Mahabharata Characters 46 – Arjuna 09 – Choose Krishna over the world

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.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the Mahabharata character series. We are now discussing about the central event of the Mahabharata, whole book that is the speaking of the Bhagavad Gita and the subsequent war.
And this brings us to the two most important characters, Krishna and Arjuna. Of course, Krishna is the most important character, although he does not necessarily always occupy the most central position in terms of doing heroic activities, but he does occupy the most central position in terms of being in the hearts of the central characters. And he himself also is a very powerful presence throughout the Mahabharata.
Now, after the Virat Yuddha and the defeat of the Kauravas and the subsequent failure of the peace negotiations, when it became clear that war was inevitable, then both the parties, the Pandavas and the Kauravas started seeking allies. When they were seeking allies in this way, Arjuna thought of Krishna and he decided that Krishna was not just an extremely powerful warrior, he was the leader of the powerful Yadu dynasty, but he was also his own dear friend. And therefore, he merited a personal request.
So for some other kings, the request to them to become allies was sent through some messengers, but for important kings, it was the message was sent, not through some messenger, but through one of the intimate close top people. So that was Arjuna decided to go to Dwarka after consulting and taking permission from Yudhishthir. And when he reached there, he found Duryodhana had just arrived.
And Duryodhana had also done a similar reasoning, but his motive was not devotional, his motive was utilitarian. He thought Krishna is a formidable warrior and it would be best to have him on my side. So now he came to Krishna.
Now when you talk about the failure of the peace negotiations, actually the way the events happened was that Krishna came to the palace of and the kingdom of Virata and Drupada also came over there. And at that time, the marriage of Abhimanyu with Uttara took place. There also we see Arjuna’s chivalry and his character.
When Virata discovered, when the king of Virata, he discovered that his kingdom had been the residence for the five glorious Pandavas. He was so delighted. And he said, I would like to give, I would like to offer something to you in return.
He said that, in fact, take my kingdom, become the kings. You deserve to be the ruler. However, it’s a great travesty that you were living as servants in this kingdom.
And even by living in this way, you have rendered such a great service. So initially, Arjuna was so submissive that to Yudhishthira, although he was so heroic, by far the greatest hero among the Pandavas in many ways, but still he was always submissive to Yudhishthira. And when the necessity on the war situation made him bring out his, made him reveal to the world his identity, that he was not Brihannala, but he was Arjuna, he did that.
And he did the necessary duty and won the war. But Arjuna was not just craving for the credit. He said, I achieved something so glorious.
Now I should be glorified. He decided that when their identity should be revealed to King Virata, let that decision be left to Yudhishthira. And so he told Bhuminjaya, who had been acting as a charioteer, he said that, please don’t reveal my identity to your father right now.
Bhuminjaya said that the feat that has been accomplished, it is impossible for anyone to accomplish this feat, and what to speak of, for me to accomplish this. So how can I take credit for what I have not done? It is you deserve the credit. So Arjuna said, no.
You can say that there was a Gandharva who assisted me, and he actually took over the warrior’s position, and he fought and defeated on my behalf, for me. On your behalf, you can tell the king. So reluctantly Bhuminjaya agreed.
Now, Yudhishthira was on the verge of deciding to tell Virata that they were the Pandavas, and he decided to do this in a dramatic way, subtle way. And he, when the king came back, along with the four other Pandavas, having defeated Susharman, and he came to know that the mighty Kuru army had attacked, and that Bhuminjaya alone had gone with just one chariot, and that was Brihannala. He said, oh, just when we thought that we are achieving a great victory, now a greater calamity has come.
Surely by now my son must be dead. How can he alone fight against the whole Kuru army? And that too, when his chariot is being manned by a eunuch. So Yudhishthira spoke that as long as Brihannala is with Bhuminjaya, then your son will be safe.
He was perplexed hearing such a strange comment. It was almost as if Yudhishthira was saying that a eunuch could protect his son. And as he decided to neglect the comment, his anxiety was too great.
