In the previous episode, we had witnessed a tragic incident wherein Ghatodgaja had to breathe his last while he was fighting in support of the Paandava brothers. Thanks to Karna’s “Shakti-Aayudham”, Ghatodgaja fell to the ground dead and while falling, he had grown his body to such a mammoth size, he destroyed almost one “Akshauhini” of the Kaurava army! Thus, Ghatodgaja’s contribution to the Paandava camp is humongous – Firstly, he saved Arjuna from Karna’s “Shakti-Aayudham”. We’ve seen that Karna was preserving this weapon especially for killing Arjuna, however, circumstances led him to employ it on Ghatodgaja, instead of Arjuna! Thus, by taking the “Shakti-Aayudham” upon himself, Ghatodgaja did a great service to his fathers by saving their lives at a critical time of the war. Secondly, the extent of destruction that Ghatodgaja brought about at the Kaurava camp was humongous! Even after the Kauravas managed to kill Ghatodgaja, they were not even in a state to celebrate this victory, unlike they did when Abhimanyu died. This is because of the extent of havoc that Ghatodgaja wreaked amidst the Kaurava camp. Thousands of armymen and other forms of artillery were completely destroyed by Ghatodgaja! Several “Maharathis” died and all their infrastructure came crashing down to Ghatodgaja’s unending fury! At one point it was seeming as if Ghatodgaja was running away with victory for the Paandava camp single handedly! Such was the impact that Ghatodgaja created, and even though his demise was a great loss for the Paandava camp, they had every reason to be grateful to him!
Moving on further thus, as Ghatodgaja falls on the ground, the war for the night comes to an end. Bheemasena and Arjuna are shocked and sad. Initially Arjuna lost his son Abhimanyu in the previous day of the war and now Bheemasena has lost his son Ghatodgaja in today’s war. The entire Paandava camp is in grief over the loss of two great warriors back-to-back! As Arjuna and Bheemasena are weeping bitterly on one hand, they are thankful to the selfless service that Ghatodgaja has done to them. Arjuna says to Bheemasena thus, “Oh Bheemasena! You are extremely fortunate to obtain a son like Ghatodgaja who had volunteered to save my life by sacrificing his! If he had not taken the “Shakti Aayudham” upon himself, it would have been aimed at me and I would have been history by now! However, Ghatodgaja was extremely selfless to the extent that even as the “Shakti Aayudham” came towards him, he stood tall to receive it upon himself! Who will do such a service ever in this world? If I’m alive at this moment, it is only because of Ghatodgaja!” Arjuna hugs Bheemasena and weeps bitterly. Bheemasena too could not hold his tears back upon seeing his brother crying! Of course, the loss of his son breaks Bheemasena’s heart!
As this is happening on one side, Bhagawan Krishna is silently sitting on the other side and laughing! This is quite perplexing isn’t it? On one hand, the entire Paandava camp is sunk in sorrow over Ghatodgaja’s demise, but on the other hand, Bhagawan Krishna is laughing and is seemingly in a different world altogether! Upon seeing this, Arjuna slowly goes up to Bhagawan Krishna and asks the reason for His laughter at a time when the entire camp is grieving! Now Bhagawan Krishna gives an important reply to Arjuna thus, “Oh Arjuna! I’m happy because a huge task has been accomplished tonight! I was just waiting for this moment to unfold and until this, you do not know what kind of tension I was in for the past 4-5 days! Until the moment Karna was holding the “Shakti-Aayudham” in his hand, your life was in great danger and I had to meticulously protect you from him. Now that the “Shakti-Aayudham” is not there with Karna anymore, it is only now that I got my breath back! Now it will be easy for you to defeat Karna. Till now, your life was in a huge threat and you do not know how much I had to be in the forefront to somehow avoid Karna from picking up a fight with you!”
Saying thus, Bhagawan Krishna laughingly reveals a huge underground strategy that He had crafted, in a bid to save Arjuna’s life! So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 