कृपा की शक्ति

महाभारत युद्ध चल रहा था। अर्जुन के सारथी श्रीकृष्ण थे। जैसे ही अर्जुन का बाण छूटता, कर्ण का रथ कोसों दूर चला जाता। जब कर्ण का बाण छूटता तो अर्जुन कारथ सात कदम पीछे चला जाता। श्रीकृष्ण ने अर्जुन के शौर्य की प्रशंसा के स्थानपर कर्ण के लिए हर बार कहा कि कितना वीर है यह कर्ण? जो उस रथ को सात कदम पीछे धकेल देता है। अर्जुन बड़े परेशान हुए। असमंजस की स्थिति में पूछ बैठे कि हे वासुदेव! यह पक्षपात क्यों? मेरे पराक्रम की आप प्रशंसा करते नहीं एवं मात्र सात कदम पीछे धकेल देने वाले कर्ण की प्रंशसा बार बार  करते है।श्रीकृष्ण बोले अर्जुन तुम जानते नहीं। तुम्हारे रथ में महावीर हनुमान एवं स्वयं मैं वासुदेव कृष्ण विराजमान् हूँ। यदि हम दोनों न होते तो तुम्हारे रथ का कभी अस्तित्व भी नहीं होता। इस रथ को सात कदम भी पीछे हटा देना कर्ण के महाबली होने का परिचायक हैं। अर्जुन को यह सुनकर अपनी क्षुद्रता पर ग्लानि हुई। इस तथ्य को अर्जुन और भी अच्छी तरह तब समझ पाए जब युद्ध समाप्त हुआ। प्रत्येकदिन अर्जुन जब
युद्ध से लौटते श्रीकृष्ण पहले उतरते, फिर सारथी धर्म के अनुसार अर्जुन को उतारते। अंतिम दिन वे बोले-अर्जुन! तुम पहले रथ से उतरो और थोड़ी दूरी तक जाओ। भगवान के उतरते ही घोड़ा सहित रथ भस्म हो गया। अर्जुन आश्चर्यचकित थे। भगवान बोले-पार्थ! तुम्हारा रथ तो कभी का भस्म हो चुका था। भीष्म, कृपाचार्य, द्रोणाचार्य व कर्ण के दिव्यास्त्रों से यह कभी का नष्ट हो चुका था। मेरे संहस्त्र के संकल्प ने इसे युद्ध समापन तक जीवित रखा था अपनी विजय पर गौरान्वित अर्जुन के लिए गीता श्रवण के बाद इससे बढ़कर और क्या उपदेश हो सकता था कि सब कुछ भगवान का किया हुआ है। वह तो निमित्त मात्र था। काश हमारे अंदर का अर्जुन इसे समझ पायें।




Edited and compiled by
Mrs Gunjan Arora
(Senior member- "Yaatra" watsapp group)

Act of God!

Once upon a time Shri Krishna and Arjun saw a poor brahmin begging when they went for a stroll. Arjun had pity on him and he gave a small bag full of gold coins to him. Receiving it the brahmin  started for his house happily but a robber snatched the bag from him on the way. The anguished brahmin again started begging. The next day Arjun again saw the brahmin and asked him the reason for begging again. On hearing the painful happening with the brahmin, once again he had pity on him and this time he gave him gemstone ruby.
The brahmin took it and reached his home and he hid the same in pot because of fear of its being stolen. He slept soundly as he was very tired. While he was sleeping , his wife took the pot and went to the river to fetch water in it. When she dipped the pot into the river the ruby also floated away with the flow of water. When the brahmin came to know about it, cursing his luck he again started begging. When Arjun and Shri Krishna saw him in this poor condition again, They went to him  to know what all had happened to him again. At this Arjun felt disappointed and thought prosperity can never come in the life of this. unfortunate brahmin . Lord Krishna smiled and said "Now, look how his fortune will change!". Lord krishna  gave him two paise . At this Arjun  asked him " oh lord when the gold coins and ruby could not help him to get rid of his poverty. Then how would these two paisa help him ".   Hearing this god smiled and asked Arjun to follow the brahmin. On the way the brahmin thought while walking that he could not get the food even for a single person with this 2 paise and why the god had given him such a small amount in charity.
While he was thinking so he saw a fisherman with the fish struggling for its life in the net. Brahmin had pity on it. And he thought that these two paise will not satisfy his hunger. Then he bought that fish from the fisherman to save its life and put it into his kamandal. When the fish felt uneasy in it then ruby came out of its mouth. The brahmin shrieked with happiness saying "I have got it. Ihave got it.!!"
At that time luckily the robber who had robbed him of the gold coins was passing through the same path and  heard the words of  brahmin and  thought that brahmin had recoginized him  He started begging pardon of the brahmin out of fear and returned him all the gold coins.In this war the brahmin manage to get back all his gold coins and ruby. Observing this Arjun bowed before god and understood the secret message of the act of God!

