Mahabharata characters 73 Abhimanyu 2 Confronting conspiracy with courage

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 discussing about Abhimanyu. So Abhimanyu is now inside the Chakravyuh and he is stunning all the Kaurava warriors. No one is able to face him.
He has bested Duryodhana. He has bested Shalya. He has killed Ashmaka.
He has wounded and stunned Karna. And it is just going on. Even Ashwatthama attacks him.
Abhimanyu shoots such a series of ferocious arrows that Ashwatthama is thrown off, completely thrown off his defences and reels under the ferocity of the attack. And as he is just overpowering everyone, so Duryodhana again challenges him. And a fierce fight.
He wounds Duryodhana severely. Duryodhana is bleeding all over his body. And he knocks off his standard and wounds him terribly.
And Duryodhana is burning with anger. And Abhimanyu actually could have killed him. But Abhimanyu spares him in order to honour Bhima’s vow.
And at that time, Duryodhana is fighting fiercely. And he has been fighting but he is helpless. Karna comes again.
And Karna fights. Fights and fights. But again, although despite Karna makes his best efforts, he is just no match to Abhimanyu.
And he is wounded. He falls back and reels. So at that time, Karna and Duryodhana, they are talking.
What to do? Duryodhana’s eyes are asking Karna, Karna you had said that you will kill Arjuna. But you are not able to manage Arjuna’s son. So Karna is mortified.
They are talking. They both decide to go to Drona. And as they go to Drona, Drona is looking at Abhimanyu in that variation, unconcealed admiration.
His eyes, he turns to Duryodhana and he says, you see how expertly he is fighting. There is not the slightest chink of armour, chink in his armour. All his Kshatriya skills are superb.
He profusely praises Abhimanyu. Although it is a war, that there is the threat of death and death all around, Drona is quintessentially a teacher. As a teacher, he cannot but appreciate a masterly student.
This does not indicate that he is flinching in his duty. It just indicates that he is a quintessential teacher. But Duryodhana is not able to appreciate this.
He says, instead of guarding our army, our preceptor and our commander, he is appreciating our enemy as he is destroying our forces. He is about to speak but he does not want to bore Duryodhana too much. He is suspicious that because Arjuna is Duryodhana’s favourite student and because Abhimanyu is Arjuna’s son, Duryodhana does not want to fight for Arjuna.
But as this discussion is going on, Dushyasan overhears the discussion and Dushyasan says, leave this to me. I will deal with him. And Dushyasan charges on towards Abhimanyu and shoots a series of arrows one after another after another.
They attack Abhimanyu but Abhimanyu takes all those arrows like a mountain receiving a shower and turns around and smiles. He says, oh wicked one, you who cause such pain and dishonour to Draupadi, I have been waiting to wreck my vengeance on you. It is fortunate that you have come before me.
Today I will punish you severely in front of all these warriors. And Dushyasan keeps shooting arrows. Abhimanyu counters them.
And so fast is the attack of Abhimanyu that Dushyasan is soon overwhelmed. An arrow pierces deep into his shoulder. Dushyasan wounds and he follows a series of arrows and they all wound him everywhere.
Dushyasan is mortally, severely wounded and he turns and his chariot departs from there. This is actually a characteristic of Dushyasan. Many times he speaks big things and he follows it up with actions also, going heroically to attack.
But he is just no match to the Kaurava warrior, to the Pandava warriors. And this is what he does against Arjuna at Virat, also against Arjuna on the 14th day, the next day. He also does that when Arjuna is charging towards Bhishma on the 10th day.
He also tries to do that when Bhima is wreaking havoc on the 17th day. And at that time, finally, his audacity in challenging those to whom he is not a match proves fatal to him. When he wounds Bhima and his brothers cheer him and he jeers Bhima.
Bhima gets so angry. In the arrow fight, Bhima is being bested. But then Bhima takes a mace and just charges towards him, smashes him on the head and throws him off the chariot and then pounds him and kills him with the sword eventually.
But here also Dushyasan flees. And then as the Kauravas are panicking, whoever comes in front of Abhimanyu just feels death. And all over, wherever he is charging, soldiers are fleeing.
Abhimanyu single-handedly has destroyed three-fourth of Akshahuni now. He is destroying many, many warriors. It seems to be no stop.
Now by this time, Abhimanyu has realized that he is all alone. He has understood that there is nobody following him into the Chakravyuha. But he is unconcerned.
He is fighting heroically. And this is the greatest day of his life. The great unparalleled heroism.
And what he has spoken. He says he will fight like never before for his uncle and his father. He actually does that.
