In the previous episode, we had witnessed the culmination of an important conversation between Vidura and King Dhritarashtra, wherein Vidura is trying to cheer up King Dhritarashtra, who is still brooding over the demise of his sons. Meanwhile, Sage Vyaasa also has a part here, wherein he explains how destiny and Bhagawan’s divine “Sankalpa” are more powerful than everything in this world. If this is Bhagawan’s “Sankalpa”, nobody can alter it or change its course. Thus, unwillingly after all these conversations, King Dhritarashtra decides to go to the Kurukshetra battlefield along with his wife Gaandhaari to have a look at how things have panned out there. So far, he has been listening to Sanjaya’s narrative, sitting at Hastinapura, but now, he wants to assess the situation directly on the battlefield. As the news of King Dhritarashtra’s arrival reaches the Pandava brothers, Yudishtra is getting ready to receive him with all the due respects. Meanwhile, as King Dhritarashtra is set to arrive, Bhagawan Krishna smells something fishy! He immediately swings into action and let us witness what is going to happen next.
Moving on further, as King Dhritarashtra expresses this interest, Sage Vyaasa is also happy about it. He gifts King Dhritarashtra a divine pair of eyes, through which he could see whatever has happened at Kurukshetra. Thus, along with his wife, King Dhritarashtra leaves Hastinaupra palace and sets off on his journey towards Kurukshetra. On the other side, Yudishtra and the Pandava brothers are waiting for King Dhritarashtra’s arrival with all the “Argyam”, “Paadhyam”, “Aachamaneeyam”, etc. as per the protocol. King Dhritarashtra arrives, and as Yudishtra welcomes him formally, Bheemasena runs towards King Dhritarashtra out of affection to hug him. King Dhritarashtra also awaits Bheemasena to come close to him, so that he can hug him. However, Bhagawan Krishna stops Bheemasena from proceeding further. He holds Bheemasena’s hands and pulls him back. Next – Bhagawan Krishna brings a huge statue of Bheemasena in front of King Dhritarashtra. As King Dhritarashtra thinks that this statue is Bheemasena, he ends up hugging the statue! It should be remembered that this is the same statue which Duryodhana had created earlier (A replica of Bheemasena) to practise the “Gadha-Yuddham” to fight him down!
As King Dhritarashtra hugs the statue, it breaks into a thousand pieces with a loud thud sound! King Dhritarashtra, although being blind, is a very powerful person. We’ve seen this earlier as well – King Dhritarashtra has the power of a thousand elephants! He is an invincible person when it comes to power! Thus, at this moment, King Dhritarashtra’s anger and frustration manifests in the form of his power, which breaks the statue into a thousand pieces! As everyone listens to the loud thud, it sends shockwaves! King Dhritarashtra is also shocked as to what happened – Has he killed Bheemasena with his humongous power? Bhagawan Krishna clarifies immediately thus – “Oh King Dhritarashtra! You’ve not hugged Bheemasena. You’ve hugged a statue of him. The one which broke into a thousand pieces was the statue of Bheemasena. I purposefully brought the statue in front of you to ensure that your anger and frustration are reflected on it, rather than on Bheemasena! Oh King Dhritarashtra! Now your son Bheemasena is safe. You can hug him now!”
Turning towards Bheemasena, Bhagawan Krishna says thus, “Oh Bheemasena! You’ve to understand one thing very clearly – As a “Kshatriya” warrior, you should be able to read the other person’s mind and situation. You should understand how the opponent is going to behave when he comes in front of you. King Dhritarashtra was extremely frustrated over the loss of his sons. If you would have hugged him at that moment, you would have been dead by now! Now that the frustration went into the statue, King Dhritarashtra has come back to his normalcy. Now you can go and hug him out of your affection! Oh Bheemasena! You should not get carried away by seeing someone in tears! You should first analyze whether those tears are for real or are they just crocodile tears. King Dhritarashtra’s initial tears were none other than crocodile tears, which came out of sheer frustration upon you. However, now that the frustration is gone, his tears presently are genuine. Now King Dhritarashtra is genuinely crying out of his heart! You may now go and console him from his grief!”
Saying thus, Bhagawan Krishna explains a very important point of leadership here – As a leader, we should understand the other person clearly without getting carried away. It doesn’t matter if we take some time to do so, but this is important! So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall continue further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 