True devotee

 एक बार अर्जुन को अहंकार हो गया कि वही भगवान के सबसे बड़े भक्त हैं। उनकी इस भावना को श्रीकृष्ण ने समझ लिया। एक दिन वह अर्जुन के साथ भ्रमण पर निकले । रास्ते में उनकी मुलाकात एक गरीब ब्राह्मण
से हुई। उसका व्यवहार थोड़ा विचित्र था। वह  रुखा सुखा भोजन  खा रहा था और उसकी कमर से तलवार लटक रही थी। अर्जुन ने उससे पूछा, ‘आप तो अहिंसा के पुजारी हैं। लेकिन फिर हिंसा का यह उपकरण तलवार क्यों आपके साथ है?’ ब्राह्मण ने जवाब दिया, ‘मैं कुछ लोगों को दंडित करना चाहता हूं।’‘ आपके शत्रु कौन हैं?’ अर्जुन ने जिज्ञासा जाहिर की। ब्राह्मण ने कहा, ‘मैं चार लोगों को खोज रहा हूं,ताकि उनसे अपना हिसाब चुकता कर सकूं। सबसे पहले तो मुझे नारद की तलाश है। नारद मेरे प्रभु को आराम नहीं करने देते,सदा भजन-कीर्तन कर उन्हें जागृत रखते हैं। फिर मैं द्रौपदी पर भी बहुतक्रोधित हूं। उसने मेरे प्रभु को ठीक उसी समय पुकारा, जब वह भोजन करने बैठे थे। उन्हें तत्काल खाना छोड़ पांडवों को दुर्वासा ऋषि के श्राप सेबचाने जाना पड़ा।‘आपका तीसरा शत्रु कौन है?’अर्जुन ने पूछा।‘ वह है हृदयहीन प्रह्लाद। उसनिर्दयी ने मेरे प्रभु को गरम तेल के कड़ाहे में प्रविष्ट कराया, हाथी के पैरों तले कुचलवाया और अंत में खंभे से प्रकट होने के लिए विवश किया।और चौथा शत्रु है अर्जुन। उसकी दुष्टता देखिए। उसने मेरेभगवान को अपना सारथी बना डाला।उसे भगवान की असुविधा का तनिक भी ध्यान नहीं रहा। कितना कष्टहुआ होगा मेरे प्रभु को।’ यह कहते ही ब्राह्मण की आंखों में आंसू आ गए। यह देख अर्जुन का घमंड चूर-चूर हो गया। उसने श्रीकृष्ण से क्षमा मांगते हुए कहा, ‘मान
गया प्रभु, इस संसार में न जाने आपके कितने तरह के भक्त हैं। मैं तो कुछ भी नहीं हूं।’















