The sweetness of the Krishna Arjuna relationship

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so today I will talk about the Krishna Arjuna relationship and we will look at some key incidents and we will see how that relationship unfolds now generally in a relationship the first meeting is often quite dramatic, many romance movies have the idea of love at first sight now from a philosophical or spiritual perspective sometimes especially in western world people are saying, you know what is there love at first sight well I said maybe it is possible that there is love at first sight but the test of love is what happens after many sights that is what is much more important so love is not just an emotion that spurts up from within, love is a dedication that a person chooses to have but still the first meeting is significant so the first meeting between Krishna and Arjuna happens after what is arguably the greatest moment of Arjuna’s life the Pandavas life is still quite troubled often people talk about how Karna had such a bad, life gave such a bad deal to him that he was born in a royal family but he was abandoned and he had to live without the royal privilege that is true but the Mahabharata depicts that no one has an easy life the Pandavas, they were also royalty but they were born in a forest they had to live in the austerity of a forest because their father had chosen to retire and still they were happy they lived in the simplicity of the forest they got used to the simplicity, they were cultured people but then their father died unfortunately and the sages told their mother that forest is no safe place for women like you you should go back to the kingdom there are dangerous animals over here the sages personally came and escorted her to the kingdom little did they know that in the kingdom inside the palace there were beings who were more dangerous than the dangerous animals out there the animals didn’t try to poison secretly, animals didn’t try to burn secretly among all forms of killing the burning is the most painful because you poison someone, you cut off somebody’s head the sensation is localised at one particular place where the wound is there, maybe it goes inside the body, the poison the wound is cut but when it is burning, the skin is present all over the body and everywhere it burns. One of my friends is a firefighter in California and he says that if there is a big sky rise building there is a fire, the first thing they do is they put a safety tent around it because the pain of burning is so great that people will prefer to jump off and die so when the Kauravas try to burn the Pandavas alive, that just shows the brutality of it all and not only the Pandavas, even their mother who had never done any harm to them and generally in politics, people target each other but it is warriors targeting warriors, but a warrior targeting a woman especially an elderly woman who is in the mother’s generation, that shows the brutality and the heartlessness of Duryodhana somehow the Pandavas survived by Vidura’s guidance and their own diligence and then they were living incognito and then when they were living incognito now Arjuna had already excelled as an archer but here he had to conceal his archery skills, even Bhima had to conceal his martial might there were some occasions like fighting with Bakasura and other things but then their big coming out moment came in Draupadi’s svayamvar and in Draupadi’s svayamvar, it was like the who’s who of the planet had come there to attend that at that time the Pandavas were acutely missing Draupadi had long desired that his daughter would be married to Arjuna and he had arranged this ceremony just with the hope that if Arjuna had survived then maybe he would come over there now the Yadus from Dwaraka had also come there Krishna also had that hope now Krishna as God at one level knows everything but within the Leela, Krishna doesn’t always act as if he is omniscient Krishna had told the Yadus that Draupadi is meant for Arjuna therefore none of us will compete so Krishna was looking out for Arjuna even before Krishna and Arjuna had met for the first time and then came Arjuna’s greatest moment where all the greatest archers of the world failed Arjuna effortlessly met that target and then when the kings got enraged and tried to attack at that time Arjuna held all of them back, Bhima held all of them back and then with Draupadi they went to the small cottage a small part of the cottage or the house of a Brahmana where they were staying and there Krishna and Balaram came to meet him and the Pandavas were just sitting thinking about what they are going to do now Draupadi was being introduced to everyone and at that time imagine the supreme lord comes and knocks on your door and he knocks on the door at the open and Krishna introduces himself, I am Krishna this is Balaram and I am his younger brother Krishna the Pandavas are overjoyed now they have heard about Krishna and they are delighted that this mighty prince of the Yadu dynasty has come personally to meet them and at that time Krishna congratulates Arjuna for his fabulous feat and at this point it has not yet been decided that Draupadi is going to be the wife of all five of them, that happens later