90. DRONA PASSES AWAY :

ALL those who have heard the story of
the Mahabharata know about
Ghatotkacha, Bhimasena's famous son by
his asura wife. There are two young men
among the Mahabharata figures who
embody all the qualities of heroism,
fortitude, strength, courage, and
amiability. They are Arjuna's son,
Abhimanyu, and Bhima's son,
Ghatotkacha. Both of them gave up their
lives on the Kurukshetra battlefield.


Towards the latter part of the
Mahabharata fight, the hatred roused on
both sides did not find satisfaction in
battle conducted during the daytime and
close at nightfall. On the fourteenth day,
when the sunset, they did not cease
fighting but went on with it in torchlight.
The Kurukshetra field presented a strange
sight, the like of which had not been seen
before in Bharatadesa. The generals and
soldiers on both sides were engaged in
battle, with thousands of torches burning
and using signals specially devised for
nighttime.


Ghatotkacha and his troops of asuras who
are strongest at night, found darkness an
additional advantage and violently
attacked Duryodhana's army.


Duryodhana's heart sank within him when
he saw thousands of his men destroyed by
Ghatotkacha and his demon army moving
in the air and attacking in weird and
unexpected ways.


"Kill this fellow at once, Karna, for
otherwise, soon our whole army will cease
to be. Finish him without further delay."
Thus begged all the perplexed Kauravas
of Karna.


Karna was himself angry and bewildered,
having just been wounded by one of the
asura's arrows. He had with him no doubt
the spear of unerring effect which Indra
had given to him. But it could be used
only once, and he had carefully husbanded
it for exclusive use on Arjuna with whom
a decisive encounter he knew was
inevitable.


But in the confusion and wrath of that
eerie midnight melee, Karna, impelled by
a sudden urge, hurled the missile at the
young giant. Thus was Arjuna saved, but
at great cost. Bhima's beloved son,
Ghatotkacha, who from mid-air was
showering his deadly arrows on the
Kaurava army, dropped dead, plunging
the Pandavas in grief.


The battle did not stop. Drona spread fear
and destruction in the Pandava army by
his relentless attacks. "O Arjuna," said
Krishna, "there is none that can defeat this
Drona, fighting according to the strict
rules of war. We cannot cope with him
unless dharma is discarded. We have no
other way open. There is but one thing
that will make him desist from fighting. If
he hears that Aswatthama is dead, Drona
will lose all interest in life and throw
down his weapons. Someone must
therefore tell Drona that Aswatthama has
been slain."


Arjuna shrank in horror at the proposal, as
he could not bring himself to tell a lie.
Those who were nearby with him also
rejected the idea, for no one was minded
to be a party to deceit.


Yudhishthira stood for a while reflecting
deeply. "I shall bear the burden of this
sin," he said and resolved the deadlock!
It was strange. But when the ocean was
churned at the beginning of the world and
the dread poison rose threatening to
consume the gods, did not Rudra come
forward to swallow it and save them? To
save the friend who had wholly depended
on him, Rama was driven to bear the sin
of killing Vali, in disregard of the rules of
fairplay. So also, now did Yudhishthira
decide to bear the shame of it, for there
was no other way.


Bhima lifted his iron mace and brought it
down on the head of a huge elephant
called Aswatthama and it fell dead. After
killing the elephant Aswatthama,
Bhimasena went near the division
commanded by Drona and roared so that
all might hear.


"I have killed Aswatthama!" Bhimasena
who, until then, had never done or even
contemplated an ignoble act, was, as he
uttered these words, greatly ashamed.
They knocked against his very heart, but
could they be true? Drona heard these
words as he was in the act of discharging
a Brahmastra. "Yudhishthira, is it true my
son has been slain?" Dronacharya asked
addressing Dharmaputra.


The acharya thought that Yudhishthira
would not utter an untruth, even for the
kingship of the three worlds.


When Drona asked thus, Krishna was
terribly perturbed. "If Yudhishthira fails
us now and shrinks from uttering an
untruth, we are lost. Drona's Brahmastra is
of unquenchable potency and the
Pandavas will be destroyed," he said.
And Yudhishthira himself stood trembling
in horror of what he was about to do, but
within him also was the desire to win.
"Let it be my sin," he said to himself and
hardened his heart, and said aloud: "Yes,
it is true that Aswatthama has been
killed."


But, as he was saying it, he felt again the
disgrace of it and added in a low and
tremulous voice, "Aswatthama, the
elephant" words which were however
drowned in the din and were not heard by
Drona.


"O king, thus was a great sin committed,"
said Sanjaya to the blind Dhritarashtra,
while relating the events of the battle to
him.


When the words of untruth came out of
Yudhishthira's mouth, the wheels of his
chariot, which until then always stood and
moved four inches above the ground and
never touched it at once came down and
touched the earth.


Yudhishthira, who till then had stood
apart from the world so full of untruth,
suddenly became of the earth, earthy. He
too desired victory and slipped into the
way of untruth and so his chariot came
down to the common road of mankind.
When Drona heard that his beloved son
had been slain, all his attachment to life
snapped. And desire vanished as if it had
never been there. When the veteran was in
that mood, Bhimasena loudly spoke
indicting him in harsh words:


"You brahmanas, abandoning the
legitimate functions of your varna and
taking to the Kshatriya profession of arms,
have brought ruin to princes. If you
brahmanas had not gone astray from the
duties belonging to you by birth, the
princes would not have been led to this
destruction. You teach that non-killing is
the highest dharma and that the brahmana
is the supporter and nourisher of that
dharma. Yet, you have rejected that
wisdom which is yours by birth, and
shamelessly undertaken the profession of
killing. It was our misfortune that you
descended to this sinful life."


These taunts of Bhimasena caused
excruciating pain to Drona who had
already lost the will to live. He threw his
weapons away and sat down in yoga on
the floor of his chariot and was soon in a
trance.


At this moment Dhrishtadyumna with
drawn sword, came and climbed in to the
chariot and heedless of cries of horror and
deprecation from all around he fulfilled
his destiny as the slayer of Drona by
sweeping off the old warrior's head. And
the soul of the son of Bharadwaja issued
out in a visible blaze of fight and mounted
heavenwards.


The Mahabharata is a great and wonderful
story. The sorrows of human life are
painted with sublime beauty and rolled
out in a grand panorama. Behind the story
of errors and sorrows the poet enables us
to have a vision of the Transcendent
Reality. Thus it is that the Mahabharata,
though a story, has come to be a book of
dharma. This book, in style and substance,
is altogether different from tales and
romances. In modern novels, dramas and
pictures, exciting scenes are enacted, the
hero passes through dangers and
difficulties and finally marries a woman
whom he loves. Or else everything seems
to go on happily but suddenly things go
wrong and terrible misfortune happens
and the curtain drops. This is the art
scheme of ordinary sensational stories.


The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are
quite a different kind of artistic creation.
When we read them, our inner being is
seized and cleansed, so to say, by being
passed alternately through joys and
sorrows, and we are finally lifted above
both and taken to the Transcendent and
Real.


Next : THE DEATH OF KARNA


Continues..