"As the duel was about to begin, Susarma appeared on the scene with several trigartas.
'I am here again, O Arjuna,' he said, 'to complete the task we had left unfinished. Only your death or mine will end this game.'
Arjuna now saw himself caught on the horns of a dilemma. On one hand was Bheema fighting a terrible duel with Bhagadatta, and on the other was Susarma's challenge.
'What should I do, O Lord?' he turned to Krishna for advice.
'You can do anything,' Krishna responded. 'Why don't you first get this trigarta out fo your way and then take on Bhagadatta?'
Immediately Arjuna pressed Gandiva into action. Within minutes many of the trigartas were wiped out. When one of his arrows hit Susarma, he swooned and collapsed on the ground. Leaving him there, Arjuna's Gandiva resumed its course of devastation. Now panicking, the Kaurava soldiers began to flee. Krishna then steered Arjuna's chariot to where Bheema was fighting Bhagadatta. On seeing Arjuna, Bhagadatta prodded the elephant into attaching his chariot. But Krishna's hands skilfully dodged the animal's attacks.....undeterred he picked up a bunch of his deadly javelins and began to hurl them at both Krishna and Arjuna. When one of his javelins was about to pierce Arjuna's chest, Krishna intervened to take it on his own body. But since it was covered by his jeweled armour, kaustubha, the javelin fell away, blunted. Looking angrily at Krishna, Arjuna said, 'Why did you risk your life for my sake, O Vasudeva?'
'At that moment your life was more precious than mine,' he replied smiling."
In gratitude, Amma, because that is what You always do. Stand in the path of javelins coming our way. Om Amriteswariye namah!
(Excerpt of quoted text from THE MAHABHARATA by Shiv kumar)
No comments:
Post a Comment