Abhimanyu, the son of Arjun and Subhadra and the nephew of Shri Krishna was a great warrior even at a very young age of sixteen. He was adept in all the Astras and Sastras and acquired fame as a son equal to his father in the skill of archery. However, fate had set a different path for him wherein in spite of being the progeny of such illustrious warriors, he had to sacrifice his life for Dharma in the battle of Kurukshetra where he succumbed in the Padmavyuh formation of the Kauravas.
Abhimanyu had mastered the breaking of this formation when he was in his mother’s womb. One day Arjun was explaining this particular formation to Subhadra. Before he could finish explaining the whole thing, Shri Krishna comes and takes Arjun away on the pretext of some work and Arjun leaves the rest of the part unfinished. Listening from his mother’s womb, Abhimanyu only learns to enter the formation, but not come out of it. Although none were aware of this, Shri Krishna knew this and he had a reason to behave in such a manner.
Shri Krishna knew that Abhimanyu was listening to the formation from Subhadra’s womb. Aware of the fact that Abhimanyu was destined to be a great warrior, but with a short life, Shri Krishna behaves so. As the Almighty of the Universe, Shri Krishna had all the chance to change the destiny of his dearest nephew and give him a long life, but as the protector and ruler of the Universe, he abides to the laws of destiny. Doubting that if Abhimanyu had listened to the entire formation, it would go against the will of destiny, Shri Krishna hurriedly calls Arjun away while he was explaining the formation to Subhadra and thus Abhimnayu listens to only half of it.
Time passes and the Pandavas and the Kauravas meet in the battle of Kurukshetra. On the thirteenth day of war, the Kauravas design the Padmavyuh with a thought that if Arjun is diverted from it, then they could easily capture Yudhisthir as Bhishm knew that except for Arjun and Shri Krishna, none in the Pandav army knew how to break the formation. As planned, Arjun gets diverted by King Susarma and the rest four Pandavas are left to enter the formation. While all are worried how to break it, Abhimanyu comes forward and mentions that he would lead the army in entering it, but expresses his inability to come out of it. But, Bheem and the other warriors encourage Abhimanyu that they would protect him from behind. Abhimanyu agrees to this and leads the Pandav army. However, as soon as Abhimanyu enters the Padmavyuh, the rest of the Pandavas following him are stopped by Jayadrath. The Pandavas remain outside the formation fighting Jayadrath while Abhimanyu alone gets stuck inside. Althought destiny was against the young warrior, with great courage Abhimanyu faces the Kauravas alone and dies a valiant death while fighting them single handedly.
Thus abiding to the ways of destiny, Shri Krishna kept up his duty and let destiny do its work. As the nephew of Shri Krishna, Abhimanyu fought till the end of his life making his name in destiny as one of the greatest young warriors our land has ever seen.