What was Chakravyuh, how is it broken?
Due to the policy of Lord Krishna, Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu was ordered to pierce the Chakravyuh. Knowing that Abhimanyu knows how to penetrate the Chakravyuh, but does not know how to get out of it. Actually, Abhimanyu learned to penetrate the Chakravyuh when Subhadra was in the womb, but later he never learned to get out of the Chakravyuh. Abhimanyu was the nephew of Shri Krishna. Shri Krishna had put his nephew at stake.
After Abhimanyu entered the Chakravyuh, he was surrounded. He was besieged and brutally murdered by 7 warriors including Jayadratha, which was against the rules of war. It is said that this is what Shri Krishna wanted. When one side breaks the rule once, the other side has a chance to break it too.
What is a circle?
To fight the war, the side or the opposition used to make their own strategy. Strategic means how to make the soldiers stand in front. This array is visible when viewed from the sky. Just as there is a Kraunch Vyuha, then when viewed from the sky, soldiers will be seen standing like a Kraunch bird. Similarly, when the Chakravyuh is seen from the sky, a military formation is seen like a rotating wheel.
On seeing this Chakravyuh, there is a way to go inside it, but the way to get out is not visible. This will be possible only if someone looks very carefully, but for this you have to look from the sky. Even if you see, this Chakravyuh keeps on rotating.
It is said that Drona created Chakravyuh. This array was made in the form of a spinning wheel, as you might have seen spinning a spiral. Any new warrior enters the open part of this array and strikes or kills one of the soldiers and enters. This time is momentary, because the killed soldier is immediately replaced by another soldier, that is, on the death of the warrior, the warrior next to him in the Chakravyuha will take his place, because the first line of soldiers keeps on moving. When a warrior like Abhimanyu reaches the third row of the Vyuha, his exits are blocked. If he looks back, he will find that behind him is standing a lined army of soldiers. After entering the Vyuha, the warrior now finds himself standing in front of the mighty warriors of the fourth level.
In this Chakravyuha, the warrior will move inwards while fighting continuously and will also get tired. But as he moves in, the warriors he encounters inside will not be weary. On top of that, they will be more powerful and more accustomed than the earlier warriors. For a physically and mentally exhausted warrior once trapped inside, it becomes difficult to win or get out. This is what must have happened to Abhimanyu.
How did Abhimanyu get trapped in the Chakravyuh?
Any warrior will try to break through the wall of the array and kill the warrior in front to go inside, but he will be able to enter only if no other warrior can come in place of the slain warrior. This means that he has to enter immediately after killing the warrior standing in front, because the killed warrior is immediately replaced by another warrior. In this way this wall never breaks. To break the wall, one has to enter inside by killing the warrior right in front and killing the warrior inside. But the new or ignorant warrior starts fighting with the nearby warriors.
Abhimanyu knew how to enter the Chakravyuh. He hit the warrior in front and for a very short time he entered through the empty space he had found. As soon as he entered, this place was closed again, because the killed warrior was replaced by another warrior. Abhimanyu broke inside the wall, but he could also see behind that the wall had been rebuilt. Now it will be difficult to get out of it. That wall is stronger than before.
Initially it was thought that Abhimanyu would break the Vyuha and along with him other warriors would also enter the Chakravyuha from behind him. But as soon as Abhimanyu entered and the array changed again and the first row became stronger than before, none of the rear warriors, Bhima, Satyaki, Nakula-Sahadeva could enter. As Dronacharya also says in the Mahabharata, it takes a very skilled archer to kill two warriors almost simultaneously. Among the warriors involved in the war, there were only two or four archers of the level of Abhimanyu, that is, in a short time Abhimanyu entered the Chakravyuh and went away, but alone, utterly alone. No one came after him.
As Abhimanyu reached the center of the Chakravyuh, the density of the warriors standing there and the skill of the warriors increased, because not all of them were fighting, just standing while Abhimanyu fights to the center. While they were mentally and physically exhausted due to war and breaking of strategy, the warriors of Kaurava side were refreshed. In such a situation, if Abhimanyu had the knowledge to get out of the Chakravyuh, he would have survived or even if other warriors came after him to support him, he would have survived.
In fact, Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu entered it to penetrate the Chakravyuh. After entering the Chakravyuh, Abhimanyu skillfully broke the 6 stages of the Chakravyuh. During this, Duryodhana’s son Lakshmana was killed by Abhimanyu. Seeing his son dead, Duryodhana’s anger knew no bounds. Then the Kauravas put all the rules of war in abeyance.
After crossing 6 steps, as soon as Abhimanyu reached the 7th and last step, he was surrounded by 7 greats like Duryodhana, Jayadratha etc. Abhimanyu still fought with them courageously. Together the seven killed the horses of Abhimanyu’s chariot. Nevertheless, in order to protect himself, Abhimanyu kept the wheel of his chariot as a protective shield on him and continued to fight with his right hand. After some time Abhimanyu’s sword broke and the wheel of the chariot was also shattered.
Abhimanyu was unarmed now. Under the law of war, it was not to strike the unarmed. But then Jayadratha struck the unarmed Abhimanyu from behind with a mighty sword. After this, one after the other, the seven warriors attacked him. Abhimanyu attained Veergati there. When Arjuna got the news of Abhimanyu’s death, he became very angry and decided to destroy the enemies for the death of his son. First of all he took an oath to kill Jayadratha before the sunset of tomorrow evening.
How do you break the Chakravyuh?
A skilled warrior sees that the density of the warriors on the outside is low while the density of the warriors inside is high. To equalize or reduce the density, it will be necessary to kill as many warriors standing outside as possible. This will push more and more warriors in and out to keep the array moving. This will reduce the density of the warriors on the inside.
In this puzzle-like array, it moves completely due to the change of location of the warriors. Surely a skilled warrior also comes to know that there is an empty space in the rotating Chakravyuha, from which one can get out. Also that he came out with his own strength, killing each and every warrior of each line.
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