Utthara Sharanagathi
– Sarvesh Sridar from Toronto, Canada.
The kurukshetra war was raging between the Pandavas and Kauravas and on the tenth day of the battle Bishma, commander of the kaurava army was defeated. After Bhishma’s defeat Dronacharya was made commander but ever since Dronacharya became commander he had begun breaking many war rules. One day Dronacharya decided to form the chakravyuga in battle. The chakravyuga is a massive maze of soldiers that warriors can easily get lost in and requires training to navigate.
While the pandavas were busy fighting elsewhere, Abhimanyu the son of Arjuna decided to take things into his own hands and entered the chakravyuga. Though Abimanyu knew how to enter the chakravyuga he didn’t know how to exit it. Inside the chakravyuga Abimanyu faced seven maharatas (warriors who can kill 1000 people at once) he defeated each one of them. As the day came to an end Abimanyu was becoming tired and all seven maharatas Duryodhana, Dushasana, Shakuni, Bhishma, Dronacharya, Karna and Ashwathama surrounded and attacked him simultaneously. The now weakened Abimanyu still managed to hold on until Karna stabbed Abhimanyu, finally killing him.
Uthara, the wife of Abhimanyu now pregnant with Parikshith, the next heir, had lost her husband at a very young age. Ashwathama, the son of Dronacharya and friend of Duryodhana was furious due to his father’s death along with having no hope of winning the war. Seeking revenge he killed all the sons of Draupadi and was now looking to kill the last successor to the pandavas, Parikshith. Ashwathama used the Brahmastra and aimed it at the womb of Uthara towards Parikshith.
The widowed Uthara was desperate to protect her child and with nowhere to seek refuge did sharanagathi to Lord Krishna. “Karuvinaik KAtthiDa,” to protect the child she was bearing, Uthara prayed to Krishna for help. Lord Krishna saw Uthara pleading to protect her child and so entered Uthara’s womb and protected Parikshith from the Brahmastra.
Bhagavan will protect us from any danger no matter how big or challenging it may be.
Uthara’s sharanagathi teaches us that if we surrender to Bhagavan will protect us from any danger no matter how big or challenging it may be and that we can learn good qualities from our elders as Uthara had done learning to do sharanagathi from Draupadi, her mother in law and from Kunti Matha.