And finally when Duryodhana is wounded, Duryodhana’s son Lakshmana comes to challenge Abhimanyu. And Lakshmana fights heroically but with just one arrow Abhimanyu kills him. There is a fight but eventually one arrow is enough for him.
And then when Lakshmana is killed, Duryodhana goes mad. Lakshmana is his heir. He is not just his son but his heir.
And he thinks, my son is dead in front of my eyes. He says, attack Arjun. Abhimanyu recharges forward and gets his warriors to charge forward.
But nobody can face him. And as he is wreaking havoc, the Kaurava warriors assemble. So Shakuni looks at Duryodhana and Karna with wickedness and cunning in his eyes.
And he says, O kings, we will not be able to kill this land fairly. We have to come up with some means by which in some unfair way we will have to bring him down. So Karna knows that Drona knows all the Kshatriya tactics.
He says, let us ask the preceptor how he can be brought down. And they all go to the preceptor. And Drona is even now admiring.
He is terrorizing and destroying our army. Drona says, O Kshatriyas, all of you have fought with him. And you have seen there is no chink in his armor at all, no weakness.
So Karna almost growls in anger. He says, O Brahmana, I too have experienced the assault of his arrows. And it is only because of my adherence to Kshatriya duty that I stay on over here even after being thus wounded.
Please don’t admire the enemy. Please tell us how we can get the enemy down. Now Duryodhana has already spoken earlier and now again he is repeating.
Drona feels a tremendous sense of pressure because for two days he has promised that I will kill Yudhishthira on 11th and 12th. I will arrest Yudhishthira. He has not been able to do that.
13th day he has made a Chakravyuh now and he has promised that either we will catch Yudhishthira or we will kill one of his formidable warriors. And now instead of killing any of his formidable warriors, it seems that this warrior is going to destroy everyone. So Drona also starts feeling tremendous pressure.
And then he feels that I am a commander and all these warriors are depending on me. It is my duty to protect them. And even if it is unethical, most important duty is to protect my army some way or the other.
So Shakuni is the root of the idea. Shakuni is of course the root of all deviousness. But then Shakuni’s expertise in executing plans is only on the gambling desk.
But here Shakuni comes up with the suggestion that this is the way we have to go ahead. And then Drona makes a tangible plan for it. Drona looks down and then looks up and he says, there is one way in which we can kill him.
If six of us attack him together, then perhaps it is possible for us to kill him. O Karna, you should attack and break his bow. You should break the reins of his chariot and you should break his chariot wheels.
At the same time Ashwathama, you should attack and kill his charioteer. O Krithavarman, you should kill his horses. At the same time, O King, if you, Kripa and I, all of me three attack him directly, then we may be able to bring him down.
The Kauravas look at each other. They all know that it is unethical. But since Drona, a brahmin, a commander, a preceptor has outlined it, even the others do not protest.
And of course, Karna, Shakuni… Shakuni is not a maharatha and Drona does not include him in. Karna, Duryodhana, they somehow want to get him down. So they go along with it.
And although there have been many breaches, there have been some breaches till now of the Kshatriya code, but this is going to be the most egregious, the most horrendous breach of Kshatriya codes. As Abhimanyu is breaking havoc all around, nobody is able to face him. He is destroying wherever he goes.
At that time, they spin the plan into action and Karna from the side attacks and as Abhimanyu is fighting, suddenly he finds his bowstring cut. He looks around and tries to get another bow and use it, but he is in the enemy formation. He does not have an unlimited supply of bows over here.
Karna relentlessly cuts off his bow. And as he is just watching, before he can do anything, Karna also cuts off his chariot. So it is the chariot now.
The horse is unable to be controlled and the wheels are also broken. The reins are also broken. As he becomes immobilized, suddenly he sees that Krutavarman has killed his horses and Ashwatthama has killed his chariot here.
And now he is outnumbered and almost helpless, but fearlessly just jumps off the chariot and decides to continue his fighting. Realizing that he is hemmed in, now Abhimanyu also has some mystic powers. So he jumps into the sky and he has a sword and shield and he swirls around the sword and shield exhibiting various motions and he is just trying to buy time, trying to come up with a plan what to do.
As he is moving around in the sky, the soldiers underneath who are looking up are terrorized. They may think, he has fallen on us at any moment and use his sword and kill us. So at that time, Karna and Drona take it carefully.
He cuts off the sword of Abhimanyu and then Karna cuts off the shield and Abhimanyu comes down weaponless. He suddenly runs up and he sees a huge wheel. Remembering how Krishna had just picked up the wheel four days ago on the ninth day to protect Arjuna, he picks up that wheel and the huge wheel lifted up with all his strength, he charges towards the Kauravas and he is whirling the wheel around and he is threatening just with that wheel.
