Category:Yudhisthira's Performing Sacrifices
Theme Analysis
Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira’s execution of grand sacrifices, such as the Rājasūya and Aśvamedha, was never motivated by personal ambition or material aggrandizement. Instead, these massive undertakings were profound acts of devotion aimed entirely at pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa. Through these sacrifices, Yudhiṣṭhira established Lord Kṛṣṇa’s supremacy over all demigods and kings, demonstrated the ideal standard of Vedic rituals, and, following the devastating Battle of Kurukṣetra, sought atonement for the unavoidable sins of warfare. The success of these sacrifices, orchestrated and personally supervised by Lord Kṛṣṇa, solidified Yudhiṣṭhira’s fame as a flawless emperor and an unalloyed pure devotee.
- The Purpose of the Rājasūya: Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira organized the opulent Rājasūya-yajña specifically to demonstrate that all demigods and universal controllers are completely subordinate servants of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
- Atonement Through the Aśvamedha: Feeling deep remorse after the Battle of Kurukṣetra, Yudhiṣṭhira performed three horse sacrifices, under the guidance of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Bhīṣmadeva, to absolve himself of the sins incurred during the war.
- Kṛṣṇa’s Supreme Position and Participation: Lord Kṛṣṇa not only supported and ensured the success of these sacrifices but actively participated, accepting the foremost worship (Agra-pūjā) and even taking the humble role of washing the guests' feet.
- The Glories of an Ideal King: The flawless execution of these sacrifices brought Yudhiṣṭhira immense fame throughout the three worlds, proving that a leader fully surrendered to the Supreme Lord easily fulfills all righteous desires.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Yudhiṣṭhira's Devotional Motivation for Performing Sacrifices.
Subcategories
This category has only the following subcategory.
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Pages in category "Yudhisthira's Performing Sacrifices"
The following 46 pages are in this category, out of 46 total.
A
- A devotee once told Krsna: "My dear Krsna, O killer of all demons, Maharaj Yudhisthira, the eldest son of Maharaj Pandu, has performed all kinds of sacrifices just to please You"
- After all arrangements were made for Yudhisthira's sacrifice, the next consideration was who should be worshiped first in the ceremony. This particular ceremony is called Agra-puja
- After gaining victory in the Battle of Kuruksetra, Maharaja Yudhisthira, the Emperor of the world, performed the Rajasuya sacrificial ceremony
- After King Yudhisthira took his bath at the conclusion of the sacrifice and stood in the midst of all the learned sages and brahmanas, he seemed exactly like the King of heaven and thus looked very beautiful
- After satisfying Krsna in this way, King Yudhisthira arranged to perform the Rajasuya sacrifice. He invited all the qualified brahmanas and sages to take part and appointed them to different positions as priests in charge of the sacrificial arena
- All the demigods from the upper, lower and middle universal planetary systems assembled at the altar of the rajasuya sacrifice performed by Maharaja Yudhisthira
- All the respectable sages, kings and demigods who assembled there agreed unanimously that King Yudhisthira was quite competent to take the responsibility of performing the Rajasuya sacrifice; no one was in disagreement on this fact
- At the Rajasuya-yajna (sacrifice) performed by Maharaja Yudhisthira, there was the greatest assembly of all the elite men of the world, the royal and learned orders
H
- He (Yudhisthira) posted Vajra, the son of Aniruddha (grandson of Lord Krsna), at Mathura as the King of Surasena. Afterwards Maharaja Yudhisthira performed a Prajapatya sacrifice and placed in himself the fire for quitting household life
- He (Yudhisthira) took all the responsibility for sins committed in the warfare, and to get rid of all these sins, he wanted to perform three sacrifices in which horses are offered at the altar. Such a sacrifice is very costly
I
- In the open assembly of the rajasuya sacrifice performed by Maharaja Yudhisthira, Sisupala insulted Lord Krsna, and he was finally killed by the Lord
- In the Third Canto, 2nd Chapter, 13th verse, of Srimad-Bhagavatam there is a statement about this. "The SP of Godhead, in His pleasing dress, appeared at the scene of the sacrificial arena when King Yudhisthira was performing the raja-suya sacrifice"
K
- King Yudhisthira was considering performing a horse sacrifice to get freed from sins incurred from fighting with kinsmen. But he became anxious to get some wealth, for there were no surplus funds outside of fines and tax collection
- King Yudhisthira was known as ajata-satru, or a person who had no enemy. Therefore, when all the men, demigods, kings, sages and saints saw the successful termination of the Rajasuya-yajna performed by King Yudhisthira, they were very happy
- Kings from different parts of the world were invited to see the great sacrifice performed by King Yudhisthira, and the citizens, comprising learned brahmanas, chivalrous ksatriyas, well-to-do vaisyas and faithful sudras, all visited the ceremony
- Krsna replied, "After you (Yudhisthira) perform this great sacrifice (Rajasuya), your good name will remain well established forever in the history of human civilization"
- Krsna replied, "Dear King (Yudhisthira), I may inform you that all the great sages, your forefathers, the demigods & your relatives and friends, including Me, desire that you perform this sacrifice, and I think that it will satisfy every living entity"
