9. Those eighteen days – Krishna attacks Bhishma – The glory of angry love – Mahabharata wisdom

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course of our life. Thank you.
Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the narration of those 18 days life lessons from the 18 days of the Kurukshetra war. Today, we’ll discuss about the dramatic events that happened on the 18th day, half time, that is the 9th day.
Things started heating up especially from this day onward. So, Bhima had been working her work in the Kaurava camp and he had bested Duryodhana several times. On the 8th evening, there was a fierce battle in which Bhima completely defeated Duryodhana and he was reduced to helpless state of being wounded physically and being wounded at the level of his pride and ego and distraught and enraged, he ranted on about how he felt that his defeat was because Bhishma was not fighting wholeheartedly.
Although it was Bhima who had defeated him, he felt that the war had still been going on because Bhishma was not fighting to his full extent and when he met Karna who was sitting out of the fight as long as Bhishma was fighting, Karna said, just get me on the battlefield and I will win the war for you soon. Duryodhana took a deep breath and then he went to Bhishma and he told him, oh Grandsire, just see how under your commandership our army is being destroyed. Even I myself lay wounded.
I do not believe that you are incapable of defeating the Kaurava, the Pandava army when you have defeated even the one who defeated all Kshatriyas, Parashurama. If, oh father, he looked down and looked up straight into Duryodhana, into Bhishma’s eyes, he said, oh Grandsire, if out of affection for the Pandavas, you are not ready to fight wholeheartedly, then kindly step down and let Karna become the commander and he will do for me what you are unwilling to do. Bhishma felt the dagger of Duryodhana’s words pierce deep into his heart.
For an honourable Kshatriya, even the insinuation that he was not fighting properly was unbearable. What to speak of an open accusation. Bhishma tried to control the anger within him.
It was raging through at this insolent son of Duryodhana, of Dhritarashtra, Duryodhana. So he told, oh Prince, I have told you again and again why the Pandavas can’t be defeated because they have Krishna with them. I have exerted myself to my fullest capacity.
My body bears wounds because of what I am trying to do for you. What more do you think that the son of Suta can do? Yet, because you have impugned my honour, I take a vow now. Tomorrow, I will use these five arrows and kill the five Pandavas with them.
He closed his eyes, went into a mystic trance and the five arrows he had selected from his quiver, they looked powerful and fearsome and he invested them with further mystic power. And Duryodhana was delighted and then he said, oh Grandsire, let me keep these arrows with me and I’ll give them to you tomorrow. He wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong.
However, his keeping the arrows itself was what went wrong. Krishna is omniscient and Krishna told Arjuna, today we have something to do even after the day’s fight is over. It’s like Arjuna has to work overtime.
Oh, okay. So he said, go to Duryodhana and ask him for the five arrows. Long ago, when Duryodhana had been arrested by the Gandharvas, Arjuna and Bhima together had defeated the Gandharvas and released Duryodhana.
At that time, although Duryodhana had felt humiliated at having been arrested and then at having been rescued by his rivals, but still out of Kshatriya honor, he said, you have done me a favor. So I wish to grant you a boon. So Arjuna had said, I don’t want anything now.
Maybe in future I’ll ask you. So Krishna told him, you remember that boon now? So Arjuna was surprised. He said, yes, he has got five arrows which Bhishma has invested mystic power and you go and ask for those arrows.
When Arjuna went to meet Duryodhana, Duryodhana was surprised and he said, oh Arjuna, what do you want? Welcome to my tent. If you want the kingdom, I’ll give it to you right now. Now Duryodhana was being facetious because he knew Arjuna as a Kshatriya would never ask for a kingdom.
He said that I want the five arrows. So Duryodhana was shocked. He had out of a sense of honor, he gave those arrows and he said, as Arjuna was Japaati, who told you about the arrows? Duryodhana had kept that information top secret.
He had sent all the spies and others away while he was having that conversation. He had sent all attendants away while he was having that conversation with Bhishma. He said, how did you know? And Arjuna just looking back at his smile and said, Krishna told me.
Duryodhana pounded his fist in his hand. Krishna, how does he know everything? Is he God? Exasperated, he fell into pitiful sleep. The next morning when Bhishma asked Duryodhana for those five arrows, Duryodhana shamefacedly told him what had happened.
Bhishma smiled. Bhishma knew, in fact, when he had taken the vow the previous day that Krishna would do something to protect his devotees. So, in fact, he had taken that vow with the express purpose of wanting to discover what Krishna does to protect his devotees.
So, he was delighted to see the ingenuity of Krishna and he told Duryodhana, I had used much of my mystic power to invest in those arrows. I cannot do it again. But still I will fight fiercely and today I will kill Arjuna unless Krishna intervenes to protect him.
