This chapter describes how Lord Krishna heard King Yudhishthira's request and then arranged for Bhimasena to defeat Jarasandha.

One day King Yudhishthira addressed Lord Krishna as He sat in the royal assembly: "My Lord, I wish to perform the Rajasuya sacrifice. In this sacrifice people uninterested in Your devotional service will be able to see firsthand the superiority of Your devotees and the inferiority of nondevotees. They will also be able to see Your lotus feet."

Lord Krishna extolled Yudhishthira's proposition: "Your scheme is so excellent that it will spread your fame throughout the universe. Indeed, all living beings should desire that this sacrifice be performed. To make this sacrifice possible, however, you must first defeat all the kings of the earth and collect all the necessary paraphernalia."

Satisfied with Lord Krishna's words, King Yudhishthira sent his brothers to conquer the various directions. After they had conquered -- or won the fealty of -- the kings in their assigned directions, they brought back abundant wealth to Yudhishthira. They informed him, however, that Jarasandha could not be defeated. As King Yudhishthira pondered how he could subdue Jarasandha, Sri Krishna revealed to him the means for doing so, following the previous advice of Uddhava.

Bhima, Arjuna and Sri Krishna then disguised themselves as brahmanas and went to the palace of Jarasandha, who was very devoted to the brahminical class. They introduced themselves as brahmanas to King Jarasandha, flattering him by praising his reputation for hospitality, and requested him to grant their desire. Seeing the marks of bowstrings on their limbs, Jarasandha concluded that they were warriors and not brahmanas, but still, even though fearful, he promised to fulfill whatever desire they might have. At that point Lord Krishna discarded His disguise and asked Jarasandha to fight Him in one-to-one combat. But Jarasandha refused, claiming that Krishna was a coward because He had once fled the battlefield. Jarasandha also declined to fight Arjuna on the plea that he was inferior in age and size. But Bhima he considered a worthy opponent.

Thus Jarasandha handed Bhima a club and took up another himself, and they all went outside the city to begin the fight.

After the fight had gone on for some time, it became clear that the two opponents were too equally matched for either to gain victory. Lord Krishna then split a small tree branch in half, thus showing Bhima how to kill Jarasandha. Bhima threw Jarasandha to the ground, stepped on one of his legs, seized the other with his arms and proceeded to tear him apart from his genitals to his head.

Seeing Jarasandha dead, his relatives and subjects cried out in lamentation. Lord Krishna then appointed Jarasandha's son ruler of Magadha and released the kings Jarasandha had imprisoned.