SB 1.12.21 (1964)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 21
Dhanwinam agranih esha tulyas cha arjunayor dwayoh Hutasha iva durdharsa samudra iva dustarah
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Dhanwinam—of the great bowmen, Agranih—the foreman, Esha—this child, Tulyas—equally good, Cha—and, Arjunayor—of the Arjunas, Dwayor—of the two, Hutasha—fire, Iva—like, Durdharsa—irresistible, Samudra—ocean, Iva—like, Dustarah—unsurpassable.
TRANSLATION
Amongst the great bowmen this child will be as foreman like the Arjunas. He will be as irresistible as the fire and as unsurpassable as the ocean.
PURPORT
In the history there are two Arjunas. One is Karta Viryarjun the king of Haihya and the other is the grand-father of the child. Both the Arjunas are famous for their bowmanship and the child Parikshit is fore told to be equal with both of them particularly in the matter of fighting. A short description of the Arjunas is given below:-
Pandava Arjuna:- The great hero of the Bhagwat Geeta. He is the Kshetraja son of Maharaj Pandu. Queen Kunti could call for anyone of the demi-gods and as such she called Indra and Arjuna is born by him. Arjuna is therefore plenary part of the heavenly king Indra. He was born in the month of Phalgoon (Feb.-March) and, therefore, he is also called Phalgooni. When he appeared as the son of Kunti, his future greatness was proclaimed by air messages and all the important personalities from different parts of the universe such as the demigods, the gandharvas, the adityas (from the sun globe) the rudras, the basus, the nagas and different Rishis (sages) of importance. The Apsaras or the society girls of heaven also attended the ceremony and they pleased everyone by their heavenly dances and songs. Vasudeva the father of Lord Krishna and the maternal uncle of Arjuna sent his priest representative Kasyapa (see page 501 ) to purify Arjuna by all the prescribed Sanskaras or reformatory processes. His sanskara of fixing up the name was performed in the presence of the Rishis residents of Satasringa. He married four wives such a Droupadi, Subhadra, Chitrangada and Ulupi from whom he got four sons of the names Sutakirti, Abhimanyu, Bavrubahan and Iravan respectively.
During his student life he was entrusted to study under the great professor Dronacharya along with other Pandavas and the Kurus. But he excelled everyone by his studious intensity and Dronacharya was specially attracted by his disciplinary affection. Dronacharya accepted him as the first grade scholar and loved heartily to bestow upon him all blessings of military science. He was so ardent a student that he used to practise bowmanship even at night and for all these reasons Professor Dronacharya determined to make him the topmost bowman of the world. He passed very brilliantly in the examination of piercing the target and Dronacharya was too much pleased. Royal famililies at Manipur and Tripura are descendants of Bovrubahan. He saved Dronacharya from the attack of a crocodile and the Acharya being pleased with him rewarded him with a weapon of the name Brahmasira. Maharaja Drupad was enimical with Dronacharya and thus when he attacked the Acharya, Arjuna got him arrested and brought him before. He besieged a city of the name 'Ahichhatra' belonging to Maharj Drupad and after taking it over he gave it to Dronacharya. The confidential treatment of the weapon Brahmasira being explained to Arjuna, Dronacharya got it promised by Arjuna that he would use the weapon if necessary when he (Dronacharya) personally became an enemy of Arjuna. By this the Acharya forecasted the future battle of Kurukshetra where Droncharya was on the opposite party. Maharaj Drupad although he was defeated by Arjuna on behalf of his professor Dronacharya, he decided to hand over his daughter Droupadi to this young combatant but he was disappointed when he heard the false news of Arjun's death in the fire of lac-house intrigued by Duryodhona. He therefore arranged for Droupadi's personal selection of a groom who could pierce the eye of a fish hanging on the ceiling. This trick was specially made because except Arjuna nobody could do that difficult adventure and he was successful in his desire to hand over his equally worthy daughter to Arjuna and his brothers were at that time living incognito under agreement with Duryodhona and Arjuna and his brothers attended the meeting of Droupadi's selection in the dress of Brahmins. When all the Kshatriya Kings assembled there saw it that a poor Brahmin has been garlanded by Droupadi as her Lord, Sri Krishna disclosed His identity to Valarama.
