Mahabharata Characters 36 – Bhima 06 – Bhima decimates the Kauravas in the war’s first sixteen days

This talk is a part of the “Fascinating Mahabharata Characters” series. To know more about this course, please visit: bhakticourses.com

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Welcome back to the Mahabharata character series We are now discussing about Bhima And the Kurukshetra war is about to start So in the war Arjuna is The foremost warrior In terms of being the archer Who is unmatched But Bhima’s prowess Is in many ways no less And his heroic Deeds are also extraordinary So As the countdown to the war Began after Duryodhana Foolishly and arrogantly Rejected Krishna’s peace proposal Bhima was Waiting with almost a Bated breath at one level He was disappointed that Krishna’s peace mission Mission had failed At another level he was happy Because he knew now he would Be able to honour his word Although he had Taken a vow to Break the thigh of Duryodhana To rip off the arm of Dushyasana, the arm which had Disrobed and dragged His head Still he was Ready to put aside these woes If Krishna wanted peace Now of course the Pandavas And Krishna both knew That Duryodhana would not accept the peace proposal But the point was That If in the unlikely Event that Duryodhana would Accept the peace proposal then what? Bhima was ready that the lord’s desire is Higher than my word But he knew that For Duryodhana The highest was his own self interest And his own Arrogance at his own prowess And the prowess of his allies Of course Whom he considered to be his own extensions So In the war For the first ten days Bhishma was the commander of the Kauravas Actually throughout the war For the eighteen days Dhristadyumna remained the commander And Dhristadyumna was killed Only on the last day, last night Actually by Ashwathama So as Bhima Entered Into the war Now Bhima was extremely powerful warrior His body was As powerful as Thousands of Elephants And he had golden complexion He looked like a god His shoulders were like that of a lion His neck was like a Conch And his arms were like pillars And he had a magnificent Chariot which had A Symbol of A powerful looking Tiger which was made of silver With lapis lazuli on it So he was extremely A fearsome looking warrior When he would fight Bhima could also fight using bows and arrows But often when he would fight When he would really get into the heat of the fight He would just put aside his bow and arrow And jump into the Fray with his mace And just run into the enemy camp With such A terrible pace That nobody could Face him and he would be right in the middle Of the enemy just swinging his mace Round and round or sometimes just Swinging his punches round and round And neither the enemy’s blows nor The enemy’s arrows could Wound him And just the enemy would fall off from him And Sometimes Bhima would be such a Fearsome sight His whole body would be covered with blood And his whole body Would be reddish, the golden complexion Would be completely gone and the only white part Of his body would be his eyes The whitish White pupil, the white part of the eye Which would be seen and then He would be laughing And his white teeth would be there And would strike terror Just by the sight Of his Fearsome Prowess and appearance So Bhima Had his special days Of heroism And of course Bhima’s singular Most important activity was That he kept up his promise Of killing all the hundred Kauravas Including Dushyasan And Duryodhana So he started singling them out One by one by one and he was overpowering Them On the fourth day especially Every day he would kill one, two Three Kauravas and he would move forward Towards completing his goal On the fourth day he and Duryodhana Fought with each other fiercely And when Duryodhana saw that he could not Match Bhima then He ordered a whole Elephant division to charge towards Bhima And Bhima Looking at his fortune and he just got off his chariot And took a mace And started swinging around With the mace And pounding into the elephants Pounding them one by one By one and single handedly He destroyed the whole Elephant division Duryodhana was besides himself with rage Some of his brothers were there with him, some other warriors Were there with him and he killed him He screamed As he wanted to In anger as he wanted to destroy Bhima And he was just laughing Laughing and as the Warriors tore into him He tore them apart And right in front of Duryodhana’s eyes He killed eight of his brothers Duryodhana was mad He tried to attack Bhima And Bhima hit him so fiercely That Duryodhana fell unconscious over there So Overpowering was Bhima’s Exhibition of Skill and strength on that day That Duryodhana was Shaken to his very core Out of that evening that he went And asked Bhishma He said that On my side we are matchless warriors like you And Drona and so many Others and our army is almost Double of the Pandavas and yet how is it That we are being defeated What power is there on the side Of the Pandavas That they are able to win like this On that day that