And suddenly a news came from the warfield saying that Bhuminjaya, that the Kuru army had been defeated, and the prince was just coming back. And as he was coming back, suddenly the king’s mood immediately changed. Amazing! What a wonderful thing that Bhuminjaya has achieved such a great victory.
Isn’t it, oh Kanka? He treated Yudhishthira, who was known as Kanka, as a friend. And Yudhishthira said, actually when Brihannala is there with him, then no victory is actually surprising. So he became angry.
And he said, why are you glorifying that eunuch as being greater than my son? And then they were about to gamble. So he said, I am delighted. Let us, let us play now.
Let us play dice. So Kanka remained, Yudhishthira remained calm and he said, actually one should not play dice when one is too excited, because at that time one may speak or do things under the surge of emotions that one may regret later. He said, no, no, you do not worry.
I want to play. Come on, let us play. And as they started playing, he said, what do you think, oh Kanka? He was beside himself with joy.
Isn’t it astonishing that Bhuminjaya has defeated the entire Kuru army and sent them fleeing? So again Yudhishthira said nonchalantly, he said, when Brihannala was there with him, then there is no reason to be astonished. Now Virat got angry and he picked up the dice and hurled it at Yudhishthira. And it went and hit Yudhishthira on the face.
And his face started bleeding because of the blow. The dice itself was not dangerous, but a blow by a king who naturally has a powerful body and close quarters and hitting on the face. Blood started coming out.
And at that time, Sharindri was just passing through that area. And then she saw a gasp of anger and horror. And she just rushed in and gave Yudhishthira a cloth and he applied a cloth.
And Yudhishthira was ever sensitive. And at that time, just the news came that the prince with his charioteer is coming in. So immediately he turned towards Sharindri with presence of mind.
He told Sharindri, let go and tell Brihannala that he had better not come to the king’s chamber now and he can go to his own chambers. So Sharindri immediately departed because Draupadi understood. Actually Arjuna had taken a vow that he would kill anyone who shed the blood of the king, that is Yudhishthira, at any place other than the war.
So that was how he felt he would protect his elder brother and serve him. So knowing this and not wanting unnecessary violence and casualty by Arjuna towards the king, Yudhishthira decided to preempt the danger by sending Brihannala away. And then of course, Bhuminjay came and he was shocked.
And when he saw what had happened and who had done it, he said, wow, apologise to a Brahmin, otherwise a Brahmin’s wrath will come on you and destroy everything. He was appalled that his father had actually hit one of the Pandavas. He had already been mortified that the Pandavas were acting as menial servants in their kingdom.
Now imagine that some small countries there, say Sri Lanka. And in Sri Lanka, suppose the president of America is living incognito and the president of America is living as one of the courtiers or one of the cooks or one of the cowherds or say most of all is living as a dance teacher for the daughter of the prime minister or president of Sri Lanka. It will be mortifying.
And that situation, that person gets hit by the king. It will be all the more mortifying. So he said, please apologise to him immediately.
And then he apologised. Sri Lanka forgave. And the next morning, as per Yudhishthira’s plan, they all came and they were seated on their chariots.
They were seated on the thrones. When Virat came into the courtyard, he was surprised that they were sitting on thrones, all the five Pandavas. He did not know they were Pandavas.
They were sitting on thrones. He was like, what is this? And then at that time, the Pandavas introduced themselves. And Virat was beside himself with joy.
And he said, how amazing, how fortunate. I would like to give you something as a gift. He told Arjuna, it is you who have saved my life.
It is you who have saved my honour. It is you who have saved my son’s life. It is you who have saved the honour of my kingdom.
He said, I would like to offer you my daughter. Please accept her hand in marriage. So Arjuna looked at Yudhishthira, smiled and he said, I’ll accept your offer.
Okay. Thank you for your kindness. But I’ll accept her not as my wife, but as my son’s wife.
