fighting was -- Lord Siva with his valiant sons
on one side and Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
and His elder brother, Sri Balaramaji, on the other. The
fighting was so fierce that those who saw the battle were
struck with wonder, and the hairs on their bodies stood up.
Lord Siva was engaged in fighting directly with Lord Krsna,
Pradyumna was engaged with Karttikeya, and Lord Balarama was
engaged with Banasura's commander-in-chief, Kumbhanda, who was
assisted by Kupakarna. Samba, the son of Krsna, was engaged
in fighting with the son of Banasura, and Banasura was
engaged in fighting with Satyaki, commander-in-chief of the
Yadu dynasty. In this way the fighting was waged.
News of the fighting spread all over the universe. Demigods
such as Lord Brahma, from higher planetary systems, along with
great sages and saintly persons, Siddhas, Caranas and
Gandharvas -- all being very curious to see the fight between
Lord Siva, Lord Krsna and their assistants -- were hovering
over the battlefield in their airplanes. Lord Siva is called
the bhuta-natha, being assisted by various types of
powerful ghosts and denizens of the inferno -- bhutas, pretas,
pramathas, guhyakas, dakinis, pisacas, kusmandas, vetalas,
vinayakas and brahma-raksasas. (Of all kinds of ghosts, the
brahma-raksasas are very powerful. Brahmanas transferred
to the role of ghosts become brahma-Raksasas
.)
The Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna simply drove all
these ghosts away from the battlefield, beating them with
His celebrated bow, Sarngadhanu. Lord Siva then began to
release all his selected weapons upon the Personality of
Godhead. Lord Sri Krsna, without any difficulty, counteracted
all these weapons with counter-weapons. He counteracted
the brahmastra, similar to the atomic bomb, by another
brahmastra, and an air weapon by a mountain weapon. When Lord
Siva released a particular weapon bringing about a violent
hurricane on the battlefield, Lord Krsna presented just the
opposing element, a mountain weapon which checked the
hurricane on the spot. Similarly when Lord Siva released his
weapon of devastating fire, Krsna counteracted it with torrents
of rain.
At last, when Lord Siva released his personal weapon, called
pasupata-sastra, Krsna immediately counteracted it by the
narayana-sastra. Lord Siva then became exasperated in fighting
with Lord Krsna. Krsna then took the opportunity to release His
yawning weapon. When this weapon is released, the opposing
party becomes tired, stops fighting, and begins to yawn.
Consequently, Lord Siva became so fatigued that he refused to
fight anymore and began to yawn. Krsna was now able to
turn His attention from the attack of Lord Siva to the efforts
of Banasura, and He began to kill his personal soldiers
with swords and clubs. Meanwhile, Lord Krsna's son Pradyumna
was fighting fiercely with Karttikeya, the commander-in-chief
of the demigods. Karttikeya was wounded, and his body was
bleeding profusely. In this condition, he left the battlefield
and, without fighting anymore, rode away on the back of his
peacock carrier. Similarly, Lord Balarama was smashing
Banasura's commander-in-chief, Kumbhanda, with the strokes of
His club. Kupakarna was also wounded in this way, and both he
and Kumbhanda fell on the battlefield, the commander-in-
chief being fatally wounded. Without guidance, all of Banasura'
s soldiers scattered here and there.
When Banasura saw that his soldiers and commanders had been
defeated, his anger only increased. He thought it wise to stop
fighting with Satyaki, Krsna's commander-in-chief, and instead
directly attacked Lord Krsna. Now having the opportunity to use
his one thousand hands, he rushed towards Krsna, simultaneously
working 500 bows and 2,000 arrows. Such a
foolish person could never measure Krsna's strength.
Immediately, without any difficulty, Krsna cut each of Banasura'
s bows into two pieces and, to check him from going further,
made his chariot horses lay on the ground. The
chariot then broke to pieces. After doing this, Krsna
blew His conchshell, Pancajanya.
There was a demigoddess named Kotara who was worshiped by
Banasura, and their relationship was as mother and son. Mother
Kotara was upset that Banasura's life was in danger, so she
appeared on the scene. With naked body and scattered hair, she
stood before Lord Krsna. Sri Krsna did not like the sight of
this naked woman, and to avoid seeing her, He turned His face.
Banasura, getting this chance to escape Krsna's attack, left
the battlefield. All the strings of his bows were broken,
and there was no chariot or driver, so he had no alternative
than to return to his city. He lost everything in the battle.
Being greatly harassed by the arrows of Krsna, all the
associates of Lord Siva, the hobgoblins and ghostly bhutas,
pretas and ksatriyas, left the battlefield. Lord Siva then
took to his last resort. He released his greatest death weapon,
known as Sivajvara, which destroys by excessive
temperature. It is said that at the end of this creation the
sun becomes twelve times more scorching than usual. This twelve-
times-hotter temperature is called Sivajvara. When the
Sivajvara personified was released, he had three heads
and three legs, and as he came toward Krsna it appeared that he
was burning everything into ashes. He was so powerful that he
made blazing fire appear in all directions, and Krsna observed
that he was specifically coming toward Him.
As there is a Sivajvara weapon, there is also a
Narayanajvara. Narayanajvara is represented by
excessive cold. When there is excessive heat, one can somehow
or other tolerate it, but when there is excessive cold,
everything collapses. This is actually experienced by a person
at the time of death. At the time of death, the temperature of
the body first of all increases to 107 degrees, and
then the whole body collapses and immediately becomes as cold
as ice. To counteract the scorching heat of the Sivajvara,
there is no other weapon but Narayanajvara.
