Army (CC and other books)

Expressions researched:
"armies" |"army" |"army's"

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 3.65, Translation:

In other incarnations the Lord descended with armies and weapons, but in this incarnation His soldiers are His plenary parts and associates.

CC Adi 7.145, Purport:

Becoming one with the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not very important for a devotee. Muktiḥ svayaṁ mukulitāñjali sevate ’smān (Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta 107). Speaking from his actual experience, Śrīla Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura says that if one develops love of Godhead, mukti (liberation) becomes subservient and unimportant to him. Mukti stands before the devotee and is prepared to render all kinds of services. The Māyāvādī philosophers' standard of mukti is very insignificant for a devotee, for by devotional service even the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes subordinate to him. An actual example is that the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa became the chariot driver of Arjuna, and when Arjuna asked Him to draw his chariot between the two armies (senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me ’cyuta (BG 1.21)), Kṛṣṇa executed his order. Such is the relationship between the Supreme Lord and a devotee that although the Lord is greater than the greatest, He is prepared to render service to the insignificant devotee by dint of his sincere and unalloyed devotional service.

Nectar of Devotion

Nectar of Devotion 22:

A person who is very enthusiastic in military activities and expert in releasing different kinds of weapons is called heroic.

Regarding Kṛṣṇa's heroism in fighting, there is the following statement: "My dear killer of the enemy, just as the elephant while taking bath in the lake destroys all the lotus stems within the water by swinging its trunk, so simply by moving Your arms, which are compared to the trunks of elephants, You have killed so many lotuslike enemies."

Regarding Kṛṣṇa's expertise in releasing weapons, when Jarāsandha and thirteen divisions of soldiers attacked Kṛṣṇa's army, they were unable to hurt even one soldier on the side of Kṛṣṇa. This was due to Kṛṣṇa's expert military training. This is unique in the history of military art.

Nectar of Devotion 40:

There is another example of steady and fixed love for Kṛṣṇa in the instance of Arjuna's informing Him of the death of Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu, who was also the nephew of Kṛṣṇa. Abhimanyu was the son of Subhadrā, Kṛṣṇa's younger sister. He was killed at the Battle of Kurukṣetra by the combined efforts of all the commanders in King Duryodhana's army—namely Karṇa, Aśvatthāmā, Jayadratha, Bhīṣma, Kṛpācārya and Droṇācārya. In order to assure Kṛṣṇa that there was no change of love on Subhadrā's part, Arjuna informed Him, "Although Abhimanyu was killed almost in Your presence, Subhadrā's love for You is not agitated at all, nor has it even slightly changed its original color."

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 50:

After equipping Themselves with military dress, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma mounted Their chariots. Kṛṣṇa rode the chariot of which Dāruka was the driver. With a small army They came out of the city of Mathurā, blowing Their respective conchshells. Curiously enough, although the other party was equipped with greater military strength, when they heard the vibration of Kṛṣṇa's conchshell their hearts were shaken. When Jarāsandha saw Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa, he was a little bit compassionate because They happened to be related to him as grandsons. He specifically addressed Kṛṣṇa as puruṣādhama, meaning "the lowest among men." Actually Kṛṣṇa is known in all Vedic scriptures as Puruṣottama, the highest among men. Jarāsandha had no intention of addressing Kṛṣṇa as Puruṣottama, but great scholars have determined the true meaning of the word puruṣādhama to be "one who makes all other personalities go downward." Actually no one can be equal to or greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Krsna Book 50:

After hearing Jarāsandha speak in that way, Kṛṣṇa answered, "My dear King Jarāsandha, heroes do not talk much. Rather, they show their prowess. Because you are talking a great deal, it appears that you are assured of your death in this battle. We do not care to hear you any longer, for it is useless to hear the words of a person who is going to die or of one who is very distressed." To fight with Kṛṣṇa, Jarāsandha surrounded Him from all sides with great military strength. As the sun appears covered by cloudy air and dust, Kṛṣṇa, the supreme sun, was covered by the military strength of Jarāsandha. Kṛṣṇa's and Balarāma's chariots were marked with pictures of Garuḍa and palm trees, respectively. The women of Mathurā all stood on the tops of the houses, palaces and gates to see the wonderful fight, but when Kṛṣṇa's chariot was surrounded by Jarāsandha's military force and was no longer visible to them, they were so frightened that some of them fainted. Kṛṣṇa saw Himself overwhelmed by the military strength of Jarāsandha. His small army of soldiers was being harassed, so He immediately took up His bow, named Śārṅga.

Krsna Book 50:

In this way, Jarāsandha, the King of Magadha Province, having lost all his strength and having been insulted by his arrest and subsequent release, could do nothing but return to his kingdom. Thus Lord Kṛṣṇa conquered the soldiers of Jarāsandha. Although Kṛṣṇa's army was tiny in comparison to Jarāsandha's, not a pinch of His strength was lost, whereas all of Jarāsandha's men were killed.

