Mahabharata characters 50 – Arjuna 13 – Battling and serving the beloved grandsire

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.
thereafter.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the Mahabharata character series.
We are discussing about Arjuna. Krishna has spoken the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna’s doubts have been resolved and he’s now ready to fight the war. So just as they’re about to ready, we get ready to fight on the first day, the Yudhishthira first gets down.
We discussed that past time about how he seeks blessings of all the primary warriors on the Gaurava side and then the war breaks out. So Arjuna fights fiercely but Bhishma is unstoppable on the first day. And by the evening, Yudhishthira is shaken, he’s lamenting saying that, oh Krishna, I think Bhishma is unstoppable and even Arjuna out of affection is not fighting against him wholeheartedly and therefore I think there’s no hope for us to win.
So Krishna looks at Arjuna a little reproachfully and he says, oh Yudhishthira, this is the way of the war. Sometimes there’ll be ups and there’ll be downs. Surely Arjuna will fight wholeheartedly.
And the first 10 days are largely with Bhishma at the centre and there are many great duels that will happen in the Mahabharata. So there will be one between Arjuna and Bhishma, there will be Arjuna and Drona, there will be Arjuna and Karna. And by the time the Arjuna-Karna duel ends, the war will almost be over.
So Arjuna is practically everywhere in the Kurukshetra war. He plays a pivotal role as the warrior on the Pandava side and as the most dreaded warrior for the Kauravas. So day after day after day, as the battle progresses, Arjuna grinds the Kaurava army and Bhishma grinds the Pandava army.
They have some occasional face-offs, but a direct confrontation between them doesn’t take place for too long. Whenever they encounter because neither of them actually has the heart to fight against each other. And they know that the inevitable fight has to take place.
But whenever they fight, immediately other warriors also come in to support both of them on two sides and then it becomes a general fight and goes on. And on the eighth day, Arjuna gets news that is extremely distressing. Arjuna is fighting with the Shamshipatakas led by Susharman on one side of the battlefield and suddenly hears the news that his son Ravan has been killed by the demon Alambush.
Now Arjuna had four wives, Draupadi, Subhadra, Ullupi and Chitrangada. So his most famous son was Abhimanyu through Subhadra, but his son through Ullupi was a Ravan. And Ullupi was a Naga princess and Ravan was a extraordinarily powerful Naga hero.
And because Ullupi had married Arjuna without the consent of her family members and because her brother was opposed to Arjuna, so Ravan had been, although he had been raised very lovingly by Ullupi, he had been rejected by his uncle, maternal uncle. And Ravan had even, he had periodically come to Indraprastha to meet the Pandavas. He had even gone to heaven.
He had that power, he was Naga, to meet Arjuna while he was there. And seeing Arjuna, seeing him fully grown up, was delighted. And Arjuna had requested him, please join me in the Kurukshetra war.
So he had agreed. He had come only on the call of his father, just for Arjuna’s sake he had come to fight. And he had fought heroically day after day after day.
And he was an extremely skilled warrior. And on the eighth day, the five brothers of Shakuni, the sons of Suvala, the king of Gandhar, attacked Ravan. And Ravan fought fiercely.
And he had a special sword and a shield. And he was slashed and wounded and defeated. Out of the five Suvala princes, four of them he killed and only one barely survived and fled.
And he ran to the route to Duryodhana. Duryodhana was infuriated and he commanded Alambush, who is a formidable Rakshasa general, a relative of the many demons whom Bhima had killed, Bakka, Bakkasur and others. He had joined the side of the Kavaravas to revenge their death.
And he thought that the opportunity to kill a family member of the Pandavas was delicious. And he charged upon Ravan. And Ravan fought fiercely.
Now Ravan had some tremendous skill and speed. And he just attacked Alambush. Alambush was a towering giant.
But Ravan was extremely skilled and speedy. And he slashed apart the limbs of Alambush. And Alambush was practically cut to pieces.
But he had a mystical power. By which even if his limbs were cut off, all the limbs grew again. Ravana had powers like that.