When Lord Krsna saw that the Sivajvara had
been released by Lord Siva, He had no other recourse than
to release Narayanajvara. Lord Sri Krsna is the
original Narayana and the controller of the Narayanajvara
weapon. When the Narayanajvara was released, there was a
great fight between the two jvaras. When excessive heat is
counteracted by extreme cold, it is natural for the hot
temperature to gradually reduce, and this is what occurred in
the fight between Sivajvara and Narayanajvara
. Gradually, Sivajvara's temperature
diminished, and Sivajvara began to cry for help from
Lord Siva, but Lord Siva was unable to help him in the presence
of the Narayanajvara. Unable to get any help from Lord
Siva, the Sivajvara could understand that he had no means
of escape outside surrendering unto Narayana, Lord Krsna
Himself. Lord Siva, the greatest of the demigods, could not
help him, what to speak of the lesser demigods, and therefore
Sivajvara ultimately surrendered unto Krsna, bowing
before Him and offering a prayer so that the Lord might be
pleased and give him protection.
By this incidence of the fight between the ultimate
weapons of Lord Siva and Lord Krsna it is proved that if
Krsna gives someone protection, no one can kill him. But if
Krsna does not give one any protection, then no one can save
him. Lord Siva is called Mahadeva, greatest of all
demigods, although sometimes Lord Brahma is considered the
greatest of all demigods, because he can create, whereas
Lord Siva can annihilate the creations of Brahma. But both
Lord Brahma and Lord Siva act only in one capacity. Lord Brahma
can create, and Lord Siva can annihilate, but neither of them
can maintain. Lord Visnu, however, not only maintains, but He
creates, and annihilates also. Factually, the creation is not
effected by Brahma, because Brahma himself is created by Lord
Visnu. Lord Siva is created, or born, of Brahma. The
Sivajvara thus understood that without Krsna or Narayana,
no one could help him. He therefore rightly took shelter of
Lord Krsna and, with folded hands, began to pray as follows.
"My dear Lord, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You
because You have unlimited potencies. No one can surpass Your
potencies, and thus You are the Lord of everyone. Generally
people consider Lord Siva to be the most powerful personality
in the material world, but Lord Siva is not all-powerful; You
are all-powerful. This is factual. You are the original
consciousness or knowledge. Without knowledge or
consciousness, nothing can be powerful. A material thing might
be very powerful, but without the touch of knowledge or
consciousness it cannot act. A material machine may be very
gigantic and wonderful, but without the touch of someone
conscious and in knowledge, the material machine is useless for
all purposes. My Lord, You are complete knowledge, and there is
not a pinch of material contamination in Your personality. Lord
Siva may be a powerful demigod because of his specific power to
annihilate the whole creation, and similarly, Lord Brahma may
be very powerful because he can create the entire universe, but
actually neither Brahma nor Lord Siva is the original cause of
this cosmic manifestation. You are the Absolute Truth, the
Supreme Brahman, and You are the original cause. The original
cause of the cosmic manifestation is not the impersonal Brahman
effulgence. That impersonal Brahman effulgence is resting on
Your personality." As is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, the
cause of the impersonal Brahman is Lord Krsna. This Brahman
effulgence is likened to the sunshine which emanates from the
sun globe. Therefore, impersonal Brahman is not the ultimate
cause. The ultimate cause of everything is the supreme eternal
form of Krsna. All material actions and reactions are taking
place in the impersonal Brahman, but in the personal Brahman,
the eternal form of Krsna, there is no action and reaction. My
Lord, Your body is therefore completely peaceful, completely
blissful and is devoid of material contamination.
"
In the material body there are actions and
reactions of the three modes of material nature. The time
factor is the most important element and is above all others,
because the material manifestation is effected by time
agitation. Thus natural phenomena come into existence,
and as soon as there is the appearance of phenomena,
fruitive activities are visible. As the result of these
fruitive activities, a living entity takes his form. He
acquires a particular type of nature which is packed up in a
subtle body and gross body formed by the life air, the ego, the
ten sense organs, the mind and the five gross elements. These
then create the type of body which later becomes the root or
cause of various other bodies, which are acquired one after
another by the transmigration of the soul. All these
phenomenal manifestations are the combined actions of Your
material energy. Unaffected by the action and reaction of
different elements, You are
the cause of this external energy, and because
You are transcendental to such compulsions of material energy,
You are the supreme tranquillity. You are the last word in
freedom from material contamination. I am therefore taking
shelter at Your lotus feet, giving up all other shelter.
"My dear Lord, Your appearance as the son of Vasudeva in Your
role as a human being is one of the pastimes of Your complete
freedom. To benefit Your devotees and to vanquish the
nondevotees, You appear in multi-incarnations. All such
incarnations descend in fulfillment of Your promise in the
Bhagavad-gita that You appear as soon as there are
discrepancies in the system of progressive life. When there are
disturbances by irregular principles, my dear Lord, You appear
by Your internal potency. Your main business is to protect and
maintain the demigods and spiritually inclined persons and
maintain the standard of material law and order. Simultaneous
to the maintenance of such law and order, Your
violence to the miscreants and demons is quite befitting.
This is not the first time You have incarnated; it is to be
understood that You have done so many, many times before.
"My dear Lord, I beg to submit that I have been very greatly
chastised by the release of Your Narayanajvara. It is
certainly very cooling yet at the same time very severely
dangerous and unbearable for all of us. My dear Lord, as long
as one is forgetful of Krsna consciousness, driven by the spell
of material desires and ignorant of the ultimate shelter at
Your lotus feet, one who has accepted this material body
becomes disturbed by the three miserable conditions of material
nature. Because one does not surrender unto You, he therefore
continues to suffer perpetually."
