Maha Bhaarata - Events : Part 2

Fighter spirit

We face hundreds of hurdles in our everyday life. Many of us brave them and come out successful and many of us do not. Most of us do not even attempt to face the challenge and even if we start doing a thing, we stop somewhere in the middle when the job in hand suddenly becomes burdensome. It may really be a burden. But burden or no burden is a matter that is decided by the mind and the firm determination of the spirit. Abhimanyu was an example of a person who faced the most difficult of situations and did not relent till his very last, when he was killed in the most unfair manner. ‘Do or die,’ is the axiom. Abhimanyu did and died.

As soon as he broke the padma vyuha at the most challenging point that was defended by Acharya Dhrona the seasoned warrior who taught warfare to his father, the young lad of sixteen was suddenly left alone. Bhima could not follow Abhimanyu on his heels as he promised, because of an unexpected development. Jayadratha barged in between Abhimanyu and Bhima with a large herd of elephants.

The padma vyuha was considered to be the strongest of formations to break and the most dreaded of formations if not handled properly, once it was broken and penetrated. This formation resembled a fully bloomed lotus with deputy commanders-in-chief defending the outer ring at the tip of every ‘petal’ and commanders-in-chief defending the inner circle.

Abhimanyu’s movements were very swift. He was the disciple of Lord Krishna. He was finely honed by Krishna himself. Duryodhana faced Abhimanyu and fought with him but was no match for the boy and was soon in a condition of being overpowered. ‘This boy is enormously skilled and has unbounded energy. It is our duty to save our king and therefore collect together and defend Duryodhana from the attack of Abhimanyu,’ suggested Acharya Dhrona.

It was a long drawn out battle – though it lasted not more than a day – during which Abhimanyu had broken the shield of Karna, one of the master archers. Salya, who was the maternal uncle of Nakula and Sahadeva, who was on the side of Duryodhana by chance of events swooned, unable to stand the attack of Abhimanyu. Acharya Dhrona who was too ready to appreciate skills wherever they are was happy beyond measure at the neat and swift work of the son of his endeared disciple. Abhimanyu killed Kauravas in their thousands. He killed Lakshmana, the son of Duryodhana.

‘There is not a single warrior on our side who can even break the shield that Abhimanyu is wearing,’ said Dhrona. ‘I taught his father the complex techniques of fitting a shield on one’s self. He has learnt the art from his father. I am extremely happy at this lad,’ he expressed his appreciation and admiration for Abhimanyu overtly, even while his hands were busy in aiming his arrows on the boy. Duryodhana was angered at these words. ‘Acharya has a soft-corner for Arjuna and that is why he is not stopping this boy,’ he shouted. ‘This boy is wreaking destruction on us and the Acharya is happy about it.’ These painful words put Dhrona under pressure. He was in a difficult situation of having to establish his loyalty once again. The Acharya, realising the swiftness of the boy, devised the most cruel and heartless of plans. ‘We may win if we encircle him and break his bow; kill his horses and his charioteer; break his chariot and kill him from his back when he stands on the ground,’ he said.

The seasoned warriors who could not stand the cyclonic storm that Abhimanyu was, collected together. That is, the commanders-in-chief who were defending the inner circle of the lotus all turned their chariots towards Abhimanyu, thus gaining the unfair advantage of encircling the boy. Karna cut the string of bow and broke it, shooting an arrow from behind. Dhrona killed his horses. Krupa killed the charioteer. His sword was broken by Dhrona with a weapon known as ‘surapram’. Karna broke his shield.

But Abhimanyu, who was surrounded by hundreds of seasoned warriors, did not stop. He attacked them with even more fury. His energy seemed to increase in proportion to the difficulties that came his way. When his chariot was broken, Abhimanyu dismantled one of the wheels of the chariot and used it for his defence and attack at the same time. ‘He stood like Maha Vishnu with his divine disc,’ says Vyasa. None could even touch him until that last weapon was in a usable shape. And we know the gruesome manner in which he was finally killed.

Left alone; surrounded by elders and seniors and seasoned hands; supplies of weapons cut off; not even a single soul to help or assist. The great job that Abhimanyu did that day is an example of the ‘fighter spirit,’ and the ‘killer instinct,’ so often talked about.

