bhishma-stuthi-25

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srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha

sri vedanta guravE namaha

 

Dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s",

 

Krishna steered Arjuna's chariot into the battle-field in order to finally

snuff out the fire of Bhishma's valour --- a fire that had blazed gloriously

all 9 days of the War, and yet slowly, on the 10th, had shown signs of

flickering out under Sikhandi, the eunuch's relentless onslaught.

 

Yet, as soon as the beleaguered "pitAmaha-r" saw the "nara-narayana" pair he

felt a fresh surge of energy course through his stricken body! The sight of

Krishna strangely seemed to rejuvenate the old warrior.

 

Letting out a baritone growl of rage, the old warrior gathered himself up

like a great, wounded elephant, stood erect in his chariot and challenged

Arjuna, "At last! An adversary worthy of me ! My Arjuna, I waited long for

one like you to cross swords with ! For if I have to die like a honourable

soldier, it will yet be said in the end that Bhishma was felled by a true

warrior! Let's begin !".

 

The battle royale began.

 

It was a clash of mighty TITANS !

 

Lightning flashed. Thunder rolled. Volcanoes erupted, spewing molten rage.

The sea-tides swelled. Distant hills deluged. The earth trembled. Great

trees snapped like twigs. The air in the skies quivered. Birds flew scared.

The jungle grew silent. Brave men cowered, while their hearts stopped

briefly......

 

All of Kurukshetra was stilled....

 

General, officer, soldier... every man stopped fighting and turned to look

at the duel between Bhishma and Arjuna ! It was verily a sight for the gods!

 

They watched archery in pure, classic, poetic motion.

 

Spell-bound were they ! They could do naught else but stand dumb and watch a

strange, macabre dance being staged and choreographed, as it were, by two

warriors, atop some mystical dais of cosmic "astra-shakti".

 

Never before had they all seen a display of archery carried and consummated

to its highest-level as a sublime and supreme art-form.

 

Never before had they witnessed, or even conceived, a duel of such daring

magnificence between two adversaries so evenly matched.

 

They feasted their eyes, all the Kauravas and Pandavas who'd gathered there

in Kurukshetra ! They feasted and whetted their eyes, for, they knew ...

never again would mankind ever set eyes on a battle-scene that truly

deserved to be called ...sacred or beautiful or both... had it not also been

so bloody and violent.

 

Bhishma, especially, was irrepressible. At one stage, the old warrior's

terrible missiles began zeroing in on the Lord Himself -- a "mere

charioteer" -- causing Him mild injury ! The Lord, infuriated, was forced to

give up his earlier resolve to abjure personal involvement in the

Kurukshetra War. So terrifying did Bhishma's aggression become that Krishna

unsheathed His Ultimate Weapon of Destruction, the "sudarshana-chakram" ---

the lethal discus --- and threatened to employ it against the mighty Bhishma

if he continued to target charioteers instead of warriors ! The great

Bhishma humbly withdrew.

 

And so the battle raged .... for many hours into the 10th day between Arjuna

and Bhishma.

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

 

Bhishma's end, however, came ... as it had to ..... inevitably.

 

The combined onslaught of Sikhandi and Arjuna, in the end, was finally too

much to handle for the old, venerable war-horse.

 

First, they smashed up his chariot into an unrecognizable pulp of metal scrap.

 

Bhishma then alighted rushed at them on foot with a mammoth mace.

 

They swiftly cut him down by cooly rifling in half-a-dozen arrows through

his shoulders and knees. Bone shattered; cartilage gashed open.

 

The old warrior still kept coming at them with his great sword drawn and

flashing.

 

They precision-shot another dozen deadly arrows into his abdomen and lungs.

 

The combined force of Arhuna's barrage physically lifted the "pitA-mahar"

and threw him back a brace of yards away; it turned him into a blood-sodden,

gory mass of stricken human flesh.

 

While Bhishma's brave spirit still roared, the old body could no more carry

the dead weight of its own wounded self.

 

Bones minced; lung-sacs punctured; cartilage torn and hanging loose; blood

gushing; bile spurting out of ruptured intestines; and the adrenalin

draining away..... Bhishma couldn't take anymore of Arjuna's merciless

punishment.....

 

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

 

It was Lord Krishna then who raised His arm and commanded Arjuna to cease

firing.

 

The "pitAmahar" stood still and dazed for a moment... swaying unsteadily in

the wind like a great big tree whose formidable trunk had been cruelly sawed

off....

 

A great silence descended upon Kurukshetra.

 

All of Kurukshetra watched ....in mute, helpless horror.... as the grand old

man of Hastinapur, a hopeless, hapless, bloody mess.... teetered to his end

like an un-hinged doorway blown hither-thither by a sharp wind.

 

Bhishma's shattered knees collapsed and he began to sink slowly.....on his

knees....slowly...then evermore slowly... into KuruskhEtra's accursed soil.

 

Next Post.

 

srimathe srivan satagopa sri narayana yatindra mahadesikaya namaha

sudarshan