Did Krishna use Ghatothkacha as a sacrificial pawn?

In the material world.

Thank you. The bigger thing into their into their camp and then you can get it. So that is just how it is.

War is cruel business. Let me complete this. Let me complete this.

First point is a war is cruel business. Second point is that did Ghatotkachi resent that? No. So he was a hero.

He went and fought the war. Was he brainwashed not to object? If you are going to speak like that, then you could say everybody there was brainwashed. Everybody would defer to their elders.

Yudhisthira deferred to his elders. When Dhritarashtra told him to play their gambling match, Yudhisthira deferred to that. So yes, every cultural value can have its negative applications at times.

So even now, defiance to one's elders, sometimes the elders are wrong, that is good, but constant defiance is also bad. So now, was it… If we are going to just evaluate everything there from our culture's perspective, then we are simply assuming that our culture is right and theirs is wrong. That is very self-righteous.

That is very judgmental. You have to understand that I have my frame of reference from which I am looking at it. Having said that, I have not read in the Mahabharata that Krishna laughed after Ghatotkachi's death.

What Bhima was delighted about was that Karna had lost the Shakti weapon. Karna had a weapon with which he was supposed to kill Arjuna. And that weapon was lost.

That weapon would no longer kill Arjuna. That was what they were happy about. They were not happy about the killing of Bhima, of Ghatotkachi.

They were grief-stricken about that. But the two things were parallel. Now, having said that, Ghatotkachi was killed, so we don't know people's past life history.

So Krishna, he tells over there that actually Ghatotkachi was born in a demoniac family. And he had some karma to even out. So by giving up his life in the service of the Lord, in the cause of Dharma, that negative karma was neutralized.

And he was elevated to a higher destination. One major problem is that the Mahabharata talks about life from a multi-life perspective. Things that happen in this world are not just caused by events in this world.

They have causes from a previous life also. And the results are not just seen in this life. They can be seen in the future life also.

So therefore, it's like there is a play with multiple scenes in it. If I just see one scene, hey, you know, this villain is beating the hero. What kind of movie is this? But is the villain beating the hero? Okay, that is going to show how powerful the villain is.

But then later on, if you continue seeing the later scenes, you see, okay, the hero is actually, that is what, like a baptism by fire for the hero. Hero becomes stronger, more powerful. And the hero after that bashes back the villain in the end.

So we can, if we evaluate what is actually a multi-life narrative from one life's perspective, so many things can seem unsaid also. So without understanding reincarnation, it's very, very difficult to make sense of the way people in the past culture act. So now, with respect to Ghatotkach, his negative karma was neutralized.

And was he used as a pawn? The point is, you could say, Abhiyan knew also the same thing happened to him. The Pandavas did not plan that way. Now was it that Ghatotkach, he was so powerful at that time, he could have killed Karna.

Now you could say it in that way that Ghatotkach provoked Karna and he made Karna take a wrong step. So by that, it was Karna's foolishness at that time that he used his powerful weapon over there. So war involves certain strategies and the Pandavas used a particular strategy.

Now Ghatotkach was killed by that. But Ghatotkach was eliminated by that. Somebody, some soldiers have to die.

Is it that Ghatotkach was forced into that fight without his knowledge? All those warriors who fought over there, they knew that they may die. And they were ready for dying. They knew that by dying in a war, fighting heroically will be elevated to a higher destination.

So with that understanding, they were fighting. Ghatotkach was fighting a dharmic war and he got elevated by that. Now the Pandavas asking him to… It was not that the Pandavas were sitting back in their palace enjoying life while Ghatotkach was fighting.

The Pandavas were also fighting. Arjuna was also fighting. Now one particular battle was fought between Karna and Ghatotkach.

In that battle, Ghatotkach fell. So was it like a diabolical plan to send Ghatotkach into the jaws of death? No. Ghatotkach, on a previous day, even wounded and caused Duryodhana to faint.

Ghatotkach was not like a sissy. He is not like a weakling. He is a powerful creature.

And apart from Krishna, did other people know that Ghatotkach was so powerful that Ghatotkach would force Karna to use his Shakti weapon? The war has so many unpredictabilities. It was just a strategy. Now when, on the final day between when Arjuna and Karna were going to fight on 17th day, at that time, Duryodhana told other soldiers, other generals, you fight with Arjuna.

Fight with him, fight with him and exhaust him. And then when he fights with Karna, at that time, Karna will be able to better position to defeat him. He did not tell them that you, we say, you know, exhaust him first.

Then you fight with him. Now in this sense, because Duryodhana was sending those warriors to the jaws of death, because in fighting, challenging Karna, Arjuna, there is a strategy. For your best warrior to have the best chance of winning, others have to create the ground.

So Arjuna was the best warrior on the side of the Pandavas and he had to create a ground, a ground had to be created for him. And Ghatotkach, it was, was it that Ghatotkach was systematically planned that Ghatotkach would be killed by Shakti weapon? Did somebody from the Pandavas stay in the, in the spur of the years of Karna that, no, you use the Ghatotkach Shakti to kill him? It was not a diabolical plan. It was a calculated war strategy.

And the purpose was not that Ghatotkach be killed. It could be that Ghatotkach was even wounded also. Or Ghatotkach could have bested with Karna and Karna could have got wounded.

In a war, battles are going to take place. And which warrior to deploy when, that is simply a matter of strategy. What would have been offering him into the sacrificial fire would be that none, all the Pandavas go back to their camp and they relax at, safe at their camp and they tell Ghatotkach, you fight for us.

That would be just putting him into the fire and sacrificial, a poor plan. But here they are all fighting. And he is also fighting.

He has voluntarily chosen to fight. And he has jubilated the opportunity. Actually, initially when Karna, Karna's equals, you could say, is Ashwathama.

And Ashwathama, when Ghatotkach started fighting Ashwathama says, you are Bhima's son, you are my son. Don't fight with me. Just go away before I get angry and I kill you.

So Ghatotkach gets furious and Ghatotkach says, I am as powerful as Ravana. You think I am insignificant? I will show you my prowess. And he just attacks and he overpowers temporarily Ashwathama.

So the point I am making is, for Krishna to ask Ghatotkach to fight with Karna, that is an honor for Ghatotkach. It is like in a cricket match, you know, there is a, the best bowlers of the opposing team are going to open. And if a new batsman is told, you go and, you are, you go to, you be the opener batsman, opening batsman.

Now in one sense it is a very difficult thing for that player to do. But in another sense that player is being trusted, that you have the ability to face that. Now he may get out but still batted for some time.

He weathered their attack for some time. So it was, Ghatotkach saw that as a privilege that he thinks, that Krishna thinks that I am capable of fighting with Karna. And then he says, I will fight a war, the likes of which has never been seen in history.

So he jubilated the opportunity. So if you look at the whole picture, not just that Ghatotkach was sent to death. But that, you know, but that there is a war going on and decisions had to be taken.

And the Pandavas themselves were fighting. Ghatotkach was fighting willingly. Karna's actions could not have been predicted what he would do.

The Pandavas or Krishna did not tell Karna to use the Shakti weapon. So we see all this and it was simply a, simply a war strategy. It was not a self-serving, sadistic kind of plan to have Ghatotkach killed.