According to folklore, Krishna uses his discus to chop off the head of Shishupala, King of Chedi, for calling him names.

Watching a Tamil movie showing this scene recently, I wondered how it could have been possible for Krishna to have thrown the discus so accurately so as to reach his target.

Got an answer to this while watching a programme on television. On that show, an artiste uses a playing card to cut an apple and extinguish a candle. By manoeuvering his hand, he throws the playing card in such a way to make the card gain extraordinary air power/pressure to chop the apple and put out the candle. After this, I concluded that Krishna could have used his chakra in the same manner. No super power, but an extraordinary technique.

While this seems a reasonable explanation to how Krishna's discus found its target, there is another 'event' that still eludes me.

It is that of Abhirami Pattar who with his ardent devotion changed a new moon day into a full moon day. The story goes like this. Abhirami Pattar, an ardent devotee of Goddess Parvathi/Ahbirami, gets the phase of the moon wrong. Asked what day it is by Serfoji Maharaja, he replies it is a full moon day when in fact it is a new moon day. The king tells him angrily that he would hang him unless he could prove it is a full moon day. So Abhirami Pattar starts singing verses in praise of the goddess, in andhathi style of poetry, wherein every verse starts with the last word of the previous verse. And, at the end of the 72nd verse, a full moon appears in the sky and Abhirami Pattar escapes punishment.

I am an admirer of Abhirami Pattar for his versatile poetry skills. But the question that still haunts me is how did a new moon day become a full moon day, a complete 180 degree-jump celestial happening requiring 15 days. More importantly, had this been the case it must have been a world event, not just a happening that occurred in a tiny town (Thirukkadaiyur, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu) as it is a celestial event. Mind boggling.

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