Having made his feelings clear, Shishupala stormed out of the assembly in high dudgeon, closely followed by his supporters. Yudhishthira was dismayed as this virulent outburst had cast a pall over the auspicious occasion. He ran after the King of Chedi, wishing to pacify him. ‘Wait! O King of Chedi, it is not for us to question the judgment of the Grandsire, for he is truly the wisest of us all. Besides, his decision has the approval of all present. Perhaps you are allowing your passions to cloud your vision. You will be doing me a great favour by reconsidering your position.’
Bhishma, displeased with this disruption, intervened. ‘Reason is wasted on one who is oblivious to the glory of Krishna, so don’t waste your breath on the Chedi King,’ he told Yudhishthira. ‘If he is unhappy with what has been decided by older and wiser heads, then it is his prerogative to leave. Don’t stop him,’ Bhishma said with majestic disdain.
Sahadeva also chimed in. ‘I say this to all among you who are unhappy with the worship I offered to the noblest soul in this gathering – only the truly unworthy would question the worth of Krishna, and it would give me great pleasure to crush such heads beneath my feet.’ The celestials rained flowers upon his head and cries of, ‘Well said!’ rent the air. However, some of the Kings present flushed with anger. Bhishma, on his part, smiled at Sahadeva conveying his approbation to the youngest Pandava.
At this, Shishupala, who had paused hearing Yudhishthira’s plea, took instant umbrage and turning on Bhishma like a rabid dog, said, ‘Bhishma! Your mind grows feeble with old age; that is why you chose to honour a cowherd over other eminent personages. There is nothing at all remarkable about Krishna and every so-called miraculous act he has supposedly performed since birth, can be traced to charlatanism – of which he is no doubt a master. And since you cannot see through his chicanery, I can only assume that you have forgotten your learning in your dotage, and as a result of the long years of celibacy you had no choice but to practice on account of your own impotency!’
‘Are you not aware that it is only through the mercy of Krishna that you are still alive?’ Bhishma snarled at him. ‘No man would dare to talk to me like that and draw another breath. Krishna is destined to be your slayer, but he has given his word that he will forgive you a hundred faults. Your life has been given to you in the same way a beggar receives alms. At the time of your birth, you had an extra pair of arms and a third eye. A number of ill-omens marked your coming, and you looked so hideous that all the wise men advised your parents to get rid of you immediately and they were inclined to do so. But divine intervention saved your life. A heavenly voice declared that you were destined to meet your end at the hands of the noblest being to walk this earth, and that this person would be revealed to all because your deformities would vanish on being placed on his lap. Your mother then handed you over to every person who came to visit and in this manner discovered that Krishna would be your slayer. Anxious to keep you safe, she begged him to forgive you a hundred times over and with typical magnanimity, Krishna agreed. You are tempting fate when you carry on in this manner.”
‘Say what you wish old man, but I will not fear the cowherd. In fact, I challenge him to a fight. Then you will see what happens to those who dare to provoke the Bull of Chedi!’ Shishupala shouted, hastening his doom with every foul word he uttered.
Krishna had remained silent during this heated exchange; only his lips moved, although the movement was almost imperceptible. Now he broke his silence. ‘Shishupala owes his life to a mother’s love. I have never harmed him and neither have my people. But he has never missed a chance to do us a wrong turn. Once, when the men were away, he sneaked into Dwaraka and set it on fire. He cruelly raped one of our young women and slaughtered many innocent citizens. All this and more have I forgiven but today he has gone too far.’
With a quick movement, Krishna sent the Sudarshana Chakra, which had appeared miraculously on his finger, blazing towards the King of Chedi. In a split second, his decapitated head rolled across the floor and came to a standstill before the horrified gathering. Yudhishthira ordered his brothers to give a fitting funeral to the fallen King, worthy of a brave if brash warrior. He was deeply disturbed by the inauspicious turn the yajna had taken. The atmosphere had turned muggy with menace, resentment, envy and anger. He shuddered at the thought of what this meant for their future.
At this point, however, all that mattered was that two invincible warriors of the day had been hastened to their deaths by Krishna.
Another purer and more unfortunate soul, also met his end before the battle of Kurukshetra. It was the blameless son of the Nishada King, Ekalavya.
