THE REDEMPTION OF THE VASUS

The Pandavas were already there in the lakshya griha (wax palace) in Varunavanta. Uncle Vidura had met them and advised them to live in the forest for some years. Life would be very hard there, he said, by way of preparing them for their time in the forest. They would even have to beg for food, but suffering must not break them, he said. Someday the kingdom of Hastinapura would be theirs, he told them. The Pandavas knew that Vidura had got a tunnel made for them to escape. Now Vidura told them that there would be a boatman to ferry them across the river, Suranadi. At the other end of the river, they would be safe.

Then Vidura went to Dwaraka. It was a Monday. The full moon day of the month of Shravana was just two days away. It was twilight. Vidura met Krishna. Whatever he could do for the Pandavas’ safety, he had done, he told the Avatara. Now it would be he alone who could save them, he said. The virtuous Vidura did not need to worry, Krishna told him. There was a way.

Thus, all of a sudden thick, dark clouds appeared in the sky at Varunavanta. There was blinding lightening and deafening thunder. Then it poured and poured. In the nearby forest called Anubhava, there lived a savara (a tribe of forest dwellers) named Ajaraja in a hut with his wife Jayanta and her five children. A thunder burnt his hut and killed him. With her sons the helpless Jayanta ran for shelter and came to the wax palace. Bhima would not let her in.

“Who was there?” asked Kunti from inside. Then she asked her who she was and what was her caste. She told her all about how her husband had died and her hut had got burnt. She and her children had no shelter in that dreadful night, she told her and pleaded with her for shelter that night. Her children were like her children, she told Kunti and begged her to be merciful to them.

“Let them in”, Kunti said to Bhima and Bhima let them enter. Kunti told Jayanta that her name was Koenta and that their names rhymed. They were of the same age. So they were friends and she told her that her children were like her own. She gave them a bed and in no time the tired forest dwellers dropped off to sleep. 

The rains had stopped for quite a while now but the sky was overcast. Night had set in long ago and it was very dark outside. Silence reigned. This was the time to get away, said Yudhisthira. No one said a thing. Kunti and the Pandavas quietly entered the tunnel and after some time emerged out of it. They were on the bank of Suranadi and were safe.

Bhima turned back and entered the tunnel. On reaching the wax palace at the other end, Bhima confronted Puranjana Panda there and told him that soon he would be burnt to death in the same palace which he had built to burn the Pandavas to death. Bhima set fire to the palace. In no time the entire palace was engulfed with flames and Puranjaya Panda perished. Praying most humbly to god Agni to spare him, Bhima escaped. Soon he joined his mother and brothers at the river bank. They all knew what had happened to the poor savari and her children. But none of them shed a tear for them; let alone shedding tears, they didn’t even mention them in their exchanges ever. Could it be because they, especially Kunti and Yudhisthira, had a sense of guilt about what had happened to them? Perhaps they had, perhaps they didn’t have. The text is silent about it. In any case, the sensitive person knows he has to suffer his feeling of guilt and remorse alone for fear that sharing it with others would mean demeaning himself in front of others. His conscience would trouble him, but for how long? In any case, given their ambitions and apprehensions, kings and princes could hardly afford to live by their conscience.  

They, savaras, had come to the laksha griha, driven by their destiny. One can debate in one’s mind whether they had died or were killed. In any case, in their death, they served the Pandavas. Their badly burnt bodies concealed their identity. People thought those were the bodies of Kunti and the Pandava brothers. The Kuru elders grieved for them. And King Dhritarashtra performed their last rites. 

Sage Agasti was telling the Mahabharata story to Vaibasuta Manu. The lord of the yuga found the death of the six savaras entirely unfair and unacceptable. He interrupted the sage’s narration. “O venerable sage”, asked Vaibasuta Manu in all humility, “why did the innocents perish? What sins had they committed to deserve such a grisly end?”

