Mahabharata Characters 03 – Bhishma 02 – The fatal complication
This talk is a part of the “Fascinating Mahabharata Characters” series. To know more about this course, please visit: bhakticourses.com
Transcription :
Transcribed by : Sadananda Das
Welcome back to the fascinating Mahabharat series. Today we will continue with the discussion of Bhisma.
In the last discussion we stopped at the point where Bhisma had taken his fearsome, formidable and extraordinary vow to remain celibate even while being leading a life of royalty.
Soon after Santanu married Satyavati he had two children: Citrangada and Vicitravirya. Citrangada was a formidable and a glorious ksatriya. His fame became so much that his fame spread even in the celestial regions. In the celestial regions there was a celestial gandhava of the same name Citrangada and he could not tolerate the fame of this earthly Citrangada; and he challenged him to a fight. And also Bhisma was the older brother; but when one ksatriya is challenged to a fight by another ksatriya nobody can come to intervene. So, the two Citrangada fought and although it was a long and fierce fight, eventually the Gandharva won and he killed Citrangada. Then only one son named Vicitravirya remained.
In the Vedic culture there was monarchy. Monarchy is different from dictatorship that we have today. Dictatorship or autocracy where often the power is vested in one person; and that one person is often untrained, power hungry, brutal, exploitative and corrupt, and such a person’s rule makes the lives of subjects into a living hell often. That was not the kind of king that would be there in the Vedic culture. Monarchy means that one king will be there, but it will be a divine monarchy in the sense that the king would be trained by competent leadership and guides, and there would be a dynasty which would go generation after generation, and the kings would be trained in that dynastic succession and a son would be begotten in such a dynasty. The princes would right from the early childhood receive training from the ministers, king, sages and the Brahmins; and such a person would know the spiritual values of life and would know that he is meant to rule the kingdom as a representative of God and take care as a servant leader of the citizens, both materially and spiritually.
Normally there is also the principle of Karma that is involved over here, and when a Brahmana and a brahmini unite in a proper brahminical way they attract a soul of brahminical disposition into their lives, and then such a soul takes forward the brahminical qualities which have been brought from the actions of the previous lives that were done. That’s how the soul has taken birth in a brahminical family, and a person also gets further brahminical qualities developed by being brought up in a brahminical
upbringing culture. Both ways the brahmincial qualities gets reinforced; and similarly with respect to the ksatiya qualities also. So, the birth was not all important, but birth is also not unimportant, because we understand that birth does not happen by chance. This life is not the only life, and birth in a particular family is determined by one’s karma. That means that when a Ksatriya and a ksatrani unite together and they are properly married in a proper cultured way, then the soul who is attracted to their womb through them to the world is a soul who has ksatriya qualities from a previous life, and those ksatriya qualities are again supplemented or further developed and complemented by this life’s upbringing; and this way a competent king would be there in the linage. Now competent king was needed and Vicitravirya was to become that king because Bhisma had taken the vow that he would not become the king.
When Maharaja Santanu departed from the world, Vicitravirya was supposed to become the king, and now because Vicitravirya didn’t have any father the responsibility fell on his elder brothers. So, Bhisma himself decided to arrange for the marriage of his brother. It is a difficult responsibility because he is young, virile, powerful, handsome and a glorious male himself. And he had to arrange not a queen for himself, but a queen for his brother and he went around this task and went to the swambhar where three princess: Amba, Ambika and Ambalika were being offered and there are various ways in which the ksatriya’s have their marriages done. So, the swambharas happen at different ways in different times. In some cases certain test is set and the purpose of the test is that the most meritorious ksatriya would be able to win. Bhisma thought that it was a similar test that has been set up over here. When this came up he challenged all the ksatriyas over there. He challenged and they were surprised, and they fought with him and Bhisma overpowered all of them, and after overpowering all of them he came like a hawk and powerfully without being stopped by anyone he won the swambhara and took all these three princes and he returned to his kingdom, Hastinapur with all the three princess in tow. Now in the heat of the moment the whole plan was that he did not expect any complications because Swambhara means that the most competent ksatriya shows his prowess and then that ksatriya wins the princesses. Now he had showed his prowess and now he had desired the princess not for himself but for his brother. But by the time he reached his kingdom one of the kings who offered his stiffest resistance was King Salya, and Salya fought fiercely and it was an intense fight but eventually Bhisma had overpowered him also, and after being overpowered he left.
