We’re amidst a crucial juncture now as part of Day Eighteen, wherein all the mainstream warriors on the Kaurava camp, except Ashwatthama, Krita Varma and Sage Kripachaarya are dead! Duryodhana is completely left alone wherein all his ninety-nine brothers including Karna are no more with him! He is completely isolated and not knowing what to do, Duryodhana strides slowly off the battlefield sans any weapons in hand. Meanwhile, there is utter chaos at Kurukshetra wherein Arjuna and Bheemasena spearhead a decisive onslaught on the remaining part of the Kaurava army which is completely leaderless at the moment! After searching for Duryodhana in the battlefield, Yudishtra and Co. leave back to their tents for the day, unable to spot him anywhere. Meanwhile, Sanjaya meets Duryodhana while he’s on the way to Hastinapura to convey the news to King Dhritarashtra. After meeting Sanjaya, Duryodhana jumps into a huge lake nearby and goes into the deep waters to sit down there with his “Maaya-Shakti”. He hides himself from the rest of the world, without being in sight to anyone, including Ashwatthama, Sage Kripachaarya and Krita Varma.
With this, we now come to the end of this “Upa-Parva” called “Hrada-Pravesha Parva”. We’ve seen this in brief wherein Duryodhana is concealing his identity completely from the rest of the world, and this is a small “Upa-Parva”. Moving on further, we now enter into the main “Upa-Parva” under the “Shalya Parva”, which is the “Gadha-Yuddha Parva”. Here is where Bheemasena is going to engage in a marquee finale with Duryodhana as both of them are going to showcase their prowess in the “Gadhaa-Yuddham”. This is going to be a very interesting one-to-one confrontation between Duryodhana and Bheemasena, but before that, Balarama is going to come back from his “Teertha Yatra”. This “Gadha-Yuddha Parva” is a very long one, but the major part of this “Upa-Parva” is not going to talk about the marquee finale. Rather, the main content here is going to be about Balarama’s “Teertha-Yaatra”! As we might know, Balarama is the brother of Bhagawan Krishna and during the commencement of the war, Balarama did not want to be part of it, because he was the one who has coached Duryodhana in the “Gadha-Yuddham”! In other words, Duryodhana is Balarama’s student, and Balarama did not like his student being on the losing side of the war! When Bhagawan Krishna tried convincing Balarama to fight on the Paandavas’ side, Balarama flatly refused for this reason, and instead, went on a “Teertha-Yatra” to avoid this “conflict of interest”! We’ve seen this in our earlier episodes as well.
Now commencing the proceedings of this main “Upa-Parva” thus, the trio of Krita Varma, Sage Kripachaarya and Ashwatthama come to the banks of the lake inside which Duryodhana is currently hiding. Meanwhile as this happens on the battlefield, King Dhritarashtra is asking an important question to Sanjaya thus, “Oh Sanjaya! What happened to Duryodhana after all of them died on the battlefield? These three people are still alive, aren’t they? Did they protect my son? Did they ensure that my son Duryodhana is safe and secure? What happened next?” Sanjaya replies thus, “Oh King Dhritarashtra! Your son is one of the biggest cowards in this whole world! All these eighteen days, he was being shouldered by several people including Bhishmachaarya, Guru Dhronachaarya, Karna, King Shalya, etc. Did Duryodhana come out even on a single day of the battle to shoulder the leadership responsibility? Duryodhana doesn’t want to take any sort of responsibility at all, but he wants everybody to fight for him and support him! Is this fair on his part? Of course, everyone supported him and this is why all of them ended up dying! Now, when nobody is there for support, Duryodhana does not have the guts to single-handedly fight with Yudishtra and the Paandava brothers! Do you know where your son Duryodhana is at the moment? He is hiding under the waters of a huge pond. Ashwatthama, Krita Varma and Sage Kripachaarya are searching their way through to find out the whereabouts of your son Duryodhana. Oh King Dhritarashtra! Is this all that Duryodhana could muster up? If he doesn’t have the guts to face Bheemasena or Arjuna in the war, why at all did he want this entire battle to unfold at Kurukshetra? Oh King Dhritarashtra! I’ve never seen such a selfish lad in my entire life! Now look at his cowardly nature – He’s hiding inside a pond, and is this the nature of a fierce “Kshatrya” warrior? Why doesn’t he stand boldly and fight down Bheemasena or Arjuna single-handedly without anybody’s interference?”
Saying thus, Sanjaya is fuming with anger! He slams King Dhritarashtra left, right and centre for his indifferent attitude towards his son Duryodhana! So for now, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 