Mahabharata Characters 37 – Bhima 07 – Draupadi’s dishonorers destroyed

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 we are coming towards the Climax of the Mahabharata 17th and the 18th day So Bhima had Exhibited heroism Repeatedly throughout the war Throughout the 16 days of the war And on the 17th day Barely 20 Of the Kauravas remained And Bhima By the end of the 16th day So on the 17th day Bhima tore into them One by one relentlessly And that day Karna fought Yudhishthira Yudhishthira initially Checked Karna but then Karna overpowered Yudhishthira Wounding him severely And Yudhishthira had to retire And when he retired then Krishna suggested Arjuna you should go and see How Yudhishthira’s condition is So when Arjuna decided to go back So then he told Bhima Can you look after the army While I am gone I will go and check the well being of the king So he immediately agreed And Bhima Now Without Yudhishthira And without Arjuna It was a heavy responsibility on Bhima But Bhima kept fighting relentlessly He used to Tore into the enemy camp Breaking their formations Breaking their morale Breaking their bodies And as Bhima charged in Practically it was unstoppable This was the day When sooner or later Karna and Arjuna were going to have their final fight But Karna Was delaying that Because he wanted to fight with others And he was He wanted to break as much havoc in the Pandava camp as possible And he did not confront Bhima directly on this way Although there was some confrontation happening here and there Bhima kept fighting And he Although he was surrounded by Kaurava warriors On all sides They knew that If now the current Functional head of the Kauravas That is Bhima If they could overpower him If they could kill him then The scale would tilt Almost very significantly In their side But Bhima was unreachable And kept fighting And Arjuna came back From the After meeting Yudhishthira Details of that incident we will discuss later When we talk about Arjuna But when he came back Arjuna saw that Bhima was surrounded by enemies from all sides And Bhima He was in one level in anxiety What has happened to Yudhishthira Why has Arjuna not come back And he asked his Charioteer Mishra How much weapons do I have Can I use bow and arrow Or should I just Launch into my enemy with Mace and destroy them Bhima was so undaunted In the spirits of fighting that Even if he would have no weapons Still he would keep fighting That was his spirit And then after that As he kept fighting like this Tirelessly heroically Then eventually He realised that Krishna and Arjuna came back And then they took over And of course Mishra told him that You have enough arrows still in your chariot No need to worry You can fight whichever way you like And then As Bhima was Fulfilling his vow Killing one by one the Kaurava brothers So at that time finally Dushyasan Not being able to tolerate this Practically only a handful Of the brothers were now remaining Dushyasan charged towards Bhima with Fearsome promise And he exhibiting his Full skill Attacked Bhima arrow after arrow Suddenly a series of arrows Tore into Bhima’s body A fight of arrows and Bhima was so stunned that His bow slipped from his hand And Dushyasan roared in joy As did his brothers And following it up in swift succession Dushyasan took an arrow that looked like thunder And hurled it Through his bow with full force And pierced into the vitals of Bhima And Bhima Almost swooned He almost swooned, he was falling He grabbed the pole For support So Dushyasan He is He was also very strong But he also Suffered from the evil of Overconfidence And arrogance, so he had opportunity He had Bhima weakened By his double attack But rather than capitalising On the opportunity, he started jeering And his brothers started cheering And they started Delighting in the Weakness of Bhima But Bhima being an indomitable warrior Quickly recovered And for A warrior To be overcome even temporarily You know, it’s Something which aggravates Now suppose a champion bowler is there And that some batsman hits him for a sixer Then that bowler gets aggravated And then he wants to ball even better And get even So Bhima felt Enraged And rather than continue Fighting with arrows He just charged forward Picking up his mace But Dushyasan The smile from his face disappeared He thought Bhima is about to fall and die now And suddenly Bhima Has risen like a gigantic Avenging angel Charging down at me He started taking arrow And shooting dart after dart Bhima was so unstoppable He was swinging his mace And no dart could pierce his mace All the darts just flew away And Bhima came right up to Dushyasan’s chariot And swung his mace In a mighty arc