​Why did Arjuna kill Bhishma from behind Shikhandi?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Thank you. Hare Krishna. Question.
Why did Arjuna kill Bhishma from behind Shikhandi? Wasn’t it unethical? Answer. No, that was the way Bhishma himself told Arjuna that that is the way he would be killed. So, before the war started, at that time, Yudhishthira went to all his elders to seek their blessings and to with a heavy heart ask them how they could be overcome because they were formidable warriors who would normally be undefeatable.
And at that time, when Yudhishthira asked this to Bhishma, Bhishma said, come at a later time and then I will tell you how this is to be done. So, later when Bhishma, when Yudhishthira and Arjuna rather went and met Bhishma, at that time, Bhishma revealed indirectly that actually he had taken a vow that he would never raise his weapon against a woman nor against anyone who had been a woman. And that was the only way he could be killed.
So, at that time, on the 10th day when the war was going on, Bhishma was fighting furiously and Arjuna was also fighting as well as he could. But Arjuna’s heart was not in the fight because he did not want to, he just did not think about, could not entertain the thought of killing his grandfather. So, at that time, eventually they realized that what Bhishma had told, that it was only on hearing that I will not kill a woman or a person who has been a woman, I will not attack.
So, then Shikhandi, it was known that Shikhandi had been born a woman, had been a woman in a previous life, Amba, and she had also been actually, in a sense, born as a woman in this lifetime. But then there’s a long story by which she was converted into a man. So, the thing is that because she had been a woman, so Bhishma saw her as a woman and he decided not to attack her.
This was his own code and now this was not the standard Kshatriya code. So, this was his own principle that he had made. So, Shikhandi fought with him and it was not that Arjuna was constantly behind Shikhandi.
Arjuna was also fighting and obviously if Arjuna had all the time been behind Shikhandi, then Arjuna would not have been able to shoot arrows also. So, the thing is Arjuna and Shikhandi, they both fought and Bhishma was assisted by other warriors. So, it became a general melee, general fight over there.
Dushasan coming up sometimes to assist Bhishma. And as the fight went on and on, eventually the other aggressors were beaten back and Shikhandi and Arjuna, they concentrated on Bhishma. Bhishma countered them but over time the sheer force of Arjuna’s assault was so great that Bhishma was overwhelmed.
So, even when he was weakening and he was falling, he told that actually it is not Shikhandi’s arrows that are hurting me. Shikhandi’s arrows are like lotuses. They don’t hurt me.
Because even if an arrow is sharp, it also depends on the skill and the force with which the arrow is shot. And a skilled and powerful warrior will send the arrow with far greater force than a less powerful or less skilled warrior. Arjuna was far more skilled and powerful than Shikhandi.
And therefore, when Arjuna shot arrows, the arrows were forceful. Bhishma said that these arrows are like thunderbolt. So, it is not exactly that Arjuna hit behind Bhishma, sorry, Arjuna hit behind Shikhandi.
Arjuna and Shikhandi attacked together and because Bhishma had taken the vow that he would not attack a woman, so he did not counter Shikhandi’s attack. But he was able to and he did counter Arjuna for quite some time. But eventually, it was not that Arjuna killed him just because, Arjuna not killed him, but caused the fall of Bhishma, not just because Arjuna was hiding behind Shikhandi and shooting arrows from there.
Arjuna was a skilled warrior and he fought fiercely on that day knowing that without the fall of Bhishma, the fall of Adharma was not possible because Bhishma was the commander of Duryodhana’s army and Duryodhana was at that time the personification of Adharma. So, therefore, he fought to the best of his capacity and by fighting thus, he was eventually able to overcome Bhishma. So, that was the stratagem of having Shikhandi with him and in general, with the presence of Shikhandi, the aggression of Bhishma was to some extent blunted.
So, was this unethical? No, because we have to consider there are broader ethics and there are circumstantial actions. And in the circumstantial actions, it was Bhishma who knew that his time had come and it was Bhishma who told the Pandavas that this is the way you can overpower me. And then in that sense, the Pandavas were doing the will of Bhishma and even while doing that will, it was not that Arjuna was just hiding behind Shikhandi.
Arjuna was also fighting and it was through this combination of the specific strategy that Bhishma had recommended as a counter according to the principle which Bhishma himself wanted to follow and with his skill that Arjuna was able to overpower Bhishma. So, ultimately, Arjuna’s charioteer was Krishna and Krishna sanctioned what Arjuna did. And in that sense, from the transcendental perspective, what was done was by the Lord’s will.
So, it was auspicious and Bhishma also will see later that Krishna himself was by his side when he departed from the world and thus Bhishma attained the supreme auspiciousness. So, rather than making this whole issue into a matter of technical Kshatriya code violation, we can see it as a specific situation requiring a specific solution which was done according to the will of the protagonists, that’s from the circumstantial perspective and from the transcendental perspective, it was the will of the Lord. And Bhishma, in fact, even when Krishna and Arjuna were charging towards him, when his last moments when he saw Krishna and Arjuna fighting, they became his most cherished memories and he remembers Krishna and Arjuna together on the chariot during his last moments before he departs from the world.
Thank you.