After hearing the Sivajvara, Lord Krsna replied, "O three-
headed one, I am pleased with your statement. Be assured
there is no more suffering for you from the
Narayanajvara. Not only are you now free from fear of
Narayanajvara, but anyone in the future who
simply recollects this fight between Sivajvara and
Narayanajvara will also be freed from all kinds
of fearfulness." After hearing the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, the Sivajvara offered his respectful obeisances
unto His lotus feet and left.
In the meantime, Banasura somehow or other recovered from his
setbacks and, with rejuvenated energy, returned to fight. This
time Banasura appeared before Lord Krsna, who was seated on His
chariot, with different kinds of weapons in his one thousand
hands. Banasura was very much agitated. He began to
splash his different weapons, like torrents of rain, upon the
body of Lord Krsna. When Lord Krsna saw
the weapons of Banasura coming at Him, like water coming out of
a strainer, He took His sharp-edged Sudarsana disc and began to
cut off the demon's one thousand hands one after another, just
as a gardener trims the twigs of a tree with sharp cutters.
When Lord Siva saw that his devotee Banasura could not be saved
even in his presence, he came to his senses and personally came
before Lord Krsna and began to pacify Him by offering the
following prayers.
Lord Siva said, "My dear Lord, You are the worshipable object
of the Vedic hymns. One who does not know You considers the
impersonal brahmajyoti to be the ultimate Supreme
Absolute Truth, without any knowledge that You are existing
behind Your spiritual effulgence in Your eternal abode. My dear
Lord, You are therefore called Parambrahman. This
word, Parambrahman, has been used in the
Bhagavad-gita to identify You. Saintly persons who have
completely cleansed their hearts of all material contamination
can realize Your transcendental form, although You are all-
pervading like the sky, unaffected by any material thing. Only
the devotees can realize You, and no one else. In the
impersonalists' conception of Your supreme existence, the sky
is just like Your navel, the fire is Your mouth, and the water
is Your semina. The heavenly planets are Your head, all the
directions are Your ears, the Urvi planet is Your lotus
feet, the moon is Your mind, and the sun is Your eye. As far as
I am concerned, I act as Your ego. The ocean is Your abdomen,
and the King of heaven, Indra, is Your arm. Trees and plants
are the hairs of Your body, the cloud is the hair on Your
head, and Lord Brahma is Your intelligence. All the great
progenitors, known as Prajapatis, are Your symbolic
representatives. And religion is Your heart. The impersonal
feature of Your supreme body is conceived of in this way, but
You are ultimately the Supreme Person. The impersonal feature
of Your supreme body is only a small expansion of Your energy.
You are likened to the original fire, and the expansions are
Your light and heat."
Lord Siva continued: "My dear Lord, although You are manifested
universally, different parts of the universe are the
different parts of Your body, and by Your inconceivable potency
You can simultaneously be both localized and universal. In the
Brahma-samhita we also find it stated that although You always
remain in Your abode, Goloka Vrndavana, You are nevertheless
present everywhere. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, You appear
to protect the devotees, which
indicates good fortune for all the universe. All of the
demigods are directing different affairs of the universe by
Your grace only. Thus the seven upper planetary systems are
being maintained by Your grace. At the end of this creation,
all manifestations of Your energies, whether in the shape of
demigods, human beings or lower animals, enter into You, and
all immediate and remote causes of cosmic manifestation
rest in You without distinctive features of existence.
Ultimately, there is no possibility of distinction between
Yourself and any other thing on an equal level with You or
subordinate to You. You are simultaneously the cause of this
cosmic manifestation and its ingredients as well. You are the
Supreme Whole, one without a second. In the phenomenal
manifestation there are three stages: the stage of
consciousness, the stage of semiconsciousness in dreaming, and
the stage of unconsciousness. But Your Lordship is
transcendental to all these different material stages of
existence. You exist, therefore, in a fourth dimension, and
Your appearance and disappearance do not depend on anything
beyond Yourself. You are the supreme cause of everything, but
for Yourself there is no cause. You Yourself cause Your own
appearance and disappearance. Despite Your transcendental
position, my Lord, in order to show Your six opulences and
advertise Your transcendental qualities, You have appeared in
Your different incarnations -- fish, tortoise, boar, Nrsimha,
Kesava, etc. -- by Your personal manifestation; and You
have appeared as different living entities by Your separated
manifestations. By Your internal potency, You appear as the
different incarnations of Visnu, and by Your external potency
You appear as the phenomenal world.
"Because it is a cloudy day to the common man's eyes, the sun
appears to be covered. But the fact is that because the
sunshine creates the cloud, even though the whole sky is
cloudy, the sun can never actually be covered.
Similarly, the less intelligent class of men claims that there
is no God, but when the manifestation of different living
entities and their activities is visible, enlightened persons
see You present in every atom and through the via media of
Your external and marginal energies. Your unlimited potential
activities are experienced by the most enlightened devotees,
but those who are bewildered by the spell of Your external
energy identify themselves with this material world and become
attached to society, friendship and love. Thus they embrace the
threefold miseries of material existence and are subjected to
the dualities of pain and pleasure. They are sometimes drowned
in the ocean of attachment and sometimes taken out of it.
