The Slaying of Naraka

The sages told the Pandavas of Narakasura, the demon-king whom Krishna slew, and of how the day of his death became a festival of lights celebrated ever since - the victory of light over darkness, and the rescue of the helpless from a tyrant.

Narakasura was a mighty demon, the son of the Earth herself, who ruled the great kingdom of Pragjyotisha in the east. He had grown vast in power, and by a boon he was protected against almost every death, so that he believed himself invincible. And in his pride and power he became a cruel and terrible tyrant. He conquered the three worlds and oppressed gods and men alike. He stormed even the heavens, stealing the precious earrings of Aditi, the mother of the gods, and seizing the sacred canopy of Varuna and other divine treasures. Worst of all, in his lust and cruelty, he carried off sixteen thousand maidens and princesses from across the worlds, tearing them from their homes and families, and imprisoned them all in his palace, meaning to keep them captive for himself. The cries of these thousands of helpless women, and the groans of the oppressed worlds, rose up at last to heaven.

The gods, oppressed by Narakasura and unable to overcome him, went to Krishna in Dwaraka and laid their suffering before him. Indra, the king of the gods, came and told Krishna of all the demon's crimes - the conquest of the worlds, the theft of the divine treasures and of his own mother Aditi's earrings, and above all the imprisonment of the sixteen thousand captive women - and begged Krishna to destroy the tyrant and free the worlds and the captives from his cruelty.

Krishna agreed at once, for the protection of the helpless and the destruction of tyrants who prey upon the weak is the very work for which the Lord descends into the world. He prepared to go to Pragjyotisha to make war upon Narakasura. And his beloved queen Satyabhama - who was, in her true nature, an incarnation of Bhumi, the Earth goddess, the very mother of the demon - insisted on accompanying him to the battle, for reasons that would prove to lie at the heart of how the demon could be slain.

Krishna mounted his great eagle Garuda, with Satyabhama at his side, and flew swiftly across the worlds to Narakasura's fortress city of Pragjyotisha in the east. But the demon's stronghold was guarded by formidable defenses - ringed about with mountains, with nooses and snares and ramparts and fearsome weapons, and defended by mighty demon warriors.

Krishna broke through them all. He shattered the encircling mountains, cut through the snares and ramparts, and scattered the demon hosts. The great demon-general Mura, a fearsome warrior with many heads, rose up to bar his way, and Krishna fought and slew him - and from this deed Krishna won one of his famous names, Murari, the foe of Mura. Mura's many sons then came against him in their fury, and Krishna destroyed them too. One by one the outer defenses of the demon-king's fortress fell before the Lord, until the way lay open to Narakasura himself, who now came forth in his full might to meet his attacker.

Narakasura came against Krishna with all his enormous power, and a tremendous battle was joined between the demon-king and the Lord. The demon hurled his fearful weapons and fought with the strength that had conquered the three worlds, and the combat raged fierce and long, the sky filled with the storm of their war.

But Narakasura was protected by his boon. He had been granted that he could not be slain by gods or demons or by almost any hand - he could meet his death, the boon decreed, only at the hand of his own mother, the Earth, from whom he had been born. So confident was he in this protection, believing that his own mother would never raise her hand against him, that he thought himself proof against any death. And indeed, by that boon, even Krishna's blows could not bring about the demon's end - not unless the one condition of the boon were somehow fulfilled, and the hand of his mother were brought into the slaying.

And here the presence of Satyabhama proved decisive, for she was the very thing the boon required. At a turning point in the battle - when Krishna, some say, let himself fall as if struck, or paused as if in a swoon - Satyabhama, seeing her husband seemingly in peril and roused to fury at the demon, took up arms herself and fought against Narakasura with fierce strength.