Bhishma spoke the glories Of Krishna and Duryodhana almost considered For a very short time Maybe Krishna is God So sometimes those who are demoniac They have to be shown God’s promise in their terms Of course those who are obstinate They will not accept any exhibition of promise But Bhima made Duryodhana Shaken To his very roots by Exhibiting his promise like that And of course everyday Bhima would exhibit promise But again especially he exhibited the promise on the 8th day When again There was a massive confrontation between him And Duryodhana And again Duryodhana was overpowered And Duryodhana was devastated and again Several of his brothers were killed So 17 of his Brothers were killed on That day and Bhima was Completely unstoppable And on Other side Arjuna was also overpowered Wrecking havoc among the Kauravas That evening again Bhishma again Duryodhana went to Bhishma and this time he did not ask How is it the Pandavas are winning Because he did not want to hear about Krishna’s glories So what did he say? He started accusing Bhishma You are not fighting fairly And that is why we are dying That is why our armies Are dying and we are being defeated He started accusing Of partiality and trying to goad him to fight And it was the next day again That Krishna Bhishma fought so fiercely That Krishna took up his chakra To protect Arjuna So again This was a Demonstration of Krishna’s glories Through words, through actions And the fourth night was a demonstration Of Krishna’s glories through words Not demonstration actually Verbalisation of his glories So both in one sense were Actuated by Bhima’s heroic deeds Now Madhvacharya has written a book On the Mahabharata called The Mahabharata Atparindranaya Where he analyses many Confusing or Controversial issues from Events and issues And he gives A deeper Perspective based on other shastras Or based on his mystical vision And he reconciles many things So the Mahabharata Atparindranaya Madhvacharya is actually He is said to be Vayuputra so he is Bhima and Hanuman Same person come again So he describes actually throughout How Bhima is the hero of the Mahabharata And in fact he goes even to the extent To say that actually the vow To kill Karna was taken by Bhima Actually how he says Is that Bhima took the vow That I will kill Duryodhana I will kill Vishwasana and Arjuna will kill Karna So he says that Actually it was Bhima who took the vow Through Arjuna and Arjuna seconded Yes I will kill Karna So of course we have to understand that in the spiritual realm There can be many bests And One particular analysis Can be used to glorify One particular person as heroic Another analysis can be used To describe another person as glorified As heroic And there doesn’t have to be any competition Between them Through this analysis we can also understand How Bhima plays such a central role And then After that After that When 10th day Bhishma fell And Bhima also felt remorse And he came and offered his respects to Bhishma And then Karna entered into the battle And We know very much about the rivalry Between Bhima and Duryodhana And they met on several occasions But there was a rivalry between Bhima and Karna also And actually It is often thought that Karna was The best archer better even than Arjuna But actually We will discuss more about this when we come to Arjuna But far from being better than Arjuna Whether Karna was Better than even Bhima Is open to debate Bhima fought with him on several occasions And though He was bested once But there were other occasions when he checked him And one occasion when he even overpowered him Bested him So at least at the very least It’s an equal verdict So let’s see this So now When Drona became the commander At that time Duryodhana requested That Please conquer Yudhishthira And 11th day he came very close to conquering Yudhishthira And only Arjuna came to the rescue And somehow he stopped So then Drona said that You are getting Arjuna out of the way Only then I will be able to honour my vow So then they decided that Susharman, the head of the Trigartas Will challenge Arjuna Trigartas and some Spatakas Will challenge and then they would take Arjuna Away from the main war So now when that happened actually Bhima Became The de facto Central warrior In the main battlefield On the side of the Pandavas And he took up the responsibility of Defending Yudhishthira Very seriously And he also fought Fiercely So on the 12th day Now once Arjuna was sidetracked in one sense Engaged at the side Then again Yudhishthira started charging Drona started charging to capture Yudhishthira And knowing that Bhima would stop Then another powerful king Who was The Who had a very Powerful elephant In fact his elephant Was named Supratika and his king was Bhagadatta and he was such A powerful king His elephant appeared to be like a Moving mountain on the field And Wherever he would go he would crush People And the Pandavas also had their Elephant division and their elephant also charged And these elephants Bang! They collided against each other But when they