In the previous episode, we were witnessing the proceedings of Day Nine of the Kurukshetra war wherein Bhishmachaarya was showing his full prowess to weed out the entire Paandava army. With his heroics, Bhioshmachaarya created utter chaos in the Paandava camp and even an equally powerful Arjuna couldn’t stop his rampage. At one stage, Bhagawan Krishna once again got furious and rushed towards Bhishmachaarya in a bid to kill him then and there, however, Arjuna stopped Him once again. Bhagawan Krishna was visibly angry with Arjuna for the reason that he’s not showing his full might to take on Bhishmachaarya and because of this, He decides to shoulder Arjuna’s responsibility to fight with Bhishmachaarya and stop his rampage. However, thanks to Arjuna’s intervention, Bhagawan goes back to the chariot.
In the meanwhile, we’ve also seen that Bhishmachaarya puts down his weapons as Bhagawan Krishna rushes towards him. Bhishmachaarya, as we’ve seen earlier, had taken a pledge to make Bhagawan Krishna take the weapon in His hands. Bhagawan Krishna on the other hand, had taken a pledge not to take the weapon in His hands during this war. Now, whose pledge is winning? It is Bhishmachaarya’s, isn’t it? Now we’ve seen that Bhishmachaarya has succeeded not once but twice in making Bhagawan Krishna take the weapon in His divine hands! We should see this in two ways – One way is that, Bhagawan Krishna lets go of His pledge to make His disciple’s pledge come true. This is Bhagawan’s biggest compassion that He has towards His disciple. Secondly, Bhishmachaarya was attacking Bhagawan Krishna’s ardent Bhakta (Arjuna), and if the Bhakta is attacked, Bhagawan will not keep quiet. He will definitely counter-attack and through that, He will protect His ardent Bhakta.
We’ve seen this not only here, but also in several other places as well. Even in the Ramayana, when Ravana was attacking Bhagawan Rama continuously, Bhagawan Rama never got angry. But the moment Ravana attacked Hanuman, Bhagawan Rama’s fury knew no bounds. When little Prahlaada was repeatedly under attack from Hiranya Kashibu, Bhagawan Vishnu couldn’t bare it any further. At a crucial point when Prahlaada was in extreme danger, Bhagawan incarnated as Bhagawan Narasimha to protect Prahlaada, didn’t He? Similar is the case here too – When Arjuna was badly injured by Bhishmachaarya’s prowess and at a point when there’s no space in Arjuna’s body where the arrows can pierce, Bhagawan Krishna decides to take it upon Himself and fight. It should be remembered here that while Bhishmachaarya and Arjuna were fighting, several arrows fell on Bhagawan Krishna too. He was bleeding profusely and was in immense pain when Bhishmachaarya attacked Him. However, Bhagawan Krishna did not get angry even for a moment. He was taking everything upon Him with a beaming smile. But, the moment Arjuna had the same pain as Him, Bhagawan could not stand it anymore. He launches an all-out attack upon Bhishmachaarya, bypassing Arjuna.
Another way of looking at it is this – When Bhagawan Krishna advanced towards Bhishmachaarya, He wanted Bhishmachaarya to attain “Moksha” then and there, for all the good deeds that he had performed till now. Bhishmachaarya too acknowledged it and became ready to be killed by Bhagawan, however, the boon that he could decide the time and date of his demise came in the front! Even though Bhishmachaarya wanted to die in the hands of Bhagawan, somewhere at the back of his mind, he was not ready. He was still having the thought that he is the one who is protecting the entire family and that he had a lot of debts to be repaid to Duryodhana. Hence, these thoughts were preventing Bhishmachaarya to be completely open to Bhagawan Krishna, even at a time when Bhagawan Himself approached him, not once but twice! What a golden opportunity wasted by Bhishmachaarya! So for today, let us understand this point clearly and there’s a big lesson for all of us here – Obtaining “Moksha” is one of the toughest things ever for a “Jeevatma”, however, if Bhagawan Himself is ready to come towards us and give it to us, shouldn’t we be ready to accept it with both hands? So let us ponder over this point for today and let us wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 