"My dear Lord, only by Your mercy and grace can the living
entity get the human form of life, which is a chance to get out
of the miserable condition of material existence. However, a
person who possesses a human body but who cannot bring the
senses under control is carried away by the waves of sensual
enjoyment. As such, he cannot take shelter of Your lotus feet
and thus engage in Your devotional service. The life of such a
person is very unfortunate, and anyone living such a life of
darkness is certainly cheating himself and thus cheating others
also. Therefore, human society without Krsna consciousness is a
society of cheaters and the cheated.
"My Lord, You are actually the dearmost Supersoul of all living
entities and the supreme controller of everything. The human
being who is always illusioned is afraid of ultimate death. A
man who is simply attached to sensual enjoyment voluntarily
accepts the miserable material existence and thus wanders after
the will-o'-the-wisp of sense pleasure. He is certainly the
most foolish man, for he drinks poison and puts aside the
nectar. My dear Lord, all the demigods, including myself and
Lord Brahma, as well as great saintly persons and sages who
have cleansed their hearts of this material attachment, have,
by Your grace, wholeheartedly taken shelter of Your lotus feet.
We have all taken shelter of You, because we have accepted You
as the Supreme Lord and the dearmost life and soul of all of us.
You are the original cause of this cosmic manifestation, You
are its supreme maintainer, and You are the cause of its
dissolution also. You are equal to everyone, the most peaceful
supreme friend of every living entity. You are the supreme
worshipable object for every one of us. My dear Lord, let us
always be engaged in Your transcendental loving service, so
that we may get free from this material entanglement.
"Lastly, my Lord, I may inform You that this Banasura is very
dear to me. He has rendered very valuable service unto me;
therefore I want to see him always happy. Being pleased with
him, I have given him the assurance of safety. I pray to You,
my Lord, that as You were pleased upon his forefathers King
Prahlada and Bali Maharaja, You will also be pleased with him."
After hearing Lord Siva's prayer, Lord Krsna addressed him also
as lord and said, "My dear Lord Siva, I accept your statements,
and your desire for Banasura is also accepted by
Me. I know that this Banasura is the son of Bali Maharaja, and
as such I cannot kill him because that is My promise. I gave a
benediction to King Prahlada that all the demons who would
appear in his family would never be killed by Me. Therefore,
without killing this Banasura, I have simply cut off his arms
to deprive him of his false prestige. The large number of
soldiers which he was maintaining became a burden on this earth,
and I have killed them all in order to minimize the burden.
Now he has four remaining arms, and he will remain immortal,
without being affected by the material pains and pleasures.
I know that he is one of the chief devotees of your lordship,
so you can now rest assured that henceforward he need have no
fear from anything."
When Banasura was benedicted by Lord Krsna in this way, he came
before the Lord and bowed down before Him, touching his head to
the earth. He immediately arranged to bring Aniruddha
along with his daughter Usa, seated on a nice
chariot, and presented them before Lord Krsna. After
this, Lord Krsna took charge of Aniruddha and Usa, who had
become very opulent materially because of the blessings of Lord
Siva. Thus, keeping forward a division of one aksauhini of
soldiers, Krsna began to proceed toward Dvaraka. In the
meantime, all the people at Dvaraka, having received the news
that Lord Krsna was returning with Aniruddha and Usa in great
opulence, decorated every corner of the city with flags,
festoons and garlands. All the big roads and crossings were
carefully cleansed and sprinkled with sandalwood pulp mixed
with water. Everywhere there was the flavor of sandalwood.
All the citizens, accompanied by their friends and relatives,
welcomed Lord Krsna with great pomp and jubilation. At that
time, there was a tumultuous vibration of conchshells and drums
and bugles to receive the Lord. In this way the Supreme
Personality of Godhead Krsna entered His capital, Dvaraka.
Sukadeva Gosvami assured King Pariksit that the narration of
the fight between Lord Siva and Lord Krsna is not at all
inauspicious like ordinary fights. On the contrary, if one
remembers the narration of this fight between
Lord Krsna and Lord Siva in the morning and takes pleasure in
the victory of Lord Krsna, he will never experience defeat
anywhere in his struggle of life.
This episode of Banasura's fighting with Krsna and later on
being saved by the grace of Lord Siva is confirmation of the
statement in the Bhagavad-gita that the worshipers of demigods
cannot achieve any benediction without its being sanctioned by
the Supreme Lord, Krsna. Here, in this narration, we find that
although Banasura was a great devotee of Lord Siva, when he
faced death by Krsna, Lord Siva was not able to save him. But
Lord Siva appealed to Krsna to save his devotee, and it was
thus sanctioned by the Lord. This is the position of Lord Krsna.
The exact words used in this connection in the Bhagavad-gita
are mayaiva vihitan hi tan. This means that without the
sanction of the Supreme Lord, no demigod can award any
benediction to the worshiper.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Second Volume,
Eighth Chapter, of Krsna, "Lord Krsna Fights with Banasura."
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KB 63: Lord Krsna Fights with Banasura
CHAPTER SIXTY–THREE
Lord Krsna Fights with Banasura
When the four months of the rainy season passed and
Aniruddha had still not returned home, all the members of the
Yadu family became much perturbed. They could not understand
how the boy was missing. Fortunately, one day the great sage
Narada came and informed the family about Aniruddha's
disappearance from the palace. He explained how Aniruddha had
been carried to the city of Sonitapura, the capital of Banasura'
s empire, and how Banasura had arrested him with the naga-
pasa, even though Aniruddha had defeated his soldiers. This
news was given in detail by Narada, and the whole story was
disclosed. Then the members of the Yadu dynasty, all of whom
had great affection for Krsna, prepared to attack the city of
Sonitapura. Practically all the leaders of the family,
including Pradyumna, Satyaki, Gada, Samba, Sarana, Nanda,
Upananda and Bhadra, combined together and gathered twelve
aksauhini military divisions into phalanxes. Then they all went
to Sonitapura and surrounded it with soldiers, elephants,
horses and chariots.
