[Advaita-l] Krishna-Banasura Encounter

[Satish Arigela]

Such interpretations remain as interpretations.Nothing more. I do not see how they add any value..

If you actually look deeper, the interpretations are most(if not always) of the time result of lack of proper understanding.

See the following extracts:

""A spiritual aspirant, on the other hand, adopts a feverish process of spiritual discipline
(sadhana) by choice for attaining enlightenment. This process is symbolised by Krishna’s
fever (Vaishnavi Jvara), which has power to defeat Siva’s fever.""

The shiva purANa gives the reverse picture actually. The vaiShNava jvara is defeated by the shiva jvara.

So how does this interpretation explain that? If you take the reverse picture given by the shiva purANa, which is further confirmed by the viShNu purANa, the whole interpretation falls like a pack of cards.

Further more the shiva purANa states that one of the astras used in the battle between
kR^iShNa devakIputra and rudra is the tripAda-jvarAstra (54.16-17) as
well as kR^ityAs. First devakIputra sent the a jvarAstra that caused a
malarial fever(54.26). rudra countered it with his own jvarAstra and
the 
malarial missile of the yAdava fled in terror eulogizing rudra.

Additionally, the viShNu purANa concedes that the saMkarShaNa was severely 
tormented by the
raudra fever missile till he took refuge with 
vAsudeva.  (I did not personally check this one..but I am sure it will be accurate)

>>In the cycles of birth and death that constitute the world-process, Mahesvari Jvara afflicts
>>everyone.

The concept of jvara comes from rudra and see the following write-up on jvara. Likewise the various Ayurveda works like that of charaka and the bhela saMhita etc mention that fever is indeed a manifestation of rudra and enjoin worship of rudra as one of the ways to get rid of the torment due to fevers.

"The idea(of a jvarAstra) indeed is an old one and originally linked to shiva. In the 
kaTha saMhitA of the
yajur.v an old AkhyAna is narrated: The brahmin 
baka dAlbhya had a
conflict with dhR^itarAShTra vaichitravIrya, the 
kuru king, over the
non-payment of ritual fees. So he invoked rudra 
and dispatched the
disease missile of pashupati on the animals of the kaurava and they
were consumed by a plague.

When the purANa says jvara it is not referring to an y sublime concepts but referring to the process of inflicting jvara on one's enemies using mantra-s. I was informed of a certain prayoga from the atharva used to hurl swarms of mosquitos, tick and other biting flees on the enemies.

SA.




________________________________
From: Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Tue, June 15, 2010 9:43:11 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Krishna-Banasura Encounter

On Mon, 7 Jun 2010, Murali Karamchedu wrote:

> 
> Dear List Members,
> 
> Several years ago (not sure of the specifc issue or year), there was an article in Tattvaloka that traced a detailed symbolism in the Krishna-Banasura encounter, from an advaitic standpoint. The writer brought out several points and explained the significance of the maheSvara-jvara and vaishNava-jvara, the symbolism behind lopping off 998 arms, of Usha and Aniruddha themselves etc. I request anyone on the list who has access to the article I am referring to, or who knows the details of this interpretation, to please post it on the forum.

Thanks to the work of our list member Vijay Kartik and the kindness of the editor of Tattvaloka magazine, this article is now available on our web site at:

http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/articles/humbling_of_banasura.pdf


-- Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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