Then by the time after heat of moment was getting over and they reached and they introduced to princess to Vicitravirya, Amba one of the three princesses approached him and told him that she had already given her heart to Salya and the plan was that in the Swambhara – Salya was also a valorous prince and he would win her in the Swambhara, but they had not anticipated Bhisma’s power, and that’s why although
Salya had although tried his best he had been overpowered, and she said that she had already given her heart to Salya. When Bhisma heard this he felt that this is a moral dilemma. Naturally if she wanted to marry someone else he did not want to force her to get married to someone else. So, he honorably had her arranged to return back to Salya. Now when she went to Salya, Salya was already mortified because he had already been defeated in a war and as per the code of ksatriya honor he felt that he had been dishonored by the defeat, and so he said, “You have already been carried away by another man Bhisma and I cannot accept you.” So, Amba felt her heart breaking under her and she said, “No, I didn’t go willingly. I was carried away forcibly and the first opportunity I got to explain things to him I did explain to him, and immediately he has sent me back honorably. Please accept me. What can I do?” Salya felt his ksastriya honor, “How can I accept her as a queen. I am meant to set the rule for others, I have to be exemplary. A woman who has lived with another man, how can I accept her as my queen? What example would I be setting for my citizens by this?
She said, “No, but it was all against my will and nothing unproper has happened between us.” Salya said, “Bhisma has carried you away. He should either marry you away or he should give you to Vicitravirya.” Now Vicitravirya by this time had also heard about Amba’s desire and when Amba went back to Hastinapur he said that, “How can I accept a woman who is my wife but whose heart is longing for some other man, who is sighing for some other man.” Then she said, “Bhisma you had arranged all this. So, you are responsible. So, now you should marry her.” Then Bhisma said, “I can’t do that because I have taken a vow of celibacy. You know that it is impossible.” So, he said, “I will have you honorably returned back to your father’s place.”
Amba said, “I cannot go back to my father’s place. I have been utterly dishonored over there. What face will I show over there in that kingdom?” Life sometimes is so complex. It throws us in dilemmas which has no easy resolution, and when he saw that Bhisma was unrelenting she decided to go to the forest, and in the forest she met various sage’s and she just refused to go back to her kingdom, and she went on her own to a hermitage of sages in the forest and started crying bitterly. The sages were large hearted and they asked her what was the cause of her grief and she explained to them. One of the sages there was actually her grandfather who had been a rajasri and now had renounced the world and had become a rishi. He was angered and he said that such a person should be punished. He said, “Bhisma has wronged you and he should be punished. Wait for some time. Let Parsuram come here. Parsuram is going to come and he is not only a brahmana but also has kastriya prowess, and Bhisma is his student. Surely he will set things right for you.” Parsuram soon came there and once he came there it was a terrible thing that happened in the sense that Amba was crying bitterly, grievously and finally her whole plight was told. Then Parsuram told, “I have
already given up my weapons. I am not going to fight anymore. I have fought against the ksatriya’s twenty one times and I will not fight anymore.”
She said, “Please, how can you see such injustice happening. Please help me.” Parsuram said, “Ok, how can I help you right now. I will not take up arms again, but if a brahmana asks me I will not refuse.” And finally one of his own disciples seeing Amba’s plight and grief and her helplessness requested, “Please do something to protect her.” So, Parsuram couldn’t refuse the request of a brahmana. And now we have to understand that it was not that Parsuram was unwilling to help, but he had already fought against the world ksatriyas twenty one times and his feeling was that, “I had already fought and it is not proper for a brahmana to pick up weapons. But I have done that because I had to protect brahminical culture. Kartivir Arjuna who represented Ksatriyas had become so power hungry, insensitive, uncultured and so cruel that he had dared for a small reason to kill a great rishi and my father Jamadagni.” So, he had rid the world of the impious ksatriyas 21 times, but thereafter he felt that now the impious ksatriyas have been removed from the world, and then he had actually bathed in the seventh panchak and he had performed austerities and he had decided to give up his weapons. So, he was not ready to take up weapons again but when a brahmana requested the idea was that still he was a brahmana and he felt that he had responsibility to protect the brahminical culture and so he accepted the request, and then he went to Bhisma. When Bhisma saw that Parsuram who happened to be his martial teacher came there he offered him the highest respect and he offered him all grace and honor; but Parsuram was still angry. He said after having the story of Amba; “What have you done. You have ruined this woman’s life. You must set things right and marry her.”
Bhisma looked at his preceptor gravely and he said, “You know that I have taken a vow and I cannot break my vow, and therefore I cannot marry her.”
Parsuram said, “If you do not marry her, then you have to fight with me.”
