Neelamadhav: A Blissful Journey

By Vanakriti

Vidhyapathi, a junior minister of Malwa Kingdom is assigned with a herculean secret task by his King Indradyumna to find a mystery. Though he begins his journey uninterested and reluctant, he find himself in the middle of the uncertain pre-designed maze. Paths change, priorities change, destination change until a miraculous encounter happens. Vidyapathi realizes it is HIS mission and only he can complete it. When he has to choose between what is right and what is easy, who or what decides his next steps? What if what you seek is already seeking you?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vanakriti
• Release date: Oct 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005787066

Vanakriti

Vanakriti is a bilingual Author writing in English and Tamil. She has written 10+ books in Tamil language. Earlier she was a software delivery manager in the IT industry for nearly 20 years handling a variety of banking and financial projects. Her passion includes astronomy, astrology and Vedic studies.

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NEELAMADHAV

A Blissful Journey

VANAKRITI

Copyright © Vanakriti, All Rights Reserved

First Edition: 2020

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by information storage and retrieval systems, without the written permission of the author. Requests for permission should be sent to [e-mail]

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

All Images used in this magazine for the articles are from sites like Pexels, Unsplash, Pixabay, etc., that are free for both personal and commercial use, and used as per the recommendations of fair use. My full thanks and credits to the respective artists.

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Dedication

I dedicate this book to my father Vaikunthavaasi T.K.Srinivasan who believed in me and motivated me to try my hands on professional writing.

Foreword

Adyontonadih Sakalagunavrndekasadanam

Svasaktayedam Visvam Srujati Sutaram Pati Harate

Jagatkrdakari Nijajanadayadananirato

Jagannathah svami nayanapathagami bhavatu me

Mahamedhanandanath Saraswati

You are the First, the Last, and as such the Eternal entity having no beginning. You are the storehouse of all the qualities. You by your own power create, protect and destroy this universe at will like a toy and play with it. You are pleased to grant the desired objects to your own devotees. May the same Lord and God of the Universe, Jagannath be within the ambit of my sight.

Neelamadhav’s novel was conceived when we went to Puri on a RamNavami day 7 years back. The experience that we had in Srimandir, Jagannath’s abode cannot be described in mere words. The ethereal feeling would always stay with us.

I was trying to write this book for the past 5 years, but it did not materialize. We recently saw a photo shared on twitter that the Jagannath Ratha building has started. I started writing taking that as a divine cue to complete my dream to write a book on Neelamadhav.

This is my first English novel and I hope it turned out well by the grace of Jagannath.

While I am writing this foreword, debates are going on the feasibility of Ratha Yatra due to the corona pandemic. 

I believe in HIS plans and whatever happens on the Ratha Yatra day, it is due to his Sankalp.

Please drop your feedback, reviews, and comments - [e-mail]

I thank Soundarya, my editor for a quick turnaround in editing the completed chapters and Nithyashree, for the cover page Illustration. 

Jai Jagannath!!

Date: 22 June 2020

Place: Bharath.

About the Author

Vanakriti is a bilingual Author writing in English and Tamil. She has written 10+ books in Tamil language.  Earlier she was a software delivery manager in the IT industry for nearly 20 years handling a variety of banking and financial projects. Her passion includes astronomy, astrology and Vedic studies.

Table of Contents

Curse of Gandhari

Vidyapathi’s Journey

The Companion

The Lost Marble

The Face Off

The Survival

The Realization

The Doe Eyed

The Azure Blue

Celebration of Youths

The Meeting

The Mystery

Infinity

Rendezvous

The Sacrifice

Vanished

The Lion Man

The Culprit

Neem Tree

Sculptor

Jagganath

The Wish

Epilogue

Appendix

Jai Jagganath

Curse of Gandhari

Hastinapur...

BCE 3067...

Entire Bharatvarsha, comprising 56 Janapadas[1], was preparing for the Kurukshetra war. The Kings of the fifty-six Janapadas had pledged their support to either Kauravas, led by King Duryodhana or to the Pandavas, led by King Yudhistra. The newly found kingdom of Dwarka ruled by Ugrasena, Lord Krishna’s grandfather, decided to remain neutral because he was related to both the warring parties.

King Duryodhana went in person to Dwarka to seek Krishna’s support for the oncoming Kurukshetra war. At the same time, King Yudhistra had also sent Arjuna, his younger brother to seek Krishna’s support. Krishna met both of them at the same time and heard their argument. He agreed to provide one of them his mighty Narayani Sena[2] and to the other himself unarmed.