The great sage and seer, who knew what had happened and what was going to happen, told him that the five children were the five vasus, the divines, who had been cursed by sage Vashishtha. The vasus sought the great seer’s forgiveness. He told them that they would be born in the mortal world twice and would die twice as their just punishment. After that they would assume their original form, he had told them. They would first be born as Ganga’s babies, who she would kill immediately after their birth. Then they would be born again as Jayanta savari’s children. They would perish in the wax palace fire and would then be free from his curse. Thus, they died because their own karma, said Agasti. Yudhisthira could not be blamed, he told Vaibasuta Manu. At the same time although from the human perspective they died a miserable death, the truth, beyond human understanding, was that they got their mukti. Incidentally one must not forget Krishna’s role in this. He created the condition for mukti of the cursed vasus.

The careful and discriminating listener Vaibasuta Manu must have been satisfied with the sage’s response. He didn’t ask any more questions and Agasti resumed his story.

Centuries after, we wonder why the lord of the yuga didn’t ask about the fate of Jayanta. Agasti said nothing about her. For which karma of hers in which birth of her did she have to suffer such a painful death? We know the narrator’s answer. It was not karma; the narrative needed that death. Jayanta had to be a helpless widow; so her husband Ajaraja had to die (so no questions about his karma, either) – in one way or the other, be it by thunder or by lightening, but not along with his wife and children. Thereafter, the narrative needed six deaths – one woman and her five children. All this is entirely understandable. It is only the asymmetry in the narrative that leaves us very unhappy – some deaths are connected with the dead man’s karma, whereas some others not and for that reason, they look arbitrary and unfair.

We perhaps have to reconcile to these sad ends (because a life of unclarity, doubt and scepticism can be unliveable) thinking that Narayana does not play dice with nara. So Jayanta and her husband Ajaraja did not die in vain; for they were the nimitta, chosen by Him, for the vasus’ mukti.

 

 

 

A MORAL QUESTION FOR DURYODHANA (WHICH HE NEVER ANSWERED)

Was it morally justified for Duryodhana to go to war against the Pandavas? Did he really hope to win? Had he carefully weighed his chances of victory? Had he under-estimated the strength of the enemy? Forget about the cause, forget about the principles, if he had felt unsure about winning, it was certainly very unethical on his part to go to war, going by the logic of Yudhisthira, the embodiment of virtue.

Preparations for the conclusive war were going on. One day, as he was conferring with Krishna and his brothers, the eldest Pandava asked Sahadeva, who had the knowledge of the past and the future, whether they would win the war. Sahadeva had just told him that there were eleven akshauhinis in the army of the Kauravas. That army was much larger than their own of seven askhauhinis. Yudhisthira said that that If they were not going to win, he would choose not to go to war with his cousins: …tahanku jebe jini nuariba / abara sahodre kimpa bipaksha hoiba (if we cannot win / why should we fight our brothers). War was utterly sinful, the virtuous man knew; however, if it was unavoidable, then one had no choice. He could compromise on war only to that extent. Even then, one had to be careful. If one believed, on reasonable basis, that one was going to win, only then going to war would be morally justified. Sahadeva said he knew the outcome but would not tell; he suggested that Yudhisthira asked the one called Bharada about it. To cut a long story short, Bharada was brought to the presence of Yudhisthira and he told him that haribe durjyodhana jinime jujesthi (Duryodhana will lose, Yudhisthira will win). 

When Krishna was going to Duryodhana as Duryodhana’s emissary for peace, he had asked Bhima, Arjuna and Nakula separately who he would be able to kill if Duryodhana rejected their request for villages and war became inevitable. Said Krishna to Bhima: …tu ho sangrama je kale / kaha kaha kain jini paributi tohara bale (if you go to war / who all will you be able to kill). Bhima said that he would kill all the Kaurava brothers. Responding to the same question, Arjuna said that he would kill Bhurishrava, guru Drona, Bhishma, Karna and Salya. Nakula said that he would kill their uncle Salya, Karna, Sakuni and Lakshmana Kumara, among others. It appears that by asking them that question, Krishna was trying to ascertain their self-confidence and motivation for war. As for Sahadeva, he had neither asked for any village or anything else nor had Krishna asked him about who he would be able to kill in the event of a war. Theirs was the conversation between the One who is the Cause of everything and his devotee who knew His ways. Details are unnecessary for our present purpose. 