Parsuram was very angry and he goaded Bhisma, and Bhisma said, “You are my worshipable elder and I cannot fight with you, but still I cannot dishonor my word, and as you are not considering the whole situation and you are giving me an instruction which is against dharma.” Now actually ksatriya dharma is very complex over here. Bhisma had taken a vow at another time, at another place that he would never marry so that he would not have any progeny who would act as competitors to Satyavati’s progeny. On the other hand ksatriya’s also has another duty that when a woman asks for shelter from him he cannot refuse that shelter. Now what was he to do? This is what we will see repeatedly in the Mahabharat; there is moral conflict and there is ethical conflict. Moral
conflict means that one thing is right and then another thing is wrong, and then moral conflict requires inner strength. Suppose somebody is tempted by something, it is clearly wrong. Say a husband and wife have a relationships but one of them is tempted for some extra marital relationship. There their lines of morality are fairly clear that it is immoral, and one needs inner strength to just resist the temptation. Not easy in some situations, but what it requires primarily is moral strength. But in contrast, with that ethical crisis is, when there are two options there are two courses of action possible and both of them have some morality in it. But which is a higher morality and which is lower morality is something which is difficult to decide at such a time. That was what had happened to Bhisma over here. He had on one side given his word that he would never marry, and second was that Ksatriya had to protect. So, which was he to follow? He felt in this situation that he had no desire to ruin Amba’s life, but he just felt that things had become complicated without his intention and he had done what he could to set things right; he had sent her honorably back to Shalya, he was ready to honorably sent her back to her father, but she was not able to accept it and she felt that his vow of celibacy was not important. That was also important, but it was that he did not want to go against the fact that he had forsaken the kingdom, and he did not want any future conflict. If he was married and had sons they might stake claim and it would lead to conflict. It was not just the fact that he had taken a vow, and it was not just his vow, and it was not just the fact that he wanted to be known as a celibate. That was one aspect of it, but the purpose of the vow of celibacy was so that he could sacrifice for his father’s happiness, and so that that dynasty and that line from his father to Satyavati would continue. Now he had that larger point to keep also. It might seem that it would be easy; there is a woman begging him to accept her and why is he saying no just for the sake of his vow. It was not just for the sake of his vow. Actually he was also thinking; Bhisma we will see later also, he tries his best to avoid internecine conflict in the Kuru dynasty. As much as possible he tries to avoid it, and his refusal here was also motivated by his desire to avoid conflict among the Kurus in the future. So, he refused, and now because of his desire to avoid the future conflicts within the Kuru dynasty he had to now face a conflict with his own teacher.
Parsuram then said, “I challenge you for a fight. If you are not going to follow my instructions you must fight with me.” And then they both decided that the fight would be held in Kurukshetra, and then Parsuram appeared before him on the war field, and Bhisma also came there, Bhisma’s supporters were there, Parsuram’s supporters also came, there were Brahmins and others. Amba was also there, and then Bhisma asked Parsuram, “I am on a chariot. Where is your chariot? How can I fight with you?” Parsuram laughed. He said, “I don’t need a chariot.” He gave a series of poetic verses saying the earth itself is a chariot, the wind will be my horses and the Vedas will be my
arrows. Like that he gave a metaphorical description of how he as a Brahmin was going to fight, and from the ground itself he shot a volley of arrows, and surprised by the ferocity and the speed of that attack Bhisma countered, and as he countered he found that just as the arrows were settling down he found that suddenly there was a magnificent and giant chariot had appeared. And the same disciple of Parsuram who was Kritavarman who had actually earlier asked him to fight on behalf of Amba had now become his charioteer, and there was a fierce fight. That fight went from morning to evening, and when the fight got over in the evening Bhisma and Parsuram would get off their chariots and Bhisma would go down and bow before Parsuram as his elder, and then they would act very cordially thereafter. And this happened for five days. In the course of the fight at one particular fight Bhisma shot a set of arrows so fiercely that the arrows almost pierced through Parsuram and he fell unconscious. Seeing this all the Brahmins cried out in sorrow, and even Bhisma was struck by grief. He thought, “What a lamentable thing have I done. What a grievous act I have done that I have shot my own preceptor.” That was very bad. Then he quickly looked up and he found that Parsuram had got up. His body was bloody but he was licking his lips in anger, and Parsuram said, “Bhisma just watch.” And Parsuram’s feeling enraged at this severe blow by Bhisma shot back fiercely. In a short time he shot such arrows that Bhisma just couldn’t counter and Bhisma was thrown off his chariot by the sheer force of the arrows that hit him and he fell a long distance away, and all the Brahmins in the side of Parsuram cheered but still they thought that Bhisma would be knocked down and killed but Bhisma got up and the fight went on day in and day out, and like that the fight went on for over twenty days. Finally they just didn’t know that 27 days happened and Bhisma started tiring. He said, “How will I ever be able to overcome?” At that time as he was thinking in the evening and the next morning, during that time he had a vision, and it said that, “You are actually meant to win this. So, you will get a weapon.” He saw some mystical vision in which he saw some sages and the sages said that, “Use this weapon and by this you will win.” He had several celestial weapons already with him, and he was given a particular weapon also, and he used that weapon, and the next morning as the fight was going on he took this weapon and then when he put that Samprasa weapon on his arrow and he was about to shoot, at that time when Parsuram saw that weapon – he was well versed in all the weapons and he knew that this weapon could not be countered, and he said, “Alas Bhisma. Now I am dead.” And Parsuram almost put aside his bow, and as he took that fearsome fatal weapon on his bow and arrow certainly inauspicious omens came in the sky, and as inauspicious omens came in the sky, at that time the great sages appeared over there. The astharishis appeared and the other sages appeared, and they told Bhisma, “The time for Parsuram’s death has not come. Please don’t use this weapon.”