And so had Alambush. And Ravan fought and fought and fought. Both Ravan and Alambush used mystical weapons.
But Ravan countered all of Alambush’s weapons and he was slowly getting the upper hand. But that day Ravan had fought with several other demons, several other Kavarava warriors. And he was slightly tiring.
And at that time, when they started using mystical weapons, that did not lead to any decision. Then he started using further mystical effects. So they just created mystical visions.
And he took various forms. For example, he took a form of a giant elephant. And Ravan took an opposite form.
And like that, they kept fighting. And slowly the forms were countered. And eventually Ravan, being a Naga, took a form of a giant snake, of a Naga.
And he had his warriors assisting him. They were all horse warriors. So they all took forms of Nagas and they all attacked Alambush.
Alambush thought deeply and thought quickly and deeply. And he immediately took the form of Garuda, who is the mortal enemy of the snakes. And he started devouring the warriors of Ravan’s army.
And as Ravan was stunned by the speed with which he was being attacked, and as he was thinking what to do and how to counter the solution, with blinding speed, Alambush pounced on him and lopped off his head. And that’s how Alambush died. Now when Arjuna heard this, he was he gasped in pain and sorrow.
And he temporarily retreated from the… some Sthipakas were attacking him. And they seeing that he was not attacking, they also desisted from the attack. And he he went to his grief.
Now he was… throughout the day he… for the rest of the day as he was fighting, he realised that his beloved son had become a victim of Duryodhana’s greed. And Yudhishthir had been so noble and wanting to avoid a war and accept only five villages. But Duryodhana’s wickedness and greediness had made that impossible.
And now Alambush had… had paid the price. Sorry, Ravan had paid the price. Arjuna, fighting aside his grief, decided to fight fiercely again.
So he had to fight internally against his greed and externally against his enemy. He fought determinately. And as the evening came along, that evening on the other side on the 8th day, Duryodhana had faced a severe setback at the hands of Bhima.
He had been mortally wounded. And he had incited Bhishma, please do something or the army will be destroyed. And Bhishma had taken sat in meditation and imbued five arrows with his mystic power.
And had said, these five arrows will kill the five Pandavas. So, on this side, Yudhishthir was addressing his generals and he said, he was saying that slowly we are gaining the upper hand. Bhima and Arjuna are slowly grinding the opposite troops.
And I am sure that seeing us gaining an upper hand, the Kauravas will become even more vicious and we have to be on the alert. And as Yudhishthir was speaking, Krishna looked at Arjuna. Arjuna was looking out of the tent towards the darkened sky.
He was thinking only of Ravan. And Krishna went over, put his hand on Arjuna’s shoulder and he said, you know, oh Partha, your dear son was a great hero. And after fighting heroically in a way that would do glory to even the greatest of heroes, he has now met a hero’s end.
Surely he has attained an auspicious end. Now is not the time for you to give in to lamentation. Yudhishthir depends on you for victory.
Arjuna looked at Krishna, wiping his tears. Okay, Shiva, how fortunate I am to have you that you always remind me of the excellent path of duty. I will surely do the needful.
But still I cannot forget how Ravan laid his life down just for my sake. And as Arjuna turned away, thinking enough of Ravan, Krishna turned. Oh Arjuna, before you retire today, there is one more thing you need to do.
You need to go to the side of the Kauravas and ask Duryodhana for some five special arrows that he has got. Reminding of the blessing that he had given at the time of the Gandharva war, war with the Gandharvas in Kamyavan. So Arjuna had remembered.
So when Arjuna had rescued Duryodhana from the Gandharvas, Duryodhana had said, out of his Kshatriya honour, although he had been humiliated by first being routed by the Gandharvas, then being arrested in front of him, and his malicious motive being exposed to the Pandavas, and then being like a hostage animal, like a helpless animal who has tied hands and legs in front of his own ladies, he was then mercifully released by Yudhishthira. So he had been mortified. But still as a Kshatriya, honourable Kshatriya, he said that out of his Kshatriya honour, he was not an honourable Kshatriya, but he still had a sense of honour in some aspects.