Banasura heard that the soldiers of the Yadu dynasty were
attacking the whole city, tearing down various walls, gates and
nearby gardens. Becoming very angry, he immediately ordered his
soldiers, who were of equal caliber, to go and face them. Lord
Siva was so kind to Banasura that he personally came as the
commander in chief of the military force, assisted by his
heroic sons Karttikeya and Ganapati. Nandisvara, Lord Siva,
seated on his favorite bull, led the
fighting against Lord Krsna and Balarama. We can simply imagine
how fierce the fighting was -- Lord Siva with his valiant sons
on one side, and Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
and His elder brother, Sri Balaramaji, on the other. The
fighting was so fierce that those who saw the battle were
struck with wonder, and the hairs on their bodies stood up.
Lord Siva was engaged in fighting directly with Lord Krsna,
Pradyumna was engaged with Karttikeya, and Lord Balarama was
engaged with Banasura's commander in chief, Kumbhanda, who was
assisted by Kupakarna. Samba, the son of Krsna, fought
the son of Banasura, and Banasura fought
Satyaki, commander in chief of the
Yadu dynasty. In this way the fighting was waged.
News of the fighting spread all over the universe. Demigods
such as Lord Brahma, from higher planetary systems, along with
great sages and saintly persons, Siddhas, Caranas and
Gandharvas, all being very curious to see the fight between
Lord Siva and Lord Krsna and their assistants, hovered
over the battlefield in their airplanes. Lord Siva is called
Bhuta-natha because he is assisted by various types of
powerful ghosts and denizens of the inferno -- Bhutas, Pretas,
Pramathas, Guhyakas, Dakinis, Pisacas, Kusmandas, Vetalas,
Vinayakas and Brahma-raksasas. (Of all kinds of ghosts, the
Brahma-raksasas are very powerful. They are
brahmanas who after death have entered the ghostly
species of life.)
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, simply drove all
these ghosts away from the battlefield with the arrows from
His celebrated bow, Sarnga-dhanur. Lord Siva then began to
release all his selected weapons against the Personality of
Godhead. Lord Sri Krsna, without any difficulty, counteracted
all these weapons with counterweapons. He counteracted
the brahmastra, similar to the atomic bomb, with another
brahmastra, and an air weapon with a mountain weapon. When Lord
Siva released a particular weapon bringing about a violent
hurricane on the battlefield, Lord Krsna presented just the
opposing element, a mountain weapon, which checked the
hurricane on the spot. Similarly, when Lord Siva released his
weapon of devastating fire, Krsna counteracted it with torrents
of rain.
At last, when Lord Siva released his personal weapon, the
Pasupata-astra, Krsna immediately counteracted it with the
Narayana-astra. Lord Siva then became exasperated in fighting
with Lord Krsna. Krsna then took the opportunity to release His
yawning weapon. When this weapon is released, the opposing
party becomes tired, stops fighting and begins to yawn.
Consequently, Lord Siva became so fatigued that he refused to
fight anymore and began yawning. Krsna was now able to
turn His attention from the attack of Lord Siva to the efforts
of Banasura, and He began to kill Banasura's personal soldiers
with swords and clubs. Meanwhile, Lord Krsna's son Pradyumna
was fighting fiercely with Karttikeya, the commander in chief
of the demigods. Karttikeya was wounded, and his body was
bleeding profusely. In this condition, he left the battlefield
and, without fighting anymore, rode away on the back of his
peacock carrier. Similarly, Lord Balarama smashed
Banasura's commander in chief, Kumbhanda, with the strokes of
His club. Kupakarna was also wounded in this way, and both he
and Kumbhanda fell on the battlefield, Kumbhanda
being fatally wounded. Without guidance, all
of Banasura's soldiers scattered here and there.
When Banasura saw that his soldiers and commanders had been
defeated, his anger only increased. He thought it wise to stop
fighting with Satyaki, Krsna's commander in chief, and instead
directly attack Lord Krsna. Now having the opportunity to use
his one thousand arms, he rushed toward Krsna, simultaneously
working five hundred bows and two thousand arrows. Such a
foolish person could never measure Krsna's strength.
Immediately, without difficulty, Krsna cut each of Banasura'
s bows into two pieces and, to check him from going further,
made the horses of his chariot lie on the ground so
that the chariot broke to pieces. After doing this, Krsna
blew His conchshell, Pancajanya.
There was a demigoddess named Kotara who was worshiped by
Banasura, and their relationship was as mother and son. Mother
Kotara was upset that Banasura's life was in danger, so she
appeared on the scene. With naked body and scattered hair, she
stood before Lord Krsna. Sri Krsna did not like the sight of
this naked woman, and to avoid seeing her He turned His face.
Banasura, getting this chance to escape Krsna's attack, left
the battlefield. All the strings of his bows had been broken,
and there was no chariot or driver, so he had no alternative
but to return to his city. He lost everything in the battle.