Actually before this Ganga devi had come before the battle had started and when she saw that they were about to assemble in a martial spirit she asked, “What had happened? What was going on?” She came to know that her very dear, cherished and beloved son was going to fight with a formidable Parsuram. She was horrified, and she first begged first to Bhisma, “Please don’t fight.” He said, “No, he has challenged. I have to fight.” And then she went back to Parusram, “Please he is your younger. Please don’t fight with him.” He said, “He has refused to follow my instructions. So, I have to fight with him. Unless he obeys my instructions there is no other way.” Ganga had been grieving, but at this particular point various celestials came and told to Bhisma, “Do not use this weapon.” Meanwhile Parsuram had not seen this and he had put aside his bow, and then as he was about to shoot the bow Parsuram put aside his weapons. The celestials told Bhisma that this arrow should not be shot. Then Bhisma was caught in a dilemma, “Should I or should I not shoot?” On one side he knew that this was the weapon by which he would win; on the other side he didn’t want to disobey the sages. Also he had never really wanted to fight with his preceptor. Seeing all these considerations he hesitated, and then finally Parsuram not knowing he thought that he was going to be defeated, and then he put aside his weapon. And then when no arrows came and Parsuram did not pick his weapons, then Bhisma also put aside his weapon, and went and fell at the feet of Parsuram, and Parsuram embraced him and said, “You have become my most illustrious disciple. I am proud of you.” And after that Parsuram turned towards Amba and he told her, “You have seen me exert myself to the fullest capacity. There is nothing more than I can do. Now you can go wherever you like.” In this way Bhisma demonstrated what a formidable warrior he was; that that great warrior who had overpowered the Ksatriyas 21 times singlehandedly was in a sense vested by Bhisma. Parsuram could not overcome Bhisma and Bhisma almost overcame Parsuram but he did not kill him at the instructions of the Ksatriyas. Now Amba, she felt fury, helplessness, bitterness, all come up within her heart. Sometimes life offers very strange and terrible twists to us, and when this happens there is not much that we can do about it. We just have to accept it, and we just understand that this is my past karma coming upon me, and if I don’t accept it, then it will create further problems for me in the future. But unfortunately instead of accepting the karmic complications – that does not mean that we have to accept injustice, but it just means that in responding to what has happened if we create further complications and do further activities which complicate and aggravate, then we all get trapped in a whole net of Karmic entanglements from which there is no easy way out. That is what happened to Amba. She performed a lot of austerities, and she stood on the banks of a river and performed austerities; then Ganga Devi came there. She asked, “What are you doing?” And then she told her, “Actually I want to take revenge against Bhisma. He said, “This is a very impious desire that you have. Whatever has happed is because of one’s karma, and so one should not desire to
take revenge against others. Just accept it and don’t have such an evil desire.” She said, “No, I cannot give up this desire.” Then Ganga cursed her that she would change into a dry and ugly river; and because of Ganga’s curse that is what happened to Amba, but because she had also performed a lot of austerities and because of the power of her austerities half of her part became a river, but the other part remained. And eventually she performed a lot of austerities, pleased Lord Siva, and Lord Siva told her, “I want to be the cause of the death of Bhisma.” Lord Siva said, “So be it.” She said, “How will it be possible?” Lord Siva said, “This will definitely happen. This is my word.” Then she performed austerities, and the saying “For the sake of the death of Bhisma.” She eventually gave her body. And in her next life she was born as Shikandhi. Actually she or he was born as a female. At that time Drupada had performed austerities and he had done yajna to Lord Siva to get a son. And Lord Siva said, “Yes, the yajna had been done well.” but eventually when the child was born they found that the child was not a male, but a female. And they were extremely disappointed. But then the Drupada’s queens said that, “Actually Lord Siva’s words will definitely come true. If he said it is prince it will be prince.” Then they had the news spread in the kingdom that he had got a son, and now he was a girl, and they got news that he is a son, and a very few selected palace confidents knew about the truth. Now as the prince or the princess whatever you want to call; Shikandhini or Shikandini whatever you call, as he grew up and when the time of the marriage came Drupada decided to have the marriage done with a princess because he was a prince, and then they were shocked that how is it possible. The king and the queen were in dilemma, but they said, “No, Lord Siva has said that the words will come true”, and then finally they got the marriage done with a powerful king of a neighboring kingdom, and then the marriage was done and the princess came to the kingdom, and then eventually the news came out and the princess came to know that she had been married to not a boy but to a girl. He was horrified and he sent news to his father and his father was enraged, and he came with an army right to attack Drupada. Now Drupada had his army but still this