when they go back to the palace when Draupadi calls them so at this point he congratulates Arjuna and then he sits and talks with both all of them, it’s a very brief meeting, Krishna then says I think I should leave now because I don’t want to blow up your cover right now, he says if I come and meet you in Delhi there was a G20 conference and the president of America goes to some slum and meet someone over there who is this person that the president of America has got to meet, so like that Krishna going to meet somebody in some small Brahmin’s house, now of course this small person is one that is special but still why is Krishna going to meet him, so that would have raised some curiosity, Krishna said I will go but at that time itself in this first meeting a special bond is formed between Krishna and Arjuna now in Jiva Goswami’s Gopal Champu, he gives a very Vrindavan centred explanation of everything, including the Mahabharata, so he says that among the Pandavas, why did Krishna like Arjuna the most so he says that Krishna outside Vrindavan is always remembering Vrindavan and because he is always remembering Vrindavan, he is especially pleased with anything that reminds him of Vrindavan and among all the Pandavas, the only Pandava who has a name which is the same as the name of a Gopal in Vrindavan is Arjuna so the name Arjuna reminds him of Vrindavan that is the actual attraction that comes up, now of course that is a Vrindavan centred reason it’s a it’s a it’s a devotional reason of course there are multiple devotional reasons, it’s a devotional relationship, but here this first meeting is memorable and then after that as the relationship develops so then the Pandavas go back to the kingdom and then there is a separation division of the kingdom into two by Dhritarashtra Dhritarashtra for a long time tries to act fair or tries to appear as if he is acting fair and he says let us divide the kingdom into two and he gives the Khandava which is definitely half the kingdom, but it is like a barren half of the kingdom like a parent has two companies, one is bankrupt and the other is prospering and if I say I want to divide the property into two equal division, well it’s like equal in name, unequal in everything else but the Pandavas they accepted gracefully now all this time the Pandavas are hoping that things will be resolved, they don’t want to escalate the issues and then Krishna comes to the Khandava and then Krishna helps them transform Khandava Prastha into Indra Prastha now when this is happening at this particular time is the first time that the Krishna Arjuna combination on chariot is seen that iconic image of Krishna as the charioteer and Arjuna as the warrior together on the chariot, that is one of the most enduring memories in the Bhakti tradition from the Mahabharata so the Mahabharata is quite a book of adventure and there are few images in the Mahabharata which have become iconic within the Bhakti tradition so one image is of Draupadi raising her hands in helpless dependence another image from the Mahabharata is of Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot together so we have in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit how that Brahmana he is filled with tears thinking of how the Lord has become the charioteer of his devotee and Mahaprabhu says you know the essence of the Bhagavad Gita because you know that the essence of the Bhagavad Gita is the reciprocation of love so that particular mode of the relationship is formed in Khandava where Agni comes and requests that there is this whole forest which is filled with terrible demons and that forest needs to be burned but Indra is not letting me burn it because some people who are friends with Indra are also staying over there I won’t go into all the specifics but so Krishna says this he comes as a Agnideva comes as a Brahmana to him and says we should help him and then Arjuna gets on the chariot with Krishna so they get a chariot at that particular time and then the whole battle starts so just recently in America there is a prominent podcaster in America there is a lot of news of UFOs being spotted unidentified flying objects being spotted and while they have been spotted for a long long time but now the frequency has increased and even in the American senate the CBI the American investigative agencies they have admitted lots of evidence so this American podcaster is saying actually these are people from some other domain who are coming over here and there is interplanetary some dynamism some shift that’s going to happen so it’s a lot in the news but the point is that Mahabharata also describes this time that particular forest is filled with dangerous creatures demons who have taken on the form of animals and they so there are some nowadays as the environmental movement is gaining momentum now every religious tradition is trying to portray that our religious tradition is eco-friendly each religion is trying to do that and there are people who try to criticise ok your tradition is not eco-friendly so one of the criticisms of the Vedic tradition is this particular war he says this was the Khandava war was an ecocide ecocide means it was a destruction of the entire ecosystem it was all destroyed and not only