In the previous episode, we had witnessed a very important moment before the start of Day Seventeen of the war at Kurukshetra wherein Duryodhana is making a pitch to King Shalya to perform the role of a charioteer to Karna. We’ve seen earlier that Karna had requested for an able charioteer, just like how Bhagawan Krishna does the same for Arjuna. Realizing the importance of the role of an able charioteer, Karna suggests King Shalya’s name for the job. Duryodhana too goes with this proposal to King Shalya with a bit of hesitation, and as expected, King Shalya immediately fumes with anger by replying that he wouldn’t even think of being a charioteer for a person like Karna! However, Duryodhana is not an easy nut to crack! He knows the art of convincing individuals, which is very important as a leader. Duryodhana knows that King Shalya will fall for some nice and affectionate words of praise. Hence, Duryodhana praises King Shalya that he’s perhaps the greatest warrior and a strategist of all times, surpassing even Bhagawan Krishna! In other words, Duryodhana heaps praise on King Shalya that he is better than Bhagawan Krishna in terms of crafting and executing strategies as a leader!
Now the question here is whether King Shalya will fall for this heap of praise from Duryodhana, and as expected, the moment Duryodhana says that he’s better than Bhagawan Krishna, King Shalya’s ego gets a huge morale booster! Till this time, nobody has ever given him such a great compliment! To be praised in a way that he’s better than Bhagawan Krishna Himself, is enough for King Shalya to nod his head and do whatever Duryodhana asks for! Thus, King Shalya replies back – “Oh Duryodhana! Fine! I’m indebted to you and you were the one who saved my life with food and drinks on that fateful day when I was almost dying of hunger! Hence, I’m ready to do whatever you want me to do! If you want me to be the charioteer to Karna, I shall definitely obey your words! However, I only have one condition to make here – Whatever comes to my mind, I shall bluntly tell Karna! I will not mince my words!” As King Shalya says thus, Duryodhana is also fine with it. Of course, it is the duty of a great charioteer to effectively guide the warrior with all the important pieces of advice without mincing his words! The deal is done! Duryodhana succeeds in his attempt of persuading King Shalya to take over as Karna’s charioteer! He comes back to Karna and conveys the happy news as well!
Now we’ve to understand one very important thing here. We’re going to see what “Shalya-Saarathyam” is. Normally, the duty of a charioteer is to keep motivating the warrior every now and then, so as to increase his confidence and make the attack more intense. Bhagawan Krishna also does this for Arjuna and we’ve seen this several times. Even during the fight between Arjuna and Bhishmachaarya, we’ve seen on several occasions wherein Bhagawan Krishna kept pushing Arjuna to go for a more intense battle. There were three occasions wherein Bhagawan Krishna wasn’t satisfied with Arjuna’s counter attack, and He Himself got down from the chariot to fight with Bhishmachaarya, didn’t He? So, the point here is that, “Saarathyam” (Charioteering) involves giving a lot of “pep talks” and motivation to the warrior. However, when we look into the “Shalya Saarathyam”, things are quite different here with respect to King Shalya! Rather than motivating Karna, King Shalya keeps on saying thus. “Oh Karna! You’re making a bad decision to fight with Arjuna! Please refrain from this battle! You’re not going to gain anything from this! You’re going to die in this battle! The time at which you’re making a start for the battle is inauspicious!…..” These are highly demotivating talks, aren’t they? Thus, throughout the period of the battle, King Shalya is going to talk like this, so as to demotivate Karna from advancing forward towards Arjuna! This is what we refer to as “Shalya-Saarathyam”.
So with this prelude, let us commence the proceedings of Day Seventeen of the Kurukshetra battle. As the sun rises in the east, all of them are getting ready to go to the battlefield. Karna readies himself up and gets into his chariot, which has extremely good horses to pull it effortlessly and efficiently. King Shalya also takes his place behind the horses and holds the ropes of the chariot that controls the horses. However, when Karna is about to commence his journey towards the Kurukshetra battlefield, there are several bad omens that start showing up! However, Karna and Co. did not mind any of them and decided to commence the journey. There was an unusual instance wherein one of the horses in the chariot slipped and fell on the ground and was struggling to get up and start running! This is the greatest bad signal for Karna that had shown up! Unmindful of all this, Karna makes a statement thus, “Oh King Shalya! Just witness the war that I’m going to fight with Arjuna today! Arjuna might be extremely powerful! He might be someone who has fought with Bhagawan Shiva Himself and won over Him! However, today is going to be different for him! He’s going to face defeat for the first time in his life! I’m going to ensure that Arjuna is unable to advance towards me for even a single inch!”
Saying thus, Karna asks King Shalya to proceed forward with the chariot. Now the “Shalya-Saarathyam” is going to commence in full swing! So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall witness this “Shalya-Saarathyam” in detail! Stay tuned!
The Indian Dharma 