And so he said, oh Arpartha, I would like to give you something. What do you want? So at that time, Arjuna had said that I do not want anything now. If in the future I need anything, I will ask you.
So Arjuna had thought he would probably never have to ask Duryodhana for a benediction. But it seemed that Krishna had other plans. Arjuna immediately agreed, oh Krishna, whatever you tell me, I will do.
Then Arjuna took off his arms and armour, and he sat on a white horse, and he went unarmed to the opposite army. Now at this time, in today’s warfare, a soldier or a warrior who goes like this will be slaughtered but initially, at least as long as Bhishma was there on the warfield, both sides fought the principal war, and the Kshatriyas were so cordial that for them it was like a sport in one sense. And they would fight fiercely as long as the day I was there and war was going on.
Sometimes they would, at the end of the day, would just meet with each other and dine together and joke together and reminisce together, just like sometimes there’s a cricket match. On the field, the two teams are like enemies, but off the field, they may be friends. So you may say what a brutal sport this is that people are getting killed.
And it’s not just like any ordinary sport, but here the soldiers knew that they are not the body, they are the soul. And they knew dying a hero’s death on a warfield would gain them heaven. And so they were not afraid of death, per se.
And then after that, so and Arjuna went right to the camp of Duryodhana. Duryodhana had just finished his meeting with Bhima, and he had kept the arrows with him in his own tent. So he was informed that Arjuna has come.
Immediately he got up, said, oh Partha, welcome. What can I do for you? If you ask me for the kingdom, I will give that kingdom to you also. Now at one level, this seemed like a very cordial and generous reception of a guest who has come.
Respecting a guest is considered to be a very important part of religious duty. And Duryodhana seems to be following that. But Arjuna knew that Duryodhana was being facetious.
Duryodhana was making this offer knowing that Arjuna would never accept this offer. So Arjuna said, oh Duryodhana, the time for offering the kingdom has gone. And Krishna at that time you could have offered.
Now I will take the kingdom after defeating you. But before that, I need something else. Do you remember the promise that you had given me that I could ask you for something in future? So hearing this, Duryodhana shrank in shame, as he remembered his humiliation in front of the Kandavas.
But still externally he maintained his composure and said, oh Partha, please tell me what would you like to have? And Arjuna said, I believe you have five arrows here. I need those five arrows. Duryodhana was shocked.
But again, without hesitating, he picked up the five arrows and he gave to Arjuna. And Arjuna just took the arrows and started going away. And Duryodhana said, oh, pray, Partha, tell me who told you about these five arrows? Duryodhana had kept everything top secret.
When Bhishma had been imbuing those arrows with power, he had sent all the messengers. So he did not expect anybody to know. Or he expected that nobody would know rather.
And yet he said that. So who, how would know? So he said, Krishna told me. Arjuna smiled and walked away.
And Duryodhana punched his fist into his palm. He said, that Krishna, he really seems to be God. How could he have known? And here we see that Krishna intervened to protect the Pandavas.
Bhishma’s five arrows, which were meant to cause the death of the five Pandavas, Krishna intervened and protected them. And then the next morning, when Bhishma got the news, it was the ninth morning, that the five arrows were gone. And he said to Duryodhana that I will either kill Arjuna or I’ll force Krishna to lift the weapons.
Only way Arjuna will be protected is if Krishna lifts the weapons. So then that day, Bhishma fought with a maniac fury and the Pandavas were stunned. They had never seen Bhishma fighting like this before, just scorching their army.
And Krishna turned to Arjuna and said, oh, Arjuna, today is the day when you have to keep your honour, keep your word and fight against Bhishma. So Arjuna was, his heart was not in the fight, but still he charged towards him. And then they had a fierce fight.
And Bhishma was not only combating all the arrows of Arjuna, but along with that, he was also breaking havoc among the Pandava army. And so fierce was his attack. At several Kaurava Pandava warriors came to assist Arjuna against Bhishma, but nobody could tolerate his onslaught.