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Chink in the armour

The best of strategies do sometimes go awry and fail miserably for the simple reason that we do not realise the strategy in the first instance had a seemingly minor lacuna and our failure to meet some ‘unexpected situation’ cropping up in the way.

On the thirteenth day of the war Acharya Dhrona took the Kaurava army out to the field in the ‘padma vyuha’ or the lotus formation. Many confuse themselves this formation with the ‘chakra vyuha’ or the wheel formation. These are two different formations. It would be easy to visualise the ‘padma vyuha’ if it is imagined as a six pointed star. The Deputy Commanders-in-Chief would be placed at each outer point of this ‘petals of lotus’ and at the inner end, where each end of lotus petal joins with the other, to form an inner-circle resembling the corolla of the lotus, the Commanders-in-Chief would be stationed. The space between any two ‘petals’ is the only access to reach the centre of the ‘lotus’ where the Supreme Commander – Duryodhana – was placed. If a contingent of enemy soldiers moved between any two petals for this purpose, the petals would close in and crush the invader like the powerful tentacle of a crab.

The technique and angle of attack and the weak points in this formation were known only to Arjuna and not even the other four Pandavas knew how to do it. But Arjuna was challenged for a single-combat by Susarma, the king of Samsapthakas. Susarma teased Arjuna as a coward and Arjuna was so angered that he went behind him, while he dodged him and took him a long distance away from the battlefield. This was actually a ploy to remove Arjuna from the place of action.

The ‘lotus formation’ was moving forwards, with the sole idea of capturing Yudhisthira. It was an emergency. Since Arjuna was not present, the Pandava army was led by Bhima on that day. The only other person who knew something about breaking the ‘padma vyuha’ was Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna, a lad who was sixteen years old. He had learnt this from the mouth of his father, when he was in the womb of Subhadra. Unfortunately, he knew only half the job. He knew how to break and get in. He did not know how to come back.

‘Son, just move in. We do not have an option now,’ told Yudhisthira to him. ‘You get in. And Bhima would follow you like the thread following the needle. Once he gets in, there is no stopping him. Getting out of this formation is not a big thing for him. It would be easier for him to destroy all once he is at the centre of the formation.’ Abhimanyu was overjoyed. His uncle – nothing other than ‘father’ in terms of Indian relationship – who was reputed for his excellence in warfare is asking for a favour from him. His young blood grabbed the opportunity at once, much against the sincere advice of his charioteer.

Abhimanyu most skilfully broke the formation and went in. But before Bhima could follow him, their old foe, Jayadratha, the husband of Dussala, who made lustful advances to Draupadi in the jungle and was punished by Pandavas (they shaved his head leaving five tufts) who was waiting at the spot where Abhimanyu was breaking the formation, closed the point by moving a large herd of elephants. The delay that it caused Bhima in killing considerable number of elephants cost their side a pretty precious life. Abhimanyu was lost to them forever. The lacuna was inherent in the strategy. Pandavas depended on a person who did not know the job completely, his chivalry, prowess and skills of archery notwithstanding.

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Know when to stop

Taking the right decision at the right moment is most important. Sometimes we are in such a precarious situation that our mental faculties do not function properly just because overworked and yet we would not allow ourselves a moment of respite – nor allow it to our team that works for us – especially when a crisis is building up. ‘Push a little more and this would soon be over,’ is the mantra we chant at such times, just because we place the emphasis on the achievement of the result in time, rather than on the welfare of the emaciated team. See what Arjuna does.

It was the fourteenth day of war. Arjuna had vowed to kill Jayadratha, who was responsible for the gruesome death of Abhimanyu, by sunset that day. We saw earlier that the Kaurava army was fielded in a complex formation that day, a semi-lotus and semi-wheel formation, at the centre of which handpicked warriors and commanders-in-chief were positioned in the formation of a needle, with Jayadratha placed inside the eye of the needle.

We have to look at the number of men that had occupied the area if the immensity of the task of reaching the centre of the army of Kauravas, is to be visualised and understood. The Kaurava army consisted of 11 akshauhini of men, horses, chariots and elephants. A single akshauhini consisted of 21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 65,610 horse mounted soldiers and 1,09,250 infantrymen. The number of horses actually in the field would be higher than this, taking into account that a minimum of two horses were required for every single chariot. The number of men would be even higher than that, if one takes into account the charioteer (another 21,870) the mahout, (yet another equal number), the scouts who take supplies of weapons to the men who actually fight, medicine men, food carriers, etc. Multiply this number by eleven and you get the total strength of Kaurava army. Pandava army was 7 akshauhini strong.

