In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhagawan Krishna’s important reply to Yudishtra and Arjuna, as they mourn the loss of Karna – Their elder brother. Bhagawan Krishna reveals that He knew the entire background well in advance, and reveals to Arjuna that He tried His best to bring Karna to the Pandava side. However, it did not work out as Karna was very stubborn to be on the side of Duryodhana, even though he knew that destruction was inevitable. Bhagawan Krishna heaps praise on Karna, saying that he was the epitome of friendship, however, the only misfortune being that this friendship led him to the path of destruction. While on one hand, Bhagawan Krishna says that Arjuna and Co. obeyed His words and while on the other hand, Karna failed to pay heed to Bhagawan’s words of advice. This is the only difference between Yudishtra and Karna. The “Sharanagati Dharma” that Yudishtra and Arjuna exhibited towards Bhagawan Krishna, saved both of their lives in the war. Else, if in a normal situation the war would have taken place, there would have been no chance that Yudishtra and Arjuna would have been able to win over Karna.
As Bhagawan Krishna says thus, Yudishtra performs the “Jala-Tarpanam” for Karna with an extremely heavy heart and guilt. He could not digest the fact that he has killed his own elder brother in the war. As this gets over, we come to the end of the “Sthree Parva”. With this, all of them slowly get back to the kingdom. We are now going to enter into a very important “Parva” called “Shanti Parva”. This is quite a big one, and it has three “Upa-Parvas”. The first one is “Raaja-Dharma-Anushaasana Parva”, “Aapat-Dharma Parva” and “Moksha-Dharma Parva”. All these three “Upa-Parvas” are packed with several important aspects of “Dharma” and we’ve to spend a considerable amount of time in discussing these in detail. It might be surprising for us to understand here that the person who is explaining all these aspects of “Dharma” as part of this “Shanti Parva” is none other than Bhishmachaarya himself! We’ve seen earlier that Bhishmachaarya was the “Senapati” for the first ten days of the war, after which he was pushed into the “Bed of arrows” by Arjuna and Shikandi. However, Bhishmachaarya did not die at that point. We’ve seen that he was waiting for the “Uttharayana Punya Kaalam” to arrive. As Bhishmachaarya is in the process of awaiting this auspicious time for his demise, Yudishtra has this golden opportunity to listen to various aspects of “Dharma” from him!
Thus, even if we say that this “Shanti Parva” has three “Upa-Parvas”, the entire set of shlokas are packed inside a single “Parva” only. Unlike other “Parvas” wherein the “Upa-Parvas” are quite distinct in nature, the “Shanti Parva” does not contain this distinction. Rather, it only contains three sub-sections, namely “Raaja-Dharma”, “Aapat-Dharma” and “Moksha-Dharma”. The shlokas are in a continuous fashion and there is no clear distinction between these three. The context here is set up beautifully by Sage Vyaasa. Initially, as the war comes to an end, and as Yudishtra performs the “Jala-Tarpanam” to his elder brother, Karna, Yudishtra loses all the interest to rule the Hastinapura kingdom. If his elder brother himself is not there and thousands of his relatives, well-wishers and advisors have lost their lives, what is the point in ruling the kingdom any further? For whom is he going to rule this kingdom? Rather, Yudishtra thinks that he would retire and go to the “Vaanaprastha-Ashramam”, spend time in the woods, perform penance, and thereby attain “Moksha” from there itself. Yudishtra thinks that rather than becoming a ruler, spending the entire life as a “Tapasvi” is much greater and more significant! Rather than performing the duty of a king, the “Dhyaana-Maargam” is better. With all these heavy thoughts and intentions, Yudishtra puts down his bow and arrows, and sinks on the ground as he goes near Bhishmachaarya! This is the same thing which Arjuna did in front of Bhagawan Krishna before the start of the war at Kurukshetra. We’ve witnessed this earlier, and thus, the famed Bhagawad Gita was born. Similarly now, after the entire war fiasco is over, Yudishtra comes to the same situation and breaks down completely. His intentions and thoughts need to be changed here. He should be made to take up the kingdom and with this, he should perform his duty as a righteous king.
So what does Bhishmachaarya say here? How does Bhishamchaarya motivate Yudishtra to assume responsibility as a king? This is where the “Shanti Parva” assumes enormous significance. Bhishmachaarya explains several important aspects of “Raaja-Dharma” to Yudishtra, and concludes with the “Moksha-Dharma”, in a bid to motivate Yudishtra. So for today, let us understand this prelude to the important “Shaanti Parva”. I’m spending a lot of time in this prelude because this “Shanti Parva” is as important as the “Bhagawad Gita” of Bhagawan Krishna. We shall continue this discussion forward in the next episode as well! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 