And in order to provoke Arjuna, to provoke Krishna also to action, Bhishma shot arrows not only at the warrior, Arjuna, but also at his charioteer. And Krishna got severely wounded. This angered Arjuna, but still he didn’t have the heart to fight against his grandfather.
And he resisted and seeing Bhishma’s prowess, Krishna became grave, thoughtful, and he decided that I cannot tolerate the slaughter of the Pandavas. I cannot just watch passively as Bhishma kills Arjuna. He realised the situation was extremely serious and he picked up his, he jumped out of his chariot, throwing off the reins, ran and picked up a bow and started charging towards Bhishma.
And now you just imagine what thoughts were going through in Arjuna’s mind at this time. On one side, he was conflicted. He knew about his duty towards Yudhishthir, how he had to fight.
He had taken a vow, given his word that he would kill Bhishma, but still how could he attack his dear grandfather? But now when he saw that his neglect of his duty had caused Krishna to give up his word, right before the war, Krishna had taken a word that I will not raise weapons. And yet Krishna had now raised a weapon. Of course, a chariot wheel was not exactly a weapon, but still critics would be eager to find faults.
And all the more so because Krishna did have a weapon of a wheel, that was Sudarshan Chakra. That is, of course, very different from a chariot wheel. It has tremendous potency.
But still, Arjuna, he did not think at this time, oh, I don’t have to kill Bhishma. Let Krishna do the dirty work. He did not think like that.
Nor did he think for his own life. He said that, oh, Bhishma is about to kill me. Who will save me now? Krishna has taken the work of saving me.
So Arjuna’s thoughts were not at all self-centred. He did not think either that, oh, my life is being saved or my enemy is being killed. His thoughts were only of Krishna and Krishna’s reputation.
How, how can I become the cause of besmirching and ruining Krishna’s reputation? How much Krishna loves me that he’s ready to give up his own word just to save my life? And how little is my love for Krishna that I am causing my friend, my lord, to give up his word for my sake? And I’m just watching passively. It is because of my negligence and irresponsibility this has happened. He said, I cannot tolerate it.
All these thoughts were rushing through Arjuna’s mind. And he sprang into action, jumped off his chariot and ran after Krishna, trying to stop him. Krishna, stop.
I will fight. I will kill Bhishma. Please do not give up your vow.
Please put aside the weapon. Krishna was blind and deaf almost with anger and concern. And he kept charging, not hearing a word of what Arjuna had spoken.
Arjuna charged off and took a flying tackle, fell right on Krishna’s arms, Krishna’s legs and caught his thighs with his massive arms. But still Krishna kept charging. Arjuna was dragged along the war field with his feet scraping against the ground and seeing Krishna and he was not willing to stop.
Arjuna was calling out, Krishna, stop. But when he saw that Arjuna and Krishna were not stopping, then Arjuna used his huge frame to raise his arms and he struck his arms again, struck his legs against the ground and they created a trench in the ground. As his legs got stuck in that pit over there, then Krishna was charging along and with Arjuna’s legs stuck and Arjuna holding on firmly, Krishna slowly stopped.
And then Arjuna told Krishna, Krishna, please stop. Please stop. Please do not fight.
I will kill Bhishma tomorrow. We have discussed this past time and what happened later. Earlier we were talking about Bhishma.
But here from Arjuna’s perspective, we see that his soft-heartedness towards Bhishma was superseded by his selfless devotion to Krishna. And the next day was the 10th day. Again Duryodhana goaded Bhishma and Bhishma said, I will, I have already taken a vow.
I will either kill Arjuna or Arjuna will kill me. Today I will not return from the war field without having done this. And by doing so doing, I will liquidate the debt that I owe to you, Duryodhana.
And that day the battle began. Actually, the night before that, the Pandavas again went to the Kuru camp. And this time all five of them went to Bhishma and Bhishma had told earlier that come to me later and I will tell you how I can be killed.