On the eve of the battle of Kurukshetra, Ekalavya, the Nishada Prince, decided to offer his services to Duryodhana. Krishna tried to dissuade him, for maimed or not, he was still a dangerous foe and posed a threat to his beloved Arjuna. He said to Ekalvya: ‘This is not your war. Your place is in the forest with its creatures, over whom you hold sway. It is unwise of you to join in this conflict that does not concern you and fight on the side where evil reigns supreme.’
‘I agree with your words, Krishna. But true evil reigns in the heart of the man who will shamelessly raise his bow and let loose deadly arrows in the direction of the guru who taught him all he knows! That is precisely why I have chosen the opposing camp,’ calmly answered the Prince.
‘Arjuna does what he does because necessity dictates his actions. Do not allow your hatred for him to cloud your better judgment!’ urged Krishna, knowing the nobility of Ekalavya’s soul.
‘I do not care about the son of Kunti! My guruji must be protected at all costs, and I will guard him with my life. Anyone who dares to threaten him will fall prey to my marauding arrows! This I swear with all my heart!’
Sensing that Ekalavya’s mind was made up, Krishna lured him into a protracted discussion on the ethics of the matter, knowing well that the Nishada Prince felt strongly about the subject and would lose himself in the argument. While Ekalavya ranted on and on, Krishna plunged a dagger into his back. Having struck the mortal blow, he revealed his divine identity to the unfortunate soul who lay at his feet, bleeding to death. The agonised expression on Ekalavya’s face changed to one of ecstasy and he said, ‘I am truly blessed to have the honour of dying at your hands!’
‘You are a good man and a truly noble soul. Future generations will listen to your story and draw inspiration, courage, and fortitude from it. Your name will become synonymous with those qualities,’ said Krishna, feeling deep sorrow welling within his heart like a wellspring.
Ekalavya then spoke once more. ‘I can ask for nothing more but I beg one last favour of you. My mother should not know a moment’s grief on my account.’
‘So be it!’ Krishna assured the dying Prince.
Relieved and having achieved complete peace of mind, Ekalavya breathed his last and departed from a world which had been cruel to him, but which had not managed to dim his ardour for life or broken his spirit. Krishna blessed the fallen hero. To keep his word to the dead man, he went to his mother and claimed her life as well, to spare her the misery and grief of losing her noble son.
In his role as Arjuna’s charioteer, Krishna guided the Pandavas successfully through the labyrinthine paths they had to traverse in order to achieve victory over their cousins. By bringing about the deaths of Jarasandha, Ekalavya, and Shishupala, before the battle, he removed three major obstacles that would have obstructed the path to triumph.
On the eve of the battle, Arjuna was surveying the battle formation of the enemy ahead of him when he saw the beloved faces of his Grandsire, teacher, relatives, and former friends. He crumpled within and lost heart. His limbs felt leaden and he shivered as if suffering from ague. Sweat moistened his brow and all the fight went out of him. At that moment, a mere greenhorn would have been a fiercer antagonist on the battlefield.
Krishna watched the sea change in Arjuna, who only a few moments ago had been raring to have a go at his persecutors and redress the wrongs done him
and his own. He was mightily displeased and sternly reprimanded Arjuna for his unmanly hesitation. But Arjuna declared that he would rather beg for alms than turn his bow against the Grandsire or his guru, or any of the beloved faces he saw on the opposite side.
It was a starkly critical moment; time was running out and the outcome of the battle which had been preordained, hung by the most fragile of threads. Krishna sighed and drawing in a deep breath, began to speak. He talked about a man’s karma or duty and how its performance with a complete lack of attachment absolved him from any wrongdoing incurred in the process. He explained to Arjuna that desire was the root cause of evil in the world and one should perform what one was born to do in accordance with one’s station in life, without becoming entangled in a web of emotion. Addressing Arjuna’s reluctance to kill his relatives, Krishna told him that the physical body may be destroyed and reduced to ashes, but the soul itself, which is housed within, would always remain untouched as it was eternal and would merely pass on to another body. He reminded the sorrowing Arjuna that awareness of these truths was the first step towards the acquisition of true knowledge which, when tempered with faith and devotion, takes the embodied soul towards enlightenment and salvation.