and that hit Dushyasan on his head And Dushyasan flew out Of his chariot and went twenty yards And fell far away And Bhima jumped off his chariot And sprang towards him Dushyasan was Blurried and deceived by the blow And the fall And he tried to get up But before he could get up Bhima sprang on him Pounced on him Pounding him And as Dushyasan Lost consciousness He tried to get up and fight But Bhima pounded him With senseless rage And then remembering How Dushyasan had Insulted Draupadi, how with his hand He had grabbed her hair How he had grabbed her cloth So He took out his sword And he raised that Sword to chop off that hand Dushyasan His face distorted with horror Kicked frantically Somehow trying to break free As he was lying on the ground Bhima had got a deathly grip on him And he raised the Sword in a high arc and Locked off the arm of Dushyasan And he just caught the arm And flung it away and blood Started gushing out of His stump And he said this is the arm That humiliated Draupadi And today this arm is Cut off And he pounded Dushyasan And he was roaring With such ferocity That the roars Could be heard Not just around by the warriors But reverberated from The males around And the warriors around Shocked Just couldn’t tolerate They were terrified Just by seeing the sight And hearing the sound of Bhima And Then Bhima took up his bow Now Dushyasan took up his sword Raised it up And he said You are the evil one Who caused us So much trouble Today is the time for you to die And he raised the sword And brought it down Straight into his chest And Dushyasan Fell back screaming in pain And suddenly the scream died out And Dushyasan And Bhima Ripped his heart out From his dead body And then he picked up the blood And he raised the blood Right to his lips And the whole army Was watching it appear As if he drank the blood His whole face became bloodied And there He said oh this blood Is sweeter than Mother’s milk Sweeter than honey And sweeter than pure water By drinking this blood I have satisfied My anger My vow is honoured Oh Dushyasan You were the root Of the evil that we suffered And you deserve to die You were not Safe as long as I was alive And now you are safe because Now you are dead And they turned around roaring in anger Facing the Kauravas And they all Horrified to see us All in the powers and this Unbearable fierceness Bhima was a sight to behold Or rather he was a sight That nobody could behold And he just Sprang They couldn’t face him, they couldn’t tolerate him And Bhima He turned towards Krishna and Arjuna Who were fighting And he said now my vow is honoured And soon I will kill at last Of the wicked Kauravas I will kill Duryodhana And this war will end And as he spoke Thus The whole Kaurava army Became fearful Now Dushyasana’s other brothers Initially they were horrified But then they felt angered And they charged towards Bhima To try to somehow or the other Kill him And Bhima With remorseless rage Charged into them one by one by one Actually before He just started killing them one by one by one Before this also A confrontation between Karna and Bhima had happened Bhima had overpowered Karna And when Karna was left Carless because the chariot had been destroyed by Bhima So one of Karna’s One of Bhima’s Duryodhana’s brothers One of the Kauravas came to assist Bhima and assist Karna By bringing his chariot right next to Karna And as Karna got on his chariot And tried to come on to the chariot of That Kaurava Bhima shot arrows With such fierceness that that Kaurava could Not counter it and that Kaurava died And then Karna was shocked. Karna just barely circumambulated That warrior And another Kaurava brother Came to help him And Bhima killed that Kaurava brother also Another Kaurava brother Came to help him So Karna was charitierless And Karna was supposed to be the commander Who was supposed to protect everyone But the Kauravas came to protect him And whoever came to face Bhima was killed by one by one And that time Vikarna also came Now Vikarna had been the only one Who had protested Against The disrobing of Draupadi And he had stood by The side of virtue Even though he belonged to the party Of wise And Bhima felt slight remorse When he had to kill Vikarna But knowing that he had a vow to Fulfil and knowing that He also had That Vikarna had ultimately sealed his own fate Although he had spoken Against the Kauravas Against Duryodhana But eventually when he had to choose He had chosen the side of evil So he had to die So he killed Vikarna also And on this day This had happened earlier That time itself Karna had been horrified One by one by one Everybody was getting killed by Bhima And then on now again He saw Dushyasan