Duryodhana’s spirit, which had drooped at the loss of the five arrows, now became ascendant once again. He told his warriors, now guard the Grandsire as he launches what could be a lethal attack on Arjuna. And Bhishma swooped on the Pandava forces and started destroying them.
Seeing the utter ruination that he was causing, Arjuna came forward. Although there had been some encounters between Arjuna and Bhishma, Arjuna’s heart was not really in the fight and he had fought, but he had kept the fighting to some extent minimal. So, Arjuna moved forward to fight with Bhishma, but even now his heart was not in it.
Bhishma was fighting with full ferocity because he was eager to see how Krishna would intervene to protect Arjuna. And Arjuna was fighting half-heartedly because his affection and reverence for his Grandsire was stopping him from fighting. And thus it was a mismatch.
Emotions are facts of life and they are not just facts, they are very powerful facts of life. We sometimes say that we need to judge rationally, not get carried away by our emotions and that is true. At the same time, while we don’t want to be carried away by our emotions, we are usually carried by our emotions.
It’s like emotions are the sea in which we are floating. So, sometimes the sea may contain currents which sweep us away in an unwanted direction, but sometimes the currents can sweep us in the direction also. So, while we can try to be emotionally equipoised, but if we want to do something worthwhile, we need to channel the power of emotion, not curb that power.
Because if we simply are focused on curbing the power of emotion, then we lose what is a very empowering resource for ourselves. Those who achieve something, anything worthwhile, they have a deep passion. Passion here is usually a positive sense of great attraction, great drive, great determination for that particular area in life.
So, now, of course, circumstantially some emotions may come and go and they may have to resist them. But at a deep driving and sustaining level, even defining level, they have a passion, which is an emotion that pushes them through various obstacles. So, now in this case, Bhishma and Arjuna both had a passion for archery, for martial expertise, Vivek Kshatriyas, and that was their duty as well as their passion.
That’s how they had risen to such enormous levels of accomplishment. However, in this particular war, Arjuna’s emotion was impeding him because of his affection for Bhishma and Bhishma’s emotion was empowering him because he was eager based on his devotional aspiration to see how Krishna would protect his devotees. And Bhishma was anyway a formidable warrior and Arjuna at his best would have had to exert to even equal Bhishma or to speak of to exceed Bhishma.
But a half-hearted Arjuna with a whole-hearted Bhishma was just no match. And Bhishma was destroying the Pandava forces who were supporting Arjuna while at the same time wounding Arjuna severely also. And while Arjuna was fighting but his heart was not in it and he was being wounded but still he couldn’t bring himself to fully with full force attack Bhishma.
Seeing this, Krishna became pensive. He was astonished and alarmed to see Bhishma’s speed, skill and strength and recognized that within a short time not only could the Pandava army be destroyed but even Arjuna himself might be killed if Bhishma were not checked. And seeing that Arjuna was not ready for the task of checking Bhishma, Krishna decided to take things in his own hands.
Literally in his hands the reins of Arjuna’s chariot had been there and Krishna had taken a vow that he would only be a non-combatant in this war. But for him more important than his word of honor was his love for his devotee and thus while in the chariot he looked around and he saw a weapon. Actually he saw a wheel of a broken chariot and that at one level subconsciously reminded him of his own Sudarshan chakra which is his weapon.
The lord is such a person that he can neutralize even the most powerful weapons and he can weaponize even the most ordinary objects. Normally a wheel wouldn’t be considered to be a weapon but the lord’s Sudarshan chakra is the most unstoppable of all weapons and Krishna here was filled with so much anxiety for Arjuna that he didn’t think of summoning the Sudarshan chakra. He jumped off his chariot and raced across the field and picked up that wheel and raising that wheel aloft he started racing towards Bhishma and he roared to Bhishma, you Bhishma are the cause of this entire war.
When a king goes wrong it is the duty of the minister to stop him from that wrong path. You never stop Dhritarashtra and that is why you deserve to die. Seeing Krishna raise a weapon and charge toward him Bhishma smiled.
He was stunned and delighted at this marvelous sight. He was a Kshatriya. He did not have fear of death but he had the joy of seeing how the lord was protecting his devotee and he put aside his bow and he said okay Shiva kill me if you will to die at your hands is life’s ultimate perfection.
I tried my best to counsel Dhritarashtra but the blind king was blinded by his attachment to his son Duryodhana and he never listened to my counsel. While this conversation was going on Krishna was charging across the field toward Bhishma. Normally archery fights happen at some distance from each other unlike sword fights where the warriors are very close to each other.