source#internet

Arjun and Hanuman

Once Arjun was on pilgrimage and reached Rameshwaram. When he saw the setu(bridge), he wondered that why Lord Rama needed the help of  vanar sena(troops of monkeys) though he himself was a great archer. This was the time when Arjun’s thought was governed by his ego and boast of him to be great archer. He found that one monkey was following him. The monkey tried to answer his doubt and said that it was not practical to built the bridge of arrows by Lord Rama  because it would not able to bear the weight of huge monkey army. On hearing this Arjun laughed and challenged monkey that the bridge made by him could have bear the weight easily and if it failed to do so then he would jumped into the fire. The monkey agreed the challenge and asked Arjun to build a bridge from his arrows.Arjun with his great skills built a very strong bridge. But the moment the monkey stepped on to the bridge , it collapsed.Arjuna accepted the defeat and made a fire ready jumped into.at the very moment one Brahman who was none other than Lord Krishna visited and enquired the matter. The Brahman offered his shoulder at the foundation of bridge and asked Arjun to repeat the task. Again the bridge was built by Arjun with his arrows and when monkey set his foot , the bridge did not collapsed. Arjun was stunned. The monkey appeared in his original form of Hanuman and greet the Brahman who was Lord Krishna(an incarnation of Lord Rama).

Lord Krishna said “ Dear Hanuman!! In previous yuga you have done so much for me and carried me on your shoulder.In this yuga I came to carry you on my shoulder. Also I wanted to teach Arjun a lesson who was living with a false ego”

Arjuna went into tears and asked for forgiveness as the Lord has to came to rescue him. Lord Krishna also honoured his disciple claim of building the bridge second time.God never let HIS children down.

The Right Choice

On the eve of Mahabharata war, there was too much anxiety in the both camps of Kauravasa and Pandavas. No body wanted to loose this battle. On the other hand Lord Krishna, the ruler of Dwarka was playing neutral role. But he had mighty army. Arjuna as a representative from Pandava side and Duryodhan from the Kauravas side went to Lord Krishna for the support for their side. Duryodhan wanted to gain upperhand and reached there before Arjun in the palace of Lord Krishna. At that time Lord Krishna was sleeping. Duryodhan hurriedly occupied a seat near the head of Krishna and Arjun decided to sit near the feet of Krishna. When Krishna woke up he saw Arjun first and then Duryodhan. On knowing the reason of their visit Krishna offered two choices to both camps. First was to choose the his mighty army which was capable of destroying any enemy and the second was his own services only as a mentor. Since Kirshna saw Arjun first so he asked Arjun to chose his option first. This made Duryodhan worried because he wanted the army of krishna dearly. On listening this Arjun fell in the feet of Krishna and asked his services in the battle. This was an absolute shocker for Duryodhan and he was overwhelmed with joy that he got the army of krishna which he thought that this would tilt the result of the battle in his own favour. He was sure shot about Kauravas victory after getting the army of krishna. But at the end of 18 day war the result was opposite. Pandavas prevails over Kauravas. Krishna played perfect role as a friend,mentor,philospher and a manager. He guided pandavas from time to time and kept the moral of his side up and high.

The same rule applies to modern day management policy.

A leader of any organisation or a family should have
1)motivational skills(Arjun who looses all his courage at the crunch time, it was krishna who motivates him)
2)controlling skills(Krishna controlled more than 1.5 million army personnel in the war)
3)Good leadership qualities( though with less resourced than Kauravas, still Pandavas won because of good leadership qualities of Krishna and his skills of utilising his limited resources effectively and efficiently)
4) Excellent strategy( Krishna knews that if Arjun fought with Karan then Arjun would surly lost. So he placed Ghatotkach against Karan. This was the turning point of the war as all the powers of Karan was wasted in killing the Ghatotkach and Arjun's strenght was safeguarded.

