Krsna Book Audio Dictation - Chapter 76
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Next, Seventy-sixth Chapter: "Battle Between Śālva and the Members of the Yadu Dynasty."
While Śukadeva Gosvāmī was narrating various activities of Lord Kṛṣṇa, who was playing the role of an ordinary human being, he also narrated the history of the battle between the dynasty of Yadu and Śālva, who managed to possess a wonderful airship of the name Saubha. This King Śālva was a great friend of Śiśupāla. When Śiśupāla went to marry Rukmiṇī, this Śālva was one of the members of the bridegroom's party. At that time, when there was a fight between the soldiers of the Yadu dynasty and the kings on the opposite side, at that time Śālva was also defeated by the soldiers of the Yadu dynasty. But Śālva, despite his defeat, he made a promise before all the kings that he would in future make the whole world without any member of the Yadu dynasty. Or in other words, since he was defeated in the fight during the marriage of Rukmiṇī, he was maintaining within himself unforgettable envy against Lord Kṛṣṇa.
In fact, however, he was a fool because he promised to kill Kṛṣṇa, but as usual that such demons take the shelter of demigod Lord Śiva to execute some ulterior motive, so Śālva, in order to get strength, he took the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Śiva. He underwent a severe type of austerity, so much so that during daytime he would simply eat a handful of ashes. Lord Śiva, the husband of Pārvatī, generally is very merciful, and he becomes very quickly satisfied if somebody takes severe austerities to please him. So after continued austerities…
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…Nāga, or even the Rākṣasas. Not only that, the aeroplane fly anywhere and everywhere he would like to drive it, and it might be specifically very much dangerous and fearful to the dynasty of the Yadus. Lord Śiva immediately agreed to give him the benediction, and Śālva took the help of the demon Maya for manufacturing this iron aeroplane, which was so strong and formidable that nobody could crash it. It was a very big machine, almost like a big city, and it was running so high and in great speed that it was almost impossible to see where it is, and not to mention anything about attacking this plane. From outside it was almost darkness to everyone, but from inside, this aeroplane could fly anywhere and everywhere wherever the pilot would drive it. Now Śālva, having gotten such wonderful aeroplane, he drove it to the city of Dvārakā because his main purpose for obtaining this aeroplane was to attack the city of the Yadus, as he was maintaining continually a feeling of animosity towards them.
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Śālva thus not only attacked the city of Dvārakā from up on the sky, but also he surrounded the city by a large number of infantry soldiers. The soldier on the surface began to attack the beautiful spots of the city. Specifically, they began to destroy the nice parks, the city gates, the palaces and the skyscraper houses, the high walls around the city, and the beautiful spots of the city where people would gather for recreation.
While the soldiers were attacking on the surface, the aeroplane began to drop big, big slabs of stone, trunks of the trees, thunderbolts, poisonous snakes and many other dangerous things on the city. Not only that, he created such a strong whirlwind within the city that the whole Dvārakā City become dark because of the dust that covered the sky. In this way, the aeroplane occupied by Śālva put the whole city of Dvārakā in such a distressed condition as it was done by Tripurāsura created a great disturbance on the earth long, long ago. The inhabitants of Dvārakā Purī became so much harassed that even for a moment they were not in peaceful condition.
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After this, the great heroes of Dvārakā City, headed by commanders like Pradyumna, prepared to counterattack the soldiers and the aeroplanes of Śālva. When he saw that the citizens were too much distressed, he immediately arranged his soldiers and personally got up on a chariot and enthused the citizens by assuring safety. Following his command, many warriors like Sātyaki, Cārudeṣṇa, Sāmba, all younger brothers of Pradyumna, as well as accompanied by Akrūra, Kṛtavarmā, Bhānuvinda, Gada, Śuka and Sāraṇa, all of them equipped themselves with necessary weapons, bows and arrows, and they came out of the city to fight with Śālva.
All of them were mahā-rathī fighters, or each one of them could fight with thousands of men. All of them were fully equipped with necessary weapons, assisted by hundreds and thousands of charioteers, elephants, horses and infantry soldiers. After this, a fierce fighting began between the two parties, exactly as it was formerly done between the demigods and the demons. The fighting was very, very severe between the two parties, and observing the fierceful nature of the fight, everyone's hairs on the body stood up on the end.