As for the Kauravas, shortly before the war, Duryodhana had held an assembly of the warriors who had come to fight for him and implored them to win him victory in the war. The Pandavas were powerful and then there was Krishna with them, and he had never been a winner against them till then. He told the celebrated warriors that he depended on them for victory and that he would honour whosoever among them would assure him that he would be able to vanquish Arjuna and Krishna. He would be anointed as the commander-in-chief of the mighty Kaurava army. Like Krishna with respect to the Pandavas, he was trying to ascertain the self-confidence and the motivation of his warriors. In that assembly were Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Bhurishrava, Salya, Kripacharya. Aswasthama, Somadutta, Bahlika, Dussasana, Sakuni and Jayadratha, among others. 

Kritavarma responded to Duryodhana’s words and he didn’t mince his words. Of all those assembled there, no one was capable of defeating the Pandavas, he told the Kaurava king. Together, they wouldn’t be able to defeat even Sahadeva: jeteka nrupati tu nimantrilu ani / samaste na paranti yeka sahadebanta jini (All those kings you have invited / They all wouldn’t be able to defeat Sahadeva). King Duryodhana could ask them why, in that case, they had come, if they believed they were so impotent, he told Duryodhana. He said they had come to see Krishna on Arjuna’s chariot: srikrushna sarathi parthara nandighosha rathe / samaste ailu ambhe krushnanta dekhiba nimante (Sri Krishna would be the charioteer on Arjuna’s chariot / We have all come to see Krishna). Seeing Krishna, they would fall in the battlefield and would attain moksa, he told Duryodhana. All the kings assembled there said that they concurred with Kritavarma. 

Duryodhana did not say anything but Bhishma knew that he was deeply disappointed. He rose from his seat, with his sword raised and vowed that he would kill Krishna and Arjuna. A greatly relieved Duryodhana worshipped him with words of praise and declared him as the commander-in-chief of the great Kaurava army. Aswasthama could not control himself and he told Duryodhana in the presence of all that what he had done was very inauspicious. Bhishma’s hidden objective was to get killed in the war, he told the Kaurava king. Duryodhana denounced him as evil-minded right from his childhood, and Drona expressed his disappointment at his son’s conduct. Bhurishrava told the Kauravas that Bhishma was a highly honourable person and that none must think that he was one who would make empty promises. 

But what he said then, amounted to a stern warning. He reminded Duryodhana of how on several occasions he had been saved from disaster by the Pandavas, not the celebrated Kaurava warriors, including Bhishma, Drona and Karna. The demon, Pandavasura, had swallowed him and Arjuna had split his body and saved him. The demon Saintika, said Bhurishrava, had killed him along with his ninety-nine brothers and was abducting his wife Bhanumati with him, when the virtuous princess called out Arjuna for help. Arjuna killed the demon, saved Bhanumati and with his divine arrow of nectar, he revived him and his brothers. He had also saved him from the gandharva Chitrasena, who had tied him to his chariot and was taking him to the abode of the gods, where, in Lord Indra’s presence he planned to behead him. Only a few days ago, in the Virata war, Arjuna had defeated Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Aswasthama, the Kaurava brothers, him himself, and everyone in the entire army became unconscious when Arjuna targeted them with his moha arrow. If he had asked prince Uttara to cut off their heads, they would have all been dead. But he didn’t. They thus owed their life to Arjuna. And those who try to harm the ones who had done them good, would always be counted as the lowest of the low, the meanest of the mean and the vilest of the vile creatures, he said. 

Besides, the Pandavas, were no enemies, he said. The proper thing to do would be to find a way to peace between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. 

Duryodhana couldn’t stand Bhurishrava’s painful harangue any longer. “In front of the Avatara I took a vow not to give the Pandavas a share of the kingdom”, said Duryodhana. It was, therefore, a sacred vow. On no account would he dishonour it. “Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Salya, Bhurishrava and whoever else on his side feared for life, must leave him forthwith and seek shelter from the Pandavas”, he said. He would fight the Pandavas. There would be with him his ninety-nine brothers, his son, Lakshmana Kumara and his brother-in-law, Jayadratha, he said, but if they too were afraid of death, then they too could seek protection from the Pandavas. He had taken the vow to fight and fight he would, all alone, if it came to that. 

