We’re at a very critical juncture wherein the “Naaga-Asthram” from Karna’s powerful bow is making its way swiftly towards Arjuna. Snake Ashwasena coils around the arrow of Karna and fires his poison as he approaches Arjuna. Now Bhagawan Krishna has to act quickly as Arjuna is standing stunned and helpless! He does not have a counter to neutralize the “Naaga-Asthram”. Immediately in a bid to save Arjuna’s life, Bhagawan Krishna stamps His divine lotus feet on the ground with enormous pressure by sitting on the chariot. Unable to bare Bhagawan’s divine lotus feet, the earth’s surface sinks inside by a few inches, and because of this, Arjuna along with his chariot goes a few notches down. Since the “Naaga-Asthram” was aimed for Arjuna’s head, it takes Arjuna’s “Kireetam” and not Arjuna’s head along with it as it wizzes past him. Thus, Arjuna was saved by Bhagawan Krishna, for the n’th time time now during this war at Kurukshetra. We’ve seen several instances where Arjuna and the Paandavas were repeatedly protected by Bhagawan Krishna, and this episode is something unique.
Now moving on further, as the “Naaga-Asthram” goes waste, Karna is extremely frustrated and sad! Till now he has had two important weapons – One is the “Shakti Aayudham” and the other one is this “Naaga-Asthram”. Karna has been persevering both these lethal weapons to kill Arjuna, but now both have been neutralized. We’ve seen in our earlier episodes that the “Shakti-Aayudham” was neutralized as Ghatodgaja received it instead of Arjuna! Now the “Naaga-Asthram” has also been neutralized, partially because of Karna’s foolishness and ego and mostly because of Bhagawan Krishna’s divine “Leela”. As Karna stands stunned on his chariot, Bhagawan Krishna immediately stands from his position on the chariot and instructs Arjuna thus, “Oh Arjuna! Now this is the right time for you to kill Karna! Go for it! Don’t waste any further time! The “Naaga-Asthram” was a huge threat for you and I neutralized it somehow to protect you. This Snake Ashwasena was one of them who escaped when both of us burnt down the “Kaamyaka Vanam”. Now he’s dead and with this, Karna has exhausted all his weapons!”
Saying thus, Bhagawan Krishna now starts motivating Arjuna – “Oh Arjuna! It looks as if you’ve forgotten how to wage an intense war! Your speed and invincible nature is slowly getting compromised! Are you feeling tired? Or, are you not wanting to fight and kill Karna? You had earlier pledged in front of me that today you will kill him, but why are you not living up to this pledge? The way in which you’re fighting the war with Karna is just as if you’re playing a friendly match with him! What happened to your significance today? You hold the famed Gaandeepa in your hands and what happened to its significance?” As Bhagawan Krishna asks questions one by one like this, Arjuna gets amused, instead of getting angry! He laughs and replies to Bhagawan Krishna thus, “Oh Bhagawan! Till this day, you’ve been the one who constantly drove me away from Karna, and today is the first day wherein I’m facing Karna on the battlefield one to one. It has only been a few hours since both of us are fighting. So how can you say that I did not wage the war properly against him? Oh Bhagawan! Karna has been on the battlefield since Day Eleven! But you’ve never brought me into the close vicinity of Karna till today! How can you expect me to win the war immediately against him?”
Now this is a very important question from Arjuna, even though he asks this on a very lighter note. For this, Bhagawan gives a very important reply here, which is a lesson for all of us. Bhagawan says thus, “Oh my dear Arjuna! I did not bring you close to Karna all these days for a reason – If he would have employed the “Shakti Aayudham” on you, you wouldn’t be alive by this time! Defending the “Shakti-Aayudham” is not easy. This is why I sent Ghatodgaja to fight Karna on the eleventh night. I forced Karna to use the “Shakti-Aayudham” on Ghatodgaja, which he had originally reserved exclusively for you! As the “Shakti-Aayudham” was neutralized, I thought that Karna would be an easy nut to crack. However, I did not anticipate Snake Ashwasena to make a timely entry into the battlefield and team up with Karna to attack you. As this happened, I protected you by pushing our chariot several inches down. Now that I’ve done my duty to protect you, it is time that you do your duty to kill Karna! Now you should go for the kill and it is now or never for you! This is the right time to go after Karna, as he is weaponless against you!”
Saying thus, Bhagawan Krishna motivates Arjuna and for today, let us understand up to this point. We shall wait till the next episode to witness Arjuna’s next course of action! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 