विवेचन सारांश

The Brave Warriors in the Big Battle of Mahabharata

In the 700 Shlokas of Bhagavadgītā, only one Shloka is attributed to Dhritarashtra and it is the first Shloka of the book.

Let us imagine a big palace in which is sitting King Dhritarashtra, who is blind. Sitting beside him is Sanjaya, his trusted minister, who has the power of Divya Dristi or Divine Vision with which he can see and hear the happenings on at battleground without being physically present there.

Now let us look at some of the words that Dhritarashtra used as he asked Sanjaya to tell him on what was going on at the battlefield.

Dharmakṣetre Kurukṣetre: Holy Land of Kurukshetra where the battle for Dharma or justice is being fought.

Samavetā Yuyutsavaḥ: assembled are those people who want to fight.

māmakāḥ(ph) pāṇḍavāścaiva kimakurvata sañjaya: Dhritarashtra is asking Sanjaya to tell him what are his children, the Kauravas, and children of his brother Pandu, the Pāṇḍavas, doing on the battlefield.

Sanjaya’s power of Divya Dristi was somewhat like todays CCTV camera. He could see and hear all the events in the battleground without being there. He was seeing and hearing all that was happening there and narrating it to Dhritarashtra.

Sanjaya starts his reporting to Dhritrashtra by saying that Duryodhana was frightened on seeing the army of the Pāṇḍava grouped for the war. Though the Kauravas had more soldiers on their side, the Pāṇḍavas had some stalwart warriors like Bhima and Arjuna who were almost undefeatable. To assess the situation, Duryodhana goes and speaks to Dronacharya who had taught warfare to all Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas.

Duryodhana asks his Guru Dronacharya to view the huge military formation of the Pāṇḍavas that was led by his own gifted disciple, Dhristadyumna, brother of Draupadi and son of his arch enemy King Drupada. Here, Duryodhana is cunningly trying to provoke the emotions of Dronacharya by pointing out that his opponent was none other than his disciple Dhristadyumna, whom he had taught the art of warfare with so much care. Instead of standing by his Guru, Dhristadyumna was fighting on the side of the Pāṇḍavas, their enemy in this battle.

Dronacharya and Drupada used to study at the same Gurukul under the same Guru.

The two young boys soon became such close friends, that Drupada promised Drona to share his wealth and kingdom when he becomes the king. Their friendship was as deep as that of Sri Krishna and Sudama. In due course of time Drupada inherited the kingdom of and became the king. Drona, adopting the Brahmin profession, became a sage and teacher. He did not seek material wealth and hence, led a poor life. His wife had to feed their only child, Aśvatthāmā, with flour mixed in water, instead of milk. One day Aśvatthāmā drank the real milk at a friend’s house and realized his mother had been giving him something else in the name of milk. The upset child came to his mother crying. She urged Drona to visit his friend Drupada and ask for financial help.

Guru Drona reluctantly approached Drupada, who however insulted the poor sage for daring to seek friendship with a mighty king. Drona felt very insulted by his friend’s attitude. He then walked away with a personal vow to one day take half of King Drupada’s kingdom. With this event, two close friends became enemies.

In course of time, he became the Archery teacher of the Pāṇḍava and Kaurava princes. Arjuna proved to be the most worthy and skilled, and soon became his most favored disciple.

When it was time for the Guru Dakshina (Compensation for a teacher), he asked the princes to fight against King Drupada and get half of his kingdom. Arjuna single handedly defeated Drupada’s army, and claimed half of his kingdom on behalf of his Guru.

Dhristadyumna, Drupada’s son avenged this insult of his father in the Battle of Mahabharata by killing Dronacharya.

Duryodhana continues to name and describe the other powerful warriors (śhūrā) and great bowmen (mahā-iṣhu-āsāḥ) on the Pāṇḍavas side .

There were many ranks in the army like it is there today. The most powerful warriors were Maharathis with similar caliber as Bhima and Arjuna. Next came the Rathis and below them were the Yodhas or the soldiers.

Some of the Maharathis on the Pāṇḍavas side were Yuyudhan, King Virata and King Drupada with their immense military prowess.

