Shloka 2
प्रद्युम्न-अपहरणम्, मत्स्य-उद्धारः, मायावती-शिक्षा, शम्बरवधः, रुक्मिणी-पुत्र-संगमः
षष्ठे ऽह्नि जातमात्रं तु प्रद्युम्नं सूतिकागृहात् ममैष हन्तेति मुने हृतवान् कालशम्बरः
ṣaṣṭhe 'hni jātamātraṃ tu pradyumnaṃ sūtikāgṛhāt mamaiṣa hanteti mune hṛtavān kālaśambaraḥ
O sage, on the sixth day after his birth, the newborn Pradyumna was taken from the lying-in chamber. Kālaśambara carried him off, thinking, “This one will be my slayer.”
Sage Parāśara (narrating to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: How Pradyumna was abducted and how he later killed Śambara.
Teaching: Historical
Quality: revealing
Avatara: Krishna
Purpose: As Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu’s līlā allows the asura’s fear-driven act to unfold into the very chain of events that ensures the asura’s destruction and dharma’s protection.
Leela: Loka-rakshana
Dharma Restored: Defense of the divine child and the moral law that adharma cannot avert its destined fall.
Concept: Fear-driven violence against the innocent, born of foreknowledge and ego, becomes self-defeating under divine order.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Do not let anxiety about future outcomes justify unethical acts; cultivate restraint and trust in righteous means.
Vishishtadvaita: Even hostile intentions occur within the Lord’s governed cosmos; divine providence ensures dharma’s final ascendancy without denying human agency.
Vishnu Form: Krishna
Vyuha Form: Pradyumna
FAQs
It establishes the recurring Purāṇic theme that hostile powers attempt to thwart destiny, yet the divinely ordained protection of Vishnu’s lineage ultimately prevails.
By showing Kālaśambara acting from fear of a foretold death, the narration highlights that even calculated resistance cannot overturn what is destined within the moral order upheld by Vishnu.
Though Vishnu is not named in the verse, the episode serves Vaishnava theology by portraying the irresistible sovereignty of the divine plan: threats arise, but dharma and Vishnu’s purpose remain unshaken.