yadhavabhyudhaya-chapter23

September 1, 2007

Chapter23-Mahabharatha war

In this chapter Desika traces the circumstances that led to the mahabharatha war and describes the role of Krishna in it.

The Pandavas were supposed to be the Indras of the earlier kalpas. They resorted to Krishna for support to win the Kouravas. They knew Krishna as he is in reality owing to the instructions of their preceptors and through the study of the Vedas. They became very dear to Krishna who said `mamaprANA hi pAndavAh, Pandavas are my life,' to Dhuryodhana. In the Gita Krishna says , priyo hi jnAnino athyarTham sa eva mamapriyah,' and `jnAnee thu Athmaiva me matham.'

To those who know Him in reality the Lord is the dearest and they are dearest to Him and the wise man is the Lord Himself. Thus Pandavas were dear to Krishna as they surrendered to Him, worshipped Him and accepted Him as their master and always they were protected by Him, as mentioned in the Gita, `macchitthA madhgathaprANAh.'

thahASrayAh thathpraNiDheyakrthyAh

thenAiva nAThena sadhA sanAThAh.

(Yad.23.3)

Krishna protected them from fire, water and poison when Dhuryodhana plotted to kill them.

Then Dhuryodhana, instructed by Sakuni, am long with his brother Dhussasana and Karna who had enmity with Arjuna, disgraced Droupadhi in the court of kings, after enslaving her under the pretext of winning her in the game of dice and she, finding her husbands helpless to protect her cried for help to Krishna who protected her by giving her heaps and heaps of silks to guard her honour.

After the thirteen years of exile Pandavas wishing to gain their kingdom which was deceitfully taken away from them through the playing of dice, surrendered to Krishna, who, on account of his souSeelya, agreed to undertake the duty of a messenger for them and became Pandavadhootha. Desika says,

Sa thAdhrSeem Adhriyatha thrihAmA

preshyakriyAm preshitha dhevabrndhah

nanu prabhooNAm nirapekshabhoomnAm

prasADhanam bhakthajane guNathvam

(Yad.23.12)

The Lord who has all the devas as his servants and has the three supreme abodes, namely, Vaikunta, Ksheerasagara and the Bhoomandala, wished to go as a messenger for His devotees. To the great who do not depend on anything else for their glory, to be bhakthaparAdheena, serving the needs of their devotees , becomes the greatest ornament. This attribute of the Lord is praised by the wise even more than His powers of creation, sustenance and annihilation because, says Desika, `nAThochitham nnthrushu pArathanthryam,' it is fitting for the soulabhya of the Lord to be ready to do the bidding of His devotees.

This act of going as a messenger is not in any way demeaning to the Lord says Desika because He is known to take birth for the protection of the devotees, even though He is birth-less. `ajanmanhjanmabhrthasya Soureh swAmithva samvAdhi babhoova dhouthyam.'

Krishna then went to Hasthina pura.

Khadhyothavath dharSitha khanjadheeptheen

prajnAdhrSo bhoomobhrthah sabhAyAm

prApthodhayo bhAnuriva thriDhAmA

praccchAdhayAmAsa kuroon svaDhAmnA

(Yad.23.13)

Krishna entered the court of blind Dhrtharashtra and eclipsed the glory of the Kouravas by his brilliance who became like fireflies in front of the Sun.

The influence of the presence of Krishna was so great that the Kouravas honoured him as though they have forgotten the enmity (towards Pandavas)

Dhuryodhana got angry at the words of Krishna trying to advice him for his own good and tried to bind him but failed.(the Lord showed His visvaroopa and everyone except the wise like Bhishma and Vidhura were blinded by the brilliance) This Desika illustrates with a beautiful sloka.

Ulookale bhakthaguNe cha baddham

gunotthare gopavaDhoosthnecha

iyeshabanDhum jagathekabanDhum

dhuryoDhano dhusthyajamrthyupASah

(Yad.23.18)

The Lord allowed Himself to be bound in the mortar out of love for His devotees and he was bound by the love of the gopis.(bound by their gunas as with guna –a rope) How could and with what DhuryoDhana could bind him as he was devoid of gunas ? He actually wished ti bind himself without release with the ropes of death.

Krishna returned to the Pandavas and allowed them to fight the war as the Kouravas never listened to him.

Desika describes the act of Krishna becoming ParThasArathy by hext few slokas.

narAmSajushtena Dhananjayena

raThee bhvan sAraThirAthmanAcha

DhanurbhrthAthothrabrthAcha bheje

Prthakthvam aikyam cha yaThA pramANam

To Arjuna, who was a part of Nara of the two, Nara-Narayana, wielding the bow, and hence was the owner of the chariot, Krishna took the horse-whip in his hand and became the charioteer, thus exhibiting the identity as well as the difference between the two of them as seen in the pramana. The identity is due to the part of Nara in Arjuna and the difference is due to the human aspect of Arjuna. The pramAna f referred to is that the individual soul experiences difference from the Paramathman seeing itself as embodied but from the viewpoint of the inner Self who is the Lord in everything, there is identity. This is the essence of the mahavakya `thatthvamasi' as elucidated by Ramanuja.

raThADhirooDam cha raTham cha rakshan

yaThArThatho dharsayathi sma yanthA

thrayyanthachinthA nirapeksham eeSah

thatthAdhrsam thatthvam vibhAgam Adhyam

This sloka illustrates the thatthvathraya of Visishtadhvaitha philosophy, namely, EeSvara, the Lord, jeeva, the sentient beings and jagath, the insentient Universe.

