12. Those eighteen days – Arjuna fells Bhagadatta – Understanding how God protects – Mahabharata wisdom

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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Welcome back to the series describing the 18 days of the Mahabharata war today we are on the 12th day and we will focus on the wars major battle that happened on this day which was involving an elephant warrior named Bhagadatta now Bhagadatta was a king of Pragyotisha and while there were many other elephant warriors he was the most formidable among them because not only was he very skilled and powerful but also because he, his elephant was extraordinarily powerful. It was so huge that it dwarfed other elephants.
When that elephant charged across the battlefield it seemed as if it was an it was a mountain charging across the battlefield and not only that whenever he was fighting the elephant itself could crush opponents under its feet and on top of that the other, the warrior on top would be destroying opponents and this elephant could just rush into even other elephants and hit them with the force of this momentum with the head and the other elephants would topple over so on the 12th day Yudhishthira was again the target of the Kaurava attack led by Drona and as per Drona’s request Duryodhana had arranged for Arjuna to be challenged by Susharma and Trigartas and Samshaptakas Samshaptakas so these Samshaptakas, there are thousands and thousands of warriors who were unstoppable who were undefeatable of course they were no match to Arjuna but they were tireless and they just kept coming wave after wave after wave toward Arjuna and Arjuna was completely consumed and fighting with them so as Drona tried to charge toward Yudhishthira Bhima came to protect him and seeing Bhima intervening Duryodhana asked the elephant warrior Bhagadatta to attack Bhima initially an elephant division had been charged toward Bhima but Bhima tore through that elephant division first using his arrows and bows then jumping down and using his sword and mace he destroyed that elephant division seeing that Bhagadatta charged toward Bhima and Bhima shot, Bhima had got back on his chariot and he shot several arrows toward Bhagadatta now not only was Bhagadatta clad in armor very strong almost impenetrable armor but even his elephant Supratika was clad in armor that was almost impenetrable so Bhima shot arrow after arrow at both the elephant and the elephant warrior but all his arrows were rendered ineffective and as Bhima was on his chariot this giant elephant was rushing toward him, Bhima kept shooting one arrow after another using his full force expecting that now this elephant will fall but the elephant just kept charging relentlessly at the last moment as the elephant was about to crush Bhima and his chariot under its giant foot Bhima leapt off that chariot and as his chariot was crushed under foot Bhima survived now enraged at having missed its target elephant charged forward destroying whoever would come in its way knowing that Bhima was chariotless and relatively vulnerable Bhagadatta got his elephant to turn around and charged toward Bhima Bhima recognizing that no matter how powerful he was this elephant was undoubtedly far more powerful so Bhima took the opportunity as his elephant was charging normally if some elephant is charging toward someone the person will get paralyzed or they will flee in fear but Bhima knowing that surprise could be his weapon in countering he just raced straight toward the elephant and as the elephant came in he slipped in between the feet of the elephant and went underneath and from below he started pummeling the elephant Supratikas shrieked in pain and whirled round and round being hit by Bhima’s formidable punches whirled round and round Bhima emerged from below the elephant’s body seeing the opportunity the elephant used his long trunk to catch Bhima and raise him high up smash him to the ground and pound him to death Bhima with great presence of mind shrunk his formidable body and as he was high up in the trunk he was about to smash down he himself slipped out of the trunk out of the trunk and he fell and again he started pummeling the elephant from below again the elephant whirled around seeing that Bhima was in great danger Yudhishthir asked some other warriors to challenge and attack Supratika and Bhagadatta and as they attacked him he turned and countered those attacks and immediately turned back to Bhima in the meanwhile Arjuna was far away but Bhagadatta was not just a huge beast his roars were also thunderous and they would resonate an echo across the entire battlefield on hearing Supratika roaring like this Arjuna surmised that it must be wreaking havoc in the Pandava camp and he turned toward Krishna and he said Krishna that Supratika and Bhagadatta will destroy our army, I don’t think anyone except me can stop them and yet the Trigartas who have challenged me are right in front of me what should I do so he turned around Krishna also agreed with him yes first you need to save your army from from the elephant and then you can come back as Arjuna turned away the Trigartas they challenged Arjuna have you become a coward while we are challenging you why are you fleeing Arjuna was perplexed he turned around still was in two minds Krishna told him dispatch these warriors first and then you can go and counter Bhagadatta but Arjuna knew that the sheer number of warriors, there are so many how could he fight them it would take a lot of time, he could win but not immediately, time was of essence, as he was deliberating the Trigarta warriors attacked him with hundreds of arrows as those arrows fell upon