Being greatly harassed by the arrows of Krsna, all the
associates of Lord Siva -- the hobgoblins and ghostly Bhutas,
Pretas and ksatriyas -- left the battlefield. Lord Siva then
took to his last resort. He released his greatest death weapon,
known as Siva-jvara, which destroys by excessive
heat. It is said that at the end of creation the
sun becomes twelve times more scorching than usual. This twelve-
times-hotter temperature is called Siva-jvara. When the
Siva-jvara personified was released, he had three heads
and three legs, and as he came toward Krsna it appeared that he
was burning everything to ashes. He was so powerful that he
made blazing fire appear in all directions, and Krsna observed
that he was specifically coming toward Him.
As there is a Siva-jvara weapon, there is also a
Narayana-jvara weapon, which is represented by
excessive cold. When there is excessive heat, one can somehow
or other tolerate it, but when there is excessive cold,
everything collapses. This is actually experienced by a person
at the time of death. At the time of death, the temperature of
the body first of all increases to 107 degrees Fahrenheit, and
then the whole body collapses and immediately becomes as cold
as ice. To counteract the scorching heat of the Siva-jvara,
there is no other weapon but the Narayana-jvara.
Therefore, when Lord Krsna saw that the Siva-jvara had
been released by Lord Siva, He had no recourse other than
to release the Narayana-jvara. Lord Sri Krsna is the
original Narayana and the controller of the Narayana-jvara
weapon. When the Narayana-jvara was released, there was a
great fight between the two jvaras. When excessive heat is
counteracted by extreme cold, it is natural for the hot
temperature to gradually reduce, and this is what occurred in
the fight between the Siva-jvara and the
Narayana-jvara. Gradually, the Siva-jvara's temperature
diminished, and the Siva-jvara began to cry for help from
Lord Siva, but Lord Siva was unable to help him in the presence
of the Narayana-jvara. Unable to get any help from Lord
Siva, the Siva-jvara could understand that he had no means
of escape outside of surrendering unto Narayana, Lord Krsna
Himself. Lord Siva, the greatest of the demigods, could not
help him, what to speak of the lesser demigods, and therefore
the Siva-jvara ultimately surrendered unto Krsna, bowing
before Him and offering a prayer so that the Lord might be
pleased and give him protection.
This incident of the fight between the ultimate
weapons of Lord Siva and Lord Krsna proves that if
Krsna gives someone protection no one can kill him and if
Krsna does not give one protection no one can save
him. Lord Siva is called Mahadeva, the greatest of all the
demigods, although sometimes Lord Brahma is considered the
greatest of all the demigods because he can create. However,
Lord Siva can annihilate the creations of Brahma. Still, both
Lord Brahma and Lord Siva act only in one capacity: Lord Brahma
can create, and Lord Siva can annihilate. But neither of them
can maintain. Lord Visnu, however, not only maintains but
creates and annihilates also. Factually, the creation is not
effected by Brahma, because Brahma himself is created by Lord
Visnu. And Lord Siva is created, or born, of Brahma. The
Siva-jvara thus understood that without Krsna, or Narayana,
no one could help him. He therefore rightly took shelter of
Lord Krsna and, with folded hands, began to pray as follows.
"My dear Lord, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You
because You have unlimited potencies. No one can surpass Your
potencies, and thus You are the Lord of everyone. Generally
people consider Lord Siva the most powerful personality
in the material world, but Lord Siva is not all-powerful; You
are all-powerful. This is factual. You are the original
consciousness, or knowledge. Without knowledge, or
consciousness, nothing can be powerful. A material thing may
be very powerful, but without the touch of
consciousness it cannot act. A material machine may be
gigantic and wonderful, but without the touch of someone
conscious and in knowledge, the material machine is useless for
all purposes. My Lord, You are complete knowledge, and there is
not a pinch of material contamination in Your personality. Lord
Siva may be a powerful demigod because of his specific power to
annihilate the whole creation, and, similarly, Lord Brahma may
be very powerful because he can create the entire universe, but
actually neither Brahma nor Lord Siva is the original cause of
this cosmic manifestation. You are the Absolute Truth, the
Supreme Brahman, and You are the original cause. The original
cause of the cosmic manifestation is not the impersonal Brahman
effulgence. That impersonal Brahman effulgence rests on
Your personality." As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, the
cause of the impersonal Brahman is Lord Krsna. This Brahman
effulgence is likened to the sunshine, which emanates from the
sun globe. Therefore, impersonal Brahman is not the ultimate
cause. The ultimate cause of everything is the supreme eternal
form of Krsna. All material actions and reactions take
place in the impersonal Brahman, but in the personal Brahman,
the eternal form of Krsna, there is no action and reaction.
The Siva-jvara continued: "Therefore, my Lord, Your body is
completely peaceful, completely blissful and devoid of material
contamination. In the material body there are actions and
reactions of the three modes of material nature. The time
factor is the most important element, above all others,
because the material manifestation is effected by the
agitation of time. Thus natural phenomena come into existence,
and as soon as phenomena appear,
fruitive activities are visible. As the result of these
fruitive activities, a living entity takes his form. He
acquires a particular nature packed up in a
subtle body and gross body formed by the life air, the ego, the
ten sense organs, the mind and the five gross elements. These
then create the type of body which later becomes the root
cause of various other bodies, which are acquired one after
another by means of the transmigration of the soul. All these
phenomenal manifestations are the combined actions of Your
material energy. You, however, are the cause of
this external energy, and thus You remain unaffected by
the action and reaction of the different elements. And because
You are transcendental to such compulsions of material energy,
You are the supreme tranquillity. You are the last word in
freedom from material contamination. I therefore take
shelter at Your lotus feet, giving up all other shelter.