collided Supratika had his own Armour around his own body and himself was so Powerful that the Pandavas elephant Just crumbled and died Just by the force of the collision And Supratika, now Bhagadatta Himself was a formidable warrior And he could kill people on top of the elephant But just the elephant charging Around would crush chariots Crush warriors under And he was unstoppable So Bhima came to Challenge Bhagadatta And Bhima fought fiercely Shooting arrow after arrow Bhagadatta countered his arrows And Supratika was immune to his arrows And as he charged, charged, charged Right in On to Bhima And Bhima could do nothing He saw that his chariot was going to be crushed And just in the last moment Bhima leapt clear of his chariot His whole chariot was crushed by Supratika And as his chariot was Crushed by Supratika So Bhima was infuriated And rather than fleeing from the battle What did Bhima do? Bhima actually Charged towards the elephant itself The elephant was fierce but before the elephant could Turn around and run towards him Bhima just charged right Under the elephant and started pummeling him With his massive fist from below And The elephant in sheer fury Started screaming He swung around And as he swung around he suddenly Bhima was underneath but as the elephant swung around He came out of the body And the elephant seeing him just caught him in his trunk And seized him up And Bhima Would have been crushed Bhima was not only strong He was a warrior who was lightning fast And just in the speed Within which Bhima was caught in the trunk And he was raised up to be Hurled down by Supratika Bhima compressed his body And as he compressed his body Supratika would held him In his trunk Because Supratika tightened his body He slipped out And he slipped out And he ran again under Supratika Started pummeling him from below again and again So Bhima was In such mortal danger But Enraged elephant Whom other elephants couldn’t match Was stronger than Hundreds of elephants He was like a celestial elephant But Bhima did not flee Although he was Weaponless, he was carless He was In one sense defenceless But he was never defenceless His own fist and his own strength was such that he kept fighting And Hearing Supratika’s screams And recognising that he was Wrecking havoc, Krishna told Arjuna To come And actually Arjuna came and he challenged Supratika and Bhagavata And then reinforcements arrived and Bhima went on other chair and continued fighting So Bhima Even in the face of, right in the face Of death, he did not Flinch And he kept fighting Now On the 13th day When Abhimanyu went Inside the Chakravyuh And he was killed Bhima Was mortified Because he had assured Along with Yudhishthir Both of them had assured Abhimanyu Just break this Chakravyuh And we will follow you And from inside we will break this But Unfortunately he had no knowledge He could not have conceived Jaidrath would have a boon from Shiva By which he would stop us So Bhima felt especially guilty that He had not been able to protect his nephew After he had given a word Of course the biggest guilt was felt by Yudhishthir because Yudhishthir thought that I had sent him to jaws of death For my own protection So On the 14th day When Arjuna took the vow To kill Jaidrath And he just went Right into the enemy camp So we will discuss Arjuna’s victorious vow March later But on this day when Arjuna went Right inside Abhimanyu started feeling anxiety And when he started feeling anxiety What to do He said yesterday Abhimanyu was trapped Inside the enemy formation And he perished Now today Arjuna has gone to the enemy formation How would I let him go like this Alone Then he turned and said Satyaki You are a student of Arjuna You please go and assist your teacher So Satyaki went But Satyaki is young Maybe just a little older than Abhimanyu But also quite young that way And He started thinking how I have sent such a young warrior inside Then he turned towards Bhima And he said you go inside And Bhima was just waiting Yes of course the Pandavas The other Pandavas were also fighting But the other warriors They were also on the Kauravas side And the Pandavas side they were all fighting But they all knew the main water in that day was Arjuna trying to reach Jaidrath So Bhima was Itching for action And when Yudhishthir told Bhima can you go inside to assist And Bhima was delighted And Arjuna had created Trail of devastation As he went into the Kaurava camp Kaurava formation And Satyaki had fallen in the trail of devastation And when Bhima went inside Bhima just created such a Havoc That already The onslaught of Arjuna On that day was unbearable But when Arjuna was coupled with Bhima And on top of that Satyaki was also there Especially Arjuna and Bhima together The Kauravas just Broke their ranks and fled in fear And finally As Arjuna was Closing in On Jaidrath Now Bhima was penetrating through the whole Army And reaching to Arjuna Arjuna had been actually travelling Fighting and making a way throughout the whole day But Bhima reached there In a short time by his