Without much forethought, Duryodhana asked for the Narayani Sena and Arjuna was left with the choice of unarmed Krishna. Upon returning, Sakhuni, his maternal uncle, chided Duryodhana for his foolishness in seeking Narayani Sena instead of Krishna who is considered as the Master strategist. Krishna was believed to have vowed not to use any of his mortal or celestial arms during the Kurushetra war.

Krishna’s older brother Baladeva also known as Balarama, who taught wrestling to both Bhima, another younger brother of King Yudhistra, and Duryodhana was not happy about the impending war. He decided to leave Dwarka to visit the holy places in Bharatvarsha to absolve his earthly sins. Krishna’s sons and grandsons got themselves relieved from the Narayani Sena stating that to combat against their father Krishna, who was in the opposite camp, was against dharma.

Likewise, many legendary warriors of Narayani Sena revered Krishna as their father figure and relieved themselves from the Narayani Sena. By the time Narayani Sena, led by Kritavarma, a paternal cousin of Krishna reached Kurukshetra, it had shrunk to just a few thousand. 

The epic Mahabharata war resulted in a lot of bloodsheds. King Yudhishthira emerged victorious whereas King Duryodhana along with his brothers and sons succumbed to the war. The entire Kaurava army was wiped off and only a handful from the Pandava army sustained with handicapped limbs and disfigured faces. 

Apart from the five brothers, the entire realm of Pandavas was massacred during the war. The thirteenth day ritual for slain warriors of both Kaurava and Pandava was performed on the bank of river Ganges. King Dhritarashtra, father of Duryodhana along with his wife Gandhari gave alms to the poor and needy in memory of their sons and grandsons who had passed away. 

Yudhistra along with his mother Kunti, wife Draupadi, and four other brothers were also giving away alms in memory of their older brother Karna and their sons who were also killed in the great war of Kurukshetra. Krishna was standing near his Aunt Kunti, consoling her on the death of her natural son, Karna, and all her grandsons by holding both of her hands. Queen Gandhari with tears rolling from her blindfolded eyes came and stood near Kunti.

Unable to control her grief, Kunti hugged Gandhari and cried. Krishna, who was standing with them, tried to console Gandhari by touching her shoulder. Gandhari immediately flicked Krishna’s hands from her with aversion and shrilled Don’t act as if you have compassion, Krishna. You were the one who heartlessly planned and executed this massacre.

"Maate, I tried my best to avert the war," said Krishna, trying to convince, with his folded hands.

"No, you did not. You have blood in your hands. While everybody in the Bharatvarsha lost their near and dear in the war, you were clever to save your entire Yadava clan" yelled Gandhari.

"Maate, it was not intentional and it all happened due to fate" pacified Krishna.

Gandhari’s agony and anguish multiplied beyond imagination, as she said in a heavy voice, "Krishna, Your entire Yadava clan will be wiped out before your death. You will die alone since none of your relatives will be alive to perform your Anteyesthi(last rites). This will happen if I am a pathivratha loyal and faithful wife to my husband".

Krishna humbly touched Gandhari’s feet and said, "Maate, I will take your curse as my blessing".

After 32 years…..

After thirty-two years, the entire Bharathvarsha was trying to limp back to normalcy after the devastating Mahabharata war. However, Dwarka was flourishing with prosperity, owing to Krishna’s shrewd intelligence of not taking part in the Great war. Goods were imported from across the world and their inland business exported goods outside through their port at Dwaramathy, the main port, and the capital city of Dwaraka.

Rukmini, the first wife of Krishna was the divine incarnation of Mahalakshmi, the goddess of wealth and fortune. Since she was stationed there, her blessings and virtues made Dwarka the richest and powerful city. The Yadavas led a very luxurious life and became powerful beyond imagination. With endless power comes arrogance and recklessness. The entire Yadava clan forgot the importance of discipline and humility. They flouted moral conduct and the rules of Dharma.

A group of sages, along with Sage Viswamitra visited Dwarka to have a darshan of Lord Krishna. When the sages were entering the palace of Krishna, a group of dancing drunkards stopped them. Sambha, Krishna 's son through Jambavati, led the inebriated shouting party.

Jambavati was Krishna's third wife who hadn't long had a child. She and Krishna did penance to invoke the blessing of Lord Shiva. After several years of penance, Lord Shiva, the God of death, appeared before them. Krishna asked Shiva to bless them with a son. Sambha was born after a year to Jambavati, with the fury and uncontrollable anger of Shiva.