king was a formidable king, and how was he going to fight alone and singlehandedly against all of them? He didn’t want to have bloodshed and he was thinking of ways to avoid it. In the meanwhile Shikandhi Shikandhini felt very morose that she had become the cause of great conflict and she left home, and then she went into the forest and in the forest she saw a palace. When she went to the forest she was crying and some yakshas were there; the forest belonged to the yakshas and the yakshas were kindly people. Now some yakshas are kindly and some yakshas are brutal; even among the celestials there are different kinds. So, this yakshas were kindly and they asked, “What has happened? We will help you.” She said, “Nobody can help me.” They said, “No. We have special powers. We can help you. What is it?” At that time she agreed. Shikandhini told the whole story and as she was crying bitterly and telling the whole story, this yakshas said, “I will definitely help
you.” Still not with much hope he asked, “But how can you help me?” He said that, “For the time period I will offer you my gender.” This was gender transfer without a surgery. The celestials have higher powers and they were able to do such things. This was quite miraculous and when she came back to the kingdom; she now had become a he. When the news came to the princess, the princess came and met the prince and she found that the he is a prince and not a princess, and she was mystified and also delighted. And Drupada had sent a message to the invading king that, “There has been some misunderstanding. Don’t doubt anything. If you want you can come and check with your own daughter.” and when he came and checked with his daughter he checked that everything was alright, and then the two kings met cordially and everything was settled.
In the meanwhile the yaksha who had done this favor he was modified because he had temporarily become a female. At that time Kuvera came to the Yaksha’s palace as he was travelling through the heavens and when he saw that his assistant is not coming to meet him, he asked, “What is happening?” And in this way the whole issue became quite complex.
Hare Krishna.
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna welcome back to the Mahabharata characters series part 2 we are discussing the second part of the life of Bhishma in the previous class we discussed about Bhishma’s life till the dramatic point when he took away the three queens three princesses Amba, Ambika and Ambalika for marrying with his brother Chitravirya so as he took away these queens these princesses the assembled kings were surprised and then infuriated at the audacity of somebody just taking these princesses away in their presence they had all come in the hope that they would become the bride so they all challenged Bhishma and Bhishma single-handedly defeated all of them now this was a moment of great heroism in fact one of the greatest heroic feats of Bhishma of course there are many heroic feats in life but this was single-handedly he defeated all the kings and among the various kings Shalya gave the fiercest fight but there was an intense but short-lived struggle and Bhishma’s superior strength and skill overpowered Shalya and he left and as Bhishma took all these three princesses back to the kingdom of Hastinapur then he presented them to the royal assembly so that they could be married to Vichitravirya and when they were to be married to Vichitravirya at that time Amba spoke out and she said that actually I had already given my heart to Shalya and the plan was that in the Swayamvar he would select me and I would select him and in that way we would get married and I can’t marry anyone else so here what happened is that Bhishma realizing that her desire was very strong, he respected her desire he did not force her to submit to her fate of marrying Vichitravirya so here we see that women’s consent is not neglected it is considered important and when she had already given her heart to someone else Bhishma respected her desire and honorably arranged to have her escorted back to the kingdom of Shalya but when she reached there in the kingdom of Shalya at that time Shalya told her that I cannot accept you now I am meant to set the law for everyone and according to the things that transpired in public view you were taken by another man and you have lured in another person’s palace and how can I who am meant to live an exemplary life and set the law for others act in a way that is in violation to the laws in Vedic culture as well as in most traditional cultures a woman’s chastity is considered very important a woman’s chastity is her dharma and this chastity of the woman is meant to protect her and protect society because people in general have lust and this lust if it is not regulated it can become a monster that ruins people not just spiritually but also materially spiritually it blinds them to their real spiritual life which they are meant to attain by practicing dharma and developing love for Krishna and returning back to Krishna and even materially lust if it is uncontrolled makes people do ghastly things which lead to complete chaos madness in society so therefore that has to be regulated and one regulation for lust is through repeatedly emphasizing the importance of chastity among women so by that emphasis women as well as men are encouraged to not take dalliance in lust trivially to recognize its seriousness and thereby reserve the sex to its proper sanctified place within the sacred bonds of marriage so now it’s for a woman to have lived with another man and then to be accepted by some other man that is not proper for a king