It’s a rather dangerous weapon, but the Kauravas all shoot arrows at him and destroy the wheel completely. So Abhimanyu looks around. Although he knows that death is inevitable, there is no fear on his face.
He looks around and sees a huge mace. He picks up the mace and starts whirling around. He sees nearby Ashwathama is there.
He has determined that if he is going to die, he is going to take as many warriors with him to the death. And he just picks up the mace and charges towards Ashwathama. Ashwathama has his bow and arrow, but such is the charge of Abhimanyu that his worshipable deity is Shiva, but Shiva is also the destroyer and he is a three-eyed destroyer.
When he comes, he is unstoppable. So Ashwathama feels that Abhimanyu is like that Shiva in the mood of a destroyer. He just cannot be charred.
Abhimanyu brings a huge mace down on Ashwathama’s chariot. Ashwathama leaps clear. A charioteer and his horses are crushed to the ground.
Abhimanyu is whirling around, swings around a short while. He kills Shakuni’s brother, then he kills Saheb and he kills dozens of warriors who are assisting him and then several elephants, dozens of horses and several warriors. The mace is just whirling, whirling, whirling, destroys whoever faces him.
And then he looks around and he sees Duryodhana, Dushyasana’s son who is there and he takes the mace and charges towards Duryodhana. And again, just as he has crushed Ashwathama’s chariot, he brings the mace down. Duryodhana realizes that stopping Abhimanyu is impossible.
So he also leaps off. But as he leaps off, he carries a mace with him. And as he carries the mace, Abhimanyu crushes his horses and his chariot into powder, into the ground.
And then he turns around and Durjaya and Abhimanyu, severe fight, fight, fight. This goes on and on. They are fighting.
They know that this is going to be a fight to death now. And finally, although Abhimanyu is far, far more skilled, more resourceful in not just archery, but even in mace fighting, but now he is exhausted. So as they are fighting with one movement, normally when they fight, the maces hit each other.
But in some cases, when one opponent is about to evade the other, the other also evade the first. And Abhimanyu’s mace hits Durjaya and Durjaya’s mace hits Abhimanyu. And both of them fall on the ground.
And as both of them fall on the ground, now both of them, they are knocked off for some time. They are just dazed by the force of the blow. And both of them get up.
As they get up, Abhimanyu, because of the Herculean fight that he has had, is exhausted. And he slowly gets up. And as he is getting up, Durjaya gets up faster, picks up his mace and brings it straight down on Abhimanyu’s skull.
And Abhimanyu’s skull cracks apart. And he falls down dead. Even in his death, his face has a peaceful look.
And his body is still fulgent. And seeing the rind-fatting evil foe finally fell, the Kauravas start cheering in joy. Indeed, a Pandava maharatha has been killed.
And Abhimanyu is dead. But the celestials who are watching Brahma, wow, they cry out. This was heinously unfair.
Six maharathas attack a single warrior. And that too, a 16-year-old boy, and killed him ruthlessly. Butchered him.
This is a horrendous violation of Kshatriya codes. And then, as the Pandavas are panicking, the Jaidrath has held them back. And then after that, the Chakravyuha has been closed.
The Pandavas are trying various ways to break the Chakravyuha. But they can’t find him. And then they hear, they’re waiting anxiously for him, something.
And finally, they hear the victory, conches and the victory celebrations of the Kauravas. And with a sinking heart, they realize that Abhimanyu is dead. And on the Pandava side, the death of Abhimanyu is the greatest casualty in one sense.
Apart from Abhimanyu, and Iravan, and then Ghatotkach, about whom we’ll discuss in our next session. None of the Pandavas themselves are killed. And of course, by the end of the war, everyone on the Pandava side is killed.
No one survives except Satyaki Krishna and the five Pandavas. That is, of course, brutal. But during the war, actually, this is the biggest casualty.
And when we hear about such casualties, the question may come up, you know, does Krishna not protect his devotees? Now, Abhimanyu was himself a very great, great hero, not just a hero, but he was also devoted to Krishna. His father was devoted to Krishna, he was devoted to Krishna, and he was just married. Actually, to seal the alliance between Virat and the Pandavas, the Virat king had offered his daughter Uttara to Arjuna.
But Arjuna said that, I have treated her like my daughter, because I was a teacher and she was my student. So I don’t want people to question our relationship, that there was teacher-student relationship and they had some amorous kind of contact or something like that. So he said, let her become my daughter-in-law.
And they agreed and Abhimanyu married Uttara. So he had got married and Uttara was pregnant at that time, she was pregnant with Parikshit. So he was so young, so heroic, so dharmic, so devoted.