Duryodhana further goes on to add the names of other valiant kings like Drishtaketu, Chekitan, Kashiraj, the gallant king of Kashi, Kuntibhoj and Shaibya.

Duryodhana continues to add that in the battlefield, are Maharathis from the Panchal-Desh represented by the gallant Yudhamanyu and the courageous Uttamauja, sons of King Draupada. Abhimanyu the very brave son of Subhadra, already an Maharathis at the age of 16 years and the five sons of Draupadi from the five Pāṇḍavas were also arrayed on the battlefield.

In the previous Slokas Duryodhana described the military preparedness of the Pāṇḍavas and praised their brave and strong warriors in order to provoke the fighter instinct of Dronacharya and the other warriors on the Kauravas side who were listening on to the conversation.

In this Sloka, Duryodhana tries to boost the morale of the warriors of his side. He uses the words Asmakam meaning Ours and Vishistah meaning Special. What Duryodhana meant to say was that the Kaurava side too had very a special and gallant army.

While addressing Dronacharya, Duryodhna says Tanni-bodha Dwijottamai referring to Brahmins. As Dronacharya was a Brahmin by birth, he is addressed as Dwijottama. Duryodhana refers to Dronacharya as the Best of Brahmins.

Duryodhana details the list of valiant warriors on the side of the Kauravas. He tries to please Dronacharya by saying first and foremost is bhavan that is Dronacharya himself.

Next, he mentions, Bhīṣma Pitāmaha, Karna, Kripacharya and Aśvatthāmā who are born fighters and victorious in many wars.

There is a very interesting story on why Bhīṣma Pitā always wore white clothes. His father had two wives. Bhīṣma Pitā was the son of the first wife Ganga Ji and hence he is often known as Gangaputra. hen his father decided to marry again, the father of the second bride, in order to protect his daughter's interests, put a condition before giving his consent for the marriage. The condition was that only the sons of his daughter would become the future rulers of Hastinapur kingdom. Bhīṣma Pitā then took the vow to not marry and remain a Brahmācharya all his life so that he would never have a son who could become the King of Hastinapur. Having taken this vow, Bhīṣma Pitā came to be considered as a Tapaswi or saintly person and hence always wore white clothes.

We all know how difficult it is to keep a vow. Like we take a resolution to speak with respect to our parents and soon, we break it, or we vow to study hard but get distracted. This never happened to Bhīṣma Pitā and he never, ever broke his vow. We should all try to be like Bhīṣma Pitā when being determined to follow our vows.

Another story on Bhīṣma Pitā is how he had kidnapped the princesses of Kashi (Ambika and Ambalika) to become brides of his step-brother.

In this Shloka Duryodhana takes the name of his best friend Karna along with other valiant warriors. However, Karna was neither a very valiant warrior nor a good person.

When the Pāṇḍavas were in exile and living in the forest, they used to wear simple clothes and have frugal meals. Duryodhana was a big Show-off, so one day he decided to visit the Pāṇḍavas and irritate them with a show of pomp and wealth with jewelry, good food and drinks and so forth. Karna, his best friend also accompanied him. When they were in the forest, there was an attack by Yakshas who are nature spirits and sometimes very deadly. At this time, Karna instead of fighting the Yakshas, ran away in fear of his life, showing what a coward he was! It was ultimately, Arjuna and the Pāṇḍavas who saved everyone that time, despite the Kauravas having treated them very badly.

It was also Karna’s idea to insult Draupadi by disrobing her in the royal court proving that, not only was he a coward, but he was also a vile person. He definitely comes in the list of villains in Mahabharata and not Heroes like Arjuna!

The next names Duryodhana takes are Kripacharya and Aśvatthāmā, who was two of the twelve warriors who were alive at the end of the Battle of Mahabharata.

Aśvatthāmā is another interesting character in Mahabharata. He was the son of Dronacharya. He was born a divine gemstone embedded on his forehead. On the death of Dronacharya, he was very engaged with the deceptive way in which his father was killed by the Pāṇḍavas. He promised to take revenge on Pāṇḍavas for this devious act.

