Dasakam - 85 - Jarasandha Vadham and Shishupala Moksham
Jarasandha, King of Magadha held 20800 kings in his captivity for long time and were torturing them. The kings in hostage prayed to Krishna and sent an emissary requesting Krishna to free them from the captivity. Nothing to say more, but they prayed for killing of the Magadha king. Krishna with his Yadava army intended to start to Magadha when Narada came there and informed about Rajasuya Yagna being done by Yudhisthira. Krishna was confused as to which task he should take up first. Uddhava pointed out to Krishna that sacrifice demands conquering of enemies, so going to yagna will meet both the purposes. Immediately Krishna left to Indraprastha along with all his wives and the yadavas.
With Krishna's grace through his glance and blessings, Yudhisthira and his brothers gained lot of strength and conquered the earth and amassed lot of wealth. Then he sent Krishna, Bheema and Arjuna to Jarasandha. Krishna, Arjuna and Bhima went to Girivraja in the guise of Brahmins and Krishna invited Jarasandha to fight with Bheema. Krishna along with Arjuna remained as onlookers. The fight went on for 27 days as both were equally strong. Finally Krishna signaled Bheema the way to kill Jarasandha by tearing a twig apart and so Bheema ripped him to two pieces and threw the pieces on either side, thus ending his life. Krishna made his son Sahdev the king of Magadha and released the kings from captivity and blessed them with devotion. The kings were not having any material desire, yet Krishna advised them to rule the earth as per dharma.
Yudhisthira then performed the Rajasuya yagna. Kings who were under the control of Yudhistira happily participated in the yagna. Krishna who is the Lord of the universe, personally washed the feet of holy men and brahmins and dried their feet with his silk robe. How fortunate Yudhistira was! It was required in the yagna that Yudhistira had to honour and offer puja to the most noteworthy person among the guests. Sahadeva advised that the worship and honour be offered to their family god Sri Krishna. Dharmaputra with lot of happiness, worshipped and honoured Sri Krishna, the soul of every atma. This made all devas, gods and humans satisfied and happy.
While the kings and holy men were worshipping and honouring Krishna, the king of Chedi, Shishupala sprang up from his seat and hurled abuses on Krishna. He called everyone who were honouring and worshipping the cowherd boy, fools. With some more abuses, he carried weapons and came towards the Lord. Pandavas confronted him immediately and prevented him from advancing further.
Krishna stopped his allies, Pandavas to confront Shishupala and cut his head with his sudarshan chakra which cuts the heads of asuras. Having seeded hostility for past three births (as Hiranyakashipu, Ravana and Shishupala), he kept thinking of Lord in all through his births, got the moksham for the pure minded Shishupala by merging with the Lord, which was very difficult to attain for even yogis.
Rajasuya yagna was completed well by the grace of the Lord. Everyone praised Dharmaputra and blessed victory to him and left the venue. Hearing the glory of Pandavas, Duryodhana grew jealous and upset and came to visit them at the palace built by Mayan. The assembly hall was built in such a way that the water area looked like floor and the dry floor area looked like water. Duryodhana mistook wet places and dry places in the palace as he walked in and slipped. Draupadi and Bhima laughed at Duryodana's ignorance. Krishna planning to reduce the evil people in the earth, made Draupadi and Bheema to laugh more by his glances. Bhattathiri offered worship to the Lord who intended to reduce the evil, to protect him from his ailments.