destroyed is described but the destruction is protected and celebrated by God and his devotee so how can this be considered to be eco-friendly tradition at all but the point is that there is something bigger going on over here if you look at the Mahabharata’s big picture is described that these particular animals who were living in that forest were doing horrendous things, there were sages who would live in the forest and the sages would co-exist with predators, there were tigers and there were lions and there were wolves and they would do their own thing and the sages would live in their own places but the wolves and the tigers and the hyenas they would just attack sages and they would just rip apart the bodies of sages and kill them and these news had spread far and wide so these hyenas and jackals and wolves who were killing up sages, they were actually not jackals and hyenas and wolves they were demons who had come in those bodies and so that was a time when demoniac beings from the lower levels were penetrating into the earth so there is a literal narrative but in the Mahabharata there are many places where something much more than the literal is happening so this was an interplanetary war that was happening and so when Krishna decided that this forest needs to be burned, it was many of these demons were trying to penetrate into the earth through animal forms they were to be killed now here Arjuna had to fight a war, now this was the first serious war that Arjuna had to fight of course he had fought before with Drupada, when as Guru Dakshina Drona had wanted Drupada to be arrested but here it was Arjuna had to fight a war on three fronts the first war was that he once the fire was set to the forest the animals started fleeing and Krishna told that these are demoniac beings, they have to be killed so Krishna and Arjuna were going round and round rapidly around the forest no animal was allowed to escape so they were shooting those animals and these animals were not just running away they were dangerous animals, they would run towards and they had to be fought and killed so ensuring that there were no escapees, that was one war then once the fire started burning, Indra he started showering rains so that the fire would get extinguished and Arjuna had to use his arrows to create an umbrella of arrows and Indra was showering rain with such speed that whatever structure Arjuna was creating with his arrows, that structure was breaking apart and Arjuna had to shoot arrows to keep that structure fixed and as if fighting on these two fronts was not bad enough the Devatas started attacking Arjuna and Arjuna had to fight against the entire army of Devatas and fighting this war on three fronts and Arjuna emerged victorious it was a moment of great glory and of course Indra fought and Indra was also proud this is my son who is fighting so well but the moment of the greatest joy for Arjuna came after the war was over it was not just when Maidanao tried to escape and they asked that Maidanao surrendered to Arjuna and Krishna said you asked him for something so he said make a grand assembly for Arjuna, not that after that Indra is pleased by Arjuna’s promise and while Krishna is the lord of Indra also when Krishna is on this earth he often acts like a human being so Indra says that the sight of the gods should never go in vain so now that you have our sight then ask for some blessings so Arjuna asked for various things he asked for inexhaustible quiver and other things Arjuna asked that the Pandavas be protected there are different narratives about that but then what Krishna asks, Indra turns to Krishna he asks what would you like O Keshava and what Krishna asks fills Arjuna’s heart with the greatest joy what does Krishna ask he says may my friendship with Arjuna never be lost can you imagine now here what would Arjuna be feeling that Krishna not only wants to ask for something when we want something we ask for something that is many times friendships are not formed because people have ego you should come to me first not I will go to you first so but somebody comes and asks Krishna had taken the first step in that friendship not only that somebody is ready to assist in the friendship is ready to fight for the friendship but generally when we pray for someone and especially when we have a opportunity to get blessings what we ask for is something which we must cherish very much say if our spiritual master is very pleased with us and then we have an opportunity to ask some favour from the spiritual master and what would we ask something which is very very dear to our heart so Krishna shows how dear his friendship with Arjuna is that he is asking Indra may my friendship with Arjuna always be protected so when in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that in 1864 which is actually the most love filled verse in the Bhagavad Gita he says he says he says that among everything that I have spoken now I will speak that which is the most confidential that which is the highest among all the messages that I have given and I am speaking this for your benefit I am speaking it again I am speaking it because you are dear to me but the significant word is he says I am not I don’t just love you I am determined