In the previous episode, we had witnessed a marquee event at the end of Day Fourteen of the Mahabharata war, wherein Jayatrada had breathed his last. This was not easy to accomplish, as Jayatrada was firstly hiding amidst a star-studded Kaurava army and it wasn’t easy for Arjuna to find his whereabouts. Once he managed to do so, courtesy Bhagawan Krishna’s trick of bringing Jayatrada in front of Arjuna, secondly it wasn’t a straightaway task for Arjuna to kill him with one arrow! He was an embodiment of several boons. Upon Bhagawan Krishna’s advice, Arjuna had to first chop off Jayatrada’s head, take it carefully in the direction of where his father is sitting, without a drop of blood spilling on the ground, and without the head slipping off on to the ground and finally drop the head on his father’s lap! As Arjuna did this with his craft and skill, Jayatrada has no other option but to die! A huge explosion happens and both Jayatrada and his father are burnt down to death!
There is a small background to this whole incident and why Bhagawan Krishna tactically wanted Arjuna to place Jayatrada’s head on his father’s lap. Jayatrada’s father is Vriddhakshatra. He was a great warrior himself and as he obtained Jayatrada as his son many years ago, there was a “divine voice” from the sky which thundered thus, “Oh Virddhakshatra! Your son will be a great warrior, however, he will be killed by another great warrior in the battlefield at an appropriate time!” These words of the divine voice irks Vriddhakshatra and immediately he commenced a huge penance towards Bhagawan Brahma. As Bhagawan Brahma appears in front of him, Vriddhakshatra asks for a boon thus, “Oh Bhagawan! I just heard that my son’s death is going to be from another warrior on a battlefield. I want a boon that my son shouldn’t meet such a death in his life. If at all such a situation were to occur, the warrior who is trying to kill Jayatrada should have his head burst into a thousand pieces! He should not survive for even a minute as my son’s head falls on the ground!”
Saying thus, Vriddhakshatra obtains a boon from Bhagawan Brahma, who immediately grants it to him. This is the puzzle that Arjuna had to solve and he was clueless about all these things. However, Bhagawan Krishna knew of all this and thus, the modus operandi of Jayatrada’s death was formulated. Had Jayatrada’s head fallen off from Arjuna’s arrow on the ground, Arjuna’s head would have burst into a thousand pieces! Now this is where Bhagawan Krishna’s smartness is out in display – He ensures that Arjuna takes Jayatrada’s head and places it on his father’s lap, so that, if the head falls off on the ground from here, Vriddhakshatra’s head will burst into a thousand pieces and not Arjuna’s! Thus, we can see yet again as to how Bhagawan Krishna is a master-strategist when it comes to guiding Arjuna with such expertise! Hence, Bhagawan Krishna formulates the idea of making Vriddhakshatra’s lap the place from where Jayatrada’s head has to fall on the ground!
However, Vriddhakshatra did not anticipate this at all! As we’ve seen earlier, Vriddhakshatra was performing his evening oblations to Soorya Bhagawan (Sandhyavandanam), grossly unaware of what is happening with his son on the Kurukshetra battlefield. Thus, within a fraction of a second when Jayatrada’s head came and fell on his head, Vriddhakshatra had very little time to react. As he stood up, Jayatrada’s head falls on the ground from Vriddhakshatra’s lap and with this, the boon of Bhagawan Brahma comes true – From whomever Jayatrada’s head falls on the ground, that person’s head will burst! This is exactly what happened to Vriddhakshatra’s head!
Thus, we can see here that Arjuna’s life was in great danger because of Jayatrada and killing him wasn’t an easy task at all. It required such deft planning and an even more accurate execution, which only the duo of Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna could accomplish! Bhagawan Krishna was the planner and strategist, while Arjuna was the executor! Thus with this, Jayatrada’s life comes to an end and this sends shockwaves amidst the entire Kaurava camp. Duryodhana is shell-shocked upon understanding that Jayatrada is no more! He was the one who wanted Jayatrada to be at Kurukshetra, even though Jayatrada was preparing himself to leave the place the previous night, knowing that he has a life threat from Arjuna! Now Duryodhana starts feeling guilty, and let us understand up to this point for today. We shall continue this discussion forward in the next episode as well! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 