Therefore, the area occupied by both the armies – a total of 18 akshauhini – was spread over several hundred kilometres of land and was not limited to Kurukshetra alone. For instance, we understand Samantha Panchaka, where Duryodhana and Bhima had their final combat of mace, was very far away from Kurukshetra. ‘Duryodhana walked the long distance, carrying his mace,’ says Vyasa.

Wading through an army, breaking its resistance, fighting through to the centre – or wherever, for the actual position where Jayadratha is hidden would not be constant – not such an easy task was. Imagine. You have to run over miles and miles of broken chariots, severed limbs, broken weapons, heaps and heaps of dead bodies, dead horses and dead elephants and you have to keep fighting a really valiant army. To top it all, Arjuna had vowed to perform prayopavesa, commit suicide, if he fails to kill Jayadratha by sunset.

Arjuna was delayed in his efforts by the many battles that he had to wage against Duryodhana, Karna, Vrshasena, the younger brother of Karna and others. Arjuna was hard pressed for time. Rough calculations of time show that it was past 3.00 p. m. when Arjuna noticed that his horses were tired and emaciated. Arjuna had only three hours left, between his success and death. There was no question of success or defeat here. It was the time remaining between success and death. He stopped the chariot for a period of two nazhikais, says Vyasa that is 48 minutes. Almost 25% of the time that he had for his survival. Even at such a time, with the great risk of losing his own life, Arjuna decided to give the overworked horses their respite.

He created a pond in the battlefield with his arrows and let the horses roll about in the ground. Krishna tended them, plucked the arrows that were stuck in their bodies. Arjuna stood on the ground and defended himself and his horses from the Kaurava army that tried to make use of the opportunity to overwhelm him, since he was at a disadvantage.

But that was a wise decision, though it was highly expensive. The horses were his important tools to reach his goal. They had to be in good shape if the goal was to be achieved. How many of us would dare taking such a risk, and look after the welfare of our teams when the situation is so grim ?

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The fortification called faith

Great deeds are achieved by sheer faith. ‘Have faith the size of a mustard seed,’ said Jesus, ‘and ask the mountain to move and it shall move.’ Faith is above all reasons and knowledge. It is not amenable – most of the time – to the sharp cutting and leading edges of logic. I simply believe in this. And no more nor any less. That is that. Here is an incident that expresses that kind of unshakeable faith.

While returning to the camp in the evening on the day when Abhimanyu was killed, Arjuna noticed that the atmosphere was most unusual. There was no music played. The warriors on the way kept turning their faces away from him. Above all, Arjuna’s instinct told him that there was something wrong. Krishna kept consoling him. He assured him that there was nothing wrong with Yudhisthira and this must be some other calamity.

Yudhisthira who pushed Abhimanyu into breaking the padma vyuha was overcome not only by grief. He was not able to face Arjuna, as he has to own responsibility for what has occurred. When the word reached Arjuna, he was shocked beyond words. Anger, sorrow, self-pity, dejection and a number of other emotions surged in him. He unsheathed his sword. In a voice choked with anger and sorrow, he looked at his brothers and said, ‘If Abhimanyu can be killed even when you are all there in the field, then why should you carry all these weapons and wear armour? Throw them away! Had I but sensed that this would occur, I would have stood by my son.’

A proud father who has just lost his worthy son in the most unfair manner cannot but react in any other way. But Krishna, the great doctor of the soul was by his side and the panacea of his words stopped the blood oozing from the wounded heart of Arjuna, if not cured it completely. This was the kind of an injury that takes some time to heal.

Arjuna then learnt what had actually happened from Yudhisthira. He was angered that it was the intrusion of Jayadratha that prevented others from following Abhimanyu. ‘I will kill Jayadratha who was actually responsible for the death of my son,’ he vowed. ‘I will kill him before sunset tomorrow. I won’t spare him for any reason whatsoever, excepting the unexpected situation of his surrendering unto Krishna. If I fail to do so by sunset tomorrow, I will perform ‘prayOpavEsa’. I will commit suicide.’ So avowing, Arjuna blew his conch and twanged his bow. That sent waves of fear all around.