It was Bhishma again who provided him succour. He must not worry in the least, the one, who death could not claim without his willingness, assured him. He would fight for him with full vigour and his wish will be fulfilled, he told Duryodhana. The Kaurava warriors cheered him. Hope returned to the army. 

But nothing changed the facts in Bhurishrava’s assertion that the mighty warriors on whom Duryodhana depended for victory in the impending war, had not been able to protect him till then, when his life was under threat. And then, the fact remained that the elder Kurus and guru Dronacharya did not see the Pandavas as enemy. Not even Karna, despite his hostility towards Arjuna. But these facts did not weaken Duryodhana’s resolve to fight. He was unworried about defeat. He had taken a vow. 

So, Yudhisthira would not go to war if there was no certainty of his victory. Duryodhana would go to war irrespective of the outcome. However, it was not the case that he was stepping on the Kurukshetra war field, knowing that he would lose. That being the case, if it was right for Yudhisthira to go to war, then so was it for Duryodhana. Neither believed that he was going to lose. At the end, placing Duryodhana’s head on his lap, who was lying fatally wounded, a disconsolate Yudhithira was crying for his fallen cousin. He asked him why he went to war and how he did not understand that he could never win against Arjuna, Bhima and Sahadeva. He was well-acquainted with their prowess and attainments. He knew that Arjuna had defeated the great god Mahadeva himself. He had defeated the incomparable Hanuman of the aeon of Treta (by the way, although he had greatly impressed him with his archery, he hadn’t really defeated him; perhaps Yudhisthira did not know the whole story). Perhaps he did, but that was no occasion for him to be punctilious. Whatever he had said best served his purpose. Didn’t he know, Yudhisthira told the one of whom he had said, time and again, that he was dearer to him than Bhima, that Arjuna had killed the demon Nirvata Kachapa, who had driven the gods away from Swarga. And didn’t he remember that only a few days ago, he had single-handedly defeated the entire Kaurava army in the Virata war. As for Bhima, let alone the mortals, even the immortals were afraid of him, said Yudhisthira. Sahadeva knew the past and the future, and the death-secrets of everyone. And then there was Krishna himself who was protecting the Pandavas. He should have known that given these resources that the Pandavas had, he could never win against them. He did not learn from his experience and went by wrong advice and brought only destruction to himself, said Yudhisthira. 

Duryodhana listened to the reprimand of his deeply anguished elder cousin but did not say anything. Maybe, he knew things that had gone far too wrong for him to say anything by way of protest. Or more likely, he knew that Yudhisthira’s agony was genuine and his tears honest and that concealed in his reprimand, was his unmistakable affection for him. 

Now, although he does not say it in so many words, Yudhisthira’s thinking is clear on the matter of going to war: one must not choose to go to war if one felt that one was not going to win. By doing so, one would bring disaster not just to oneself but to an entire army in which there would be far too many who would be fighting, although it was not their war even remotely. 

But did Duryodhana go to war knowing that he was or was most likely to lose? Certainly, not. The Virata war was one thing, a conclusive war against the Pandavas would be another. Besides, if there was Arjuna on the Pandavas’ side, there were, on his side, Bhishma, Drona, Karna and Aswasthama - all exceptional archers like Arjuna and all of whom had divine weapons, like Arjuna. And Bhishma wouldn’t die unless he so wished, Aswasthama was immortal and Karna had the infallible divine weapon given to him by Indra. In his huge army were great warriors like Jayadratha, Salya, Kripacharya, Kritavarma, Bhurishrava, Sakuni and many others. And then there was with him Krishna’s brave and dreadful Narayani sena. Their commitment was beyond doubt. They had come to die in the Kurukshetra war fields and attain moksa, as Kritavarma had said, but they were not going to betray Duryodhana by looking for opportunities to get themselves killed at the earliest, putting up just the semblance of a fight. There was of course Krishna with the Pandavas but he had told him that he would not take part in the war and would remain unarmed in the battlefield. In short, Duryodhana had no good reason to believe that he was not going to win. 