He was surprised and he said, whatever you decide is fine with me, but why won’t you accept her as your wife? He said that actually during our stay, Arjuna was so conscious. Now, although as a Kshatriya, he had many wives, but that does not mean that he was unaware of dharma. We saw his sense control even when we see he turned down Urvashi’s offer.
So now what happened is when he got this offer, he said that, well, I was acting as a teacher for Urvashi. So she confided in me many things and we became very close to each other and our relationship was almost like that of a father and a daughter. And now if we get married, considering the way we were close to each other, people will talk and unnecessarily her reputation will get dismissed.
So my relation with her was always like that of a father and daughter and let it now be therefore become like that of like be transformed into the relationship between the father and the daughter-in-law. And when he heard this sound reasoning, Virat was pleased. He says, so be it, so be it.
And then Abhimanyu was called. Now Abhimanyu was staying with Krishna. The Pandavas went to the forest.
Draupadi also went to the forest. So Subhadra had been at that time with the Yadus in Dwaraka and Abhimanyu was also there. So Abhimanyu came for his marriage and Krishna also came and then the marriage took place and after that it was decided Drupada would send his Brahmin messenger to Yudhishthira on behalf of Yudhishthira to Dhritarashtra to seek peace and Krishna said, now I will depart and he turned to Yudhishthira and said, okay, if you need me again, summon me.
So it was at this time, although the back and forth, so back and forth messengers were going, Drupada’s messenger went to Dhritarashtra and Dhritarashtra said Sanjaya is the messenger. So while all this was happening, it was almost clear that a war would happen, although the Pandavas were trying to avoid it. So to prepare for the war, the Pandavas decided to also get allies.
So it is said that a person who wants peace also should show that that person has the capacity to fight. Otherwise, the peace efforts will be seen as signs of weaknesses. And actually, that’s what Duryodhana eventually did.
But to try to minimise chances of that, the Pandavas also started seeking allies. And so that’s how during this intervening period that at Krishna’s place, both Arjuna and Duryodhana came. So at this time, Krishna had not yet gone as a peace messenger and Duryodhana had not rejected Krishna’s offer.
So in fact, when Krishna went as a peace messenger, he had clearly at that time sided with the Pandavas and he was going on behalf of the Pandavas. But till now, this sort of siding has not happened. So he went to Duryodhana and Arjuna went and Duryodhana had reached there slightly before Arjuna.
And they both greeted each other and cordially went inside. And they saw that Krishna was resting on his bed, asleep. And one of his queens was massaging and fanning him.
And they both sat. So there was a seat near the head of Krishna and Duryodhana sat over there. And at the foot, Arjuna went and he folded his hands and waited reverentially, looking at the beautiful form of Krishna and remembering their intimate friendship.
And tears started flooding from his eyes. And as they waited for some time, then Krishna woke up. As soon as he woke up, he saw Arjuna.
Oh, Arjuna, welcome! You are here. And then as he got up, because he was at his feet, he first saw Arjuna. And as he got up and he turned around, he could sense that somebody else is there in the room.
Oh, Duryodhana, you are here. Please, welcome! After greeting both of them, he asked them, what can I do for you? What brings you here? And Duryodhana said that, as you know, that soon there is going to be a war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. And I have come to seek your help in this war.
Arjuna has also come for the same purpose. And however, I came here before. And therefore, I request you to help me.
So Krishna looked gravely at Duryodhana and he said, yes, it is true that you came before me. But at the same time, Arjuna is younger than you. And the younger one should also be helped.
And also, you came before, but I saw Arjuna first. So actually, Arjuna staying at the feet of Krishna turned out to be advantageous, because Krishna saw him first. This desire to always take a privileged position can often get a person into trouble.
That is, in the Bhagavatam as well as in the Mahabharata, the story of the churning of the milk ocean described. And when the milk ocean was being churned, so the rope that was used was a snake Vasuki. And Lord Vishnu led the devatas to the head of Vasuki.
And the demons were expected to take their feet. And the demons said, no, why should we take the feet? We are powerful. It was we who won the war.