Krishna acting as Parthasarathy, made explicit the thatthvathraya, without the study of the Vedas, by being the protector of the chariot as well as the one inside the chariot , He Himself the charioteer. That is, the Lord is the controller within , the chariot is the body and Arjuna is the individual soul.

One is reminded by this sloka of the text in Katopanishad, ` AthmAnam raThinam viddhi Sareeram raThameva thu

Buddhim thu sAraThim viddhi manah pragrahmeva cha

IndhriyANi hayAnyAhuh vishayAh theshu gocharAn (kato.1.3/4)

It means that the body is the chariot and the jeeva is the one traveling in it and intellect is the charioteer, the mind is the reins, the indhriyas are the horses and the sense objects are the distractions on the path. As long as the reins are in hands of the charioteer the horses behave well and take the o passenger to his destination. For this the intellect should be established in the Lord and this is what is signified by the Parthasarthy role of the Lord.

The next sloka mentions the chariot as a portrayal of the PraNava. Krishna is the first to be seen and later Arjuna is perceived, showing that he is associated with Krishna. Those who know the meaning of pranava from the Vedas see the Lord in front as the `a'kara, the last letter `ma' being the jeeva and the middle letter `u' showing their connection.

purasThithe gopthari visvahethou

paSchAth avasThAyini thathpravarthye

ananyayogAth sa aTho babhAra

prADheethavedhyAm praNavapravrtthim

(Yad.23.23)

The moment Krishna appeared on the chariot of Arjuna with the reins and the horse-whip in his hands, the army defended by Bhishma was as good as dead.

This sloka hints at the words which Krishna was going to utter later in his discourse of Gita that he has killed the enemies and Arjuna is only a pretext, `mamaivaithe nihathAh poorvameva nimitthamAthram bhava savyasAchin,' (BG.11.33) which is vouchsafed by Sanjaya at the end of the discourse.

Yahra yogeSvarah Krishnah yathrapArTho DhanurDharh

Thathra sreeh vijayo bhoothih dhruvAneehih mathirmama

(BG.18.78)

Wherever there is Krishna, the yogesvara and where Arjuna is with hi bow ready for action, there the victory and good fortune and prosperity reigns.

Desika then mentions the sudden despondency of Arjuna and Krishna infusing wisdom into him by his discourse of Gita. He calls it Githopanishad which was given out to the world by the Lord Himself in the form of Vyasa. Desika extols the Gita by saying,

abhanjaneeyAm paradharmasatthAm

anaSvareem bhArathasooryadheepthim

Vidhuh SrutheenAm anaghAm vayasyAM

geethAm asmmooDajanAvigeethAm

Gita , the everlasting brilliance of the Sun called Mahabharatha and the faultless companion of the Vedas is the irrefutable essence of self realization and valued by the wise .

Then Desika refers to the virAtroopa of the Lord which Arjuna saw with his divine eyes endowed by Krishna, and seeing all the universe and the devas in the cosmic form of the Lord he realised that the Supreme Self is the only agent of all action and the Kouravas were seen by him as already annihilated.

Then the war started and Arjuna freed from his delusion fought valiantly aided by Krishna. Desika says that it was the Lord who controlled everything and secured victory for Pandavas, being the inner self of all and controlling their indhriyas like the horses. He is unparalleled, 'nAnyena nidharSaneeyah.' Arjuna understood the glory of his charioteer in a portion of whom the whole univers is contained and comes out distinctly at creation and who was now sitting in one part of his chariot.

The Desika briefly describes the various events of the war, like Krishna advancing against Bhishma with Chakra in hand in order to make true the vow of his devotee(Bhishma) that he will make Krishna wield a weapon in the war, being sure of his own infallible valour. This, says Desika is not in any way against the vow of Krishna not carry arms in the war because He is ever free and nothing can limit His actions. Moreover everything happens through His will only.

Krishna made good the vow of Arjuna also that he will cut off the head of Jayadhratha who was instrumental in the killing of Abhimanyu before sunset ,failing which he will jump into the fire, by causing the sunset before its time which made Jayadhratha come out of his hiding and was killed.(Krishna removed the chakra by which he hid the Sun to make Jayadhratha come out thinking it was night fall.)

All the eighteen akshouhini of the Kouava army were destroyed and Desika wonders that it was like the pralayaleela of the Lord before the time. It was like the fall of puppets on a string being pulled by the one who holds the string. Thus Arjuna crossed the great ocean of the war like that of samsara with the help of the Supreme Lord.

Then Desika mentions about the protection Krishna gave to the foetus in the womb of Uttara, wife of Abimanyu from the missile sent by AsvatthAma, son of Drona to destroy the progeny of Pandavas and giving the infant life when he was born charred with the heat of the missile.

The bed of arrows supplied to Bhishma by Arjuna was like a yogasana for the great soul.

Then Krishna brought the chariot back from the warfrontand embraced Arjuna fondly, which act seemed , says Desika., as though Krishna wanted to reabsorb his power that was with Arjuna so long.

After causing the exposition on dharma by Bhishma Krishna returned to Dvaraka.