Note:
This is a revised version of the article “The Tale of Belalasena: A Unique
Perspective in Sarala Mahabharata” published in Samachar Just Click on March
28, 2024.
Key
words: Sarala Mahabharata, Krishna, Bhima, Belalasena, maya
The story of Belalasena occurs in Sarala Mahabharata. In Vyasa Mahabharata, there is no Belalasena story or an
equivalent of it. Belalasena was Bhima’s son. Let us set aside details about
his meeting Krishna on his way to the battlefield and about why he not just
happily, but with great devotion too, gave his head to Krishna, when he asked
for it (for some details, see “The Story of Belalsen” posted on August 15, 2017
in the blog: saralamahabharat.blogpost.com). Granting his request to witness
the war, Krishna allowed the severed head to remain alive and witness it. His
head was placed in a vantage position, from where he could see the war. He saw
the happenings in the war from the beginning to the end.
In Vyasa
Mahabharata, Sanjaya, the minister of the Kaurava king Dhritarashtra, was
witnessing the war, sitting with the king and narrating to him what was
happening on the battlefields of Kurukshetra, where his army was fighting with the
army of the Pandavas. Sage Vyasa had given him the special vision because of
which he could see the actions taking place at a distance. That was how the
blind old king, without participating in the war physically, was experiencing
it.
In Sarala
Mahabharata, Sanjaya informed the blind, old father, who
was no longer the king, having given the kingdom of Hastinapura to his eldest
son Duryodhana, about the happenings in the war and he also commented on them.
But he did not do so because of any special vision given to him by Vyasa or
anyone else. He himself fought in the battlefield for the Kauravas and also
obtained information about what had happened in different parts of the war
field from others and used his experience, intelligence and insight to comment
on the important events in the war and even make predictions about what was
going to happen in the battlefield on the following day. In sum, there is no
Belalasena in Vyasa’s version and there is no Sanjaya with special vision in Sarala’s
version. It is certainly an interesting asymmetry between the source text in
Sanskrit and its retold version in Odia.
The war ended and it was time for the
Pandavas to claim credit for the victory. Present with the Pandava brothers at
that time were Draupadi, Subhadra, Kunti and Krishna. Bhima said that the war
was won solely because of him since he had killed all the Kaurava brothers
(barring Durdaksha, who had changed sides and fought for the Pandavas). Arjuna
said the war would never have been won but for him. Outraged, Nakula claimed
credit for himself. Sahadeva said that he had told the death secrets of
formidable warriors; so it was because of him that the Pandavas won the war.
Yudhisthira said he was steadfast in dharma and it was indeed this that brought
victory to them.
Draupadi said that she was an
exceptionally virtuous woman (mahasati);
it was this power of her that destroyed the Kauravas. Subhadra, Arjuna’s wife, told
them that all of them were dead wrong. She was indeed the cause. The Kauravas
killed Abhimanyu, her son, and her brother, Krishna, avenged his killing by having
them wiped out. Finally Kunti spoke. She said that she had undergone great hardship
for years and as she suffered, she prayed to Dharma (god of justice). The
Pandavas’ victory was the god’s answer to her prayer. Soon they started
fighting over the issue of credit.
To settle the issue, Krishna brought
them to the severed head and asked him what he had seen and who could be justly
credited for the victory. The severed head told him what he had seen: no human
or demon had killed anyone. A chakra (discuss), dazzling with the glare and the
brilliance of a myriad suns, unceasingly moved to and fro - from one part of
the war field to the other, killing the fighters.
This can be viewed as an embodiment of
a very important idea in the eleventh chapter of Srimad Bhagavad Gita, namely that the Supreme Lord had already
killed all those who were to fall in the war. The warriors would only act as the killer; such is His leela (play) and such is how the cosmic
and the laukika (mundane / the level
of sense experience) levels connect in the text. What is real, the truth, at
the laukika level is not the truth at
the cosmic level; in fact, at that transcendental level, the laukika-level reality does not exist. Under
the power of maya (cosmic illusion),
humans can perceive things only at the laukika
level and therefore take illusion as real. This is the limitation humans have
to live with and this could be why they consider themselves to be kartas (doers), agents, rather than instruments
of the happenings. In Sarala Mahabharata,
there is no Srimad Bhagavad Gita, but
the above shows how it had unobtrusively entered Sarala’s narrative, where the Gita idea under reference here had taken
the form of a story. Because of the grace of Krishna, Belalasena had seen the
reality. The ability to see the reality is not the outcome of one’s karma. Arjuna
witnessed the Vishvarupa (Universal Form) of Krishna because of Krishna’s
grace. Belalasena saw his leela in
the battlefields of Kurukshetra for the same reason. Freed from the bondage of maya by Krishna’s grace, he had not seen
what Sanjaya had seen, namely things at the laukika
level, where someone killed someone and someone else, some other. Krishna had
granted him his wish to be able to witness the war. Only the one who is chosen
by Him to see the transcendental reality, sees it.
To end the story of Belalasena. His
story is short as was his life in the world. He came into Sarala’s narrative to
be the witness of a catastrophic, yet transformative Event, and give a
testimony, which would be the final word on the happenings in that Event. The
testimony given to the Avatara in the presence of those who claimed credit for
the victory in the Great War of Kurukshetra, he left the narrative. But his
going was not ordinary; it was truly exceptional.
Listening to him, Bhima was agitated
in the extreme. Here was his son betraying him, instead of supporting him. He
condemned him as a thoroughly unworthy and disgraceful son; one, who did not
take the side of his father in a situation of conflict and belittled him in
front of others. Wild with anger, he hit the head of his son with all his
might. From the top of the tree-trunk, which served as a pillar and from where
the head had witnessed the war, it fell on the ground and died. The father
killed the son, but not in the performance of a sacrifice.
Belalasena’s story ended when Krishna
absorbed his soul into him. Merged into the Supreme god Narayana, he was no
longer subject to the karmic cycle. No one in Sarala Mahabharata received moksha in this sense. This can be viewed
as the Avatara’s “pratidana” (return dana) for the “dana” he had received from him.
30 March 2024
