In plain words
So saying, she painted his feet with pārāṇi and blessed him to come back victorious. Then Abhimanyu, ‘Mother! Sooner or later, there is no escaping death. My father must not lose heart, nor be angry that I slipped away from the enemy; the fame must come that he guarded the honour of my lineage. Bless me,’ he said. He was able to enter the padmavyūha. The reason for this: when Subhadrā was carrying the child, Arjuna used to tell her tales of heroes. At that same time he went on telling her about the padmavyūha. Subhadrā, listening and listening, slipped into sleep. Thinking Subhadrā was listening, he went on telling it. But in truth Abhimanyu, in Subhadrā's womb, was listening. Whatever teachings a mother hears while she is carrying a child, all of them reach the child. In the present age scientists too have been doing research on this matter. While a mother was carrying her child they gave her apple juice, and after the child was born, that child came to love apple juice. Then the scientists believed that this was true. When Arjuna was telling Subhadrā about the padmavyūha, Kṛṣṇa came and stopped him: ‘What are you doing?’ For, ‘No one but you must know about the padmavyūha, so stop,’ He said. So Abhimanyu knew how to enter the padmavyūha, but did not know how to come back out. So he was caught in it and died. To grasp and to understand the inner meaning in Kṛṣṇa's ways is very hard. When God will act, and in what way, no one knows. What inner meaning lies in God's words and deeds, no one can guess. When Arjuna came back from battle, it was Abhimanyu's habit to come out to meet him and ask after his welfare. As he was wondering why such an Abhimanyu had not come out to meet him today, Kṛṣṇa came out to meet him. Talking with Arjuna about the war, Kṛṣṇa kept on giving him moral counsel, ‘Life is like a bubble on water; in war anyone may die, whether brothers or children,’ but He did not tell him that Abhimanyu had died.