When everyone retired for the night and Arjuna was alone, Krishna who had espied on the preparations on the enemy camp, consequent to the vow of Arjuna, came to his side. ‘Arjuna, I am worried. I learn that they are going to adopt a half-lotus and half-wheel formation, a combination of padma vyuha and chakra vyuha. It will be very difficult and time consuming job to break them and reach Jayadratha. Moreover, six excellent warriors like Karna, Aswathama, Krupa, Salya and others are going to protect him. It is going to be a very tough job Arjuna. I wonder how we are going to kill Jayadratha before sunset. I wish you did not set such a short time limit for yourself.’

Arjuna simply smiled. ‘I realise the gravity of the situation my Lord. But I know I will behead him and make his head roll on the ground. I cannot give any logically valid reason for my faith. I just know three things. I am Arjuna, this bow is Gaandiva. And above everything else, you, Krishna, YOU are my charioteer. You are by my side. When you stand by me, it is not possible for me to get defeated.’

Arjuna, who had lost his excellent son that day, went to sleep. But Krishna could not sleep. He was carrying the burden now! It was now for him to think of contingencies, spot weaknesses and act accordingly!

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Krishna prepares for battle

Faith moves mountains. Faith lightens burdens. It is faith that stands us in good stead. If faith cures our ills, it makes He on whom it is placed, walk that extra mile with us. It channels his immense mercy towards he who believes.

Arjuna slept peacefully that night. It was only few hours since he had lost Abhimanyu and vowed to kill Jayadratha who was responsible for the killing of his son. It is amazing that he could sleep that night! But it was not that easy for Krishna. He could not sleep. He had assessed the enemy position for the next day, the day on which Arjuna had pledged to kill Jayadratha. There was jubilation on enemy camp. All they had to do was to protect Jayadratha and dodge Arjuna. Delay him till sunset. If he is not able to finish Jayadratha off by that time, he had vowed to commit suicide. Dispatching Arjuna had become that easy for them now.

With that end in view, Acharya Drona designed the master plan - The army was planned to be positioned in the combined formation of the wheel and the lotus. And at the centre of the lotus formation handpicked warriors and the commanders-in-chief would be positioned in the needle formation, with Jayadratha placed in the ‘eye’ of the needle, safely guarded on all sides. It was an extremely tough job to break these many formations let alone fight with Jayadratha and kill him.

Added to this, there was the challenge of Durmarshana, one of the hundred brothers of the Kauravas, who had boasted to ‘smash Arjuna like a clay-pot thrown on hard rock.’ Krishna knew that Arjuna would spend time on eliminating Durmarshana as well, which would reduce the available time considerably.

Krishna was worried. He could not sleep. The Lord, unlike in Rama avatar, was fully conscious of his divine nature. But he does not leave it to chance. He does what has to be done in the circumstances. He went to Subhadra, his sister and wife of Arjuna, and consoled her. He performed the difficult task of consoling Draupadi, Uttara, the wife of Abhimanyu and others.

And then he decided in a trice. He summoned his own charioteer, Daruka. ‘Arjuna has vowed to kill Jayadratha by sunset, Daruka. He would commit suicide if he fails to do so. This has sent waves of joy on the other side. They have designed the toughest of plans to delay him from killing Jayadratha, with the motive of pushing him into suicide. Arjuna is important to me. I love him more than I love my wives and children. I have therefore decided to do what I did not want to do earlier.’

‘Get ready for the battle tomorrow Daruka. Prepare my chariot for war. (The preparation of chariot differs depending on the purpose – as widely differing from each other as a pleasure trip and a battle.) Let my sword, mace, discus, bow and arrows be placed in the chariot. Let the Garuda ensign fly high in the chariot. Let the chariot be drawn by the best of horses – valaakaham, megha pushpam, saibyam and sugrivam. And most important. You wear your shield and be ready in full gear. If something untoward happens to Arjuna or even if he is injured that prevents him from pressing in on action, I am going to take charge. I am going to lead the battle. Come to me the moment I signal you with the sounding of panchajanya. Tomorrow, I will devise all the plans that would enable Arjuna to kill Jayadratha. Or, I will myself do so.’