because that would reflect to society that the king is attached and that’s why the king is marrying a woman who has apparently committed a dharma even if she has not actually committed a dharma in the public vision she has lived in another man’s house and that’s why she has committed a dharma Shalya told her that you had gone willingly with Bhishma how can I accept you now so Amba protested no she said I didn’t go willingly I was taken and as soon as I got the opportunity I expressed my desire and when I expressed my desire immediately Bhishma arranged to have me sent over here so please accept me where will I go so Shalya refused to accept and heartbroken lamenting bitterly cursing her fate she decided where to go she felt so disgraced that she felt that there is no point in going back to her home she felt that she would not be accepted over there and she couldn’t go to Bhishma Shalya was not ready to accept her so crying and lamenting she went into the forest and as she was going through the forest there was an assembly of sages near a hermitage and those sages saw this princess crying so bitterly and they enquired the cause of her grief and one of those sages was Hotravahan Hotravahan was the maternal grandfather of Amba and he felt angered by her plight infuriated and he told her you don’t have to go back to your kingdom if Shalya is not accepting, actually it is Bhishma’s fault that he took you away like that and therefore it is Bhishma who has to reinstate you and therefore you wait here Parashuram is soon going to come here when Parashuram comes, I know Parashuram quite well, he is a brahmana he is a saintly person and he will want virtue to prevail and he will arrange to rectify your situation and soon after that Parashuram came and she told her plight and she begged him please help me, so by this time Amba had become filled with revengefulness and fury she felt that Bhishma had put me in this plight and therefore Bhishma should die and then Parashuram asked what do you want me to do I can ask Shalya to marry you or I can ask Bhishma to marry you whoever you say, they will accept my will, so at that time Amba said no I simply want the destruction of Bhishma, he has destroyed my life, he has ruined my life and his life should be ruined and destroyed so Parashuram was unwilling to lift up weapons again he had because the Kshatriyas had become very oppressive so he had actually destroyed several generations of Kshatriyas and after that he had given up his weapons and he decided that I will not lift up my weapons unless another emergency comes up and a Brahmana asks me to lift the weapons so seeing her piteous cries another Brahmana Akrutavan who was also a sage and was actually a disciple of Parashuram he requested Parashuram please help her and then at that time Parashuram marched to the kingdom of Hastinapur and called out Bhishma, Bhishma saw his martial teacher, his spiritual teacher offered obeisances and Parashuram was not pacified, he was furious and he said what have you done ruining the life of this lady, now you should if you have taken her, you should marry her so Bhishma replied firmly respectfully but firmly he said I don’t see any virtue in what instruction you are giving now what man can ever marry a woman who is sighing for someone else and moreover I have taken a vow of celibacy and I cannot break that vow, I see because there is no virtue in your instruction I will not follow it in fact the sacred scriptures have said that if the spiritual master gives an instruction that is in violation with Shastra if the spiritual master deviates the spiritual master should be rejected therefore I feel no hesitation in rejecting what you are telling me and Parashuram’s anger flamed up and he said if you are not going to accept what I am going to do you have to fight with me and Bhishma accented and both of them they wanted to have a fight but not in the civilian area so they went to the Kurukshetra field and they had a fierce fight the fight went on for 23 days and several times during that fight once Parashuram knocked down Bhishma then Bhishma knocked down Parashuram and Bhishma felt mortified no have I killed my spiritual teacher but then Parashuram got up and Parashuram fought fiercely and again Bhishma was knocked down and Bhishma knocked down Parashuram to and fro it went on and on and on from morning to night and night as per Kshatriya Kandak they would meet together and live in friendly terms and finally on the 23rd day Bhishma was exhausted and he was wondering how will I be able to win this war at that time 8 celestial Brahmins came in the sky and they told him do not worry you will soon be victorious and they revealed a special weapon a Prashuap weapon and they told him that he use this weapon to knock down Parashuram he will not be able to counter it and then after that using another appropriate weapon you revive him and that will end the war so on the next 24th day as the war became fierce Bhishma used this Prashuap weapon as soon as he took up the Prashuap weapon inauspicious signs started coming up in the whole universe and the Devata started coming up in the sky and suddenly Bhishma heard a voice do not use this weapon and Bhishma neglected that and suddenly the Devata came in his vision and they said stop it don’t use this weapon and then Bhishma saw the same 8 Brahmins who had come and they said don’t use this weapon Parashuram is not meant to die and in Vinayila Parashuram had seen the Prashuap weapon he recognized the weapon he said oh I am finished now Parashuram started lamenting and Parashuram lamented in this way at that time the sages also went to