Chakravyuham or Padmavyuham

2/3/09

Chakravyhuham is the circular maze made of human warriors, elephants, chariots and horses. It is a military strategy used by Kauravaas during Mahabharatha Yuddha to bring the Pandavaas on their knees. 

There are several vyuhaas like Makaravyuha, Koormavyuha, Sarpavyuha etc and Chakravyuha is the most deadly and impenetrable one.

 The story is that as an unborn child in his mother's womb, Abhimanyu learnt how to enter into the Chakravyuham. (Abhimanyu was the son of Arjunan and Subhadra. Subhadra is the daughter of Vasudeva and Rohini. So she is Krishna's sister and  Abhimanyu is Krishna's nephew.) Before Krishna could explain the tricks of getting out of the Chakravyuha, Subhadra fell asleep and so Krishna stopped his explanation. So Abhimanyu did not learn the trick of escaping from the puzzle Chakravyhuha. 

On the 13th day of the Mahabharatha war, both Krishna and Arjuna who knew how to get out of the Chakravhyuha were distracted and Abhimanyu entered the  vyuha. Nobody could help him and he was trapped and killed by the Kauravaas. Once he entered, he could not go back and he moved deeper and deeper into the maze and was completely lost never to return. He was only 16.

 

Ravindranatha Tagore says that each one of us is an Abhimanyu. We get in to the flow of time and we only know how to go into the future living through the present. But we can never go back to the past living through the present. Only our thoughts can go back to the past but we cannot. We are travellers on the time line and what ever point of time we have crossed is lost for ever, never to return to that same point of time. We are all Abhimanyus who are walking every moment through the path of time facing the uncertain, unknown future around the corner, unable to retrace our steps or to stop our journey.

 

The only power that can help us to solve the puzzle of our Padmavyuham is Lord. He is the personification of kindness and will guide us as long as we trust and surrender to Him. Sri Ramakrishna says: 

"He is behind you, in front of you, he is on your right side, He is on your left side and He is above you, He is below you  and He is in you. Either close your eyes and look inward or open your eyes and see his reflection in everything! That is the only way to solve the big puzzle of Maya." 

 

Sreekrishnaarpanamasthu