Arjuna listened to this discourse, but his doubts continued to plague him. He said as much to Krishna. The Lord then chided him gently and said that it was his arrogance which was blinding him to the truth; that he was being presumptuous in thinking that he had any control over what had been decreed by divine will; that he was simply an instrument to carry out what was pre-destined, and so he should discharge his duty without any doubt or vacillation. To drive his point home, Krishna revealed his Cosmic Form orVishwaroopam, to his beloved friend and devotee. The two great armies stood poised for battle and were observing with avid interest Arjuna’s moment of hesitation. But none had the good fortune to see the Lord in his divine form, for Arjuna alone had been granted divine vision, being as he was that rarest of individuals, who had been singled out from the time of his birth to carry out the will of the Blessed Lord.
Following this miracle, Arjuna felt fresh courage flow through his veins. Renewed purpose once again made his resolve razor sharp. The precious knowledge imparted solely to him, covered him like an impenetrable suit of armour and he felt invincible. The weak indecisive individual who had been ready to throw down his arms and allow his enemies to tear him to pieces, vanished like a transient image in a dream and in its place stood Arjuna, the greatest warrior on earth, the scourge of his enemies and destiny’s chosen one. He was finally ready to do what he had been born to do.
When the battle commenced, it was Krishna who urged the Pandavas to implement clever strategies that would claim the lives of Bhishma and Drona. At Krishna’s behest, Shikandin would drape feminine apparel over his battle gear in a parody of womanhood, knowing well that the gallant Grandsire would not fight a woman. The ploy, for all its perceived lack of ethics, worked like magic. Bhishma, that peerless ancient with his unshakable values, embraced his own death by allowing Arjuna to use Shikandin as a shield from behind which he fired the mortal arrows that felled the formidable warrior. It was Krishna again who was the real mover behind the deceitful half-truth that his son was dead, which Yudhishthira uttered and so caused Drona to drop his arms and sit on the ground in yogic meditation, making him a ripe target for the murderous blow that Dhrishtadyumna struck him. Krishna made his presence felt at every turn and influenced the course of the battle to ensure victory for the Pandavas.
On more than one occasion, when death cast its shadow over Arjuna, Krishna intervened to keep the dark Lord at bay. During the battle of Kurukshetra, Bhagadatta, the ruler of the ancient Kingdom of Pragjyotishapura, was mowing down the Pandava forces mounted on his deadly elephant, Supratika. It was the twelfth day of the battle and Bhishma had fallen the previous day. Rushing in to fill the void left by Bhishma, Bhagadatta fell on the hapless soldiers like a marauding predator feasting on its kill and cut a bloody swathe across the Pandava forces. The old warrior was the son of the asura, Naraka, whom Krishna had killed, mounted on Garuda, with his wife Satyabhama by his side. And Arjuna had approached this mountainous Kingdom of black crystal, when Yudhishthira expressed the desire to perform the Rajasuya Yajna, determined to bring all the northern regions under his sway.
Leading his army over the treacherous terrain, Arjuna had found Bhagadatta waiting for him. The two heroes had fought for eight days, at the end of which, Arjuna bested the ageing monarch.
Bhagadatta had been gracious in defeat. ‘Your father was a good friend of mine, Arjuna but he would never have prevailed over me in battle, mighty warrior though he was. Today you have proved yourself greater than Pandu, and I know he would have been proud.’
Arjuna paid due respect to the great man and requested him to honour them by attending the Rajasuya Yajna they were going to perform. Bhagadatta promised to come and sent Arjuna away with rare and exceedingly valuable presents accumulated by Naraka himself in a bygone era. But the memory of his defeat to a mere youth rankled, and when the battle of Kurukshetra commenced, Bhagadatta allied himself with Duryodhana, hoping to avenge his humiliation.
The valiant old man, whose fatal flaw was his mean-spirited pettiness, was borne into battle by the elephant, Supratika. Together they resembled the formidable mountains from whence they came, and they slaughtered their enemies with deathly efficiency, despatching thousands to the nether world. Bheema and Yudhishthira tried to halt the advances of the duo, but failed miserably.
