The protector

September 17, 2016 01:31 am | Updated November 01, 2016 06:58 pm IST

Koora Narayana Jeer sang 100 verses in praise of the Lord’s discus –– Sudarsana. In one of the verses, he says that Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Narayana entrust to Sudarsana their work of protecting the righteous and saving them from the evil designs of the wicked.

Having thus placed on Sudarsana’s shoulders the task of protection, the Divine couple are joyful, said V.S. Karunakarachariar in a discourse.

There is a Puranic story which shows how Sudarsana fulfils this duty assigned to him by the Lord, so that the Lord and His Consort are without anxiety. During the Krishna avatara, there was a man who pretended to be the Supreme One incarnate. His name was Paundaraka Vasudeva. In order to establish that he, and not Krishna, was the Supreme One, Paundaraka Vasudeva made two hands and attached them to himself, trying to appear like a four handed one! He also had a Garuda made and would sit on this Garuda and be lifted by his men, trying to give the impression that he too travelled on Garuda. And yet, his supremacy remained unacknowledged.

So he challenged Krishna to war. Krishna entrusted the job of dealing with this impostor to Sudarsana. The discus lopped off the head of the impostor.

But the king of Kasi had been a friend of Paundaraka Vasudeva and so he now sent an ogre to burn Krishna and Dwaraka. Krishna and Rukmini remained unperturbed, for they knew that Sudarsana would take care of the ogre. Sudarsana chased the ogre, who ran back to the King of Kasi. The ogre killed the King, who had sent it on an impossible mission and Sudarsana in turn burnt the ogre. Thus Sudarsana always fulfils his role of protector.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.