Protecting His devotees

Lord Narayana’s discus, Sudarsana, plays a major role in

protecting His devotees. Hiranyakasipu wanted Prahlada

to acknowledge his (Hiranyakasipu’s) superiority over

everyone, including the Lord Himself. This was something

Prahlada refused to do. So Hiranyakasipu decided to

frighten the boy so much that he would, in his fear, admit

what he had earlier refused to admit.

So Hiranyakasipu sent for Viprachiti, who knew magical

tricks and could create illusions to frighten Prahlada. But

the illusory tricks that Viprachiti conjured up were all got

rid of by Sudarsana, said V.S. Karunakarachariar in a

discourse. In the Mahabharata, Duryodhana was mortally

wounded. His army had been almost completely wiped

out. Aswattama, son of Drona, had always wanted to be the

commander of the Kaurava army. Now he approached

Duryodhana and asked if he could head what was left of

the army. Only three people were left, including

Aswattama himself. Duryodhana granted Aswattama his

wish. As Aswattama contemplated how he could kill the

Pandavas, he saw owls boldly pecking at crows that had

retired to their nests for the night. The boldness of the

owls was because they could see well in the dark.

Aswattama, thinking that there was a message in this for

him, decided to attack the Pandavas at night. But Krishna

moved the Pandavas away from their tent, so that

Aswattama ended up killing all five sons of Draupadi.

But the Pandava lineage would have not come to an end

even with these deaths, for Uttara, Abhimanyu’s wife was

expecting a child. So Aswattama sent an arrow and burnt

her foetus. But Krishna entered her womb and stroked the

foetus with His discus. This brought the charred foetus to

life.