The 3 sins of Ashwathama

Ashwathama, the son of Dronacharya was a great warrior. During the Mahabharata war he joined the Kaurava's camp. On the 13^th day of war he committed the first crime by involving in a killing of Abhimanyu by unfair means. Later,he lost all his senses when his friend Duryodhan was killed . He decided to took revenge and attacked at the Pandavas camp at night which was against the rules of war and killed the sons of Draupadi.It was his second sin. This created havoc in the Pandavas camp and they chased Ashwathama. A fierce battle broke between Ashwathama and Arjun. Despite restrictions Ashwathama invoke the “Brahmastra”, a divine weapon to kill Arjun. But sage Vyas intervened and advised Ashwathama to stop the use of the weapon to save earth. But Ashwatham didn’t knew the trick of withdrawing the weapon. To take revenge he directed the weapon towards the womb of the daughter in law of Arjun,Uttra who was carrying Abhimanyu’s son,Parikshit. He wanted to destroy the lineage of Arjun. Later Uttra delivered stillborn child. Here Lord Krishna cursed Ashwathama that he will roam like a ghost till the end of Kaliyuga and his body will suffer from the uncurable wounds. Lord Krishna also took away the divine jewel from Ashwathama which he used to wear on his forehead as this jewel had all the powers. Still it is belive that the Ashwathama is roaming with a wound on his forehead and many people has witnessed a strange man with wounds and blood oozing from his forehead.Surly, the current age of Ashwathama would be 5000 years+ today!

Catch-22

Jayadrath was king of Sindh . He was married to Dushaala, the sister of Duryodhan. In the battle of Mahabharata he killed Abhimanyu,the son of Arjun. After this Arjun promised to took revenge from Jayadrath before the sunset otherwise decided to immolate himself. In the battle field Kauravas prepared special arrangements to kept Jayadrath out of reach of Arjun. It was race against time for Arjun. On the other hand it was a win-win situation for Kauravas because Jayadrath had a boon that a person who would cut his head and let it fall on the ground, his own head would be crushed into thousands pieces. So the death of Arjuna was inevitable at that moment. Despite the best effort Arjun could not able to locate the Jayadrath. Evening was approaching fast. Kauravas were waiting for this moment anxiously. The sky became dark. Now Arjun had to die as per his vow. Now Jayadrath came out from the hidden place. Arjun was about to kill himself. Immediately, Lord Krishna shouted and said to Arjuna to look at the sky as the sun reappears. Previously it was illusion created by lord Krishna himself by providing cloud cover to the sun. Now with his divine power the cloud cover was removed. Immediately Arjun  fire an arrow to Jayadrath in such a unique manner that his chopped head fell in the lap of his father who was meditating at that time. He opened his eyes and stood in a moment. As a result the head of Jayadrath fell on the ground and the head of his father smashed into thousands pieces. In this was Arjuna able to came out of catch-22 situation

Nar & Narayan

In badrinath Dham there are two peaks behind the temple named as Nar & Narayan. In a previous incarnation the duo were supposedly born as the sages Nara and Narayana,and who performed great penances at the holy spot of Badrinath. Nara and Narayana were the avtar of Lord Vishnu. The twins were sons of Dharma and his wife Murti (Daughter OfDaksha) or Ahimsa..These two sages take avatars on earth for the welfare of mankind .There was an demon named Sahasra Kavacha. He had got boon of having 1000 Kavachas(armours).He had a boon that it will take 1000 Years to break each Kavacha, and the one ,who would break a Kavacha, would instantly die.Hence, first Narayana pennaced for 1000 Yrs and Nara fought 1000 Years with ShahasrKavacha and after 1000 Years, Nara was able to break his one Kavacha. As Nara broke the Kavacha,he died. But Narayan due his penance of 1000 Yrs could get back life of Nara and Narayan starts fighting and Nara starts penance for the next 1000 years.Nara and Narayana alternatively penace and fight for 1000 years and the cycle continued. At last, when they both were able to break 999 Kavachas. ShahasraKavacha hides himself behind the Surya with his last Kavacha due to fear that he would be killed by Nara and Narayana then. At this time, there was Pralaya(destruction) on earth due to the change of the Yuga. Thus ShashtraKavacha escapes death. In Dwapar Yuga,he was reborn as Karna with Kavacha and Nar and Narayan as Arjun and Krishna respectively.