So Krishna could have hurled the wheel from wherever he was. When he uses his Sudarshan chakra he doesn’t go close to his opponents he just discharges his disc even from a far distance. Here why did Krishna charge toward Bhishma? He was so anxious to make sure that the job was done that the danger to Arjuna was ended that he wanted to hurl the Sudarshan chakra, the chakra which is a substitute for the Sudarshan chakra from a close distance just like if we shoot from a close point the chances of missing are less so hurling the wheel from a close distance would mean the chances of hitting are more and as Arjuna saw Krishna charging toward Bhishma with the wheel in hand he felt dismayed.
He knew what this action meant that Krishna was breaking his vow, his word of honor for his Arjuna’s sake. Arjuna called out to Krishna, Oh Krishna please do not break your word so important for the Kshatriyas was the was the word of honor that breaking it was almost unconscionable. Dashrath Maharaj was ready to lose the association of his son and send him to the forest although that son Ram was dearer to him than his own life just because he had to honor the word that he had given so that’s how we can see how remarkable was Krishna’s being ready to break his word of honor and this is his love but Arjuna’s love was that he didn’t want Krishna to be criticized to be maligned for having failed to honor his word and thus he called out Krishna stop please don’t use weapons I will fight wholeheartedly I will kill Bhishma but Krishna was so angry that he did not hear at all now Krishna’s anger is also an expression of love if we are angry with someone sometimes we may speak such harsh words that that may break that other person’s heart and it may damage that relationship irreparably so even when we are angry trying to speak politely is is a sign of not just a self-control but also a sense of is also a sign of our concern for the other person a sign of our love for the other person that we don’t want to hurt their feelings we don’t want to hurt them even if they have done something that is wrong or hurtful so in some ways restraining our anger is a sign of love simultaneously expressing anger is all can also be a sign of love outrage is the special kind of anger which is which arises on seeing something unfair something as the word is outrageous so on seeing injustice on seeing something which is iniquitous if we don’t feel anger and there is something wrong with our conscience something wrong with our moral sense often it is outrage that leads to reform or even revolution bad things wouldn’t change if some people didn’t get worked up about how bad the things were and try to change them so when a child is slightly mischievous the parents may control their anger and not yell at the child and that’s how they show their love but if the child has carelessly run into the middle of the road and has barely survived death then the parents may speak strongly may may be angry with the child and that anger needs to be seen as an expression of love because why would somebody get worked up so much unless they were invested in that so krishna’s getting angry is a sign of his love for arjuna and here again we see the power of emotion being channeled devotion is all about channeling the power of emotion and it is both the lord’s emotion for the devotee and the devotee’s emotion for the lord so arjuna’s emotion was there of concern that krishna never be maligned that his honor not be infirmed and when arjuna saw that krishna was not hearing his words arjuna leapt off the chariot and started running after krishna and as he kept running krishna was charging ahead and he was coming very close to bhishma so arjuna leapt across the field and caught krishna’s thigh and held on to it and yet krishna was running with such force and momentum that arjuna was dragged along krishna along by krishna’s running and arjuna was calling out to krishna yet krishna didn’t hear anything finally arjuna raised his feet high into the sky and high up and banged them down onto the and those feet pierced into the ground creating like a small trench and his feet got stuck over there and arjuna was holding on to krishna’s thigh and krishna came to a stop and arjuna told krishna please don’t fight krishna i will fight tomorrow wholeheartedly and i will defeat bhishma you please keep your word i will keep my word at the start of the war arjuna had said that he will take down bhishma hearing arjuna’s words krishna calmed down at this point the whole nearby a battle had stopped so spectacular was the sight such a sometimes the word showstopper is used everyone stops doing everything something is so stunning so showstopping so krishna’s charging towards arjuna was a showstopper in the middle of the battle everybody had stopped to see what was this astonishing thing happening and as krishna and arjuna turned back and walked toward the chariot the sun went down in the horizon and the day is patching in later so on this day there was a dramatic event where krishna’s love for his devotee is seen through his anger so we need to not curb the power of emotion but channel the power of emotion and we need to that love can be seen both by restraining anger and expressing anger of course the expression of anger has to be done in an appropriate way and krishna was ready to break his word of honor arjuna did not want that such as them such as the amazing exchanges of love that happened between these three characters it was bhishma’s love that made him fight so wholeheartedly it was arjuna’s love for bhishma that prevented him from fighting wholeheartedly it was krishna’s love for arjuna that made him want to fight and it was arjuna’s love for krishna that made him stop krishna from fighting and this is how even in the war field the deepest warmest and sweetest of loving exchanges