Kurukshetra – The Land of Dharma and Bhagawad Gita
Kurukshetra, located approximately one hundred miles north of New Delhi, is well known as the site of the Mahabharata’s great battle and the location of Lord Krishna’s Bhagavad-gita. However, Kurukshetra had long played a significant part in ancient India’s history and culture. It served as a focal point for thousands of years as the Vedic culture spun in all its splendour. Kurukshetra’s religious significance is reflected in a number of writings, including the Bhagavad-gita, the Mahabharata, and numerous Upanishads and Puranas. The texts describe it as a centre of meditation and demigods’ home. Kurukshetra’s atmosphere is still saturated with Vedic hymn chanting, particularly the Bhagavad-gita.
Kurukshetra is referred to in the opening verse of the Gita as dharma-kshetra, or “the field of dharma,” showing that it was already recognised as a holy site. Today, numerous old temples and sacred lakes can be found in Kurukshetra, a region in Haryana state that spans over one hundred square miles and is divided by the sacred rivers Sarasvati and Drishadvati.
Brahmakshetra, Brighukshetra, Aryavarta, and Samanta Pancaka were all previous names for Kurukshetra.
Kurukshetra came to be renowned as a result of King Kuru’s efforts.
According to the Mahabharata, King Kuru, a notable ancestor of the Pandavas, transformed the region into a significant centre of spiritual culture. King Kuru arrived on a golden chariot and fashioned a plough out of the chariot’s gold. He then began ploughing with the bull of Lord Siva and Yamaraja’s buffalo. When Indra arrived and inquired about Kuru’s whereabouts, Kuru replied that he was preparing the ground for the cultivation of the eight religious virtues: truth, yoga, kindness, purity, charity, forgiveness, austerity, and celibacy.
Indra requested that the king make a boon request. Kuru prayed that the area would always be a sacred site named after him, and that anybody who died there would be admitted to heaven regardless of his misdeeds or virtues. Indra grinned in response to the demands.
Kuru, undeterred, continued to plough with much penance. Indra eventually converted, while other demigods remained sceptical. They maintained that death without making a sacrifice did not earn one a seat in heaven. Kuru and Indra eventually reached an agreement: Indra would admit everyone who died in heaven while fighting or practising penance into heaven. As a result, Kurukshetra became a battleground as much as a place of piety.
When the Pandavas asserted their lawful claim to their paternal kingdom against their uncle Dhritarashtra and his sons, the Kauravas, they were granted the Khandava Forest in the Kuru kingdom’s south. They constructed the splendid city of Indraprastha there, which is now known as Delhi. Hastinapura, northeast of Delhi, remained the capital of the Kauravas.
Following Yudhishthira’s failure in a dice game, the Pandavas were exiled for thirteen years. The Pandavas wanted their kingdom’s restoration following their exile. Lord Krishna approached Duryodhana, the eldest Kaurava, on behalf of the Pandavas, pleading for five villages for the five Pandavas. Duryodhana, on the other hand, was haughty and refused to grant any territory. “I’m not even going to give them enough land to fit on the end of a pin,” he explained.
As a result, the conflict was unavoidable, and the Kauravas and Pandavas chose Kurukshetra as their battleground due to its size, deserted status, and abundance of water and fuel wood.
The Pandavas prevailed in the eighteen-day Battle of Kurukshetra.
Mokshada Ekadashi was the day on which the Battle of Kurukshetra commenced. (Ekadashi is the eleventh day of the waxing or waning moon, and mokshada means “providor of release.”) Krishna liberated Arjuna on that day by enlightening him with the wisdom of the Bhagavad-gita. Now, on that day, which is considered the Bhagavad-birthday, gita’s festivals in honor of the Gita are celebrated in Kurukshetra and numerous other locations throughout India. The big event in Jyotisar, the site of the Gita’s recitation, is held as a state occasion, presided over by chief ministers and governors. Coincidentally, this is the period of the annual Prabhupada Book Marathon, during which devotees distribute hundreds of thousands of copies of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is throughout India and the world.
When Krishna was prepared to travel to Kurukshetra during a solar eclipse, He invited the gopis (cowherd girls) and other people of Vrindavana to join Him. He had pledged to return very soon when He left Vrindavana in His youth. However, He had been absent for an extended period of time (about a hundred years), and the residents of Vrindavana had always felt an ecstatic longing to see Him again out of profound spiritual love.
People of Dvaraka (a magnificent city) arrived in Kurukshetra on chariots, whereas residents of Vrindavana (a humble cowherd town) arrived through ox carts. A joyful reunion occurred because the families of Vrindavana and Dvaraka were linked.
Srimati Radharani, the leading gopi, had endured the agony of separation from Krishna more than any other resident of Vrindavana. She was resolved, together with the other gopis, to return Krishna to Vrindavana. The esoteric significance of the Rathayatra (“Event of the Chariots”) festival is derived from Krishna’s loving exchange with the gopis at Kurukshetra. Thus, whenever Hare Krishna devotees stage Rathayatras in towns throughout the world, they are expressing Kurukshetra’s glory.
Since ancient times, Kurukshetra has been a place of pilgrimage for people the world over. Its significance has grown even greater in the intervening years. Another Kurukshetra city exists, and evidence of a second Kurukshetra has been discovered in the foreign territory of Laos. The pilgrimage’s significance might be gauged by the fact that King Devanik of Laos constructed Kurukshetra Mahatirtha on Laotian soil in the fifth century. Laos has discovered ancient temples, ponds, and ghats.
The rare inscriptions discovered in Laos attest to King Devanik’s construction of a new Kurukshetra in recognition of the pilgrimage’s significance. A lake similar to Brahmasarovar in Kurukshetra is also constructed here, which is divided into two sections. It is worth noting that Kurukshetra Development Board (KDB) included this in the coffee table book prepared for its Golden Jubilee year and brought to the world’s attention through the International Gita Festival, which is now an annual feature on Gita Jayanti (the Bhagavad Gita’s birthday is observed on Mokshada Ekadashi) (Margashirsha Shukalpakshi, 11th day of waxing moon of month).
To conclude, I believe that Kurukshetra as the Karambhoomi of Krishan is as significant, if not more so, for pilgrimage than Janambhoomi and has the potential for spiritual tourism for people from all over the world.