The battle custom in those days was to fight from sunrise to sunset. Warriors were not allowed to attack each other at night. Aśvatthāmā however, went against this rule and sneaked into the Pāṇḍava camp at night to kill them. Śrī Krishna, being Bhagavān, became aware of the plan and changed the sleeping quarters of the Pāṇḍavas with the five sons of Draupadi.  Aśvatthāmā couldn’t figure out this change in the dark night and went ahead and savagely killed all five of Draupadi’s sons.

When the Pāṇḍavas were in exile, they had to live undercover and in disguise in the last year. During that time, Arjuna disguised himself as a woman and became the dance teacher of Uttara, the princess of that kingdom. At the end of the year when the Pāṇḍavas revealed their true identity, the king wanted Arjuna to marry his daughter Uttara. Arjuna declined to do so, since he had accepted Uttara as his pupil and hence could not marry her. He however, arranged for the marriage of his son Abhimanyu with Uttara.

During the time of the Battle of Mahabharata, Uttara was carrying Parikshit the son of Abhimanyu in her womb.

Aśvatthāmā, blind with rage, and determined to totally destroy the Pāṇḍavas. now attacked Uttara’s womb with the very powerful Brahmāsta to kill Parikshit. All the  Gods including Brahmā Ji and Bhagavān Śrī Krishna intervened to stop this rampage as the Brahmāstra could destroy the whole world if not stopped. Bhagavān Śrī Krishna also revived the dead Parikshit who went on to become the king of Hastinapur in future.

Bhagavān was furious with Aśvatthāmā and in his anger pulled out the divine gem from his forehead. Furthermore, he cursed Aśvatthāmā to live on earth for a very long time, with the unhealed painful wound on his forehead.

So, if we see, the Battle of Mahabharata was not just about the conflict between the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas but there were many other hostilities that were playing in the war.

Duryodhana continues the roll call of great warriors on their side and mentions the name of Vikarna who was a very pious person and the only person on the side of the Kauravas who stood against the disrobing of Daupadi in court, and Bhūriśravā, the son of Somadatta to be on their side.

After praising and recognizing all the brave warriors of his side, Duryodhana goes on to add that there are many other warriors equipped with many weapons on the side of the Kauravas. They are all Yuddha-Visharadah, highly skilled in the art of warfare. He acknowledges that they are all fighting on the Kauravas side and are ready to give up their life for his sake.

In this manner, Duryodhana in addition to boosting the morale of his army was also trying to boost his self-confidence.

In the next session, we will know more about the war and interesting stories from the Mahabharata. The Sadhaks were requested to find out the names and details of some of the important characters in Mahabharata and come prepared in the next session.

The Vivechan session was followed by a Questions and Answers session and concluded with the prayer to the Bhagavān and with rendition of the Hanuman Chalisa.

Questions and Answers

Amaira Wadhera Ji

Q: Do we have classes on Saturday?

A: No, we don’t have classes on Saturday.

Madhushree Surawar Ji

Q: If Vikarna was of Sattvik nature, why was he fighting on behalf of the Kauravas?

A: Vikarna was one of the 100 Kaurava brothers. It was not possible for him to go against his father Dhritarashtra and 99 other brothers who wanted him to take part in the war for the Kauravas. Likewise there were others like Bhīṣma Pitā, who through was against the war was fighting for the Kauravas because they were part of the kingdom.

Kritika Modi Ji

Q: If it was not allowed to fight at night, then why did Aśvatthāmā, go and try to kill the Pāṇḍavas at night? And was he punished for his act?

A: Aśvatthāmā, knew he neither had the strength nor the skill to kill the Pāṇḍavas in daylight. Hence, he resorted to do so slyly by sneaking into the Pāṇḍava camp at night when all would be asleep. His misdeed was found out and he was punished by his divine gem being taken away and he having to live a long and painful life on this earth.

Vidushi Ji

Q: How many princes were kidnapped by Bhīṣma Pitā in Kashi?

A: There were two Ambika and Ambalika. Amba was also there but that is a different story.

Mayika Devi Ji

Q: Why did Karna not fight on behalf of the Pāṇḍavas though he as their eldest brother?

A: Though Karna was the eldest brother of the Pāṇḍavas, Kunti had given him up and he did not live with the Pāṇḍavas. He was also very jealous of Arjuna and hence decided to fight on behalf of Kauravas.