Shree Krishna and Mata Rukmini had a son, his name was Pradyumanna. Pradyumanna married thrice in his life. First consort is Mayavati, reincarnation of Rati because Pradyumanna is Kama Dev’s reincarnate. It is written in Bhagavad Purana that when Pradyumanna was born, under 10 of his birth the demon Shambara/Shambha kidnapped him and threw him in the ocean to kill him but a big fish swallowed him. When the fishermen captured the fish they found the baby in its belly and took him to the palace from where Mayavati raised him and later married him. (the full story will be up shortly)
His second consort is Rukmavati, daughter of Rukmi, his maternal uncle. It is written that Rukmavati saw him and was mesmerised and insisted on marrying him at her swayamvara. She is the mother of Aniruddha, one of the protagonists of today’s blog.
His third consort is Prabhavati and their story basically is that he went to her kingdom disguised as an actor/performer to defeat her father and fell in love with her and so fought and won the war with her father and married her.

Truly an epic story in its own he has, but today we are to focus on his son Aniruddha, Pradyumanna’s story is for another day.

Prince Aniruddha is sometimes called an incarnation of Shree Hari Vishnu. He is said to have been very much like his grandfather, to the extent that he is considered by some to be a Jana avatar, an avatar of Vishnu. Some also associate him with Varaha, third avatar of Hari.
Princess Usha was daughter of Banasura king of Sonitpura, present day- Tezpur, Assam. One day, Usha saw a young man in her dream, made love to him, and fell in love with him. Chitralekha, a friend of Usha a talented artist, helped Usha to identify the young man seen in her dream by sketching various portraits of the Vrishnis. Usha realised that she had dreamt of Aniruddha, the grandson of Krishna. Chitralekha, through her yogic powers, shrunk Aniruddha to the size of a doll, abducted him from the palace of Krishna and brought him to Shonitapura.

Usha worshipped her lover and furnished him with priceless garments, garlands, fragrances, lamps, and with beverages, dishes, and words. Breaking her vow of chastity with him, she kept him hidden in her maiden quarters, and the lovers lost track of the days. Catching wind of his daughter's activities, Banasura rushed to her chambers to find her playing dice with doll sized Aniruddha. Even as the prince fended off the guards, Banasura subdued him with the mystical ropes of Varuna due to Aniruddha's shrunken state. Usha was overwhelmed with sorrow due to this incident. Aniruddha was held captive by Banasura for a month, until Narada informed the Yadus in Dvaraka, who were searching for Aniruddha.
The Yadus' army attacked Banasura in a great battle. When the Yadu princes and their army besieged his kingdom with 12 akshauhinis, surrounding it completely. Banasura staged a fierce counterattack. During the war, Shiva appeared on the battlefield, riding on Nandi, to protect his devotee, Banasura. Balarama fought against Banasura's commander, while Samba fought against Banasura's son. To bear witness, the leaders of the godly souls headed by Brahma came in their celestial vehicles, as also the sages, the perfected souls, and the venerable personalities, the singers and apsaras of heaven, and the yakshinis. Krishna and Shiva faced each other. Krishna used a brahmastra against Shiva's brahmastra, a mountain weapon against a wind weapon, a rain weapon against a fire weapon, and his narayanastra against Shiva's pasupatiastra. Kartikeya, assaulted by Pradyumna's arrows, fled the battlefield on his peacock. After duelling with Satyaki, Bana took up arms against Krishna. However, Krishna blew his conch and instantly, Banasura's charioteer was killed and his chariot broken and shattered. In a desperate attempt to save Banasura, Kothara, his mother, stood naked before Krishna with her hair dishevelled. When the deity looked away, the asura fled to the city. When Shiva's forces had been defeated, Jvara, the embodiment of Shiva's fever, bearing three heads and three feet, attacked Krishna with scorching heat. Krishna produced his own Jvara of frigid coldness, and the two fought each other. Overwhelmed by Vishnu's fever, Shiva's Jvara offered its surrender and obeisance to Krishna and departed.

Meanwhile, Balarama defeated Banasura's commander. Bana rode forth upon his chariot to fight with Krishna, and the latter fought back with his Sudarshana Chakra. When Krishna started chopping Banasura's arms, Shiva returned to his senses and extolled the glories of Krishna, not to kill Banasura, whom he had bestowed with fearlessness. Obliging, Krishna replied that he had never intended to kill Banasura, since he was the son of Bali and the grandson of the devout Prahlada. Vishnu had promised Bali not to kill any member of his family, and therefore would not slay him. However, Krishna severed Banasura's extra arms to destroy the latter's pride, leaving Banasura with only four arms.
Banasura realised his mistake and bowed his head before Krishna, arranging for a chariot to seat Aniruddha and Usha for their wedding in Dvaraka.

Now many will come complaining saying top 10 things that never happened because how can Shiva and Krishna fight, How can Pradyumna injure Karthikeya the god but they are forgetting something. Lord Krishna LOVES leela’s. His whole life was dedicated to leelas and teaching something through it, whether lighthearted and humorous or serious and heart-wrenching. So don’t question just read and learn, never to get so cocky that gods have to stage a big fight amongst themselves because you are someone who they take as their own kid, and any parent can ever tolerate their kid being bullied by anyone even if that person is Shiva and he has to fight his Aradhya Krishna.

Bhagavad teaches us to never let our pride blind and get intoxicated of power there are so many examples of not to do it. Ahamkaar is the worst sin you can commit for yourself because it affects you and your closed ones too. It drives away everything and everyone we love because we are too blind to see how we hurt someone. So, it’s better to not have something which may make me arrogant.

Something which is worth noting and learning from Banasura, that he was a great devotee of Shiva and as a result of a boon granted to him from the deity, had gained 1000 arms. Intoxicated by his prowess, he observed to Shiva that he was the latter's equal, and that he had attempted to fight elephants, but the creatures had grown terrified of him. Shiva, enraged by his words, spoke thus: 'Your flag will be broken, oh fool, when your pride is vanquished in a battle you have with someone like me.'

atimāninamagrāhyam ātmasaṃbhāvitaṃ naram |
krodhanaṃ vyasane hanti svajano'pi narādhipam ||


अतिमानिनमग्राह्यम् आत्मसंभावितं नरम्।
क्रोधनं व्यसने हन्ति स्वजनोऽपि नराधिपम्॥

English Translation for this is: "A man who is excessively proud and self-conceited is difficult to approach; even his own kin abandon and destroy an angry king during his misfortune."