And he told that this is Shikhandi. I will not attack Shikhandi. So let Shikhandi be ahead and let Arjuna be behind.
Now actually, we could say that this was quite a humiliating situation for a warrior like Arjuna to have some other warrior as a shield, as a guard for him and to shoot from behind. But Arjuna knew that the cause of dharma was more important than his own honour. And even if the world would not understand, his honour would not be besmirched if he did the will of Krishna and if he did what his own grandsire had told him to.
So at one level it might appear unfair, but already the Kauravas had chosen the side of unfairness and it was not unfair because Bhishma himself asked this to be done. This is the way you can kill me. So the next day Arjuna told Shikhandi, you are ordained to be the cause of the death of Bhishma.
So attack that warrior and I will be behind you and I will shield you. Now the Kauravas had also come to know about the events and then Duryodhana called his brothers and he said, it is our duty to protect our grandsire. Arjuna and Shikhandi will surely try and Bhishma is such a great hero.
Now we should keep Shikhandi away from him. It should not be that just as a funeral, just as a sacrificial fire should not go to a dog. Now Bhishma should not be fed by an insignificant warrior like Shikhandi.
Now Shikhandi was definitely a formidable warrior, but he was no match to Bhishma. And right at the start of the day, Shikhandi charged towards Bhishma and challenged him, fight with me, oh warrior. So Bhishma looks scornfully at Shikhandi and he said, you, I see you as a woman and I will never fight with a woman.
And Shikhandi got enraged. He longed for Bhishma to fight with him and he said, oh you are a killer of Kshatriyas. You have sided on the side of unrighteousness and adharma and you will die today and I will become the cause of your death.
He started shooting arrows and arrows and arrows at Bhishma. Bhishma just neglected and kept shooting arrows at others and seeing Shikhandi grounding down upon Bhishma, Duryodhana asked his warriors to charge in between and as they charged upon Shikhandi, Arjuna was right next to Shikhandi and Arjuna took on all those warriors and he drove them back and slowly, relentlessly, Shikhandi accompanied by Arjuna were charging towards Bhishma and seeing this and seeing the Kaurava warriors repulsed, Dushyasana came and Dushyasana charged in between and he attacked so fiercely that both Shikhandi and Arjuna were checked and Arjuna became wounded and seeing Dushyasana’s valour, the Kauravas cheered him and that infuriated Arjuna. Arjuna fought fiercely, shooting arrow after arrow after arrow, endless shower of arrows.
So fierce was the assault that Dushyasana was thrown off his chariot and being mortally wounded and totally shaken, he fled from there. Other warriors came but they all met the same end and finally Bhishma was confronted with Shikhandi and Arjuna and both of them charged arrows upon arrows upon arrows. Now Bhishma was shooting arrows everywhere else.
Now he did not want to attack Shikhandi and because Arjuna was right next to him, just behind him, so he could not attack Arjuna also and Arjuna shot arrow upon arrow and slowly but surely Bhishma was becoming overwhelmed. Bhishma kept fighting fiercely and other Kaurava warriors came to assist him but Arjuna by his expertise kept driving all of them back. Dushyasana came again and did another heroic effort and he checked Arjuna for some time but Arjuna lost all patience and attacked Dushyasana with such relentless rage that Dushyasana fled and unable to stop and as Bhishma started becoming overwhelmed by the arrows, his full body was covered with arrows.
We can just conceive how much attack Arjuna must have done on that day. Although this is the day of the glory of Bhishma, how he fell gallantly, it is also the day of the glory of Arjuna that he did not swerve from his target in spite of his affection and he kept on relentlessly attacking despite so many Kuru warriors coming and as Dushyasana fled, Bhishma called out to Dushyasana, Oh Dushyasana, fight fiercely. He said that I am being overwhelmed by the arrows that are coming upon me.
He said the arrows which are coming up in a straight line end to end and with the force of thunderbolt, they are the arrows of Arjuna. In fact Shikhandi’s arrows cannot even wound me but Arjuna’s warriors are so fierce that they are like Indra’s Vajra weapons or they are like a Brahmin’s rod. Even the gods cannot sustain them, cannot survive against them.
