After Bhishma Pitamaha fell, Duryodhana appointed Dronacharya commander of his army. With Bhishma's permission, Karna also joined the war. He climbed into the chariot and followed Dronacharya. During the war, Duryodhana asked Dronacharya to capture Dharmaraja and to bring him to him. Dronacharya agreed to this. The Pandavas got to know about this and hence got ready for the war.
Dronacharya then, with his bow, started releasing arrows with mantras and was destroying the army of the Pandavas. Bheemasena immediately roared like a lion and then fought with Ashvatthama, Krupa, and Shalya. He pushed them back and came to face Dronacharya. Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, also came to fight the enemies. But as Bheemasena was approaching Dronacharya, Shalya came and stopped him. Soon, a fierce battle took place between Bheemasena and Shalya.
Both were very strong warriors and fought with each other with their maces. With Bheemasena’s hit, Shalya was unconscious. But before that, Shalya also attacked Bheemasena, which made him fall to his knees. But he immediately got up. Bheemasena invited Shalya to battle again, but then Krutavarma took Shalya with him. After Bheemasena defeated Shalya, he started releasing arrows and destroyed the armies.
Bheemasena chased away the Kauravas, but here Dronacharya defeated Saatyaki and Abhimanyu and rushed towards Yudhishthira to capture him. But in between, Arjuna came and faced Dronacharya. Krishna was controlling Arjuna’s chariot. He appeared to the world as the one causing the flow of the river of blood due to the destruction of elephants, horses, and chariots using body-damaging, sharp arrows.
That day, Yudhishthira was safe, but after the battle ended, Duryodhana condemned Dronacharya with cruel words because he failed to capture Yudhishthira. Dronacharya said, “First take Arjuna away from the battlefield, and then after that I would be able to capture Dharmaraja Yudhishthira.” After saying this, Duryodhana appointed a warrior named Susharma, along with his sainya named Samshaptakas, who had great warriors within the sainya, to draw Arjuna away from Dronacharya’s way, so that he could capture Yudhishthira.
The next day, when the battle started, Susharma and the Samshaptakas invited Arjuna to the north-eastern side of the Kurukshetra battlefield. Arjuna valorously fought with them. But here, Bheemasena started destroying the elephant army. But as Bheemasena kept on destroying the elephants, many kings, out of fear, fled from the battlefield. But then, at the request of Duryodhana, Bhagadatta, the son of Narakasura, came to fight Bheemasena, riding on his excellent elephant named Suprateeka and holding a bow.
Bheemasena’s horses were scared of the elephant Suprateeka and couldn’t stand in front of it. But then, Abhimanyu, Saatyaki, etc. came there to face the elephant. But then, the elephant lifted their chariots along with them with its trunk and threw them into the sky. They jumped from their chariot and were injured and were rendered chariotless. Bheemasena brought his horses under control and then got ready for the battle.
Here, Krishna noticed it. He thought, “If Bhagadatta is provoked more, then he may invoke the Vaishnavastra on Bheemasena. And it can be borne by nobody else except Lord Vishnu, because of the boon.” Thinking thus, Lord Krishna started to take the chariot towards Bhagadatta. But in between, Krishna and Arjuna were stopped by the Trigartas. These trigartas were also great warriors, but couldn’t stand a chance in front of Arjuna.
Arjuna left Sammohanastra on them, which caused delusion among them. They saw each other as Krishna and Arjuna and hit each other. Here, Krishna brought Arjuna near Bhagadatta. He ran the chariot with the speed of the mind, encircling Bhagadatta’s elephant in a counter-clockwise direction. Now, while this was going on, Bhagadatta's elephant was confused. Arjuna attacked Bhagadatta with sharp arrows and tormented him.
This angered Bhagadatta. He fought with Arjuna bravely. Both fought bravely with each other and were very strong warriors. The valorous Arjuna cut off Bhagadatta’s bow. This angered Bhagadatta again. He invoked the Vaishnavastra in the elephant’s hook itself. Because the astras like Vaishnavastra, Brahmastra, Narayanastra, etc., have a mantra, and with the mantrasiddhi, one can invoke the weapon even in a blade of grass.
So, as Bhagadatta invoked the Vaishnavastra and hurled it towards Arjuna, Krishna stood up and bore the astra on him. The astra hit Krishna, the one with limitless strength, and turned into Vaijayanti maala around His neck, and Krishna was unharmed. On seeing this, Arjuna asked Krishna, “Krishna! Why did you bore the astra upon yourself?” Krishna said, “Isn’t it I who holds the whole universe, at all times? I am the Supreme Bhagavan, and nobody is equal to me. Who can be superior to me?”
Krishna further said, “I take four forms, namely, Vaasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, and through those roopas perform the acts of giving liberation to the liberated souls, destruction, creation and sustenance of the universe respectively, for the welfare of the world. I reside in everyone’s heart in the form of Aniruddha.”
Krishna further said, “Earlier, in my form of Varaha, I had given this astra to Narakasura to please Bhudevi. I had granted Bhagadatta the boon of invincibility and immunity from death until he possessed this Vaishnavastra. Apart from me, nobody can bear this weapon, and if this weapon hits anyone except me, his/her death is for sure. Now, Bhagadatta is devoid of the Vaishnavastra, and now it is the right opportunity. Slay Bhagadatta.”
After discussing this with Lord Vaasudeva, Arjuna released two arrows, which hit Bhagadatta on his chest and the elephant Suprateeka on its forehead, and then Bhagadatta and his elephant fell down as if a mountain had fallen, after being hit by the Vajraayudha of Indra. Arjuna had finally killed Bhagadatta, and then proceeded forward and killed the two brothers of Shakuni named Achala and Vrushaka.
But then, Shakuni created maya to delude Arjuna, but Arjuna released Vigyaanastra, cut off that weapon of Shakuni, and shattered the maayajaala, and after that the sinner Shakuni ran away from the battlefield. Thus, this was the story of how SriKrishna Paramatma saved Arjuna from the Vaishnavastra of Bhagadatta.
Hope this helps!
Jay SriRam!
ShriKrishnarpanamastu!