Hari Sarvottam always

This week, I had mentioned that Arjuna imagined the Earth to be the vessel of Hari’s feet and offered flowers. He saw those flowers on the Kirata’s head, showing Hara bears whatever falls on Hari’s feet.

The 1st time was the above. The 2nd time happened before jayadratha vadha. Arjuna forgot the prayoga for pAshupatastra. He resolved to do penance again to please mahAdeva. Seeing this, Krishna told him, “You do not need to do that. Offer flowers to my feet, to get the weapon”

No doubt, Krishna suggested this because Arjuna had already done it once, during his battle with Kirata. Thus when Arjuna did this and offered flowers to the feet of Krishna, Rudra appeared to him a dream that night bearing the flowers on his head and taught him the weapon.

This is the famous shloka quoted by Acharyas which I have mentioned before

पार्थो विजेता मधुसूदनस्य पादारविन्दार्पित चित्रपुष्पं . ददर्श गङ्गाधरमौलिमध्ये बभूव वीरः कृतनिश्चय:  (~ droNa parva)

Partha, the victor, saw the flowers offered at the lotus feet of  Madhusudana on the head of  Gangadhara. By this, he became clear-minded.

“पार्थो विजेता” - Arjuna, who is victorious due to being Krishna’s devotee.

“मधुसूदनस्य पादारविन्दार्पित” - He offered flowers to the feet of “मधुसूदन” - who destroys wicked asurAs like Madhu for his devotees and fetches them wealth

“ददर्श गङ्गाधरमौलिमध्ये” - He saw those flowers on the head of Shiva who bears the Ganga coming from Hari’s feet. Thus, he likes anything associated with Hari’s feet and bears them on his head.

Now, this shloka & this incident is missing in current day recensions, replaced by an obvious interpolation. However, that is not the point.

We can question - why did this happen twice? Arjuna offered flowers once for kirAta & now prior to jayadratha vadha. During the kirAta incident, Arjuna offered flowers to nArAyaNa in an unmanifest form seeing the entire bhUmi as receptacle for his feet.

Those flowers offered to unmanifest form of nArAyaNa, were seen in the manifest form of kirAta, on his head.

In this incident, Arjuna offered flowers to nArAyaNa in the manifest form of Krishna, to his feet. Those flowers landed on the head of the unmanifest form of Shiva, who appeared in a dream.

This is the difference. What does this mean?+

The idea is this - the pushpArchana in kirAta incident showed Arjuna that Hari is supreme and Hara, no matter what form he assumes, be it kailAsanAtha (god) or kirAta (humanlike), is his bhakta.

The Krishna pushpArchana showed that bhagavAn, even when reducing himself to a human form as Krishna, retains his supremacy over gods like Rudra who have not similarly undergone reductions in status.

So, while the pushpArchana in the kirAta incident showed Arjuna the supremacy of Hari, the pushpArchana to krishna showed Arjuna that Hari is never diminished and remains supreme no matter what form he assumes. That is why the shloka says “बभूव वीरः कृतनिश्चय” - Arjuna who is a “वीरः” always firm in his bhakti to Hari seeing him as supreme, now also became “कृतनिश्चय” thinking, “even in his form as Krishna, he undergoes no reductions and remains the master of brahmA and rudra”+

Villiputhurar in his tamil rendering of the mahAbhArata, explains “कृतनिश्चय” as follows:

கண்ணன்மேல் அணி மலர் அனைத்தும் காய் கனல் வண்ணன்மேல் காண்டலும், மனம் களிப்புறா, 'எண்ணின், மேல் இரண்டு என இலது' என்று"+

Meaning of the Tamil Verse: With all the flowers that were offered to Krishna seen on Rudra, with a clear mind, Arjuna declared, “There are no two tattvas equal to each other. There is only one."

While Villiputhurar is talking about the overall meaning of the incident, it should be noted that the difference in vana parva and droNa parva is, one involved Arjuna realizing hari sarvottama, the other involved arjuna realizing that Hari is sarvottama even in humanlike forms.