Like ferocious serpents with enormous eyes, these arrows are piercing into my vitals and they are destroying me from within. Bhishma seeing himself being overwhelmed and seeing Krishna on the opposite side lowered his bow. He knew that the end was near and at this time Arjuna increased his attack.
Shikhandi shot several arrows, Arjuna shot 30 arrows and he followed up with a hundred arrows. Bhishma was jolted by the attack and he realised the end was near but he decided that as a Kshatriya, I will go down fighting and he picked up his bow again and made one mighty effort shooting celestial arrows at Arjuna. Arjuna countered all those arrows and kept mounting his attack and so fierce was the attack of Arjuna.
So it was actually Shikhandi was just the instrument, Arjuna was the actual cause. Under the force of his arrows, Bhishma suddenly fell from the chariot. Right onto the ground but he did not fall on the ground.
The arrows on his body fell on the ground and he fell on those, he lay on a narrow bed and hearing this impossible news, the great grandsire who has never been defeated in war, who had even bested Parshuram in war, he has fallen. Everybody stopped fighting, stunned. Drona swooned off.
Then as soon as he recovered, he called his army to withdraw and then the Kauravas and Pandavas, both got off the chariot. Bhima was brilliant, jumping in joy but Arjuna was grave. He told Krishna to take the chariot close to Bhishma and he got down and folded his hands in front of the grandsire and he said, oh grandsire, please tell me what I can do for you.
At that time, the Kaurava warriors also came over there and Bhishma looked at Partha and he said, oh Partha, just see how my head is hanging like this. I need a pillow. Duryodhana was shamefaced at having let his own commander fall like this and immediately wanted to do some service here, send off messengers to get pillow.
Duryodhana said, Bhishma said, Arjuna knows what kind of pillow that I want and Arjuna immediately shot arrows near the head of Bhishma and then they went into the ground and they became erect and then they acted as a pillow for Bhishma and Bhishma smiled and raised his hand in blessing and then Arjuna and the Pandavas circumambulated Bhishma three times, offered their respects and departed. The next morning, before the war started again, Arjuna and the Pandavas came to meet Bhishma and Kauravas had also come and Bhishma’s voice was a rasp and he said, I am extremely thirsty. Please give me some water and immediately Duryodhana brought jugs of cool water and lot of food with him and Bhishma shook his head.
He said, I have already passed from the world of human beings. Such luxuries are not meant for me. I am simply waiting for my death.
The kind of water that I need is what Partha knows and Arjuna immediately understood the heart’s desire of Bhishma. Although he had fought against Bhishma and caused his fall, his love still remained, his desire to serve still remained and he was grateful for every opportunity like this that he had. He immediately went near Bhishma, circumambulated him again three times, picked up an arrow, chanted celestial mantras, invoked the Parjanyastra and shot it right near the head of Bhishma.
It pierced into the earth and from the earth a gush of fresh water came out. And seeing this water came to the Ganga, Bhishma gratefully drank the water and seeing this stupendous feat of not only producing water from the earth, but also producing it in such a gush that it directly went into the mouth of Bhishma and nowhere else, Gaura warriors gasped in amazement and fear. Such was Arjuna’s power.
They had already known it was awesome, but seeing this sort of display made them tremble. And Bhishma after his thirst was sated, he turned towards Arjuna and said, oh Partha, it is not at all amazing that you have attained this because I know that you are the invincible Nara, the great sage who has formidable powers and now you have come in this incarnation to rid the world of demons. So here Bhishma confirms Arjuna’s identity as Nara.
And this is Arjuna’s first great victory for his side where he defeated and felled Bhishma. It is a victory not just in terms of military skills, it was a victory also in terms of temperament, in terms of fixedness in duty and after achieving a victory also he maintained his affection and rendered service to Bhishma. Such is the glory of Arjuna.
Thank you very much. Hare