Parashuram and they told him do not fight with Bhishma Bhishma is not meant to die right now eventually through the arrangement of Arjuna Bhishma will die many years later you cannot defeat him and in this way by telling both the parties to agree for peace they ended the war Bhishma went and offered obeisances to Parashuram in fact before the war also Bhishma had offered obeisances to Parashuram that was their etiquette and Parashuram embraced him and he said proudly your martial skills are in every way equal to mine and I am proud of you and then he turned to Ambani and said you have seen me exert to my fullest capacity I can’t do anything now you can go wherever you want so thereafter she went away and she decided to do fierce austerities and she went on and did a lot of austerities ultimately she propitiated Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva asked her what do you want she said I want the destruction of Bhishma that was her singular desire and then he told her that yes that’s what will happen eventually he said how will it happen I am a female how will it happen it will happen eventually and he bent away and then she continued doing her austerities in Vatsakshetra Vatsabhumi and thereafter she entered into a fire saying that for the destruction of Bhishma I enter into this fire and in this way she ended her life so here we see a very tragic thing happening with Amba now in scriptures we may wonder who is to blame so rather than trying to assign blame we have to understand that sometimes destiny hands us undesirable things and when we protest and try to seek revenge we simply complicate things so sometimes things just become so complex from the Kshatriya core point of view Bhishma was right in taking her and Bhishma was also right in honoring her and sending her back then she was right in pursuing her heart’s desire and Shalya was right in not accepting a woman who had been with somebody else although she had not been physically intimate with anyone but she had lived with somebody else so who is to be pinpointed to be wrong over here? The point is that sometimes in material life things become so complex that there is no immediate resolution available so at that time we have to make the best of what life gives us out so Amba if she had some foresight if she had thought about the situation then she could have gone on and married Shatravirya but she did not do that and by now of course she could have said that I want to pursue the heart’s calling but when things come up complex in our life and suddenly suffering comes upon us due to a quirk of fate like this then we don’t gain much by pointing faults at others. Yes was it Bhishma’s fault? Was it her own fault? Was it Shalya’s fault? Whose fault was it? Now when things come up problems come up in a way that it is not very easy to pinpoint fault at that time we simply accept that this is ultimately my own karma coming to us and we tolerate it the best possible way and prepare for a better future but instead if we focus on trying to get revenge then we miss out on the whole opportunity that is there through that karmic suffering to rise to a higher level of spiritual insight so Amba was eventually born as Shikhandi actually she was born as Shikhandi the female Shikhandi and eventually she became Shikhandi so the king of Panchala Drupada he did not have any children he was longing for a child but he did not have so he also worshipped lord Shiva so lord Shiva had been worshipped by Amba and lord Shiva had told her you will eventually become the cause of the death of Bhishma so here lord Shiva appeared to Drupada and his wife and Drupada said kindly grant me a son so lord Shiva said I will grant you a daughter who will become a son in the future so Drupada said no please I want a son no it is as my will as I have ordained you will have a daughter who will eventually become a son so then eventually his wife became pregnant and she got a daughter but having faith in the words of lord Shiva they told everyone that a prince had been born and the reality the gender of the child was known only to few confidential maids who did not reveal their secret to anyone and the child was dressed as a male trained as a male and the child learned to fight and horse ride and do all the things that a Kshatriya is meant to do and eventually when the child grew up to a marriageable age she was a female but she lived like a male she dressed like a male so when the marriage was to take place so Drupada’s queen said that you should get her married to a girl he said no how is that possible he said no lord Shiva’s word is there so it will happen and so there was a powerful king Hiranyavarman and the great pomp and festivity the marriage took place between Hiranyavarman’s daughter and Shikhandi or Shikhandini and then eventually after marriage when Hiranyavarman’s daughter discovered that her husband was actually a female she was mortified and she sent a message to her father and the father was infuriated and he sent a messenger to Drupada saying what is this nonsense you have done how have you humiliated me like this I am going to attack you and destroy you for this terrible thing that you have done Drupada was horrified he did not want any unnecessary bloodshed and he didn’t know what to do his wife told him to keep faith and meanwhile Shikhandini she felt that she had become the cause of such great unnecessary destruction for her father and she decided to go to the forest when she went to the forest at that time she went into a she was crying bitterly and in the forest she saw a palace and in that palace she saw a beautiful arrangement of flowers