So how is it that Krishna did not protect him? Now, the scriptures help us to understand the true definition of protection. Protection is not just in terms of the body. The body is ultimately temporary.
And even if the Lord protects the body, how long can the body survive? Ultimately it is going to die. So it’s ultimately going to perish. So the important thing is not how long one lives or even how one dies.
The important thing is what is the quality of one’s life and what is the way in which, what is the purpose in which for which one has lived. And then what is the consciousness one has cultivated. So we ask Yudhishthira to just console him after hearing the death of Abhimanyu.
And we ask him to console him and tell him that one who has died so heroically after living such a virtuous life, that person will attain the abode of immortal bliss. In fact, he is fortunate. It is for us that we should lament, not for him, because we are still left in this miserable world.
And so actually the important thing is not the transition, but the destination. There are two different questions that can come up. Why does Krishna not protect his devotees? And even if the devotees have to die, why do they die sometimes violent deaths? Sometimes even devotees may die in accidents or sometimes the death may appear to be quite ghastly.
So even if there is to be death, shouldn’t it be a devotee has to die also? Actually the devotee can die in very Krishna conscious circumstances with devotees chanting around and in a serene spiritual atmosphere. But what if that doesn’t happen? That doesn’t mean anything. More important the transition is the destination.
And the destination is determined by one’s motivations in life, one’s desires in life, one’s consciousness in life, the quality of one’s life. So if one is devoted to dharma, devoted to the Lord, then one will go back to the Lord. So that’s what Vyasadev tells.
Vyasadev is another reasoning. Actually Vyasadev makes five points over there. The first point he says is that in this world, no one can violate the law of death.
No one, whoever that person may be, can violate the law of death. And then he gives a list of many, many kings who were far more virtuous than Abhimanyu. And he says, although these kings are so virtuous, still they all had to perish.
So what that means is, you should not be surprised if Abhimanyu, who was not a match in virtue to these kings, he has to perish. So first point is no one will violate the law of death. Second point he makes is that if everybody has to die, then what is the destination that is important? And he has to let in auspicious destiny, a boat of important bliss.
And third he says is, actually there should be lamentation, it should lament for us. But why? Because he says in this world, this is a world of temptation. And no matter how high a person becomes, no matter how virtuous a person is, still that person can be dragged down by temptation.
And once a person is dragged down by temptation, how much a person can fall, where a person can go, because of being lured and entangled in temptation, one cannot say. So as compared to staying in a world of temptation, if one has gone beyond the world of temptation to the world of the eternal destination, then how much more fortunate a person is. So if they go to the serious and then they suddenly depart, that means Krishna has taken them away from this world of temptation and distraction to the eternal safety of his embrace and his abode.
And then he says that the will of the Lord is inscrutable. If you follow it, you will understand it in due course of time. He says that we cannot question why Krishna does what he does.
Our minds are finite, his mind is infinite. So we cannot understand. That doesn’t mean that we have to be just blindly accepting, not blindly accepting, we accept based on scripture, we accept based on faith.
Faith is not blind. Faith is based on a scriptural description as well as personal experiential vindication. We can confirm our scriptural truths about the reality of Krishna’s existence, about the glory of his love.
We understand it all through Krishna, through our own experience when we live a life devoted to Krishna. And he says that if you follow his will, you’ll understand in due course of time. So what may at one stage seem terribly wrong, will at a later stage turn out to be glorious.
So even if you can’t conceive of it as glorious, what seems disastrous, you should know that Krishna has a plan. Now Krishna’s actions may not always be pleasant, but they are always benevolent. They may not feel good, but they always do good to us.
So the Lord’s will is inscrutable. We cannot scrutinize with our intelligence. We cannot comprehend it.
But if we do his will, then gradually we will understand it. And this way he encourages Yudhishthira to stick to the glorious path of duty and virtue. So Abhimanyu becomes a martyr, but what kind of a great hero, a great hero who lays down his life for a great cause.
And we see that his… so the untimeliness and unfairness of his death are not unavenged. Next day Arjuna breaks havoc on the Pandava camp, on the Kaurava camp, and he does kill Jayadratha and he takes revenge for Abhimanyu’s death. But the important point is that through such fast times, the Lord illustrates that the devotees are not afraid even of death in their service to him.
Even if they have to face death, they will do that. And they will do it boldly and determinedly. With the same single-mindedness of purpose that is characterized the rest of their lives, the devotees embrace even death in Krishna’s service.
So Abhimanyu attained not destruction, but he attained liberation. And the battle arena in which apparently he was brutally killed, in which he was that, is just external to the reality of the soul and the soul’s relationship with Krishna and the soul’s attainment of Krishna as a whole. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna.