How could Bhima drink Dushashana’s blood?

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Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Question from Vasudev Chitra Prabhu. In the Mahabharata it is said that Bhima vowed to drink the blood of Duryodhana, of Dushyasana and also that Draupadi wanted to bathe her hair with the blood of those who had insulted her.
So this seems very gory. Are devotees meant to be violent like this? Even if they are Kshatriyas, then they could just have vowed to kill. Why take such gory vows which make them seem very bloodthirsty? Answer.
In the Mahabharata there is the Kshatriya ethos which is external and there is the bhakti essence that is internal. So we need to see both and both are important at different levels. So a Kshatriya is a fighter and in fighting one of the most important strategies is intimidation.
If an enemy is moral, if an enemy is shocked, if an enemy is disheartened, if an enemy is scared then it’s relatively much easier to defeat that enemy. It is said that the war is never lost till the war is lost in spirit. We never lose till we lose the will to fight or we lose hope.
So usually warriors do try to intimidate their opponents by creating by using various strategies. So for example, warriors may brag about their strengths. Warriors may exhibit their weapons and exhibit their skills.
So intimidation is a standard military strategy. So now when Bhima takes that vow that I will drink the blood of Dushyasana and I will break the thigh of Duryodhana now all this is definitely at one level because Draupadi was so grievously dishonored because the Pandavas were so atrociously dispossessed and wronged so definitely there was an outpouring of unbearable, unstoppable anger that was there at that time. So now this might seem very as I said, it might seem very bloodthirsty that he took such a vow but we see that Bhima also was ready to forego it all if a peaceful settlement was to take if an agreeable peaceful settlement was to take place.
So it’s not that his vow was driven, that his actions were driven only by anger and the drive for bloodthirsty revenge and nothing else. Although that was what prompted him to take that fearsome vow but he was ready to subordinate that to a higher principle if that was what was required and that’s why when Krishna went as Shanti Doodh Bhima also said that Oh Krishna, strive earnestly for peace and this statement was so surprising that Krishna teased Bhima Oh is it? I have heard that even fearsome warriors become fearful when war comes close have you also become fearful now? Bhima just rose up he said I am not fearful but I want to avoid unnecessary bloodshed this is a very simple, in the Shanti Parva section sorry in the Udyoga Parva which happens before the war starts this interaction comes up the point is Bhima was not simply a bloodthirsty warrior who was driven by nothing except revenge and bloodlust not at all he had understanding of higher principles and based on understanding of higher principles he was ready to go ahead and do whatever it took he was ready to do whatever it took to even subordinate the urge for revenge now in the war that happened there is no actually it is true that Bhima killed Duryodhana, killed Dushasana in a very brutal way brutal way means that Dushasana initially wounded Bhima and he started laughing so they were fighting with bows and arrows and Dushasana bested Bhima so Bhima got so angry that he just Bhima would normally fight with bow and arrow when he would get very angry he would just take his mace and charge into the enemy camp so he charged Dushasana and hit him on the head and while he was charging Dushasana was shooting arrows but Bhima was oblivious to all the arrows he pounded him on the head and the blow was so great that Dushasana was thrown off the ground thrown off the chariot onto the ground and Bhima pounced on him and then he ripped off his hand and threw his hand and blood started gushing out from the open wound in his hand the very hand which he had taken with which he had tried to disrobe Draupadi with which he had dragged Draupadi’s hair, he cut off that hand and then at that time he took the blood in his hand and he cupped the blood and then his whole face became covered with blood and then he took a sword and just killed and pierced it in Dushasana’s heart and cut it and killed him and then Bhima just got up and he said that this blood is sweeter than water, sweeter than my mother’s milk and sweeter than heavenly nectar and seeing Bhima in such fury with all his face covered with blood the Kauravas were completely scared in fact so scared that it was at that time Karna when he saw Bhima in this mood, Karna dropped his bow in unconcealed horror that they all thought that Dushasana that Bhima was like a Rakshasa who bloodthirsty Rakshasa who had drank blood and thought how can we fight with such a Rakshasa so Bhima essentially what was he doing, he was definitely taking revenge but along with that he was using the strategy of intimidation, this was the practically the 17th day and the war was coming to an end and Bhima wanted it to finish immediately so he had the Kshatriya spirit of fighting and later on when Gandhari asked him how could you have drunk the blood of Dushasana so how could you have done such a thing so Bhima told I did not let the blood pass through my lips so he had just taken the blood up to his mouth and he had kept it aside so the point is that the vow of taking of saying that I will drink blood that was an expression of anger and that was also a strategy and repeating that vow and appearing as if he had executed that vow was a strategy of intimidation but he was not just driven by a blood thirsty drive because he did subordinate himself he was ready to give up even in the vow of taking revenge if peace could be established amicably in mutually acceptable terms and even when he was in that fury of anger he did not let the blood actually pass through his lips so that means there was the principle of Kshatriya fury and Kshatriya honour and Kshatriya intimidation of opponent that opponents that Bhima operated by but at the inner level he also had awareness of higher dharmic principles and those higher dharmic principles he did not violate so we should not think of Bhima as blood thirsty but we should see him as as giving an went to a natural human and Kshatriya anger at being subjected to atrocity and using the standard strategy of intimidation for scaring opponents now Draupadi also said that unless I bathe my hair with the blood of my opponents I will not be peaceful but there is no evidence in the Mahabharata that she actually bathed her blood like that because the various Kshatriya opponents were killed at different times different Kauravas died at different times and some days the war went off some days the war stopped and those who had died they were given honourable cremations accordingly at various times they were given honourable cremations when the war got over so and even Draupadi went for those cremations along with the ladies of both the Kurus and Pandavas went for that went for those cremations of course they did not join actually in the cremations ladies were not supposed to go there but they also grieved for it so the point is that although Draupadi took that vow that is also that she never literally bathed her hair with the blood of her opponent it was not that Bhima after he killed Duryodhana he took the blood in his palms and went running right from the war field to the camps where Draupadi is and he offered the blood nothing like that happened so again the point is these are the ways these are in a Kshatriya culture these are the ways in which strong emotions are expressed and they are not to be taken literally but the emotions which are underlying them are to be understood so her fury at being dishonored in the public assembly is entirely understandable and it is this fury that we have to that she expressed through her anger now in today’s culture also sometimes people may say that people say when I get angry if you make me further angry I will do this to you I will do that to you now that is an expression of anger that is not something which is literally done so similarly we see this as an expression of anger as an expression of anger which was standard among Kshatriyas at that time we should not take it as an expression of literal bloodthirst either in Bhima or Duryodhana, Bhima or Draupadi thank you question