being killed And he saw the other brothers of Duryodhana Also being killed And Bhima’s whole face Was bloodied and his countenance Was horrifying Karna His mouth fell open And the bow slipped from his hand And looking at Bhima with undisguised Fear And he said Who is this? What is this? Probably some evil spirit Some bloodthirsty Rakshasa spirit Has possessed the body of Bhima And that spirit is of Inestimable might How can we fight against it? Seeing Karna Who was the commander Horrified and putting aside His weapons One of Karna’s sons Came to challenge Bhima And he attacked Bhima fiercely But Bhima just tore into that son And killed him And Karna just came back to his senses And Karna attacked Bhima And then again there was a fight And eventually Seeing that the Pandavas Were breaking havoc The other Kaurava troops Also came to assist And then Karna and Bhima got disengaged And eventually Karna fought with Arjuna And on that 17th evening Karna was killed by Arjuna How that happened we will discuss later But 17th day Bhima exhibited such prowess That not only did he kill He not only did he kill Dushasan But he killed all the remaining Kauravas except Duryodhana And by the end of that day Duryodhana was left All alone All his brothers were dead And even his foremost Friend Karna was dead And on the 18th day Shalya Was made the commander And again Duryodhana came into the army To fight But already his warriors And soldiers they knew That the cause was lost There was no way they could win And their heart was not in the fight at all But somehow they came And they fought And one by one by one Right in front of the eyes of Duryodhana He tried to fight with Whatever fierceness he could muster But Shakuni was killed Then Shalya Was killed by Yudhishthir And seeing that None of his weapons were working Duryodhana fled Duryodhana fled Then Then Bhima And Pandavas charged But Duryodhana went so quickly He went and hid inside a river When he hid inside that river He used his mystic prowess by which he could He could maintain his life And he also made The river water motionless And at that time Eventually his hiding place Was discovered Some hunters had seen Him talking with Three surviving Kaurava generals Kripa, Ashwathama And Krithavarman Clearly everybody else had been killed And the hunters understood That Duryodhana was inside So they went and gave a message to Yudhishthir And then Yudhishthir and the Pandava warriors Came there and Yudhishthir challenged Bhima Come Duryodhana Come out Why are you hiding like a coward So Duryodhana said I am not a coward He said I am not a coward I am just tired You also take rest and then I will come back and fight And I will kill all of you So Yudhishthir said No you cannot kill us You have rested enough let us fight now We are also rested enough He said how can I fight You are so many and you have so many weapons I am charioteer less He said no you just come out and you can fight with any one of us With any weapon of your choice Now Duryodhana he could have chosen To fight with any of the Kauravas Any of the Pandavas And especially the mace fight Would have been difficult for the Pandavas Except for Bhima to win So Krishna raised his eyes In disapproval Of Yudhishthir’s generosity Unwarranted generosity But Duryodhana out of his arrogance He said that none of you Are a match to me I will fight with Bhima and I will fight with a mace So actually This sort of Arrogance had also Caused Jayadratha earlier Jayadratha could have chosen to fight with Not Jayadratha, Jarasandh When Krishna, Arjuna and Bhima Had gone and they had an opportunity to wrestle So he could have chosen to wrestle With Arjuna And Jarasandh was actually stronger than Arjuna But he chose Bhima Similarly Duryodhana also chose Bhima And then it was decided that the fight will happen at Simant Panchak All this was Kurukshetra But Kurukshetra plains are large Simant Panchak is the place It’s a lake where After Parashurama killed The Kauravas Sorry Killed the Kshatriyas Then that’s where he bathed And that’s where the blood was Deposited sort of So it is a holy holy place Because the world has been purified over there So they decided to have that war over there And both Bhima and Duryodhana Were just waiting for the war to begin And eventually when they came there Then the war began And both of them fought fiercely This was sort of a last war Now Just before the battle Gandhari had come to The start of the 18th Start of the In the evening of the 17th The day Gandhari reached The Kaurava camp And she knew only Duryodhana was remaining So she gave Duryodhana Her The power of her asceticism through her eyes By which Duryodhana’s body had