The devatas came to us to seek peace. And therefore, because we are stronger, we should get the head. So Lord Vishnu saw the reluctance and immediately dropped the head of the serpent and he went to the feet, at the tail of, not exactly feet, tail of the serpent and he poked it.
And the devatas also followed behind. And the asuras, the demons went very proudly and took the head. But what happened when they took the head? As the churning was going on and on and on, the poison and the toxic substance in the stomach of Vasuki started coming out, coming out, coming out.
And it had noxious flames and the dhanavas started getting horrified, exhausted, weaker, almost falling unconscious. So their eagerness to have a privileged position ended, led them to actually a a disadvantaged position, a troubled position, which they could have avoided. So Duryodhana’s eagerness to have a privileged position at the head, normally the head is considered to be upper part of the body, more privileged, like the brahmanas are compared to the head.
The head is the brain part. Why? It contains the brain and is the think part. And the leg is considered to be simply for movement.
It’s for movement and execution. So it’s not considered such an important part. So as they were going along, so Dhritarashtra had the desire to take a privileged position, but it put him actually in a disadvantaged position.
And he said, yes, I saw him first and moreover, he is younger. Actually, both of you are related to me. So therefore, I will help both of you.
And he said that, okay, Arjuna, what would you like to have? And before he said, I have decided because I am related to both of you, therefore, I will not fight this war personally. I will be on one side as an advisor, but I will not raise any weapons. And actually, I will be on the other side.
My whole Narayana Sena, which is one Akshahuni, will be on the other side. So you decide what you want to choose. And Arjuna, you tell what would you like.
Arjuna unhesitatingly said that, oh Krishna, I would be obliged if you come on my side. We will be privileged to have you on our side as an advisor. And Dhritarashtra could barely contain his joy.
He said, oh Arjuna, that sentimentality. Trump, his common sense, his intelligence. He said, what is the use of only one person who is also going to be a non-combatant? He said.
But still, in order to appear polite, he said, oh, then I guess I will have to be satisfied with Narayana Sena. And he departed. This choice was going to prove fatal for the Kauravas and it was going to be the triumphant choice for the Pandavas.
Because although Krishna did not fight, he did everything in terms of giving vital guidance at critical moments throughout the subsequent war. So then Duryodhana departed and then Arjuna and Krishna waited. And Krishna asked Arjuna, oh Partha, when you had the opportunity to choose my entire army, why did you choose me? So Arjuna smiled and he said, my dear lord, he said that actually, what ultimately the use of the army without you? What is the use of anything without you? You are the source of the power of everything.
And where you are, there will be victory. Now these were Arjuna’s thoughts and Krishna understood those thoughts. And Arjuna spoke even more things.
So we have to understand that the Mahabharata works at different levels. For those who want to see the Mahabharata as a Karmakandi book, that means how Dharmaratha Kama Moksha is there. So then the idea in Dharmaratha Kama Moksha is that by doing religion, one will benefit materially also, what to speak of spiritually.
Therefore, one should be Dharmic, one should not be Adharmic. So here, so from the pure devotional perspective also, what are the Pandavas are doing is from the point of view of that they are doing for the pleasure of the Lord and they are being orchestrated by the Lord for being instruments in his pastimes. That is one perspective.
And other perspective is also. So Arjuna, there’s an external reason, there’s an internal reason. External reason he says is that, Krishna, there is no war, there is no charioteer like you in the three worlds.
If you act as my charioteer, then just as we had defeated the gods at Khandava, we’ll be able to defeat the entire Kuru army. So that is why I chose you. So there is actually both reasons and both are true.