Krsna Book 51:

When Kṛṣṇa came out of the city, Kālayavana, who had never seen Kṛṣṇa before, saw Him to be extraordinarily beautiful, dressed in yellow garments. Passing through Kālayavana's assembly of soldiers, Kṛṣṇa appeared like the moon in the sky passing through the assembled clouds. Kālayavana was fortunate enough to see the lines of Śrīvatsa, a particular impression on the chest of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and the Kaustubha jewel He was wearing. Kālayavana saw Him, however, in His Viṣṇu form, with a well-built body, four hands, and eyes like the petals of a newly blooming lotus. Kṛṣṇa appeared blissful, with a handsome forehead and beautiful smiling face, restless eyebrows and moving earrings. Before seeing Kṛṣṇa, Kālayavana had heard about Him from Nārada, and now the descriptions of Nārada were confirmed. Kālayavana noticed Kṛṣṇa's specific marks and the jewels on His chest, His beautiful garland of lotus flowers, His lotuslike eyes and similar beautiful bodily features. He concluded that this beautiful personality must be Vāsudeva, for every description he had previously heard from Nārada was substantiated by the presence of Kṛṣṇa. Kālayavana was astonished to see Kṛṣṇa passing through his army without any weapon in His hands and without any chariot. He was simply walking on foot. Kālayavana had come to fight with Kṛṣṇa, and yet he had sufficient principles not to take up any kind of weapon. He decided to fight with Him hand to hand. Thus he prepared to capture Kṛṣṇa and fight.

Krsna Book 52:

Ordinarily, if a king leaves the battlefield without fighting he is called a coward, but when Kṛṣṇa enacts this pastime, leaving the battlefield without fighting, He is worshiped by the devotees. A demon always tries to measure the opulence of Kṛṣṇa, whereas a devotee never tries to measure His strength and opulence but always surrenders unto Him and worships Him. By following in the footsteps of pure devotees, we can know that Kṛṣṇa, the Raṇacorajī, left the battlefield not because He was afraid but because He had some other purpose. The purpose, as it will be revealed, was to attend to a confidential letter sent by Rukmiṇī, His future first wife. Kṛṣṇa's leaving the battlefield is a display of one of His six opulences. Kṛṣṇa is the supreme powerful, the supreme wealthy, the supreme famous, the supreme wise and the supreme beautiful; similarly, He is the supreme renouncer. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam clearly states that He left the battlefield in spite of having ample military strength. Even without His militia, He alone would have been sufficient to defeat the army of Jarāsandha, as He had done seventeen times before. Therefore, His leaving the battlefield is an example of His supermost opulence, renunciation.

Krsna Book 54:

When the enemy, headed by Jarāsandha, found that they were gradually being defeated by the soldiers of Kṛṣṇa, they thought it unwise to risk losing their armies in the battle for the sake of Śiśupāla. Śiśupāla himself should have fought to rescue Rukmiṇī from the hands of Kṛṣṇa, but when the soldiers saw that Śiśupāla was not competent to fight with Kṛṣṇa, they decided not to lose their armies unnecessarily; therefore they ceased fighting and dispersed.

Krsna Book 54:

While Kṛṣṇa was dealing with Rukmī in this way, the soldiers of the Yadu dynasty, commanded by Balarāma Himself, broke the whole strength of Rukmī’s army just as an elephant in a pond discards the feeble stem of a lotus flower. In other words, as an elephant breaks the whole construction of a lotus flower while bathing in a reservoir of water, the military strength of the Yadus broke up Rukmī’s forces.

Krsna Book 89:

Kṛṣṇa is known as Yogeśvara, as stated in the last portion of the Bhagavad-gītā. Yogeśvaro hariḥ: all mystic powers are under His control. In our experience we can see many human beings who have yogic mystic power and who sometimes perform very wonderful acts, but Kṛṣṇa is understood to be the master of all mystic power. Therefore, when He saw that His horses were hesitant to proceed into the darkness, He immediately released His disc, known as the Sudarśana cakra, which illuminated the sky a thousand times brighter than sunlight. The darkness of the covering of the universe is also a creation of Kṛṣṇa's, and the Sudarśana cakra is Kṛṣṇa's constant companion. Thus He penetrated the darkness by keeping the Sudarśana cakra before Him. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam states that the Sudarśana cakra penetrated the darkness just as an arrow released from the Śārṅga bow of Lord Rāmacandra penetrated the army of Rāvaṇa. Su means "very nice," and darśana means "observation"; by the grace of Lord Kṛṣṇa's disc, Sudarśana, everything can be seen very nicely, and nothing can remain in darkness. Thus Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna crossed over the great region of darkness covering the material universes.

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 1:

Marshal Arjuna pretended to display philosophical ignorance and weakness, like an ordinary man, when with his chariot between the two opposing armies on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, he refused to fight. In this way, age after age, the Personality of Godhead and His beloved confidential-servitor devotees bestow their unbounded mercy by dissipating the darkness of nescience of the people of the world. We could hardly have attained to transcendental knowledge if they had not bestowed such mercy upon us.