When Bhishma took shelter of the Kauravas’ wealth why did Krishna shelter him at death?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
any other questions? so Bhishma although he took shelter of the Kauravas, he fought on their side he didn’t protect Draupadi still Krishna gave him his shelter at the moment of death how is that? actually the Mahabharata is a very deep scripture and it can be understood at various levels so Bhishma, it can be understood at the level of karmakanda, mundane religiosity and it can be understood at the level of bhakti so Bhishma sometimes speaks at the level of mundane religiosity and he says that actually I am bound by the Kauravas’ wealth so I have to fight on their side but that is only an external reason the internal reason was that actually Krishna wanted to demonstrate that he had two things in the Draupadi pastime Krishna wanted to demonstrate that ultimately in this world we have no shelter except Krishna so Draupadi had that assembly where her five husbands were present venerable elders like Bhishma were present so that should have been an assembly where not Bhagwan where she should have felt most protected but that’s what where she was about to be violated so Krishna had everyone in that pastime orchestrated by his plan so that they all acted in a way by which it was demonstrated that we have no shelter except Krishna that is from the transcendental perspective from the practical from the material of the karmakanda perspective we can say that actually Bhishma got caught in Niyamagraha Niyamagraha is sticking to the letter of the law while forgetting the purpose of the law so what happened is he couldn’t answer the question that Draupadi a wife belongs to the husband so the husband has gambled himself and he is not his own master then is he his wife’s master can he gamble her if he is not his own master so that question Draupadi raises and Bhishma says I don’t know he says a wife belongs to the husband wife will be protected by the husband but if the husband is not his own master then is the wife still under his shelter or not he says I am confused I don’t know now yes technically it might be a difficult question to answer but ultimately when it is said that a wife belongs to the husband the point of whatever rule it was it was for protection so a woman was being violated in public and there is no reason to get caught in technicalities over it it was atrocious act to be done so now Krishna did not forget Bhishma’s devotion because he made a mistake at the same time Krishna did not forget his mistake because he was a devotee both are there so because he had committed a mistake because he had chosen to fight on the side of the Kauravas Krishna was determined Arjuna you arranged to kill him so that as a you could say not literally a karmic reaction but as a reaction for what he did for his failure to protect Draupadi for his siding with the Kauravas he got the reaction and he was killed in the war but throughout his life at that time from the transcendental perspective it was an orchestration by Krishna from the material perspective from the karma kanda perspective it was a weak moment the moment when he got caught in the letter of the law but either way Krishna did not let that mistake blind him to the life of dharma life of bhakti that Bhishma had Bhishma was a devotee and similarly his fighting from the Kauravas side at the time of death sorry in the Kurukshetra war that from an external perspective was he fought because he was he had taken their he had taken he had taken their salt as it is lived on their money actually the deeper reason is Krishna wanted to demonstrate that anybody who goes against dharma that person no matter how powerful they may be they will be defeated so by having Bhishma fight on the side of the Kauravas and then having Bhishma defeated Krishna demonstrated dharma will be successful no matter how powerful people how powerful the people who oppose them and Bhishma accepted that service he knew he would be misunderstood but Krishna inspired him to do that service and he accepted that service if Krishna had been angry with Bhishma for having fought with the Pandavas then as you rightly said why would Krishna have gone to him at the time of death and why would he not only Krishna was there at the time of death but Krishna also heard from him he still heard from him why? because Krishna wanted to demonstrate that the lifetime of service that Bhishma had done that should not be overlooked just because he had made a mistake so he had a vast amount of learning and sometimes we all you know face weak moments in our life if some temptation catches us in the weak moment if some normally we may be very gentle and kind to others but sometimes we may be under some stress and then somebody comes and asks us something we just blast out at that person you know if that person holds it lifelong against us you know you are so harsh and then look at how they have lived for the rest of their life so Krishna wanted to demonstrate throughout his life Bhishma had lived a wonderful life as a dharmic person so Krishna rewarded him at the time of death so both levels we can understand at the karmakanda level at the bhakti level at the bhakti level is the orchestration of Krishna’s whatever Bhishma did that was simply by Krishna’s will to demonstrate some lessons that Krishna wanted to teach even if we see at the karmakanda level and also we see that Krishna for the wrong that he did the reaction came but for the right he did that also was rewarded does that answer your question? yes