In
Mahabharatham before Kurukshetra begins
Duryodhana requested
Sahadeva to find him a suitable auspicious date to offer ‘
Kalabali’ – a ritualistic sacrifice before war that would ensure victory for the performer.
Sahadeva, the great astrologer and one of the pandavas. And following the path of Dharma, Sahadeva told the recipe of pandavas downfall.Enter
Shri Krishna, when he came to know about this, he devised a way out of this. A day before the new moon,
Krishna calmly went down to the banks of river Yamuna and with the help of two brahmin priests, started performing Tarpana, a ritual submitting offerings to ancestors and divine entities which is usually done only on new moon day (amavasya).Brahmins nearby watched
Krishna performing Tarpana on a non new moon day with surprise. They were puzzled as to why
Krishna, the all knowing supreme Lord would perform the ritual of tarpana on a non new moon day.They thought that no way
Krishna would do tarpana on the wrong day and that their own prediction of new moon day as the next day was wrong. They were convinced that since
Krishna was doing tarpana that day, then that day would indeed be new moon day as great
Shri Krishna would never be wrong.The sun god
Surya and moon god
Chandra who were watching the activities of
Lord Krishna and other brahmins giving Tarpana on earth were intrigued as even they knew it was the next day they would align and come together to form new moon day. They thought that there would have been a mistake somewhere and that they should bring it to the notice of
Lord Krishna.Both,
Surya and
Chandra descended to earth and met with
Lord Krishna to enquire about the ongoing activity and explained him that it was chaturdashi, not the new moon day to perform tarpana.
Lord Krishna greeted them both and responded that it was indeed new moon that day. The puzzled deities questioned him how was it possible.
Krishna asked them what exactly happens on a new moon day. The two stellar deities explained that the day when the Sun and Moon align and appear together, the lunar eclipse takes place and that day is the new moon day.
Shri Krishna on hearing that said that since that very day, Sun God
Surya and Moon God
Chandra came appearing together before him, it was indeed the new moon day (amavasya) and that was the reason he was performing tarpana on that day.The Sun and Moon gods could not argue against
Lord Krishna who so tactfully elaborated the reason for his strange activity and accepted His verdict and thus the entire world changed the new moon day, a day in advance to its usual occurrence at that point.
Krishna, once accomplishing this superhuman feat, at once ordered the
Pandavas to perform the Kalabali from their end the very same day. Since it was accepted by the sun and moon gods that it was indeed the new moon day, the
Pandavas performed the Kalabali ritual on the newly established auspicious date which brought them victory in the Mahabharata war at Kurukshetra.
Duryodhana, on the other hand, performed the ritual on the next day (the usual new moon day) all in vain.