him on his chariot, on his body on Krishna, Krishna deftly dodged as many of the arrows as he could get several of the arrows fell upon Arjuna and Krishna and his horses seeing this attack on him while he was not yet counter attacking, while he was not ready to counter them Arjuna lost all patience Arjuna invoked the Brahmastra and then he shot it, hundreds and thousands of arrows emerged from that one weapon and they went and thudded into the bodies of the Trigarta warriors and in one fell blow their entire regiment was knocked down and they were just overwhelmed by what seemed to be like a tidal wave of arrows hitting into them and as all those warriors fell to the ground, the few survivors were shocked they were recovering not knowing what had hit them Krishna told Arjuna this is a gallant feat of Arjuna your enemies, these enemies will take some time to recover let’s go back immediately yes Krishna, please take my chariot immediately to Bhagadatta and as Arjuna charged toward Bhagadatta, now Bhagadatta in the meanwhile had cornered Bhima and so the incident that I described just now, this and Bhima’s fight with Bhagadatta had been happening in parallel and all along Supratik had been roaring so Arjuna saw Bhima in great danger and he’s charging toward Bhagadatta to distract him from Bhima but Duryodhana seeing an opportunity to fell Bhima decided to block Arjuna and he sent a huge regiment of army in between Arjuna’s path but Arjuna was unstoppable, the bond between the Pandava brothers was such that Arjuna was empowered by his love and regard for his brother and he just explored through the entire army that came in his way shooting arrows with such blinding speed that the blocking wall was decimated within moments and Arjuna charged toward Supratika and he rode out of challenge and started shooting arrows Supratika seeing Arjuna Supratika heard Arjuna coming and Bhagadatta also heard, seeing this formidable warrior charging toward him Bhagadatta turned to face Arjuna, seeing this as an opportunity Bhima slipped away going to a nearby chariot, he ascended the chariot and thus Bhima was saved from that catastrophic danger, as Arjuna and Bhagadatta fought with each other, now both of them seemed to be determined to bring about the other warriors destruction, soon the onlookers realized that this was going to be a battle to death and although Arjuna and Bhagadatta had encountered each other briefly earlier times but this was a far different battle, Arjuna was enraged that his brother had been threatened, Bhagadatta had become enraged thinking that he had just been deprived of the opportunity to kill a warrior as great as Bhima that would have been a stupendous feather in his cap as both of them had actively attacked each other, they used a wide variety of weapons and yet nobody seemed to get the upper hand and Arjuna was shooting arrows at Supratika also but it was ineffective because the armor of that formidable elephant was almost unbreakable when Supratika realized that simply by archery he couldn’t get the upper hand on Arjuna he decided to use the strategy that he often used to crush his opponents just goaded his elephant to charge down on Krishna, Arjuna and their chariot as he charged towards Arjuna, Arjuna kept shooting arrow after arrow after arrow but the elephant was unstoppable and it seemed that Arjuna would meet the same fate as had befallen Bhima would Arjuna be able to leap off in time however Arjuna had one advantage that Bhima did not have Bhima’s charioteer Vishoka was also an expert charioteer and he had also leapt off the chariot to save his life but he was no match to Krishna Krishna watched Supratika carefully and at the last moment he fainted his chariot toward the left and Supratika raised his giant foot and stamped on the ground but there was no Arjuna over there with its momentum the elephant ran forward Arjuna and Krishna had fought many wars together and they had unspoken communication as well as spoken communication, in this case Arjuna had anticipated what Krishna would be doing and he was ready as Krishna took out their chariot on the side and Supratika along with Bhagadatta went ahead Arjuna had a chance to shoot the unprotected warrior from the side and to kill him but knowing the codes of war Arjuna desisted from the attack however Supratika was enraged at having missed this opportunity and discharged into the Pandava army destroying whatever its trunk could reach, whatever its legs could stamp seeing this wanted destruction of his forces Arjuna got enraged and he asked Krishna to chase this elephant and racing ahead of him Arjuna challenged Bhagadatta and both of them fought with each other, Bhagadatta shot several arrows and Arjuna countered all of them and he used celestial weapons and Arjuna countered those celestial weapons with his own weapons he took a formidable dart and hurled it and Arjuna broke it into pieces, Arjuna used strong weapons and wounded Bhagadatta, Bhagadatta’s armor slowly started breaking apart and Arjuna was in the meanwhile shooting arrows again and again and again at both the elephant and the elephant warrior and Arjuna was not only fast but he was also forceful and the sheer force of arrow after arrow after arrow thudding into the armor of Supratika became eventually too much and his armor finally started falling apart sensing the opportunity Arjuna started shooting arrows with ferocious speed at Supratika and Supratika’s armor then fell to the ground in pieces it seemed almost like a meteor was falling from the sky, so tall was this elephant and then the elephant emerged it was unprotected knowing this to be a great danger for himself and his elephant