to love you that is Krishna’s love for us that actually we are often determined to forget Krishna but Krishna is determined to remember us Krishna keeps coming back in our lives even when we forget Krishna even when we neglect Krishna even when we reject Krishna Krishna wants a relationship with us much more than we want a relationship with Krishna and yes in one sense a relationship is two ways love can be one way but a loving relationship has to be two way that means Krishna can love us but if you have to have a relationship with him we also have to love him back and for a serious relationship we have to commit ourselves and Krishna uses this word druda earlier in 9.14 Krishna says if you want to be devoted to me then you have to be determined to be devoted but Krishna says I am not asking from you anything that I am not ready to do like when two people are ready to form a relationship each person may want to know how committed are you to this relationship so if somebody says I want you to be committed are you committed first so Krishna is saying so Krishna cares for each one of us while the specific quality of the love between the specific intimacy of the love between Krishna and Arjuna is unique to that relationship but the principle of that love is universal that Krishna wants a relationship with each one of us and Krishna values that relationship so much so when in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says so the word brahman is wandering brahman is causing to wander so now there are some western commentators on the Gita they say that when God causes our wanderings in this world that means is it that we have no free will does it mean that God is orchestrating everything in our life well the two verses after that Krishna is saying do as you desire so clearly when Krishna is saying I cause your wanderings that does not mean that he is controlling everything but that brahman what it means is he causes our wanderings that is actually related with the next verse the next verse in 1862 is so Krishna’s basically while we are we will wander according to our own desires into different species but while we are going on our wanderings Krishna causes our wanderings to happen in such a way that we get opportunities to do during our life journey Krishna will keep coming Krishna will keep popping in our lives and he will keep inviting us come to me he will keep opening doors for us because Krishna wants a relationship with us much more than we want with him and that is demonstrated in this particular past time now there are many dramatic incidents but I will focus on two main incidents in the Krishna Arjuna relationship and these happen in rapid succession see if we look back at our life it is it is not that every day is similar, now there are some days which have lot of dramatic or even traumatic things happening and some days they go on without many memorable things happening that’s why when we look back at our life some days are very noteworthy some days are like huge towers of memory some days of course could be like big ditches of memory also there are memories we may want to forget also but the point is the time when we look backward is not symmetrical so the Pandavas go about their life their Rajasuya Yagya is performed Krishna agrees to be the person who receives all the guests and washes their feet and then just when life is such that just when you are at your highest moment there is a big fall about to happen the Pandavas perform the Rajasuya Yagya that is their highest moment and then the gambling match happens and at this time the Pandavas feel the absence of Krishna the most now Arjuna has always been the balance between Yudhishthir and Bhima Yudhishthir tends to be very pacific pacific means very peaceful and Bhima is very bellicose bellicose means he is just looking for he is almost itching for an opportunity to fight Yudhishthir is almost like a Kshatriya but he is a Brahmin Kshatriya Bhima is not just a Kshatriya he is a Kshatriya Kshatriya you could say he is a Kshatriya squared and Arjuna has to often act as a balancer between the two of them and in the gambling match time and time again Arjuna tries to tell Yudhishthir enough now stop gambling but Yudhishthir is caught in the frenzy he is thinking, he starts the gambling itself with the thought that first he expresses the reservation he says that oh Duryodhana why do you want to steal from me the wealth with which I want to serve the Brahmanas, with which I want to serve society, which I want to serve the lord so that he is not just greedy for wealth he actually sees the wealth as a means for service and that’s why he wants to protect it and each time in the gambling match he loses he starts thinking that you know if I can just win a little bit back then I can continue my service and that’s why he keeps gambling he keeps gambling and eventually they lose everything and then Draupadi is taken at that time and Dushasan drags Draupadi into the forest, into the assembly at that time Bhima has had enough especially when Draupadi looks with her censorious eyes at the Pandavas, are you going to be silent are you going to tolerate this, are you not going to do anything about this now Bhima just cannot bear it and he roars at Arjuna he says Arjuna, get fire I will burn Yudhishthir hands now these are the hands with which he gambled Draupadi away so Bhima’s anger is like a volcano about to explode and seeing Bhima’s anger one person is very happy who is that Duryodhana, all along Duryodhana doesn’t just want to defeat and humiliate the Pandavas he especially wants to divide the Pandavas and this is like his greatest dream come true, at this point Arjuna he obviously can’t obey Bhima, but with Bhima in this mood, disobeying him is only going to make him angrier so Arjuna he prays to Krishna and then he knows he says he doesn’t tell Arjuna don’t disrespect Yudhishthir Arjuna doesn’t tell Duryodhana, how can you speak like this to our brother he says, oh Bhima why are you speaking words that are giving pleasure to our enemy Duryodhana and Bhima looks at Duryodhana and sees Duryodhana smirking and Bhima somehow controls his anger so Arjuna does as well as he can now of course, at this point eventually Draupadi’s disrobing is attempted so now, from the assembly’s perspective in popular retellings of the Mahabharata we may see Krishna there, Krishna smiling with his hand upraised and a sari coming from her hand but what happens in the Mahabharata is that Dushasan is just trying to disrobe her and he keeps disrobing and disrobing and what happens is, the disrober gets exhausted but the robe doesn’t get exhausted and nobody knows why this is happening or how this is happening so everybody credits this, oh because Draupadi is such a chaste lady there is a mystical intervention over there but anyway, that danger is averted and after that when the Pandavas go to the forest then Krishna comes to meet the Pandavas and when Krishna comes to meet the Pandavas at that time Draupadi is still she is like a seething ball of rage she, to her credit when Duryodhana tries to pit husband against wife Draupadi says, if Yudhishtira had already gambled himself how could he have gambled me so Duryodhana says, Draupadi if you declare that Yudhishtira Dharma Raj did Adharma by gambling you then I will release you I will return back everything that you have lost now Draupadi even in her anger she is enraged but she is aware she is after all she is a royal lady, she knows about politics so she says that Yudhishtira didn’t want to gamble at all he said it was only because he was compelled by the instructions of his elders that he gambled therefore when the entire gambling was because of the instruction of the elders let those elders decide whether his gambling of me was ethical or not so she doesn’t fall for that trap but afterwards she is so angry with Yudhishtira it’s a horrendously traumatic event for her and she doesn’t even speak with Yudhishtira at that time so she goes to the forest at that time Krishna comes to meet her and when Krishna comes to meet her at that time there is just an outburst of agony and anger, she says to Krishna Krishna I am your friend, I am your relative I am your devotee, I called out for you we needed you where were you Krishna, why did you come now here Krishna doesn’t take on the God mode, I am God my plan is perfect, how dare you question my plan no sometimes the nature of life is so traumatic that one devotee one devotee is in New Zealand I was staying at their home she said that she had a fourth miscarriage and she said when it happened I felt so angry with Krishna and then I told it to one devotee how can you be angry with Krishna Krishna is God if you get angry with Krishna that is a big offence to Krishna so then I told her about this particular incident where Draupadi is angry with Krishna if our relationship with Krishna is a real and serious relationship in a real relationship there can be all kinds of emotions and in a real relationship it is not just smiling and loving and being happy in a real relationship there are all kinds of emotions so can a devotee be angry with Krishna well a devotee’s anger does not cause the devotee to break the relationship Krishna is big enough to take even a devotee’s anger now of course a devotee doesn’t publicly express that anger there is a particular way but our emotions we don’t have to hide our emotions from Krishna and come to Krishna and everything is alright so if our heart is wounded we can take the wounded pieces of our heart to Krishna and Krishna can fit those pieces together so when Draupadi comes to Krishna so there are times we may be angry with even why is this happening in my life so when Prabhupada himself says when this cow in Delhi hits him when he was trying to distribute back to God Prabhupada says in the lecture I was thinking why is this happening to me the nature of the world is it can be bewildering at times Prabhupada says a devotee may be perplexed but a devotee is never discouraged perplexed means I just don’t know what to do discouraged means I don’t want to serve Krishna at all, I give up a devotee is never discouraged but a devotee may be perplexed anyway at this point Draupadi just lashes out at Krishna and Krishna takes on a very human role over there Krishna says that I didn’t even know that there was going to be a gambling match after the Rajasuya Yagya there was a taking the advantage of my absence the demon Shalva who attacked Dwarka