And because Satyabhama was, in her true nature, an incarnation of Bhumi, the Earth goddess, the very mother who had borne Narakasura, the one condition of the boon was now met: the demon could be slain, for his own mother now stood against him in the fight. So, through Satyabhama's part in the battle - by the hand of the mother the boon had named, joined with the power of the Lord - Narakasura's protection was undone at last, and Krishna struck him down with his discus, and the mighty tyrant who had believed himself invincible fell slain upon the field. The boon that he had trusted to make him deathless had carried, as such boons always do, the precise seam of his death folded within it - and it was his own mother's hand, which he had thought would never harm him, that fulfilled it.

As Narakasura lay dying, struck down at last, a change came over the demon. In his final moments, facing death, his pride and his cruelty fell away, and something better rose in him. He repented of the evil he had done, and he begged of Krishna a boon - not for his own life, but for something generous and strange.

"Lord," the dying demon asked, "let the day of my death not be a day of mourning, but a day of joy. Let it be celebrated, in all the ages to come, as a festival - a day of lights and gladness, when people light lamps and rejoice and are free of fear and darkness. Let some good come, for the world, out of my ending."

And Krishna, ever gracious even to a repentant foe, granted it. And so the day of Narakasura's death became a great festival of lights - the day on which, ever since, people light rows of lamps against the darkness, and rejoice, and celebrate the victory of light over darkness, of good over evil, of freedom over tyranny. The demon's death-day became Deepavali, the festival of lights, and the lamps that are lit upon it still proclaim, age after age, that however great the darkness of a tyrant's cruelty, the light overcomes it in the end.

With the tyrant slain, Krishna entered his palace and freed the sixteen thousand captive women whom Narakasura had torn from their homes and imprisoned. He recovered, too, the divine treasures the demon had stolen - the earrings of Aditi the mother of the gods, the canopy of Varuna, and the rest - and restored them to their rightful owners in heaven.

But the freeing of the captive women raised a hard problem, and here Krishna's compassion shone most brightly. These thousands of women had been held captive in the demon's palace, and by the harsh judgment of the world they would now be shunned and dishonored on that account - their families might not take them back, and no one would marry them or give them a home or protection; they would be outcast through no fault of their own, victims twice over, first of the demon and then of society's cruelty. Krishna would not allow these innocent women, who had already suffered so much, to be cast out and left without honor or shelter.

So, out of pure compassion and to restore their dignity and give them each a home, a name, and protection, Krishna took all sixteen thousand of the rescued women under his own protection as his wives, giving each of them a place of honor and security in his city of Dwaraka. It was not lust but mercy - the act of a protector who would not leave the helpless and the wronged without a refuge, who gave his own name and shelter to those whom the world would have abandoned, restoring honor to the dishonored and a home to the homeless.

The sages drew the lessons of the tale for the Pandavas.

"See the work for which the Lord descends, son of Pandu: to destroy the tyrant who preys upon the helpless, and to protect and restore the wronged. Narakasura had grown mighty and believed himself beyond all death, and in his pride he oppressed the worlds and, worst of all, tore thousands of helpless women from their homes - and for this the Lord came against him and brought him down. No tyranny, however powerful, however protected by boons, escapes its reckoning in the end; and the boon the demon trusted carried his death within it, by the very hand he thought would never strike him.

"See, too, the compassion of the Lord - greater even than his might. He did not merely free the captive women and leave them to a cruel fate; he gave them his own protection and honor, refusing to let the innocent victims be shunned and abandoned by a heartless world. The true protector does not stop at defeating the oppressor, but takes care to restore and shelter those the oppressor harmed. And see how even the death of a tyrant was turned to good: the repentant demon's last wish made his death-day a festival of lights, so that good came even out of his ending - a sign that light overcomes darkness, and that the lamps lit against the night will always, in the end, prevail."

And the Pandavas, who would themselves one day have to destroy tyrants and protect the wronged, took to heart both the destruction of the oppressor and the compassion that shelters his victims - and remembered that the lights of Deepavali still celebrate that victory of light over darkness.