Pradyumna immediately counteracted the mystic demonstration made by the aeroplanes of Śālva, the king of Saubha. By the mystic power of the specific aeroplane occupied by Śālva, he created dense darkness like night. But Pradyumna all of a sudden appeared there as if the rising of the sun. As on the rising of the sun the darkness of night is immediately dissipated, similarly, on appearance of Pradyumna the jugglery of power exhibited by Śālva became null and void. In each and every arrow there was golden feathers at the end of the shaft, fitted with iron sharp heads. By release of such twenty-five arrows, he immediately injured severely the commander chief of Śālva. Just after this, he released another one hundred arrows upon the body of Śālva. After this, he pierced each and every soldier by releasing one such arrow, and he killed the chariot drivers by ten arrows on each one of them. The carriers like the horses and elephants were killed by release of three arrows for each one of them. When everyone present in the battlefield saw this wonderful action of Pradyumna, the great fighters on both the sides began to eulogize his acts of chivalry.
But still the aeroplane occupied by Śālva was very, very mysterious. It was so much extraordinary that sometimes it would look that there were many aeroplanes on the sky like that, and sometimes it would be seen that there was none. Therefore, sometimes it was visible and sometimes it was not visible, and the warriors of the Yadu dynasty become puzzled to find out the whereabouts of the peculiar aeroplane. Sometimes they would see the aeroplane on the ground and sometimes they would see the aeroplane flying on the sky. Sometimes they would see that the aeroplane was resting on the peak of a hill, and sometime it was seen floating on the water. The wonderful aeroplane was flying on the sky as if firebrand wheel, and it was not steady even for a moment.
But despite the mysterious maneuvering of the aeroplane, the commanders and the soldiers of the Yadu dynasty would immediately rush toward Śālva wherever he was present along with his aeroplane and soldiers. The arrows released by the dynasty of the Yadus were as brilliant as the sun and as sharpened as the tongue of the serpent. As such, all the soldiers and fighters on behalf of Śālva became very soon distressed by the incessant pouring of arrows upon them by the heroes of the Yadu dynasty. Not to mention of the soldiers and commanders of Śālva, he himself became unconscious by the attack of the arrows thrown by the heroes of the Yadu dynasty.
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The soldiers and the fighters on behalf of Śālva were also very strong, and the release of their arrows were sufficiently causes for the harassment of the heroes of Yadu dynasty. But still they were so strong and determined that they did not move from their strategic positions. The determination of the heroes of Yadu dynasty was either they would die in the battlefield or become victorious. They were confident in the fact that if they would die in the fighting, they would attain heavenly planets, and if they would come out victorious, they will enjoy the world.
The name of the commander-in-chief of Śālva was Dyumān. He was bitten by the arrows of Pradyumna, twenty-five arrows, as it is already explained. But he was very, very powerful. Suddenly he attacked Pradyumna with his fierceful club, and he struck him so strongly that Pradyumna immediately become unconscious, and there was a roaring, (within quotation) "Now he is dead! Now he is dead!" The strike of the club by Dyumān on the chest of Pradyumna was very severe, as if chest became torn into two.
His chariot was being driven by the son of Dāruka. According to Vedic military principles, the chariot driver and the hero on the chariot have to cooperate during the fighting. As such, it was the duty of the chariot driver to take care of the hero on the chariot during the dangerous and precarious position in the battlefield. As such, Dāruka removed the body of Pradyumna from the battlefield.
At a different place, after two hours in that condition, Pradyumna regained his consciousness, and when he saw that he was in a different place than the battlefield, he addressed the charioteer and condemned him that…, by saying, "Oh, you have done the most abominable act! Alas! Why you have moved me from the battlefield? My dear charioteer, I have never heard that in our family anyone was thus removed from the battlefield. None of them left the battlefield while fighting. Now, by this removal, you have overburdened me with a great defamation that I have left the battlefield while fighting was going on.
"My dear chariot (sic), I must accuse you that you are coward and emasculate! Can you say how can I go before my uncle Balarāma and before my father Kṛṣṇa, and what shall I explain before Them? Now everyone will talk about me that I fled away from the fighting place, and if they inquire from me about this, what will be my reply? My sister-in-laws will play joke upon me with sarcastic words: 'O my dear hero, how you became so much coward? How you became an eunuch? How you became so much lower down in the eyes of your opposite fighters?' I think, my dear charioteer, you have committed a great offense by removing me from the battlefield."
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The charioteer of Pradyumna replied, "My dear sir, I wish a long life for you, and I think I did not do anything wrong, as it was the duty of the charioteer to help the fighter in the chariot when he is in such precarious condition. My dear sir, you are completely competent in the battlefield activities, but it is the mutual duty either of the charioteer or of the warrior to give protection each other in such precarious condition. I was completely conscious of the regulative principles of fighting, and I did it as duty. The enemy all of a sudden struck you with a club so severely that you immediately became unconscious, and surrounded by your enemies you were in a dangerous position. Therefore, I was obliged to do like that." (quotation close)
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Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Seventy-sixth Chapter Kṛṣṇa in the matter of "Battle Between Śālva and the Members of the Yadu Dynasty."