But he was let down by his commanders-in-chief. It was not a matter of their ability or their commitment; there were other things. Bhishma would not face Shikhandi because of the way their lives were connected in the latter’s earlier existence as Amba. One day or the other he would have come face-to-face with Shikhandi. But he made things easier by telling Arjuna that “secret’ of his, when he met him in his camp before day break on the tenth day of the war. However, it was not that he had volunteered to tell Arjuna; ignoring details, he was duped into doing so by Sahadeva and Krishna. Drona knew, as did everyone else, that Aswasthama was immortal, by virtue of the boon he had received from Creator god Brahma. Yet when he heard that Aswasthama was dead, he went asking warriors whether it was true. His strong sense of insecurity for his son was a consequence of his excessive attachment to him. It had so befuddled his mind that he could not think that Brahma’s boon was infallible. It was on this account, rather than Yudhisthira’s lie, that he lost his life. As for Karna, his conflicting commitments robbed the Kauravas of victory. He could have killed Yudhisthira but had let him go. He had let Bhima, Nakula and Sahadeva go too; he could have killed each of them. He kept his word to his mother. He was a virtuous man; for him, his commitment to his mother was more important than his commitment to the Kaurava army and to king Duryodhana. But make no mistake, his commitment to Duryodhana was beyond question. He had tried to kill Arjuna, but had failed. And that, on account of Krishna. Now, what weapon was there in the three worlds which could kill the one who Krishna was shielding! 

In fact, what really led to Duryodhana’s defeat was the Avatara’s interventions in favour of the Pandavas. Bhishma used an infallible divine arrow to kill Arjuna and Arjuna could not counter it. Unknown to everyone in the battlefield, Krishna destroyed it with his Sudarshana chakra. He created the illusion of sunset and saved Arjuna from self-immolation. Krishna knew that Arjuna would not be able to reach Jayadratha before sunset that day and would submit himself to fire. Karna had directed, unlike in the canonical version, the divine weapon he had got from Indra, at Arjuna, not Ghatotkacha but Krishna manipulated to protect Arjuna and get Ghatotkacha killed. The details need not detain us here. Arjuna had no answer to Karna’s sosaka astra (snake- Sosaka arrow) and Krishna saved him again, this time directing Hanuman on the top of Arjuna’s chariot to remove it from the battlefield. The killer arrow missed the target. Krishna saved the Pandavas and their army from Aswasthama’s Narayana astra by telling them how to pacify it. The son of Dharma would not have lied to his guru but for Krishna’s pressure; it was his lie that killed Drona. The hits that felled Duryodhana were not from his own mace but Narayana’s koumodaki (better known as “koumudi”). No one knew. Now, did Bhima normally wield the Supreme god’s mace? 

Clearly, Duryodhana had not taken into consideration Krishna, when, before the war, he was assessing his strength vis-à-vis the Pandavas’. He knew it very well that the he had all along been protecting the Pandavas. But Krishna had told him (to elder brother Balarama too) that he would not take part in the war and would only witness the happenings. He did not honour his words. That he was wily was not unknown to anyone in Sarala Mahabharata. But Duryodhana trusted the Avatara. 

Now, don’t blame Duryodhana. One cannot plan anything taking destiny into account in one’s planning. Don’t ask whether one has a choice when it comes to destiny and whether distrust of destiny would lead to any positive outcome. In any case, despite his support for the Pandavas on multiple occasions, he was never hostile to him. He was Narayana; His many acts of what he thought was unfairness towards him, did not disconnect him from Him. Many are the shades of bhakti. 

What does one say of Krishna? He had betrayed Duryodhana’s trust. True, but only from the laukika perspective. But Sarala does not hold it against him; as he narrates the lila of Krishna in his Mahabharata, he operates at the levels of the worldly and the cosmic both and occasionally relates them, so as to enable his listeners to see the happenings at both levels and understand the nature and the relationship between the two levels of reality. Sarala wanted his present and future audience to understand that the Avatara had come to the mortal world with a cosmic purpose. So who he was unfair to or partial towards from the laukika perspective was inconsequential.