and gardens and things it was like a palace she sat there and was crying so that palace actually was one of the palaces of Yaksha and it was presided over by a principal servant of Yaksha Dhuna so this Stuna Stuna actually asked what has happened says I will help you please tell me what has happened no one can help me no you tell me I have Yaksha I have powers I will help you and Shikhandini told her whole story to her and he said that I will arrange for you to get my gender and you can go and you can resolve the conflict and then you come back and you give my gender back to me so gender change is not a new thing but there it was done by the arrangement of higher powers and then Iga got a gender change and she went back and when Hiranyavarman came in with his army Drupada sent a message and said there is no need for you to have this confrontation there has been a misunderstanding and miscommunication actually my child is a son and then he came along and he had Shikhandi tested to his satisfaction that he was a male and then when things were resolved at that time they formed a healthy stronger alliance and everything was resolved in the meanwhile while Stuna was in a female body at that time Yaksha Raj Kuvera came over there and he passed over the palace and he saw one of his palaces over there and he came out and when nobody came to welcome him he was annoyed and he asked where is the fool Stuna and then some of the palace residents the other Yaksha’s told him what had happened he said call him here he has disgraced the Yaksha’s by giving away his gender like this and Kuvera when Stuna came embarrassed in front of Kuvera and Kuvera cursed him because you didn’t value your gender and you gave up the gender so I curse you that you will not get the gender back he was shocked and other Yaksha’s said no please please you know actually he wanted to help someone else who was in distress and that’s why he did this so then Kuvera became a little pacified and he told as long as Shikhandi lives he will have that gender and eventually after that while Shikhandi dies you will get your gender back and that’s how Shikhandi became a male throughout his life and this story is actually told in the Mahabharata just before the Kurukshetra war wherein it is said that Bhishma told that I will not fight with Shikhandi because Shikhandi was a female and I have taken a vrata that I will not attack females so although now a male but I will see her as a female and therefore I will not fight and this is how the fate of Bhishma was sealed so here also we see that through the higher arrangement of lord Shiva Drupada got a son who eventually became the cause of the death of Bhishma we see that Drupada also got another son Dhrishtadyumna who became the cause of the death of Dronacharya so here we see that in the Mahabharata many of the characters worship devatas so even Yudhishthira Maharaj worships Surya to get the Akshaya Patra when they are in the forest and they need food so he gets the inexhaustible bowl by worshipping Surya Deva so why is that? actually in the Vedic hierarchy it is described that there is one supreme lord who is the prime minister and there are cabinet ministers so the cabinet ministers have their portfolios and they all are a part of the government the important point is to recognize the supreme authority and live in harmony with the supreme authority and if one understands that the devatas are representatives of the supreme lord and with that understanding one worships the supreme lord then that is not considered wrong that is a part of the Vedic culture but in today’s society many people get confused about who is the supreme and as far as the Mahabharata is concerned even within the Mahabharata there is Vishnu Saraswarna there is a Bhagavad Gita which does demonstrate the supremacy of Krishna so as long as one has a proper philosophical understanding then there is no confusion the devatas can be worshipped but today’s culture there is often a lot of confusion and that is why the Acharyas, the great saintly teachers encourage us to not increase our confusion and increase others confusion so we can respect the devatas if we happen to go through the temples but we don’t have to worship them directly and whatever fruits we can get from the worship of the devatas we can also get from the worship of Krishna but we will see that in the epics in the Mahabharata the devatas also play a significant role and Bhishma in this way what started out as an act of selfless service where he was actually going to arrange while remaining a celibate arrange for the marriage of his brother that very act ended up becoming the cause of his destruction such are the inconceivable quirks of faith that happen even in the life of great souls so when some things happen like this so Bhishma knew about this but Bhishma did not try to go against the working of faith he did not know when Amba was doing austerities he did not try to arrange to get her killed when Shikhandi knew he did not try to do anything against it he understood there is a higher plan so again what we learn even from the life of Bhishma is that when somehow things go wrong against our by complications which are just too difficult for us to handle then we have to accept them as the will of destiny and move forward faithfully in doing our duty without having knee jerk reactions which will implicate us further in karma so in the next class we will discuss about how Bhishma eventually got the possession of the Pandavas and started taking care of them and made various arrangements that eventually unfortunately led to the Kurukshetra war Thank you Hare Krishna