Become Almost invulnerable And Now although both of them Were more or less matched Bhima He had lived in a forest So he He And Duryodhana had lived inside In a palace So living in a palace Having all royal facilities Bhima had practised And had become unparalleled With respect to skill in fighting Now Bhima did not have That kind of facilities when he was living in the forest But still he had utilised his strength And in terms of strength He was superior to Duryodhana In terms of skill Duryodhana was superior to him So it would have been That way an equal match Maybe Duryodhana might have been Slightly better because of skill But Bhima was better because of the strength But now with Gandhari’s Wow coming into the picture Bhima’s superior strength Was countered Because no matter how much Bhima would hit There would be no effect on Duryodhana So therefore what to do now Knowing that predicament was terrible Duryodhana As the fight went on and on And on Repeatedly Bhima would Hit with all his power And somehow Duryodhana With his skill would parry the blow And would head back at Bhima Bhima would also either avoid the blow But he would be hit And they were like graceful dancers Fighting And slowly but surely Duryodhana started Getting the upper hand Not because he was better but because he had been made better By Gandhari’s wow And Bhima was fighting And initially only Bhima Had through his Sheer speed and strength He had just overpowered Duryodhana’s Skilful manoeuvres and hit him Full on the body And the blow was such that Duryodhana was thrown off And normally this blow Would have been mortal, the body would have been Shattered to pieces All that happened was Duryodhana was thrown off But nothing happened to him And he got up with a Grin, wicked grin on his face And Bhima was shocked So No matter how hard With the mace Bhima would hit There would be no use because the enemy Was His body was untrinkable So what could Bhima do? He could use all his strength to hit And nothing would happen And Duryodhana was fighting, fighting And although Bhima was also Extremely powerful, he had no such Benediction of an unbreakable body And Slowly Bhima, Duryodhana was Getting the better of Bhima And then Arjuna Asked Krishna and Krishna said that Bhima has taken a wow To break the thigh of Duryodhana So that wow he has to fulfil So When he took this wow Now Duryodhana’s plan, sorry Bhima’s plan was that he Was going to defeat Duryodhana in a Fair fight and after Defeating him in a fair fight then he was planning to Break the thigh of Duryodhana But then when he realised That there is no way he could win Then Arjuna Pointed down towards his thigh And Bhima caught his eyes and he Nodded and as he Nodded Then as the fight was going on And on at one particular point Bhima’s Blows Duryodhana avoided And Duryodhana pounded Into the body of Bhima And Bhima was shaken Stunned Over, he was jolted But being a Fear Kshatriya, Bhima did not show any Pain Now at that time Bhima was vulnerable Another blow by Duryodhana Would have Changed the balance Of power Tragically for Bhima But because Bhima By Kshatriya probably showed no emotion No sign of weakness Duryodhana was Shocked because now he had expended his power In hitting a blow And nothing happens, he just Tittered because normally when one person Hits a blow, either the other person Knocks down The other person will hit back So in order to not be in the range of the blow He immediately withdrew and he did not Attack Bhima despite being in pain Despite being wounded He just maintained his Kshatriya gallantry And then he swung around His blow And then In a wrestling move So Bhima As Bhima swung his mace around Duryodhana jumped up And Duryodhana jumped up He would normally have missed the blow But the way he swung it As Duryodhana was jumping up The mace Hit Duryodhana on the thighs Now because Duryodhana had covered his Thighs with a cloth So his thighs were still vulnerable And they had not been protected They had not got the benefit of the protective glands Of Gandhari And just that one blow Was enough And Duryodhana’s The cracking of the bones Of his thigh could be heard by Everyone.
