This is the story of how Sri Krishna took on the role of Arjuna’s charioteer.
Sri Krishna is an incarnation, an avatar, of Vishnu. Therefore, he is an aspect of Brahman the ultimate reality.
Brahman incarnates from time to time. The aspect of Brahman who incarnates is Vishnu. Vishnu has ten avatars. Why ten? Because decimal.
The first avatar was Matsya, the Fish, who came to save the universe from a great deluge and preserve life. Then came Kurma, the Tortoise, to help the gods and the demons obtain the nectar of immortality. That was a real adventure. They churned the ocean and all kinds of stuff emerged from that. Fascinating story.
Next, in avatar #3 place, we have Varaha, the Boar, to rescue the earth from a demon, lifting it from the cosmic ocean. In fourth place we have Narasimha avatar: part-man, part-lion. Some kind of superhero.
Number five is Vamana, the dwarf, who subdued a demon king. He was followed by Parashurama, sixth in line, the warrior with an axe, who restored justice and dharma.
As life evolved on earth, so did the various avatars of Vishnu. From fish, to amphibian, to animal, to part animal, to not quite a fully formed man, to man, to superman, etc.
Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, was the seventh avatar. He was the hero of the epic, the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats the demon king Ravana. Interestingly Ravana was a great worshipper of Shiva. Shiva, as you know, was one aspect of Brahman. Complications arose because of that. But let’s move on.
Then came Krishna, the cowherd, the eight avatar, the one we are concerned with in this piece. Two other incarnations of Vishnu are the Buddha, the ninth, and the yet to come 10th avatar, Kalki. But let’s move on.
Sri Krishna is one of the principal characters in the Mahabharata and has the most important role as Arjuna’s charioteer in the Bhagavad Gita, as mentioned before.
The Mahabharata is the main story. It is huge. Around 100,000 verses. Inserted into that is the Bhagavad Gita, or “the song of the lord.” It’s a brief work. Its 18 chapters can be read in a couple of hours, but it is actually meant to be heard, not read.
Back to our story. So, while Sri Krishna was an avatar of Vishnu, Arjuna was a mere mortal who was forced into the battle of Kurukshetra to reclaim his kingdom. Therefore, how is it that Sri Krishna, to repeat, an incarnation of an aspect of Brahman, the ultimate reality, ends up as Arjuna’s driver?
The story is an important part of the Mahabharata.
What’s the Mahabharat about? It’s the story of two related families: the Kauravas and the Pandavas. They were cousins. The conflict between them was over territory. Negotiations failed and they would end up fighting a great war.
As the Kauravas and Pandavas prepared for the great war, both sides needed powerful allies. Sri Krishna was the ruler of the Yadavas and commanded a huge army of warriors. He would be a powerful force on one of the two sides of the war.
Leading the Kauravas was Duryodhana. He was powerful but not a good guy. Arjuna, a nice guy, led the Pandava army. He was also Krishna’s cousin and closest friend.
Duryodhana and Arjuna traveled to Krishna’s capital, Dwarka, to ask for his support. Sri Krishna was asleep in his chamber when they arrived. Duryodhana arrived first. He sat on a chair near Krishna’s head. Arjuna sat on the floor at Krishna’s feet.
When Krishna awoke, the first person he saw was Arjuna. He knew why the two had come. To remain impartial, Krishna offered them a choice: one side could have Krishna himself, but he would be a non-combatant, and the other side could have his mighty army.
Because Krishna saw Arjuna seated at his feet first, he gave Arjuna the right to choose first. Arjuna chose Krishna to be on his team. Duryodhana was delighted to take the vast army, thinking it was foolish to choose one man who wouldn’t even fight over a vast army.
Arjuna then asked Krishna not just to be by his side, but to personally drive his chariot, to become his sarathi, his charioteer. Sri Krishna agreed.
Krishna has many names. One of them is derived from his being Arjuna’s charioteer. One of Arjuna’s names is Partha. Therefore, one of Krishna’s names is Parthasarathy — the charioteer of Partha.
Sri Krishna held the reins of Arjuna’s chariot throughout the 18 days of the Kurukshetra war, guiding the chariot and Arjuna. We’ll go into that the next time.
Let’s listen to the start of the Bhagavad Gita. This one is sung by Anuradha Paudwal. Each line of the Gita consists of eight syllables.
In the next part, I will go into the start of the Gita.
Be well, do good work and keep in touch.
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