‘As I am ordered, my Lord,’ said Daruka. ‘But I know that I would not be needed for charioting you. When you lead Arjuna, there is no question of any room for failure my Lord. But I will do as I am ordered.’ Daruka took leave of Krishna

Imagine. This was the Krishna who said that he would not touch any weapon for any reason, before the war commenced. He offered his Narayana sainya for one side and his services – with the condition that he would not touch any weapon – to the other. And when he saw a contingency, he did not hesitate even to break his own words. His Arjuna, his endeared devotee, was most important to Him, the friend of friends, the Master of the trusting, the most merciful, and the most gracious, than anything else – even his own words for that matter.

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What equals suicide?

Sometimes we jump into conclusions, in the assumption that things would have happened in the way we desire them to be. But sadly, such baseless conclusions, though harmless they are, lead to many avoidable and undesirable events. This is one such incident. There is in fact more than that in this.

On the seventeenth day of war, King Yudhisthira was intercepted by Karna who engaged him in a very difficult-to-circumvent battle. Though Yudhisthira resisted him and retaliated too, he was no match to the skills of Karna with the bow. Karna killed his horses, broke his chariot and made his diadem roll on earth with an arrow. But before Karna could do any harm to the King, Salya, who was the maternal uncle of Nakula and Sahadeva, and who was driving the chariot of Karna at that time, diverted his attention to the destruction that Bhima was causing on the other side. ‘Do not waste your energy on Dharmaputra. Instead, do whatever you can to stop Bhima,’ he advised and Karna moved away out of sheer necessity.

Yudhisthira was crest-fallen with the insult that he suffered at the hands of Karna. He was very tired as he was hit by many an arrow of Karna. Therefore he returned to his camp and after due medical assistance was resting there. In the meantime, Arjuna heard of what had happened and hurried to the camp, posting Bhima to take charge of the field in his absence, extremely anxious about what would have actually happened to the king.

Yudhisthira heard the anxious and hurried footsteps of Arjuna and Krishna who were scurrying inside. He quickly concluded that Arjuna has killed Karna, avenging for the insult that he had suffered at his hands and that he has come in person to the camp to announce the victory. He welcomed Arjuna with delighted words of praise, calling him the slayer of Karna. But Arjuna quickly corrected him. ‘I have not yet killed him, brother. I rushed here in my anxiety to see you, having heard of the injuries caused to you by Karna.’

Dharmaputra, who was already suffering physical and mental injuries, was disappointed at that. He lost his equanimity. ‘You should have told me that you are incapable of fighting Karna when we were in the jungle. I depended on your skills and I am suffering because of that. If only Abhimanyu was living, I would not have suffered this fate today. And, you, you have run away from the battlefield! Shame on you! Hand over your great bow, Gaandiva, to Krishna and be his charioteer. He would protect us.’

Those and still more words of insults infuriated Arjuna and taking his sword in hand, he rushed at the king but was stopped by Krishna. ‘Krishna! I have vowed that I would kill that person who speaks ill of Gandiva. Now I am neither able to bear this insult, nor able to kill my brother! Pray, show me the way,’ he wept bitterly. ‘You are behaving rather childishly Arjuna!’ chided the Lord. ‘You have to weigh your priorities carefully and choose between them. What is more important to you? Do you value your vow of some distant past, or your own brother? Decide for yourself. If at all you want to stick to your vow, speak disrespectfully of the king. A person who utters disrespectful words at one, who should actually be held in high esteem, really kills him.’

Arjuna thought that that must be the remedy and gave vent to his feelings, calling Dharmaputra a shameless gambler who was responsible for all their woes. But instead of putting him at peace, those words led Arjuna to hate himself and once again he unsheathed his sword, this time to commit suicide.

Krishna, who always walks about with a handful of convincing solutions, smiled. ‘Arjuna! You have duties to perform. Do not be a coward and commit suicide. And if at all you want to do so, indulge in boasting. Praise yourself to your heart’s content. One who boasts and is vain-glorious actually commits suicide.’

That did the trick. Good sense prevailed soon and the brothers embraced each other with overwhelming love and affection. Arjuna returned to the battlefield to avenge for the insult that Yudhishthira suffered.

Hari Krishnan