Duryodhana screamed In mortal pain And he fell on the ground And everybody Knew that the war was over Now Balramji Had come to watch the fight And when Balramji saw that Duryodhana had been overpowered He got angry and he said Oh you wicked one You are not meant to hit under the Waist. Never hit the thigh So You have fought unfairly and therefore You should be killed And Balramji started charging towards Bhima To kill him with his mace raised Up high And Bhima knowing that Balramji was his teacher also Now Balramji had taught Balramji had taught Bhima As well as Duryodhana But somehow Balramji had developed special affection for Duryodhana And Duryodhana had been an adept disciple Learning a lot from him also So Still treating Balram as his guru Bhima just folded his hands and waited If Balram wanted to kill him Bhima would not protest Now Bhima had accepted Krishna’s instruction That he should be hit under the thigh So he knew that it was supremely moral But still he knew Balramji is also Krishna So he accepted Balramji’s will if that was him to die He just folded his hands So here we see submissiveness In Bhima also to extraordinary degree But immediately Krishna intervened He said Oh brother You remember how evil the Kauravas were Remember how they dishonoured Draupadi Remember how they Dispossessed and exiled the Pandavas Remember what atrocities they committed against the Pandavas Remember how they killed Abhimanyu Now these Kauravas had to be killed By whatever means was possible And that is the cause of justice So What Bhima has done Is to ultimately pursue the cause of justice There is no need for you to be angry with him And in this way Krishna pacified Balram to some extent And then Balram departed in a huff And then Bhima turned around And he Kicked Duryodhana on the chest All the anger that had been there in Bhima For years and years It had got some occasional Vents for expression But now Duryodhana who had been The actual root of all their evil Now to Experiment out all that anger against him Bhima kicked him With all the ferocity Now this was against Kshatriya court And several Kshatriyas protested And Then Bhima told Arjuna You wicked one You have now met the fate that you are supposed to You are going to die And as he spoke like this Duryodhana still had his arrogance And he said How dare you be so proud You cheated and you killed me Do you not know that I did not see how you killed me I saw it quite well And That wicked Krishna told you Through Arjuna If you had fought fairly Then I would never have been killed So Krishna again chastised Duryodhana and he said Why are you talking about a fair fight now When did you fight fairly And he enlisted all the wrongs that he had done So Bhima in this way won The final war For the Pandavas By killing Duryodhana And after that Bhima kept fighting And as he kept fighting After that Bhima was made the Yuvraj Yudhishthir became the king Bhima became the next After him And after that Bhima Continued his heroism In the service of Krishna As the assistant of Yudhishthir And then we know that Bhima had his Own special flavour With Dhritarashtra, Dhritarashtra tried to kill him We discussed that story and Bhima was protected by Krishna Because Krishna wrote a effigy of Bhima By his mystic power But remembering how Bhima, Dhritarashtra had Allowed, had been passive And even instigated to some extent Duryodhana’s Evil deeds Remembering how Dhritarashtra Had also been asking in the gambling match Has Panchali been won How he had been laughing Bhima, he could not forgive Yudhishthir And he sometimes Jeered Dhritarashtra Although Yudhishthir offered him all respect And Yudhishthir ordered all the citizens And the courtiers to offer respect to Dhritarashtra As if he was the king Bhima Did not do that And Bhima told him That Bhima would Without Yudhishthir’s knowledge Bhima would come in the vicinity of Dhritarashtra And he would say These are the arms with which I killed The evil Kauravas I killed them one by one And in this way he would torment Dhritarashtra Now in one sense we may see Why was Bhima getting some sadistic pleasure Like this Now the point is that Through this, slowly but surely Dhritarashtra’s material attachments Were being worked out And eventually When Vidura came to Instruct Dhritarashtra What did he say? You are eating the remnants which are thrown by Bhima And those words were intolerable So Although Bhima seemed to be very unforgiving And hurting towards Dhritarashtra Ultimately that was one of the factors Which acted towards the ultimate renunciation Of Dhritarashtra And then we know how Bhima went With the Pandavas right up to the forest When they decided to Take their final journey And he went right up to To the topmost Almost you know All the other Pandavas fell away We discussed this journey Which comes in the Mahaprasthanaik Parva Swarga Rohan Parva Going towards the heavens So he was Among the most virtuous And therefore he remained Till the last And he was the last to fall before Yudhishthir Eventually reached the peak of the mountain And went to the heavens So this is the glory of Bhima And we will continue And we will discuss about Arjuna in our next session Thank you