[Advaita-l] PASU-PATA-ASTRA- To-ARJUNA

[KAMESWARARAO MULA]

किरातार्जुनीयम् – प्रथमः सर्गः

(First Canto of the Kiratarjuniya)
https://sanskritfromhome.in/course/kirata01_sanskrit

Kirātārjunīyam is one of the five great poems of Samskrita Literature – the पञ्च-महाकाव्यs. Bhaaravi, author of this poem, is famous for the depth of meaning (अर्थ-गौरवम्) and this poem is prescribed for study in the syllabus of many Sanskrit exams at the graduate level.
The poem has eighteen cantos (sarga-s), and the first sarga is one of the most popular portions of the poem. Here, a spy sent by Yudhishthira returns and reports the excellence of Duryodhana in ruling the kingdom and looking after the subjects. trying to win them over by the time the Pandavas return. After his departure, Draupadi tries to incite Yudhishthira to declare war with the Kauravas, by describing the pathetic state that the Pandavas are currently in, and Yudhishthira’s foolishness in sticking to an agreement with foes who have no moral standards.

In these audio lectures, Ms. Visalakshi Sankaran, explains the meaning of the shlokas of the first sarga in lucid Tamil, emphasising the aptness of expressions of the poet. She also points out the alankaras and other poetic devices used by the poet. These lectures will be very useful for students preparing for any examination based on this portion of the poem, for gaining an apt understanding of all the basic aspects of the shlokas.

This course is also available in Sanskrit – Click here for the Sanskrit version

Sri Guru padaravindarpana Mastu
Kameswara

    On Friday, 7 June 2019 9:48:02 am IST, KAMESWARARAO MULA via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:  
 
 Dear Members,                         This was the story from the Maha bharata before to bestowthe Pasu-pata-Astra to Arjuna by Lord Parameshwara.
It was like this that thePandava’s are getting prepared for the Kurkshetra war as the sandhi  i.ethe dialogue by Krishna was utterly failed with an attempt to capture theKrishna with a thread so that he can’t be escaped from the Kuru sabha. Soeveryone was preparing for the was with their promises and strengths. All thepandava’s along with kirshna have told the Pandava-Madhyama i.e Arjuna toimpress the Bholenath  with his peanaceso that he can get the top most astra by his blessings. Accordingly, Arjunawent into the forest and started doing tapas to impress the Parameshwara. Manydays went on and the unquanqering faith of arjuna to impress the parameshwara brougha little ‘Jalak’ in the heart of the bholenath to bestow the astra for whicharjuna was doing his tapas. How ever, who ever is on the top should test the‘Disciple’ up to full extent to know whether he is capable to keep that ‘Astra’with him or not and one should make sure that he will not misuse that for anypersonal purposes. So Bholenath wants to take a test for ‘Arjuna’ in thedisguise form. Bhloenath went to the forest in the form of a  wild hunter so that he can take the test forthe ‘Arjuna’. In general kshatriya’s have an habbit of hunting the animals as apart time hobby in those days. So an animal (may be a boar) was sent to thearea where ‘Arjuna’ was doing his tapas so that its presence can make adisturbance in that place. Meanwhile the wild hunter has used his Kirata-Varahimantra as an arrow to shoot the animal from the back side and accordinglyanimal was shooted by the Kirata so that it can come to the rest at that placeby making a big noise of an emergency situation. This makes the Kshatriya Arjuna  to get up immediatley and shoot an arrow fromhis bow in that noisy place of that area which is moved by the leafs.Ultimately, the animal was died by the two arrows shooted one by the kirata andthe other by the Arjuna.

Generally if an accident tooksplace, there will be a definet argument who did the mistake first, who didwrong and there is no end for this argument as no one can decide who is firstunless both the parties come to a joint resolution. 

 The same rule applied in thisstory also as there a big argument went on between  the Kirata-Arjuna. The wild hunter claimsthat he shoots the arrow first and he claims its body, but the Arjuna hasinteresting argument that he shooted on the animal leg by which it losts itsbreath so that the animal belongs to him. The wild hunter has a heated argument saying that since the animal wasrunning so fast, he shooted in its ‘ Nabhi’ so that it can come to rest and heclaims the owner of it, but arjuna claims that due to his arrow on the leg ofthe animal costed its life so that he claims that it belongs to him. Thesearguments went on for quite some time and no conclusion was made as both sidearguments looks clear and appears to be true as no physical evidence was thereby whose shot the animal was died and all the claims are mere based onassumptions only.

 The wild hunter does not want togive up the animal body to ‘Arjuna’ and Arjun also doesn’t want to take a stepback in that issue. So the wild hunter make a challenge to Arjuna since thereis no decisive conclusion is happening and we can resolve the issue by fighting together. The condition put bythe hunter to arjuna was “If you win methe animal  belongs to you’ as thehunter believes that the arrow of the person and his strength were the same.For this condition, Arjuna was also agreed as he has a viveka to differentiatebetween the opponents strength and opponent. He also possess single mindedconsciousness on his target. A big fight went on between the hunter &arjuna and  It happened by chance thatone of the arrow touches the hunter’s shoulder there by drops of blood came outfrom him. This was so impresses the hunter who was in disguise  and bholenath shows his original form , thereby blessing with the Pasu Pata Astra. The capacity of this astra was it canbeheads the opponent whoom on it was shooted and  doesn’t come back to the performer. Krishnawant that this astra should be with Arjun for its use against Karna. Krishnabelieves that Arjuna can’t won karna without the pasu pata astra.

 My Conclusion from the abovestory is that as it applied to guru and as well to the disciple and it was alsotold that a disciple can even test his guru whether he is competent enough toteach before he accept as his ‘guru’ and vice versa holds good. If agift/Mantra  is to be even to any one, weneed to check the capability of the person, who he is really worth taking  and we should also make sure that thedisciple should not use the vidya for his personal sake or use it for his personalwested interests/ benefits. Sruti  saysthat we should take the decision by seeing the things in the critical issuesand not by listening.
Arjuna is also called as ‘Vijay’i.e who canot be quanquored by others. There was also a mythological story forthis. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, there is a place called ‘Vijaya Wada’which literally means the place where Vijaya has resided, its original namewas  Indra-keeladri’ which wastransformed into Bezawada. This place is having a mountain (adri) on whichIndra’s son i.e ‘Vijay’ did a peanace for quite some time to impress mother goddess ‘Durga’ to get her boonsfor the ‘Maha Bharata war and he got blessings from ‘Durga’ and as well fromIndra.

Sri Guru Padaravindarpana Mastu Kameswara


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