So still now for Arjuna, he knew, even if he pointed from the one point of view that Krishna is just a charioteer, he’s not seeing Krishna just as a charioteer and we know that soon after that Krishna as a charioteer became the supreme teacher when he spoke the Bhagavad Gita and thereafter also he counselled various critical situations. So now after this, the Pandavas united with Krishna and Krishna came with Arjuna to the camp of the Pandavas and then Krishna himself went as Shanti Doodh and even Arjuna at that time said, Krishna try for peace and he also gave his message to give to the assembly as well as a Kunti and when Krishna’s efforts were scornfully and arrogantly rejected by Duryodhana, war became inevitable and thereafter the Pandavas and the Kauravas, they decided the war will take place at Kurukshetra and so that it would take place at Kurukshetra, they decided that so that no civilians would be wounded and there would be adequate, it would take place in a a place which is also sacred. So the idea of having a sacred places that the Kshatriyas often would know, would see war also as an adventure.
Okay, if I’m going to die, then I’ll attain heaven. So let that death happen at an auspicious place. So once this was chosen, then the war preparations began in earnest and as the war was about to begin, on the day before that, both sides they had met and were assessing each other’s strength.
So we discussed earlier how Duryodhana asked his various soldiers, how long would it take to, generals, how long would it take for them to overcome the enemies. So Bhishma, Drona, Kripa, even Karuna, they gave their estimate and on this, after hearing this estimate, some said Karuna said 5 days and some said 1 month, some said 20 days, Kripa said 2 months, like that different of them give different estimates. So when this news came to Arjuna, to the Pandava side, Yudhishthira in the assembly asked Arjuna, oh Partha, what do you think about this? And how long do you think it will take for you to overcome the Kaurava forces? So Yudhishthira, Arjuna was confident and he said, okay, when I am with Madhava, when I am with Keshava, then I can uproot and destroy the whole world in just one moment.
Nothing more is required for me to win the war, just His presence is enough. And do not worry, for I have got with me many celestial weapons and I have even got Shiva’s Pashupatastra. None of the Kauravas have this weapon and with this weapon, the war can be decided in one day.
Of course, it will not be appropriate for me to use this weapon because it is meant to be used only against celestials, but just knowing it is there with us should give us confidence and it won’t be needed because my other weapons are themselves sufficient to deal with the enemy. And he said, and you have many maharathas, each of them here in this army, pointed to the assembled maharathas and said, each of them are capable of overcoming many, many of the greatest enemies in the world. And on top of that, we have you also, king, who you are so virtuous, a Dharmaraj, that whoever you, upon whom you cast your angry glance, how can that person survive? Rest assured, you will soon win this war.
And then as the next day came up and the war was about to begin, so Krishna and Arjuna, they were going towards the battlefield and at that time, Krishna told Arjuna, oh Arjuna, please pray to the goddess Durga Devi. He says, she is in charge of the material world and if you pray to her and get blessings, then you will be victorious. And Arjuna immediately got down from the chariot, knelt and started offering prayers to Durga Devi, offered fourfold prayers and on hearing those prayers, the goddess appeared and she raised her hand and blessed him.
So, Partha, your victory is assured because Keshava is with you and wherever he is, there is victory. So, here we see that there is no competition or argumentation or power struggle for supremacy among the gods. It is understood that if there are certain activities to be done, then for those activities, certain Devatas can be asked for worship and that’s why Krishna tells Arjuna, worship.
And Arjuna doesn’t hesitate to worship. There is no confusion that, oh, is this god is supreme or is Krishna supreme? He is clear about who is supreme. But the point is that there have been in the universe certain administrative posts given to certain people and Krishna asks Arjuna to honour those.
The goddess, she is also called the goddess of destruction. So, she is the consort of Shiva who is in charge of Tamoguna. So, there is going to be destruction on that war and let the destruction be on the Guru’s side.
That was the prayer. And then, Arjuna got ready to fight. He ascended on his chair and he started moving forward.
And right when the war was about to begin, the conchshell had been blown, something amazing happened. What some sceptics call as a dramatic absurdity, but it was not a dramatic absurdity. It was a transcendental novelty.
He has transcendentally done something so novel, so incredible. How that happened and how that led to the speaking of the greatest philosophical treatise, one of the greatest that the Vedic tradition has seen and the world has seen, the Bhagavad Gita, that we will discuss in our next session. Thank you.