The drunkard group planned to play a prank on the sages by dressing Sambha as a pregnant woman. They then asked the sages to predict whether Sambha will give birth to a girl or a boy. The sages were visibly displeased with their behavior. Rishi Viswamitra was repulsed by their group. The sages averted responding to the group and proceeded to march silently towards the palace.

The drunken mob jeered at the sages questioning their divine ability to predict the future. They made fun of the sages and hurled by calling them a group of nothing but wandering beggars. Unable to withstand the slur, Viswamitra turned back to the mob and cursed, "Not a girl nor a boy, but a pestle[3] will be born from the womb, which will wipe out your entire Yadava clan". 

The next morning, much to everyone’s shock, Sambha gave birth to an iron mace. Akroora, the wisest of the Yadavas, rushed to Sambha’s palace. He ordered the iron mace to be grounded as a fine powder and to be cast away into the sea. The Yadava warriors undertook the task of grinding the mace into a fine powder.

Despite fierce grounding, one small last piece of the mace was left out to be unbreakable. The Yadavas gave up and cast the fine powder along with the small iron piece into the sea.

After some months, came the day of the Sharad Purnima, the festival full moon day. The day was celebrated with fanfare by the Yadavas. Yadavas had a routine of going to Prabhasa Thirtha to have a holy dip in the sea.

While the womenfolk, along with children, returned back to Dwarka, the menfolk stayed back to have fun and enjoy the glory of the full moon. Satyaki, childhood friend of Krishna was on the Pandava side during the war, and Kritavarma, the chief of Naryanai Sena was on the Kaurava side.

Both were getting high on liquor and started sparring about the atrocious crimes committed by both sides during the Mahabharata war.  Wordly duel soon turned into a hand to hand combat between two of them which was jeered by the drunken Yadavas. The battle soon spread to the jeering Yadavas and the whole clan was fighting on the seashore of Prabhasa in no time.

The fine ground powder of iron pestle that was cast into the sea washed ashore earlier by the sea waves. The Kusa grass that had massively grown on the seashore was infused by the iron powder. Each Kusa grass had evolved into a sharp iron blade. Having no weapons to fight near the seashore, Satyaki killed Kritavarma by chopping his head with the sharp kusa grass.

The jeering Yadavas also took up the sharp grass of Kusa and started to inflict wounds on one another. Before the sunrise, the seashore of Prabhasa was filled with the dead bodies of the Yadava men, including Krishna’s sons and grandsons. On seeing the dead Yadavas body strewn in the seashore, Baladeva, the divine incarnation of Adisesha, feeling utterly remorseful left his mortal body and ascended to heaven.

Krishna before leaving the city sent for Arjuna, asking him to come to Dwarka immediately. When Arjuna rushed to Dwarka, the sea level was seen slowly rising, submerging the Dwaramathy port and the water began to enter the city. Arjuna promptly asked the citizens of Dwarka to come along with him to Hastinapur. With rising seawater, thousands of people agreed to follow Arjuna. Many old men and women however refused to leave Dwarka, their homeland, during their last time.

When they ascended a nearby hillock, Arjuna witnessed the mighty tidal waves submerging Dwarka completely. Grief-stricken with no news of Krishna, Arjuna with a heavy heart started his return journey to Hastinapur followed by the Dwarka citizens. On their way back to Hastinapur, the travelers from Dwarka were robbed and killed by the dacoits.

While the womenfolk immolated themselves before the dacoits could reach them, Arjuna, who single-handedly had won many wars, felt devastated and helpless, succumbing to defeat for the first time in his life, since he was not able to save even a single Yadava.

With the Yadava clan completely wiped off, Krishna had reached Prabhasa Thirtha. He sat under a Peepal tree and went into Yoga Samadhi. Meanwhile, the small iron piece of the pestle, which was washed down the seashore, was earlier picked by a hunter, named Jara who made the iron piece into an arrow.  Jara, who was hunting in Prabhasa forest, mistook Krishna’s feet for a deer and aimed his arrow and hit his feet. The arrow, made out of the last iron piece of the pestle pierced Krishna’s feet.

Sage Durvasa had earlier cursed Krishna, that he will be killed by an arrow that pierces his feet. Jara, who came in search of his hunt, was devastated to see Krishna being hit by his arrow. He prostrated before