Historical Krishna - Part 10 The Purpose of Advent

What's the purpose of advent of a great incarnation or a person who can significantly steer the course of history and civilization? In Gospel Sri Ramakrishna says that only the power vested and its manifestation is the difference between an incarnation and an ordinary person, and also across different incarnations. They had been vested with varying degrees of power depending on the purpose, the situation and the historical need. In Gita Sri Krishna says that an avatara, or a special incarnation, a divine being who has more power than anybody else appears when dharma or the discriminating faculty (between right and wrong, moral and immoral and the mode of action needed) falls steeply among the larger masses esp. among the leading section (kings, politicians, statesmen, intellectual, leadership) and adharma or the ignorance, or lack of discrimination and associated vices, rises. More the degeneration, more powerful is the incarnation. What is the impact? The power helps in restoring the sanity by helping the sadhus, people who do not harm others, or people who can be reformed, to lead a better life, to evolve in the path of morality and spirituality and hence transform the world into a better place. The power also helps in destroying the duskritas or the extreme selfish power hungry arrogant forces that would destroy the weak and would try to dominate the world. The power restores dharma and therefore morality, leading the world to a better path, towards unity, virtue, and a better world order for aatleast some time to come and also lives a lasting impact on the mankind and the world. The impact would eventually wane paving the path for another great incarnation but would nevertheless be there for thousands of years

If we analyze the life and time of Sri Krishna in Mahabharata we'll find a resonance. Did Krishna come to only destroy Kamsa and few asuras in Vrindavana? Bankimchandra in his Krishna Charitra argues that the destruction of asuras in Vrindavana and Gokula was only a small and insignificant contribution of Sri Krishna. He relentlessly fought throughout his life to establish a new world order making Pandavas as his chief instrument. Through his warfare againts the tyrannical kings of his age he ensured that India was politically united under a moral and spiritual umbrella and therefore was immune to foreign aggression atleast for a thousand years to come. India would not be defeated and conquered atleast for another 2500 years. He also ensured that the spirituality of the upanishads became known to the common masses through his universal teachings in Gita that would last through eternity and would be relevant even thousands of years down the line giving spiritual solace to millions across the world. He explained the message and significance of the Vedas and all other spiritual teachings as a world teacher. He came to fulfill, not to destroy in the path of the spiritual evolution. He brought a harmony in the world of spirituality by his synthesis of all major spiritual philosophies of that time. And last but not the least, he established the religion of love, the bhakti yoga, through his band of devoted gopis, who would be the model of this path for a future generation of saints and common masses. This last one was possibly his biggest contribution, as that would provide path of harmony and peace to millions and millions of mankind leading them to a better life.

When Yudhisthira was seeking Krishna's advise in performing the Rajasuya yagna, Krishna narrated the prevailing political situation to him before advising him on the course of action. A rajasuya yagna can only be performed by a samrat - an emperor, and Yudhisthira could not become an emperor as long as Jarasandha, the king of Magadha was alive. If we look into the situation of India as depicted in Mahabharata at that time we'll find that India was divided into many small and large territories, ruled by mighty kings as well as smaller chieftains. The mighty ones extracted tributes from the smaller chieftains. There were great cites, villages, mountainous areas, coastal belts, deserts, small towns and jungles and a population of many many millions across the whole of bharatvarsha and beyond. The battle over territories was not so prevalent as was the battle over rights to resources. Kings attacked other kingdoms for securing more wealth like cows as Duryodhana and Trigarta did by attacking Matsya, well supported by great moral leaders like Bhismaa and Drona. One who was extreme powerful could get tributes from others by making them subservient. He had under his wings powerful kings and chieftains who would rule in the way they wanted. Jarasandha was such a powerful force. Many kings had left their domains in his fear. Kamsa was his son in law and associate who would be ruling over the Vrishnis, Bhojas, Andhakas by imprisoning his own (according to another account foster) father Ugrasena and had unleashed a reign of terror. Krishna and Balarama killed Kamsa and thus earned the wrath of Jarasandha who attacked Mathura eighteen times. Krishna through his superior common sense knew that it would be impossible to defeat Jarasandha as he had a vast army. There would only be loss of innocent lives on both sides with no end to the hostility and enmity. Therefore he decided to migrate with the yadavas to a more inaccessible place like Kusasthali and set up the invincible fort of Dwarka. Jarasandha could not attack him there. Similarly many other smaller chieftains and kings like the smaller Panchalas had migrated to other places. Chieftains of North escaped to the South. Others like Matsya lived in perpetual fear. Jarasandha had powerful allies. The king of Chedi Sishupala, who was a cousin of Krishna and Balarama and an arch enemy of Krishna, was his chief lieutenant. Pundraka Vasudeva who called himself as the true Vasudeva was staunchly with his. So was Dantavakra, Shalva and Pragjyotish king Bhagadatta who ruled over large parts of North east including possibly China, Mayanmar and the far East. Bhagadatta's father Naraka was another powerful ruler who was subdued and killed by Krishna. Jarasandha had won the friendship of Angaraj Karna and through him the friendship of Hastinapur. He had two extremely powerful generals Hamsa and Dimvaka. Together the three of them could conquer the entire world. The king of Vidarbha Bhismaka, the father in law of Krishna, and his son Rukmi, a very powerful general, were his allies. So if Sri Krishna had aspired to establish rule of dharma he had to first get rid of kings with asuric propensities like Jarasandha. The task was not so easy. Magadha had seven hills including Baihara from which the name Bihar was possibly derived later. These hills protected it from an external army. It had a vast army of its own and his allies were all too powerful even though Hamsa and Dimvaka accidentally killed themselves under tragic circumstances. It was simply impossible to conquer Jarasandha using brute force. Pandavas had power to do so but it would only result in eroding their power thereby giving Duryodhana an opportunity. Sri Krishna had to think of other means.