and I had to rush to protect Dwarka and as soon as I heard about the match after Dwarka had been protected, I have come back immediately and Krishna says Oh Panchali, I have heard how in that assembly of Adharma you were the person who remained strong in Dharma it was you who reminded everyone of Dharma Oh Panchali although you were dishonoured you came out as the most honourable in that terrible assembly those who tried to dishonour you they will be punished they will suffer for their actions in this way Krishna pacifies Draupadi and then Draupadi goes away but after Draupadi goes away it is at that time Krishna’s anger blazes forth Krishna has heard about what has happened if somebody whom we love has been hurt terribly we may feel concerned but when we go there and see their plight, at that time our anger really blazes, so Krishna becomes enraged Krishna says this wicked Pandavas what have they done he says I will destroy all of them he says none of the gods intervene to protect Draupadi I will destroy the whole world Krishna’s anger is so fearsome at that time at that is the time when Arjuna starts offering prayers there are only two times when Arjuna offers prayers to Krishna or three times we can say three major times is this is the first time Arjuna and Krishna have a friendly relationship seeing Krishna’s anger Arjuna starts offering prayers Krishna you are the lord you are in control of everything you are the person who orchestrates things for the benefit of everyone Krishna oh lord please be pacified so at that time Arjuna’s prayers pacify Krishna but Arjuna also sees when we love someone it is wonderful to see their love for us but it is even more enriching to see their love for those whom we love so seeing Krishna’s love for Draupadi it bonds Krishna and Arjuna together even more so when we are going through difficult things sometimes we feel does Krishna even know does Krishna even care what is happening in my life this person is doing like this and this is happening like this Krishna knows, Krishna cares things in this world why they happen the way they do there is a great mystery to that Krishna says but ultimately the way Krishna shows his anger at what has happened to Draupadi we need to know that Krishna never neglects us Krishna never abandons us there are times when we feel as if I am all alone facing against the world where is God but God is there with us, God is watching God will intervene as per his time when Prahlad was being tormented Prahlad could ask where is Vishnu why is he not coming the lord came at his time for us we just need to be patient and take one step forward but we can draw faith draw strength from the remembrance that the lord never abandons us when we are going through difficulties it is not that the lord is angry at us the lord is angry for us the lord doesn’t want us to suffer in this world even if it is suffering which has come because of our own misdeeds the lord is not up there causing those sufferings to us the lord is in here with us he is giving us strength to face those sufferings the last incident I will talk about is what is spread over two days this happens during the Kurukshetra war now war is a time when people can become the most tightly bonded together people who fight together they can become very close comrades so Krishna and Arjuna are together and there are many heart touching, heart wrenching heart wrecking incidents that happen during the war but probably the most painful incident happens on the 13th day on the 13th day Dronacharya forms a chakra view and as a part of the plan for the chakra view the king Sushena calls Arjuna challenges Arjuna to a fight and Arjuna is sidetracked Sushena has a huge army of the Samspatakas and they all fight with Arjuna and they lure Arjuna far away and then after that the Kauravas reform their military formations and then the chakra view formation is revealed and Yudhishthir reluctantly sends Abhimanyu inside because of Jaidrath’s intervention Abhimanyu is blocked although Abhimanyu fights heroically six warriors attack him and Abhimanyu is killed and the Pandavas outside Bhima, Yudhishthir, Nakula, Sahadev they are helpless trying again and again to break the wall of chakra view but they just can’t and finally they hear the loud celebrately conches and drums in the Kaurava camp and their heart sinks they go back dejected, it is already sunset and they are waiting in the tent now the dreaded moment when they all have to break this news to Arjuna Arjuna has had a long tiring day of fighting he has destroyed enormous amount of Kshamstha Kapilas but Susharma has still escaped Arjuna comes back and as he comes back a pit seems to be forming in his belly he comes back and normally when the warriors come back there is celebratory music to welcome everyone on this day there is absolutely no music, there is a sober silence and as Arjuna is coming back there are warriors and soldiers and not one of them is ready to meet Arjuna’s eyes Arjuna’s imagination starts going on in overdrive what has happened in the heat of the battle when Arjuna has been fighting many warriors he has heard many sounds and now some of those sounds he starts remembering he remembers and he heard somebody screaming oh Drona has