"My dear Lord, Your appearance as the son of Vasudeva in Your
role as a human being is one of the pastimes of Your complete
freedom. To benefit Your devotees and vanquish the
nondevotees, You appear in multi-incarnations. All such
incarnations descend in fulfillment of Your promise in the
Bhagavad-gita that You appear as soon as there are
discrepancies in the system of progressive life. When there are
disturbances by irregular principles, my dear Lord, You appear
by Your internal potency. Your main business is to protect and
maintain the demigods and spiritually inclined persons and to
maintain the standard of material law and order. Considering
Your mission of maintaining such law and order, Your
violence toward the miscreants and demons is quite befitting.
This is not the first time You have incarnated; it is to be
understood that You have done so many, many times before.
"My dear Lord, I beg to submit that I have been very greatly
chastised by the release of Your Narayana-jvara, which is
certainly very cooling yet at the same time severely
dangerous and unbearable for all of us. My dear Lord, as long
as one is forgetful of Krsna consciousness, driven by the spell
of material desires and ignorant of the ultimate shelter at
Your lotus feet, one who has accepted this material body
becomes disturbed by the three miserable conditions of material
nature. Because one does not surrender unto You, he
continues to suffer perpetually."
After hearing the Siva-jvara, Lord Krsna replied, "O three-
headed one, I am pleased with your statement. Be assured that
there will be no more suffering for you from the Narayana-
jvara. Not only are you now free from fear of the
Narayana-jvara, but anyone in the future who simply recollects
this fight between you and the Narayana-jvara
will also be freed from all kinds of fear." After
hearing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Siva-jvara
offered respectful obeisances unto His lotus feet and left.
In the meantime, Banasura somehow or other recovered from his
setbacks and, with rejuvenated energy, returned to fight. This
time Banasura appeared before Lord Krsna, who was seated on His
chariot, with different kinds of weapons in his one thousand
hands. Very much agitated, Banasura
splashed his different weapons upon the
body of Lord Krsna like torrents of rain. When Lord Krsna saw
the weapons of Banasura coming at Him, like water coming out of
a strainer, He took His sharp-edged Sudarsana disc and began to
cut off the demon's one thousand arms, one after another, just
as a gardener trims the twigs of a tree with sharp cutters.
When Lord Siva saw that his devotee Banasura could not be saved
even in his presence, he came to his senses and personally came
before Lord Krsna and began to pacify Him by offering the
following prayers.
Lord Siva said, "My dear Lord, You are the worshipable object
of the Vedic hymns. One who does not know You considers the
impersonal brahma-jyoti to be the ultimate Supreme
Absolute Truth, without knowledge that You exist
behind Your spiritual effulgence in Your eternal abode. My dear
Lord, You are therefore called Para-brahman. Indeed
, the words param brahman have been used in the
Bhagavad-gita to identify You. Saintly persons who have
completely cleansed their hearts of all material contamination
can realize Your transcendental form, although You are all-
pervading like the sky, unaffected by any material thing. Only
the devotees can realize You, and no one else. In the
impersonalists' conception of Your supreme existence, the sky
is just like Your navel, fire is Your mouth, and water
is Your semen. The heavenly planets are Your head, all the
directions are Your ears, the earth (Urvi) is Your lotus
feet, the moon is Your mind, and the sun is Your eye. As far as
I am concerned, I act as Your ego. The ocean is Your abdomen,
and the King of heaven, Indra, is Your arm. Trees and plants
are the hairs on Your body, the clouds are the hair on Your
head, and Lord Brahma is Your intelligence. All the great
progenitors, known as Prajapatis, are Your symbolic
representatives. And religion is Your heart. The impersonal
feature of Your supreme body is conceived of in this way, but
You are ultimately the Supreme Person. The impersonal feature
of Your supreme body is only a small expansion of Your energy.
You are likened to the original fire, and Your expansions are
its light and heat."
Lord Siva continued: "My dear Lord, since You are manifested
universally, the different parts of the universe are the
different parts of Your body, and by Your inconceivable potency
You can simultaneously be both localized and universal. In the
Brahma-samhita we also find it stated that although You always
remain in Your abode, Goloka Vrndavana, You are
present everywhere. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, You appear
in order to protect the devotees, and thus Your appearance
indicates good fortune for all the universe. All of the
demigods are directing different affairs of the universe by
Your grace only. Thus the seven upper planetary systems are
maintained by Your grace. At the end of this creation,
all manifestations of Your energies, whether in the shape of
demigods, human beings or lower animals, enter into You, and
all immediate and remote causes of the cosmic manifestation
rest in You without distinctive features of existence.
Ultimately, there is no possibility of distinction between
You and any other thing on an equal level with You or
subordinate to You. You are simultaneously the cause of this
cosmic manifestation and its ingredients as well. You are the
Supreme Whole, one without a second. In the phenomenal
manifestation there are three stages: the stage of
consciousness, the stage of semiconsciousness in dreaming, and
the stage of unconsciousness. But Your Lordship is
transcendental to all these different material stages of
existence. You exist, therefore, in a fourth dimension, and
Your appearance and disappearance do not depend on anything
beyond Yourself. You are the supreme cause of everything, but
of You there is no cause. You Yourself cause Your own
appearance and disappearance. Despite Your transcendental
position, my Lord, in order to show Your six opulences and
advertise Your transcendental qualities, You have appeared in
Your different incarnations -- fish, tortoise, boar, Nrsimha,
Kesava and others -- by Your personal manifestation; and You
have appeared as different living entities by Your separated
manifestations. By Your internal potency You appear as the
different incarnations of Visnu, and by Your external potency
You appear as the phenomenal world.