He met Ulupi at Haridwar and he was attracted by the girl belonging to Nagaloka and thus Iravan was born. Similarly he met Chitrangada a daughter of the king of Manipur and thus Bavrubahan was born. Lord Sri Krishna made a plan to help Arjuna in the matter of kidnapping Subhadra sister of Sri Krishna because Valadeva was inclined to hand over her to Duryodhona. Yudhisthir also agreed with Sri Krishna and thus Subhadra was taken by force by Arjuna and then married with him. Subhadra's son is Abhimunyu the father of Parikshit Maharaj the posthumous child. He satisfied the fire-god by setting fire in the Khandav forest and thus the fire-god gave him one weapon. Indra was angry when fire was set in the Khadava forest and thus Indra assisted by all other demigods began fighting with Arjuna for his great challenge. They were defeated by Arjuna and Indradeva returned to his heavenly kingdom. Arjuna also promised all protection to one Mayasura and the latter presented him one valuable conchshell celebrated as Devadatta. Similarly he received many other valuable weapons from Indradeva when he was satisfied to see his chivalry.
When Maharaj Yudhisthira was dissapointed in the matter of defeating the King of Magadh, Jarasandha, it is Arjuna only who gave King Yudhisthira all kinds of assurances and thus Arjuna, Bhima and Lord Krishna started for Magadh for killing Jarasandha. When he went out for bringing all other kings of the world under the subjection of the Pandavas as it is usual after the coronation of every emperor, he conquered over the country called by the name Kelinda and brought in subjugation the king Bhagdutt. Then he travelled over the countries like Antagiri, Ulukpur, Modapur etc and brought under subjugation all the relative rulers.
Sometimes he underwent a severe type of penances and later on he was rewarded by Indradeva. Lord Shiva also wanted to try the strength of Arjuna and in the form of an aborigine Lord Shiva met him and there was great fight between the two and at last Lord Shiva was satisfied with him and disclosed His identity. Arjuna prayed for the Lord in all humbleness and the Lord being pleased upon him presented the Pasupat weapon to him. He acquired many other important weapons from different demigods such as he received Dandastra from Yamaraj, he received Pasastra from Varuna, and he received Antardhan Astra from Kuvera the treasurer of the heavently kingdom. Indra desired him to come to the heavenly kingdom and he wished to visit the place to the Indraloka planet beyond the moon planet. In that planet he was cordially received by the local residents and he was accorded reception in the heavenly parliament of Indradeva. Then he met Indradeva who not only presented him with his Vajra weapon but also he taught him military and musical science of upper grade used in the heavenly planet. In one sense Indra is the real father of Arjuna and therefore indirectly he wanted to entertain Arjuna by the famous society girl of heaven Urvashi the celebrated beauty. As lusty are the society girls of heaven, Urvashi was too much lustful to contact Arjuna the strongest human being and she met him at his room and expressed her own wishful desire. But Arjuna sustained his unimpeachable character by closing his eyes before the Urvashi and addressed her as the mother of the Puru dynasty and placed her on the category of his Mothers Kunti and Madri and Sachidevi wife of Indradeva. Disappointed Urvashi cursed Arjuna and returned from the place. In the heavenly planet he also met the great celebrated ascetic Lomasha and prayed to him for protection of Maharaj Yudhisthira.
When his enemical cousin brother Duryodhona was under the clutches of the Gandharvas, he wanted to save him and requested the Gandharvas to release Duryodhone but the Gandharvas refused and thus he fought with them and got Duryodhone released. When all the Pandavas lived incognito, he presented himself in the court of King Virata as an eunuch and was employd as the musical teacher of Uttara, his future daughter in law, and was known in Virata court as the Brihannala. This Brihannala fought on behalf of Uttar the son of King Virata and thus defeated the Kurus in the fight incognito. His secret weapons were safely kept in the custody of Somi Tree and he ordered Uttar to get them back. His identity and his brothers identity were later on disclosed to Uttar. Dronacharya was informed about Arjuna's presence in the fight of the Kurus and the Viratas and later on in the battlefield of Kurukshetra he killed many great generals like Karna and others. After the battle of Kurukshetra he punished Aswatthama who killed all the five sons of Droupadi and then all the brothers went to Bhismadeva.
It is due to Arjuna only that the great philosophical discourses of the Bhagwat Geeta was again spoken by the Lord before him in the battle field of Kurukshetra. His wonderful acts in the battle field of Kurukshetra are vividly described in the Mahabharata. Arjuna was however defeated by his son Vabrubahan at Manipur and fell unconscious when Ulupi saved him. After disappearance of Lord Krishna the message was brought by him to Maharaj Yudhisthira. Again he visited Dwarka and all the widow wives of Lord Krishna lamented before him. He took them all in the presence of Vasudeva and pacified all of them. Later on when Vasudeva passed away he performed his funeral ceremony in the absence of Krishna. While Arjuna was taking all the wives of Krishna to Indraprastha he was attacked on the way and he could not protect the ladies at his custody. At last advised by Vyasdeva all the brothers went for Mahaprasthan and on the way by the request of his brother he gave up all the important weapons as useless and dropped them all in the water.