formed the Chakravyu he was so busy in his own fight that he didn’t pay attention at that time he starts thinking the Chakravyu has been formed if the Chakravyu had been formed our entire army would have been destroyed but who could have broken the Chakravyu who could have protected our army from the Chakravyu he thinks of Abhimanyu and the pit that is there in his stomach it goes into his heart he knows Abhimanyu knows how to break in Abhimanyu doesn’t know how to come out and he reaches the tent as soon as he enters the tent his eyes go immediately to the place where Abhimanyu used to sit Abhimanyu’s throne is empty Arjuna drops on the floor not wanting to believe the evidence of his eyes he turns begging with his eyes for some explanation towards Yudhishthir and he sees Yudhishthir’s eyes are filled with tears the worst nightmare of Arjuna has come true for a parent especially a parent who is a warrior to hear that their son has been killed and they couldn’t be there to protect their son there is no defeat that can be more painful than that as Arjuna collapses on the ground Yudhishthir comes forward with heavy steps slowly as if the burden of the earth was on his head and then he explains what has happened as Arjuna hears through his tears and through his agony his grief changes into rage and he lashes out he says he looks at Yudhishthir, he looks at Bheem he looks at Nakula, he looks at Sahadev he said all of you, are all your weapons just ornaments could not one of you protect my son why on you and your Kshatriya then he turns towards Krishna Krishna you must have known why didn’t you tell me and Krishna, Arjuna breaks down crying at that time Krishna comes close to Arjuna and pulls him into a side-arc and Krishna tells Arjuna O Partha Krishna, in this world adversity befalls everyone the virtuous and the vicious the good people and the bad people what differentiates the two is that when bad things happen the foolish people they act in ways that make things worse the wise act in ways that make things better O Arjuna look at the faces of your brothers on the death of Abhimanyu they are in utter agony just as you are O Arjuna, please do not speak words that will increase the pain of your brothers so Krishna here is again taking a very non-philosophical approach Krishna doesn’t say just 13 days ago I told you the Bhagavad Gita you forgot the Bhagavad Gita what a fool maybe I should have found somebody else to speak the Bhagavad Gita Krishna doesn’t do that Krishna is embodying his own teaching of the Gita but which teaching is important which teaching he says Anudveg Karam Vakyam Satyam Priyatam Jayat Shastra has a vast body of knowledge which teaching from Shastra to take when that requires not just knowledge of Shastra but also knowledge of human psychology, knowledge of what that person is going through at that particular time that same that same Mataji who had that 4th miscarriage now she told me, she was a very active book distributor and she said that when she called her senior counsellor, the senior guide, she said you know I lost my child and that senior devotee told her, actually you are distributing so many books if you had a child, that would have interrupted your book distribution see that Krishna has removed the obstacle in your service and start distributing books she said, I felt so angry that is Krishna God who kills babies so that his books can be distributed so then I talked with that Mataji who was that senior ashram leader and she said you know I only wanted to help her she said I was thinking about Narada Muni when Narada’s mother is killed Narada sees that as that Krishna has freed this attachment so that I can pursue spirituality so I said that was the realisation that Narada got not that somebody gave it to him there is a big difference in wisdom coming for us and then somebody when a person has faced an adversity like this the whole foundation of their faith has been shaken and at that time nothing can alienate the person more than if they see that we are using their pain as an opportunity to further our own institutional agenda if this happens so it is very alienating so which philosophy to speak when is very very important to understand so anyway Krishna does not speak here Dehi no smrita dehe Krishna Anudveg Karam Vak speak words which are not agitating so Satyam Priyahitam Jet he says that ok now a bad thing has happened let’s not make it worse let’s try to make it better and then Arjuna starts thinking ok how do I make it better so as he is hearing Arjuna is a father but Arjuna is a warrior Arjuna is also a military general, he is also a leader so Arjuna realises that the plan that the Pandavas had made was a sound plan that Abhimanyu breaks the chakra view and they go all inside and they break it after that then he says it was this plan was foiled by that wretched Jayadrath and he said earlier Jayadrath had tried to abduct Draupadi and the Pandavas had stopped him but Yudhishthir had said that he is our relative so let him go he says we should have punished him at that time itself but now we will punish him so saying this Arjuna decides that I will kill Jayadrath tomorrow and he takes a series of vows and the last he says is that if I don’t kill Jayadrath by