bhishma-stuthi-5

[Guest guest]

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha

sri vedanta guravE namaha

 

Dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s",

 

Recalling the demise of my grandmother in Tirupati, I've always found,

somehow makes it so much easier for me to picture vividly the scene of the

great Bhishma's passing away. It helps, too, in the appreciation of his

poignant "stUthi" uttered during his dying moments in praise of Lord

Krishna, the "para-brahmham".

 

The scene in the Mahabharata of the "pitAmahar" lying on a "space-frame" bed

of arrows -- "shara-tantra" -- is an extremely painful one, indeed, to imagine.

 

It certainly could not have been a pleasant sight to see an old, venerable,

valiant and royal warrior spend the last moments of his life in the world

lying awkwardly on a make-shift death-bed of arrows.

 

Bhishma's body was riven, having been shot through and through, like a

desk-top pin-cushion, with the ferocious missiles Arjuna had pumped into

him. The shafts, more than a dozen of them, piercing through metal and

leather armour, had crushed flesh and bone alike. On any battle-ground the

sight of thick blood spurting from a dying soldier's wounds and drying up

with grime and dust across his brows is a heart-rending one, indeed. In

Kurukshetra, the sight of Bhisma's utterly crippled and bloodied frame, too,

was a painful reminder of such typical horrors of war.

 

Bhishma's dear kin, the Kauravas and Pandavas, all stood around him ruing

the day when a fratricidal urge had overtaken them all ...and led them all

to mutual hatred ... to war ..to bloodshed.. and, now, to the death of one

of their family-elders .... the most honourable and the most beloved one of

all, the great and mighty BhismAcharyar.

 

As life ebbed away from the frail body of Bhishma, his kith and kin, the

scores of royal scions from both the Kaurava and Pandava families, began

leaving his death-bed one by one. They were all sad, no doubt, but also

restless. They realized the end was inevitable and there was nothing anyone

could do about it. They had to leave and rest for the night since, in the

morning, there was more urgent business at hand: a brutal battle still left

to be waged.

 

Many days passed.

 

The last to depart from Bhishma's side was Yudhishtara who was loath to

leave the "pitAmahar" unattended in the final moments. It is written in the

Mahabharatha that Yudhishtara sat beside Bhishma's death-bed for many days

and listened to the venerable old soul recount some its memories and

explain a great many truths or "dharmA" it had realized in life.... much

like Arjuna had sat listening to the exposition of the Lord's 'Gita' earlier

during the battle at Kurukshetra.

 

Finally, Yudhishtara, too, had to leave the "bed-of-arrows" --- a most

unusual "rEzhi" as far as Bhishma was concerned --- and return to the call

of duty on the battle-field.

 

In the end Bhishma lay alone ..... much like any mortal in the throes of

death; (a bit like, I can't help saying to myself sometimes while reciting

the "bhishma-stuthi".. ... a bit like my own grand-mother!).

 

Bhishma died alone....like all humans do.

 

It was precisely that moment Lord Krishna gently appeared before him.

 

Bhishma turned his bruised face to look at the approaching Vasudevan.....

and behold ! there was His Splendorous form -- the Lord of the Yadavas !

 

And in that precise moment of Glory the first majestic lines of the

"bhisma-stuthi" poured forth like torrential spring from the mouth of the

dying warrior :

 

iti matirupakalpitA vitrishnA

Bhagavati sAtvata-pUngavE viBhUmni !

 

***************************************

 

We will next take up for study the "stuthi" itself, stanza by stanza, in the

next few posts.

 

srimathe srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha

sudarshan