Bhagadatta pondered he had used all his skills and all his weapons but now he remembered he had one weapon that he had never used before he was using his bow and arrow to keep shooting as he was thinking and now as Arjuna had started getting the upper hand Arjuna started shooting arrows with such speed that Bhagadatta’s bow was broken, instead of turning to get another bow, Bhagadatta used his hook and with that hook he summoned the Vaishnavastra it appeared like a powerful shining missile and he discharged it for the destruction of Arjuna seeing that fearsome weapon, the warriors on the side of the Pandavas and the Kauravas gasped and knowing that it was going straight toward Arjuna the Pandava warriors got dismayed while Arjuna was facing this weapon, now Arjuna because he also had a strong armor, he didn’t always counter the weapons that came toward him normally in archery fighting there are three ways of dealing with the opponent’s arrows, one is to counter those arrows with one’s arrows so the two arrows collide and they fall harmlessly, the other is to dodge those arrows either by one’s own movement or the movement of one’s chariot by one’s charioteer and the third is to tolerate those arrows they may hit one’s armor and they will not cause much damage if the armor is strong and functional, so although Arjuna saw this powerful weapon he surmised that his armor would be able to deal with it, bear it and so he let, he was wanting to press on his advantage and attack Bhagadatta but as that arrow swept down on Arjuna, suddenly Krishna got up, from his position of chariot he rose to his full height and that arrow which was meant to destroy Arjuna by piercing his heart, it came and fell on the chest of Krishna and amazingly enough that arrow changed into a garland and it beautifully garlanded Krishna and Arjuna was mortified, O Krishna you had taken a vow to be my charioteer to not intervene if I had been wounded if I had been unable to defend myself your intervention would have been understandable, why O Krishna when I was in full command of my faculties did you intervene, Bhagadatta had been stunned by the thwarting of his most powerful weapon so Krishna and Arjuna had a few moments to talk while Krishna was deftly maneuvering Arjuna’s chariot away from any danger while still being close to Bhagadatta Krishna quickly told Arjuna Arjuna you know not the power of this weapon this is the Vaishnavastra no one in the entire universe can survive its attack long ago the demon Naraka came with his mother Bhoomideri to me when I had just woken up from my slumber in my form as Vishnu and she asked that her son always be protected and that I grant a weapon by which he would be protected and I gave her the weapon which is the Vaishnav weapon and that Narakasura eventually passed on this weapon to Bhagadatta O Arjuna that weapon would have killed Indra or even Shiva knowing its power I protected you Arjuna felt not only comprehension but immense gratitude that Krishna had saved his life and now he decided to launch the final attack Bhagadatta had become desperate not knowing what to do after his most powerful weapon had been thwarted he started desperately shooting arrows at Arjuna resolutely took his bow and started countering all the arrows then finally he took the weapon of took a powerful arrow infused within it the power of the weapon of Indra and shot it straight at Supratika’s head as that arrow thudded into the forehead of the giant elephant it froze in its tracks and then it started trembling Bhagadatta goaded the elephant desperately to get it to move but the arrow had pierced it fatally as the elephant started toppling down Bhagadatta realized that he was under danger of being crushed under his own elephant desperately he leapt off Arjuna grabbed that opportunity and shot a formidable weapon straight at the heart of Bhagadatta as that weapon pierced Bhagadatta’s heart he fell to the ground his heart split open his limbs spread akimbo crashed to the ground dead seeing that undefeatable warrior fallen seeing that giant undefeatable beast crashing to the ground the Kaurava forces lamented and Pandavas celebrated this was a stupendous fight and Arjuna of course exhibited enormous courage heroism skill and even with all that he was protected by Krishna Krishna was with Arjuna throughout on his chariot protecting him from every danger that they fell in and in this case he protected him even from a danger that he was not aware of our body is also like a chariot and Krishna is present as a super soul in inside our bodily chariot and he is there to guide us to protect us we often pray to God when we sense some danger and seek his protection yes God is always there to protect us of course the way he protects us may not be immediately comprehensible for us what may seem to be a danger befalling us may actually be an impetus for our growth and that danger may bring about good for us everything that happens may not be good but good can come from everything that happens so that good that comes from it may eventually be the protection so the form in which God protects us may not always be understandable for us but through the story we can understand that God is adept at protecting us not just from the dangers that we know and we pray about he is resourceful enough and he is caring enough to protect us even from the dangers that we know nothing about all that we need to do is like Arjuna stay determined and devoted doing our best to serve our Lord in our various capacities in our various areas in life and if we stay devoted by the Lord’s grace we will stay protected from dangers known and unknown thank you very much Hare Krishna