"On a cloudy day, to the common man's eyes the sun
appears to be covered. But the fact is that because the
sunshine creates the cloud, the sun can never actually be
covered, even though the whole sky may be cloudy.
Similarly, less intelligent men claim that there
is no God, but when the manifestation of different living
entities and their activities is visible, enlightened persons
see You present in every atom through the medium of
Your external and marginal energies. Your unlimitedly potent
activities are experienced by the most enlightened devotees,
but those who are bewildered by the spell of Your external
energy identify themselves with this material world and become
attached to society, friendship and love. Thus they embrace the
threefold miseries of material existence and are subjected to
the dualities of pain and pleasure, sometimes drowning
in the ocean of attachment and sometimes being taken out of it.
"My dear Lord, only by Your mercy and grace can the living
entity get the human form of life, which is a chance to get out
of the miserable condition of material existence. However, a
person who possesses a human body but who cannot bring his
senses under control is carried away by the waves of sensual
enjoyment. As such, he cannot take shelter of Your lotus feet
and thus engage in Your devotional service. The life of such a
person is very unfortunate, and anyone living such a life of
darkness is certainly cheating himself and thus cheating others
also. Therefore, human society without Krsna consciousness is a
society of cheaters and the cheated.
"My Lord, You are actually the dearmost Supersoul of all living
entities and the supreme controller of everything. The human
being who is always illusioned is afraid of ultimate death. A
man who is simply attached to sensual enjoyment voluntarily
accepts the miserable material existence and thus wanders after
the will-o'-the-wisp of sense pleasure. He is certainly the
most foolish man, for he drinks poison and puts aside the
nectar. My dear Lord, all the demigods, including myself and
Lord Brahma, as well as great saintly persons and sages who
have cleansed their hearts of material attachment, have,
by Your grace, wholeheartedly taken shelter of Your lotus feet.
We have all taken shelter of You because we have accepted You
as the Supreme Lord and the dearmost life and soul of all of us.
You are the original cause of this cosmic manifestation, You
are its supreme maintainer, and You are the cause of its
dissolution also. You are equal to everyone, the most peaceful
supreme friend of every living entity. You are the supreme
worshipable object for every one of us. My dear Lord, let us
always be engaged in Your transcendental loving service so
that we may get free from this material entanglement.
"Finally, my Lord, I may inform You that this Banasura is very
dear to me. He has rendered valuable service unto me;
therefore I want to see him always happy. Being pleased with
him, I have assured him safety. I pray to You,
my Lord, that as You were pleased with his forefathers King
Prahlada and Bali Maharaja, You will also be pleased with him."
After hearing Lord Siva's prayer, Lord Krsna replied
, "My dear Lord Siva, I accept your statements,
and I also accept your desire for Banasura
. I know that this Banasura is the son of Bali Maharaja, and
as such I cannot kill him, for that is My promise. I gave a
benediction to King Prahlada that the demons who would
appear in his family would never be killed by Me. Therefore,
without killing this Banasura, I have simply cut off his arms
to deprive him of his false prestige. The large number of
soldiers he was maintaining became a burden on this earth,
and I have killed them all to minimize the burden.
Now he has four remaining arms, and he will remain immortal,
unaffected by material pains and pleasures.
I know that he is one of the chief devotees of Your Lordship,
so you can now rest assured that henceforward he need have no
fear of anything."
When Banasura was blessed by Lord Krsna in this way, he came
before the Lord and bowed down before Him, touching his head to
the earth. Banasura immediately arranged to have
his daughter Usa seated with Aniruddha on a nice
chariot, and then he presented them before Lord Krsna. After
this, Lord Krsna took charge of Aniruddha and Usa, who had
become very opulent materially because of the blessings of Lord
Siva. Thus, keeping forward a division of one aksauhini of
soldiers, Krsna proceeded toward Dvaraka. In the
meantime, all the people of Dvaraka, having received the news
that Lord Krsna was returning with Aniruddha and Usa in great
opulence, decorated every corner of the city with flags,
festoons and garlands. All the big roads and crossings were
carefully cleansed and sprinkled with sandalwood pulp mixed
with water. Everywhere was the fragrance of sandalwood.
All the citizens joined with their friends and relatives
to welcome Lord Krsna with great pomp and jubilation
, and a tumultuous vibration of conchshells, drums
and bugles received the Lord. In this way the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Krsna, entered His capital, Dvaraka.
Sukadeva Gosvami assured King Pariksit that the narration of
the fight between Lord Siva and Lord Krsna is not at all
inauspicious, like ordinary fights. On the contrary, if one
remembers in the morning the narration of this fight between
Lord Krsna and Lord Siva and takes pleasure in
the victory of Lord Krsna, he will never experience defeat
anywhere in his struggle of life.
This episode of Banasura's fighting with Krsna and later
being saved by the grace of Lord Siva is confirmation of the
statement in the Bhagavad-gita that the worshipers of demigods
cannot achieve any benediction without its being sanctioned by
the Supreme Lord, Krsna. Here in this narration we find that
although Banasura was a great devotee of Lord Siva, when he
faced death by Krsna, Lord Siva was not able to save him. But
Lord Siva appealed to Krsna to save his devotee, and this was
sanctioned by the Lord. This is the position of Lord Krsna.
The exact words used in this connection in the Bhagavad-gita
are mayaiva vihitan hi tan. This means that without the
sanction of the Supreme Lord, no demigod can award any
benediction to his worshiper.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Sixty-third
Chapter of Krsna, "Lord Krsna Fights with Banasura."
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