Essence Of Maha Bhagavatha Purana

Lord Krishna Kills Sisupala

At the invitation of King Yudhishtar to attend the Rajasuya Yagnam (Horse Sacrifice) being performed by Pandavas especially after the devastation of Jarasandha, Lords Krishna and Balarama arrived at Indraprastha, the new  beautiful Capital City, built by Maya. As a climax to the Celebrations, a function was held to select the best personality who graced the ‘Yagna’. Nobody wished to comment  but Sahadeva, the youngest of Pandavas, proposed the name of Krishna. There was a near total approval of the proposal and King Dharmaraja initiated the procedure by inviting priets and Sages.

Just at that time, King Sisupala, a great associate of Jarasandha since killed by Bhima, expressed displeasure at the selection of Krishna on the proposal of a mere boy, Sahadeva of Pandavas.He said that elders in age, experience, wisdom were available and there was no special qualification for Krishna excepting that He was a womaniser and a fraud, who ran away from Jarasandha twenty three times in succesive wars and his real capability in wars, duels, and dealings involving honesty and frankness were suspect. Sisupala critcised Krishna transgessing all limits of decency. Finally having counted the number of abuses hurled at Him, Krishna hurled His disc ‘Sudarsana Wheel to slit Sisupala’s neck.  Sisupala was the son of King Dhamaghosha and Srutadevi, the latter being the sister of Vasudeva whose son was Lord Krishna. In other words Krishna and Sisupala were cousins. When Sisupala was born, he was dark and ugly with three eyes and four hands. His parents had almost decided to disown him, but a voice from Heaven suggested not to do so as an Illustrious Person would soon fondle the child and snip out his extra limbs and he himself would also kill him.Krishna’s aunt Srutadevi requested Him to postpone the killing of the child as far as possible. Krishna promised that He would wait till his hundredth abuse. Incidentally, Sisupala and Dantavakra were stated to be the Demons of ‘Dwapara Yuga’ born after the curse of Sanaka Kumara brothers to the Vaikuntha Gate Keepers Jaya and Vijaya. As a sequel to Rajasuya  Yagna, there were two major developments: Firstly, the unbearable jealousy of Kauravas against Pandavas who became extremely prosperous and popular among the various contemporary Kings and worse than that, the extremely hurt pride of Duryodhana especially when Draupadi the wife of Pandava sons laughed out loudly when he fell straight into a water pool when he thought that there was no water but ground and when he lifted up his robes as there  was no ground but a water body. Secondly, the battles of Sisupala’s great friends-Salva, Dantavakra, Romaharshana, and Virutha  were in the offing against Yadavas . While the seeds of jealousy were firmly sown in Duryodhana’s mind leading to disastrous consequences for Pandavas thus leading to the Great Battle of Mahabharata, the destructive attempts by Sisupala’s friends were almost instant. Salva secured earlier an everlasting air-vehicle from Lord Siva because of deep devotion and landed at Dvaraka when Krishna and Balarama were away at Indraprastha and overpowered Pradyumna who fled from the battle, as Salva presented illusory heads of Krishna and Balaram to him.On return, the Lords shattered the airship and Salva too. Dantavakra and his sons Romaharshana and Viruddha met the same fate. Thus the chapter of  Sisupala’s death was closed. Simultaneously, the run-up to Mahabharata Battle at Kurukshatra was picking up fast as the foul play of Dices between Shakuni on behalf of Kaurava sons on the one hand and Dharmaraja on behalf of Pandavas.The Battle shaping as an inevitable consequence, Lord  Balarama being a neutral figure,especially since Duryodhana was his disciple and Krishna identified himself as Pandava’s well-wisher, proceeded on a pilgrimage to Holy Places.His visits covered several holy places including Prayaga, Ganga, Gaya, Godavari , Srisailam, Venkata Hills, Kanchi, Madurai, Kaveri River, Srirangam, Setubandhanam, Rameswaram and Kanya Kumari. He reached Kurukshetra at the time when Bhima and Duryodhana were engaged in a duel with maces as almost terminating the Great Battle.