Why Krishna did not kill Jarasandha but ran away from him? – Story
Jarasantha had a serious enemity with Krishna and Balarama.
Jarasandha had given his daughters in marriage to Kamsa, the king of Mathura.
But Krishna killed Jarasandha’s son in law Kamsa.
Jarasandha took the vow to destroy Krishna and the Yadava clan.
However, Krishna relocated the yadavas to protect them and built the fortified city of Dvaraka.
Jarasandha attacked Mathura seventeen times with the intention of killing Krishna and Balarama.
However, on every occasion, Krishna destroyed Jarasandha’s entire army but spared Jarasandha’s life.
After each defeat, as he retreated, Jarasandha would meet with kings across the world who were hostile towards Krishna and rally them for a war against Him.
Once, frustrated by this, Balarama asked Krishna:
“Why do You spare Jarasandha’s life every time?”
Hearing this, Krishna smiled and replied:
“There is a clear reason why I let Jarasandha live. He gathers all the unjust and hostile kings of the earth and brings them right to us. This allows us to eliminate all those wicked kings in a single place.
If we were to kill Jarasandha, we would have to travel to different parts of the world to locate and destroy those unjust enemies one by one.”
There was another reason also for sparing Jarasandha:
Jarasandha was born in two halves and stitched together by a demoness named Jara.
King Brihadratha, father of Jarasandha was married to the twin daughters of the king of Kashi.
He had no child for long period.
The sage Chandakaushika visited his kingdom and gave a fruit to the king as a boon.
The king Brihadratha divided the fruit equally between both of his wives.
Soon, both wives became pregnant and gave birth to two halves of a human body.
The distressed king threw the two halves in the forest.
A demoness Jara found those two pieces and combined both the halves holding them in her two hands.
Unexpectedly, both the halves got pasted and the child started to cry.
Jara demoness did not prefer to kill a child. So, she handed over that child to the king Brihadratha.
The king got extremely happy and named the child as Jarasandha.
Since that child was formed by pasting two halves, he could only be killed if torn apart in reverse.
So, such a situation did not exist for Krishna to kill Jarasandha by tearing apart in reverse. Therefore, Krishna did not kill Jarasandha but ran away from him.
(ENDLESS BHAGAVAD GITA – STORY! READ HERE!)