Arjuna heard the cries of his men and rushed to their aid, but he was stopped en route by the Samsaptakas, mercenaries who had sworn to conquer or be killed in battle. An entire akshauhini of these warriors had belonged to Krishna and Duryodhana had received them along with the rest of Krishna’s army. An akshauhini consisted of 109,350 infantry, 65, 610 cavalry, 21,870 chariots and 21,870 elephants. This formidable group of men challenged Arjuna to a fight, and Arjuna had no choice but to respond, leaving the rest of his army to the mercy of Bhagadatta.
Arjuna fought and vanquished the Samsaptakas before turning his attention back to Bhagadatta, who was proving to be increasingly irksome to him and his brothers. The veteran welcomed Arjuna’s advance and replied in kind. An epic battle then took place between the two heroes. Bhagadatta on his mountainous mount launched a furious attack against Arjuna, who was in his chariot with Krishna at the helm. From his vantage position, reminiscent of Indra who used to wage war against the asuras from amongst the clouds, Bhagadatta showered arrows on Krishna and Arjuna, tormenting them. Krishna, with unparalleled skill, manoeuvred the chariot to the blind side of the elephant, leaving Bhagadatta vulnerable to Arjuna’s Gandeeva. But Arjuna scorned this manner of killing a worthy opponent or his mount.
Supratika, however, continued to trample men and fellow beasts or mauled them by imprisoning them between its fearsome tusks and dashing them to the ground and savaging them to bloody pulp if they still had breath left. Arjuna became infuriated with the great beast and turning his great bow towards Supratika, he let fly winged darts that smashed its armour like eggshells. More shafts buried themselves in the thick hide and blood flowed like a red river. Arjuna then focused on Bhagadatta, cutting off his flagstaff and standard. Before the son of Naraka could recover, he found ten arrows lodged in various points of his body. His counterattack was rebuffed with insulting ease and infuriatingly, Arjuna was smiling carelessly even as he drove Bhagadatta closer to death with every passing second.
Incensed with the younger man’s audacity in the face of such a dangerous opponent as himself, Bhagadatta hurled his lance at Arjuna and displaced his golden diadem. Replacing it on his head with infinite calm, the Pandava broke the bow Bhagadatta had snatched up, along with the quiver containing the arrows. Holding his goad like a spear and chanting a divine mantra, Bhagadatta converted it into the invincible Vaishnava missile and released it. The goad, infused with the power of the mantra, flew with unerring accuracy towards Arjuna’
s bosom. Quicker than thought, Arjuna released missile after missile to tear it apart but it still came towards him without slowing. Just when it seemed that the goad would find its mark, Krishna stood up with a smile and received it on his chest. Arjuna watched, mute with horror, but the missile transformed into a garland of flowers and reposed gently on Krishna’s chest.
Rapidly recovering his equanimity, Arjuna said, ‘O Krishna! Why did you do that? That missile was intended for me! You swore you would not participate in this accursed war!’
‘I did not promise to stand aside and watch you die. Besides, the charioteer’s job is to steer his master to safety if his life is ever threatened, and do all in his power to keep him safe. You may not realize it, but for a moment there, you were as helpless as a newborn babe. Moreover, I was just recovering my property...’ Krishna replied.
‘What do you mean by that Krishna?’ Arjuna asked, all at sea.
‘It is an old story. Lord Vishnu, to better carry out his role as the protector of the Universe, has four diverse forms. One form remains in a state of constant vigilance, monitoring the good and evil acts that take place in the world. Another takes the form of an avatar and descends to the world of mortals to actively uphold good and root out evil. A third form is engaged in the performance of severe austerities for the benefit of mankind, and the fourth form slumbers for a span of a thousand years. On awakening from this life-giving sleep, the Lord grants boons to the deserving. Bhoomi Devi once approached the Protector at this precise moment of awakening and begged that He give her son his personal weapon in order to make him invincible, and her wish was granted. Naraka thus acquired the Vaishnava Astra and with it in his possession, he was emboldened to become one of the worst villains this world has seen. I had to kill him to save the world from his wrongdoings. Bhagadatta, his son, then became the proud owner of the Vaishnava. And he, failing to learn from the mistakes of his father, once again sided with evil, thereby compelling me to intervene. The Vaishnava is unstoppable and even Shiva and Indra are powerless against it. Without it, Bhagadatta should be easy enough to slay. Hurry Arjuna, his end draws near!”
Arjuna Page 16