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- Lord Krsna thus enabled the performance of the Rajasuya-yajna arranged by King Yudhisthira to be successfully completed, and, being requested by His cousins and relatives, He remained in Hastinapura for a few months more
- Lord Sri Krsna caused three well-performed Asvamedha-yajnas (horse sacrifices) to be conducted by Maharaja Yudhisthira and thus caused his virtuous fame to be glorified in all directions, like that of Indra, who had performed one hundred such sacrifices
- Lord Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, being invited to the sacrifices by Maharaja Yudhisthira, saw to it that they were performed by qualified (twice-born) brahmanas. After that, for the pleasure of the relatives, the Lord remained a few months
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- Maharaja Yudhisthira also requisitioned the heaps of gold for performing sacrifices and for pleasing the Supreme Hari Personality of Godhead. Otherwise he had no desire to collect them for the state treasury
- Maharaja Yudhisthira had to collect heaps of gold to secure the paraphernalia for the horse sacrifice yajnas in days of sufficiency, so we can hardly think of such performance of yajnas in these days of insufficiency and complete scarcity of gold
- Maharaja Yudhisthira wanted to perform this sacrifice (the horse sacrifice) under the instruction of Bhismadeva
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- Narada spoke as follows: "He (Yudhisthira) has no material opulence for which to aspire, and yet he wants to perform the Rajasuya sacrifice only to get Your (Krsna's) association and please You"
- News even reached the celestial planets about Yudhisthira's worldly possessions, the sacrifices by which he would attain a better destination, his queen, his stalwart brothers, his extensive land, his sovereignty over the planet earth, and his fame, etc
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- The first procedure in receiving guests is to wash their feet, and it is learned from Vedic literature that one time when Maharaja Yudhisthira performed a rajasuya-yajna, Krsna took charge of washing the feet of the visitors
- The Kimpurusas are descendants of a daughter of Daksa. When Maharaja Yudhisthira performed a horse sacrifice yajna, the inhabitants of these countries were also present to take part in the festival, and they paid tributes to the Emperor
- The learned brahmanas and priests saw to it that the sacrifice by Maharaja Yudhisthira was performed in exactly the same way as it had been in bygone ages by the demigod Varuna
- The Lord exhibited His impartiality even when killing Sisupala in the arena of the Rajasuya yajna performed by Maharaja Yudhisthira
- The Pandava brothers started for different directions to inform the respective kings about King Yudhisthira's intention to perform the Rajasuya sacrifice
- The Supreme Lord induced the son of Dharma to perform three horse sacrifices, and Maharaja Yudhisthira, constantly following Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, protected and enjoyed the earth, assisted by his younger brothers
- This (SB 7.14.35) is a reference to the Rajasuya sacrifice performed by Maharaja Yudhisthira
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- Uddhava said, "My dear Lord (Krsna), first of all let me say that the great sage Narada Muni has requested You to go to Hastinapura to satisfy King Yudhisthira, Your cousin, who is making arrangements to perform the great sacrifice known as Rajasuya"
- Uddhava said, "Unless we are victorious over all the kings, no one can perform Rajasuya sacrifice. In other words, it is to be understood that King Yudhisthira cannot perform this great sacrifice without gaining victory over the belligerent Jarasandha"
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- When Duryodhana saw that Maharaja Yudhisthira had become very famous after performing the Rajasuya-yajna and was fully satisfied in every respect, he began to burn with the fire of envy because his mind was always poisonous
- When Krsna was elected to be president of the Rajasuya yajna performed by Maharaja Yudhisthira, Grandfather Bhismadeva praised Lord Krsna as the greatest brahmacari
- While the fight was going on in the city of Dvaraka, Krsna was staying at Indraprastha with the Pandavas & King Yudhisthira. This fighting with Salva took place after the Rajasuyayajna had been performed by King Yudhisthira & after the killing of Sisupala
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- Yudhisthira addressed Krsna as follows: "My dear Lord Krsna, the sacrifice known as the Rajasuya-yajna is to be performed by the emperor, and it is considered the king of all sacrifices"
- Yudhisthira said, "By performing Rajasuya-Yajna, I wish to satisfy all the demigods, who are Your empowered representatives within this material world & I wish that You will kindly help me in this great venture so that it may be successfully executed"
- Yudhisthira said, "Foolish persons with a poor fund of knowledge consider Your (Krsna's) Lordship an ordinary human being. Sometimes they try to find fault in You, and sometimes they defame You. Therefore I wish to perform this Rajasuya-yajna"
- Yudhisthira said, "I want to perform this Rajasuya sacrifice and invite the demigods to show that they have no power independent of You - that they are all Your servants and You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead"
- Yudhisthira sufficiently remunerated the priests & learned sages for their engagement in the execution of the sacrifice & after performing all this, he took bath. This bath at the end of the sacrifice is also technical. It is called the avabhrtha bath
- Yudhisthira, because of his unflinching devotion to Krsna, could fulfill all his desires successfully by the performance of the Rajasuya sacrifice. From the description of the Rajasuya-yajna, such a function appears to be a great ocean of opulent desires