sunset tomorrow then I will enter into fire and when he hears when everybody hears this the gloom that is there in the Pandava camp just disappears and angry Arjuna is a sight to fear for the Kauravas today might have been a dark day for the Pandavas but tomorrow will be the darkest day for the Kauravas the Pandavas start blowing their conches and their attendants are beating their drums and they start celebrating and now everybody celebrates even Krishna blows his conch shell but then Krishna pulls Arjuna over and he says Arjuna as they are going back why did you take such a hasty vow it will be very difficult for you to reach Jayadrath tomorrow so then Arjuna says Krishna I can’t understand your anxiety he says you know my power and I know your power what is there to worry and then the next day Arjuna fights like never before like never before and despite all the best efforts of the Kauravas Arjuna just races breaking all obstacles and he reaches very very close to Jayadrath and as he comes very close to Jayadrath on that day Bhima follows him, Bhima kills 25 of Duryodhana’s brothers and Duryodhana is utterly devastated what is happening he said can my entire army not stop Arjuna he said am I doomed today and that time Bhishma’s last words come to his mind he says maybe Krishna is really God but his attachment is so great that for him that realisation is not like light, it’s just like a lightning for a few moments it comes and goes immediately the thought comes in his mind if Krishna were God then how could I have been able to kill Abhimanyu who is so dear to Krishna’s devotee Arjuna because I killed Abhimanyu therefore Krishna cannot be God and he says there is hope for me and he summons 8 warriors yesterday we had 6 warriors stopping Arjuna, today we will have 8 warriors so he says Drona and Kripa come from ahead and attack Arjuna, he says Ashwatthama and Karna you attack him from the left, then he has Shalya and Dhristadyumna attack from the right and he says I and Dushasan will attack him from behind and all of them Arjuna is just seeing Jayadrath’s standard and he is so close and suddenly it’s almost like a cloud of arrows comes all around Arjuna and he is not even able to see, leave alone move ahead, Arjuna is whirling around his chariot shooting arrows, not just one but 3-4 arrows simultaneously he is holding all that combined attack back but he cannot move forward he knows the sun is sinking towards the horizon he is trying his best but even for Arjuna it is best, 8 warriors attacking simultaneously is too much, Arjuna is so close and yet it is so far Arjuna starts despairing and Krishna senses his friend’s despair and at that time Krishna decides to intervene when we have done all that we can then God will do what we can’t Arjuna has exerted his entire skill and strength it is not enough then Krishna brings his Sudarshan Chakra and discharges it towards the sun the observer suddenly sees that suddenly it’s darkness and all the warriors who have been attacking Arjuna they stop and start cheering and celebrating and Jayadrath who has been hiding behind all this time like a coward he comes forward and says you were going to kill me? should I light your funeral pyre and you will ascend on it? starts mocking Arjuna Arjuna is dejected and Arjuna is lowering his bow in dejection at that time Krishna speaks urgently Arjuna there is still time says put the Brahmastra on your bow Arjuna has questions, what is Krishna doing? and Arjuna knows there is a time for questions and this is not that time so Arjuna obeys Krishna and then Krishna tells Arjuna that hit Jayadrath’s head in such a way that his head will be carried to the Simhan Panchak where his father Vidakshatra is performing meditation and let his head fall on Arjuna on his lap and while everybody is watching Krishna removes the Sudarshan Chakra and Krishna tells Arjuna there is the sun and there is Jayadrath shoot and while everybody is watching Arjuna with blinding speed shoots an arrow and Jayadrath whose mouth is wide open in a mocking laugh his mouth stays open but the rest of his expression changes from mockery to fear and horror and terror but before he can raise his bow before he can raise his sword, before he can do anything right in front of the watching eyes of Duryodhana and Dushasan and Karna and Dhrishtaketu and everyone else Krishna, the Arjuna’s arrow lops off the head of Jayadrath and it flies high into the sky now Vidakshatra has sought a benediction that whoever causes my son’s head to fall on the ground may that person’s head break apart so Krishna honours that benediction that he has got from Shiva but Krishna is so expert that that head falls on Vidakshatra’s lap and Vidakshatra is in meditation he opens his eyes and sees his bloodied head what is this? even before he notices what is the head, he just gets up and shakes off the head and as the head falls on the ground, by his own benediction, his own head cracks apart and in this way Krishna protects Arjuna both from the dangers that he knows and the dangers that he does not know such is the lord who says thank you so much this is the energy everybody needed on Bhim, Nirjal, Ekadesh I think they will carry through and I just hope they don’t fight each other today