superman prowess And now there As Arjuna was closing in, Karna challenged Arjuna And Krishna recognising That Karna’s intention was to Somehow hold on to Arjuna So that Arjuna would not reach Jaidrath Then Understanding his intention As Karna was coming towards Arjuna Bhima challenged Karna Now a Kshatriya cannot refuse a challenge Karna heard the challenge Karna turned around and Bhima Shot arrow after arrow at him Now Krishna and Arjuna Knew that a heavy burden Had been set on Bhima Karna was no ordinary archer But Bhima fought gallantly And the war went on and on And practically Some people thought that Karna Was because his superior skill would prevail The onlookers There were people Even the Devatas were watching The sages were watching Even the other warriors while they were fighting They were also watching What a fight this was And others felt that Bhima would win Because of his sheer anger and power And they kept fighting and fighting And slowly but surely Bhima started gaining the upper hand And he Broke through Karna’s formations And stunned him And That was a very Fierce fight in which Bhima clearly got The upper hand of Karna And of course Arjuna went in and Killed Jayadrith that was a Significant victory So this happened on the 14th day And then The next incident in which Bhima was involved Was that He was not directly involved but he was emotionally Very intensely involved was In the killing of Ghatotkach That we will discuss When we talk about how Krishna planned to protect Arjuna From Karna’s Shakti weapon But again At that time when Ghatotkach was his son And he saw him being killed like this Bhima was He was grief struck But knowing that Krishna had the best plan For everyone Bhima accepted that plan And he was Happy that now the war Was coming closer to an end because Karna had been Deprived of his Shakti Now on the 15th day Bhima played again A very important role What was that role? Drona was unstoppable on that day And at that time When Drona Was unstoppable Krishna told Yudhishthir That remember what Drona said How will he be overpowered? He said when he hears Some bad news Some unpalatable news from a trustworthy source Then he will give up his fighting So tell him that Ashwathama is dead Now When Krishna spoke this There can be morality at various levels The ultimate purpose of morality is To ensure that People are not exploited And wrongs are not perpetrated Now That sort of rules are required Because people in general Have an oversight by which they want to Perpetrate wrongs and they want to Exploit others But the lord has no such tendency That’s why he does not need Any moral rules He is the supreme well-wisher of everyone Whatever he does is for the ultimate good of everyone So the absolute morality Is to just do what the lord says So Bhima Had unflinching faith in this absolute morality That’s when Krishna told Immediately he agreed and what did he do? He also Knew as a Kshatriya That speaking A complete white lie is not Proper So he charged into the enemy formation There was an elephant named Ashwathama He just Smashed that elephant with his One blow he killed that elephant And then he came back And he spoke to Dronacharya that Ashwathama is dead Ashwathama is dead We heard this Drona’s heart stopped beating His legs turned into water And his whole body started trembling It was intolerable the idea of his son’s death At the same time He also Bhima is fickle He may speak something Whatever he wants to speak Just for his own purposes So he did not pay Much attention But Although he continued fighting That doubt had been planted in his heart And then He turned and asked Yudhishthira And Yudhishthira also confirmed That yes Ashwathama is dead Of course Yudhishthira said Not the man but the animal But either way actually Bhima Unflinchingly followed the instruction of Krishna That also is an exhibition of Of great surrender And is instrumental in the Killing of Drona There also now Bhima After Drona was killed He said that Once the war has started off And once the Kauravas have started Fighting immorally Don’t get into discussions about morality now Now we just have to do Whatever it takes to win the war And he fought on Fiercely So when the Pandavas might have become Overwhelmed by Moral compunctions Bhima kept them in a Fully determined fighting mode And now when Ashwathama came to know That Drona had been killed And what he felt The way it was reported He felt it was deception So Then he Decided to take revenge And he used a Narayanastra Narayanastra Is uncounterable And he entered into the army And he shot this Astra and started Burning everywhere in the forest And Yudhishthira was shocked Yudhishthira said oh this is a sinful reaction For our having cheated And killed our Guru And he said oh warriors Please depart To your respective kingdoms There is no chance for us to win I will return to the forest And Krishna said ok be calm I know how to deal with this Now Yudhishthira did not just Easily give up the Sitan order He saw that there is just no way To counter.
Anyone who tried to counter The enemy’s power The weapon’s power would increase And that person would be destroyed What to do in such a situation So it was Everybody started Fleeing Then Krishna told I know how to deal with this You cannot overpower it But you bow down to it. This is the weapon of the Supreme Lord Narayan Just bow down to it And if you bow down then its power will Whizz over you harmlessly And then Krishna and Arjuna shouted to everyone And everybody bowed down But Abhima said I am a Kshatriya How can I bow down I will not bow down. I will keep fighting And he saw when Arjuna had also bowed down He thought Arjuna how have you given up your Gandhi You are like this I will single handedly fight and Overcome this weapon And he kept fighting Unflinchingly.
Now the whole power Of the Narayanastra was charging On Bhima And Bhima was fighting heroically But his whole body was burning And the Astra was intolerable Although Bhima’s body was Almost like impenetrable But how much could it endure And seeing that The weapon was Uncounterable Krishna and Arjuna charged towards Bhima And Arjuna Took away Bhima’s weapon Krishna took away Bhima’s weapon And Arjuna caught Bhima and dragged him down He was angry. He said we should keep fighting We are Kshatriyas So Arjuna said Lets follow Krishna And then he said Krishna told him if this weapon could have been countered Then we would have countered it We have to be intelligent We have to be strategic And then Arjuna said I have taken a vow that I will never Raise my weapon against A weapon of Lord Narayan And this is a weapon of Lord Narayan There is no wrong in Moving down to it And then Bhima also agreed So Bhima here Exhibits the principle Of Kshatriya Not bowing down And of course eventually he agrees because Krishna Wants him to do it Still that fearlessness even in the face of life Threatening danger Even not just threatening danger Certainty of the death Still Bhima kept fighting And of course As they all bowed down Narayanashtra became harmless And then After this Actually Before this on the 14th day When the Kauravas When Bhima was penetrating Into the Kaurava camp Following Arjuna When Arjuna killed Jayadratha on that day Bhima killed on one day 31 of the Kaurava brothers And slowly he was closing and closing Killing them one by one by one So After the fall of Drona Karna Became the commander on the 16th day And now Also there were fierce Battles that were happening And One occasion Karna and Bhima Fought fiercely And finally This particular occasion Karna overpowered Bhima Karna was sort of intoxicated with The post of the commander And he overpowered Bhima And then when he came right Bhima was left weaponless Carless Practically defenceless But instead of shooting arrows into Bhima’s body Karna He said that He had given a word to Drona that I will not kill any of your other sons So he came right up to Bhima And he said You are hitting him On his face with his Bow And he told him You oaf Your expertise is only In eating Go away from those who are superior to you And Don’t stay here on this war field If you want to live Bhima was so angry He said you wretch In this war itself I have overpowered you And the fortunes of war Are such that even the gods Can sometimes be defeated Instead of speaking empty words like this Come off your chariot And wrestle with me And I will crush your pride Now actually Bhima he was on the ground and Karna was on his chariot And Bhima had the power That from there only he could drag Karna down and beat him down and kill him But Bhima did not do that Bhima was unmatched In combat in close quarters Especially in wrestling So he did not He could have killed Karna then and there But he knew that Bhima had taken Arjuna’s vow was there to kill Karna And that’s why although they were in close quarters Bhima tolerated that Insult from Karna And kept fighting And Tolerated that And allowed Karna to live so that eventually Arjuna could keep his vow So even when The warrior is overpowered The warrior does not give up his principles And here Bhima showed that And then On the 17th day Was a time when both Bhima And Arjuna Exhibited extraordinary heroism Bhima in killing Dushyasana And Arjuna in killing Jaidrath We will discuss this in our next session Thank you Hare Krishna