Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta Shlok Blog -17
Shlok-17
काश्यश्च परमेष्वासः शिखण्डी च महारथः । धृष्टद्युम्नो विराटश्च सात्यकिश्चापराजितः ॥ 1-17 ||
English Transcription
Kashyashcha Parameshvaasah Shikhandi Ch Maharathah | Dhrishtadhyumno Viraatashch Saatyakishrachaparaajitah || 1-17 ||
Hindi Translation
Iske baad bade dhanush wale Kashiraj, Maharathi Shikhandi, Dhrishtadhyumna, Raja Viraat or Ajeya Saatyaki ne apne apne Shankh bBajaye.
English Translation
After this, Kashiraj who owns a big bow and arrow, Maharathi Shikhandi, Dhrishtadhyumna, King Viraat, and unbeatable Saatyaki also blew their own conch shells.
Meaning
In the previous shlok, we saw how different Pandavas, who named their Shankh in their abilities took on the challenge of the Kauravas and blew their conch shell to announce the beginning of the war. This was when the Kaurava Sena was totally in grip on the situation and they were already slowly getting jittery. The roar of the conch shells was too loud and it was impossible for them to keep their emotions in check because this was making them nervous.
Meanwhile, while they were taking in the news of the previous six conch shells, more came in from the Pandavas' side and this time, it was Kashiraj, the most fierce fighter of all time and the king of the Kashi kingdom also, he was supposed to be the on-ground gem for the Pandavas as he was known for leading from the front and he was the closest ally to the Pandavas. So much so that he had single-handedly defeated multiple small kingdoms that were Kaurava supporters and when the Pandavas were creating their own army, it was King Kashiraj, who was one of the early people to be approached and he had instantly said yes to the same.
Kashiraj had three daughters, namely, Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. Vedas have it that Amba was very beautiful and in his prior birth, Bheeshm had a history with Amba where he was trying to capture her for himself wooing to her beauty. This did not go well with Amba and she took her life before becoming prey to the lust of anyone. Before dying, Amba cursed Bheeshm saying that he will always stay alone and there will be no one to whom he will be able to say his own. he will have a lot of knowledge and a lot of people who will technically be his and he can give it to them, but they will not value him, not until he will be on his death bead. But he will not die till he is able to divulge some of it and he will see the destruction of his loved ones even when he is able to give away all the knowledge because they will not value the knowledge received till doom comes and once it does, it will be too late for them to implement it upon their lives. At last, Amba also said that Bheeshm prides a lot upon his skills to be never have been defeated by anyone, not even his own teacher and Guru, Parshuram, so he will rather die at the hands of a female and this female will be the one person he would be most afraid of, amba herself in her next birth.
Since Bheeshm had Ichchamrityu blessing, it meant that he will die of his own will only. This meant that he will have to go through the aftermaths of what he has done in this life only and he will not be able to die till he has gone through this because he can call for his death only when hit upon by a female and that female has to be the next birth of Amba.
This was one of the reasons as well why Kashiraj hated Bheeshm and he knew Bheeshm will side with the Kauravas the same way he did when they sent the Pandavas on Agyaatvaas (14 years of existence in the woods far away from Hastinapur without telling who they were after they lost everything to the Kauravas in the game of Chausar, a betting game, where the Kauravas had won by cheating due to the courtesy of Shakuni Mama who knew dice manipulating tricks). Kashiraj therefore knew that if Kauravas and Pandavas were fighting, then Bheeshm again will take the side of the Kauravas and thus, he had one more motive to join the Pandavas. We have already discussed how Kashiraj and Guru Dron could not see eye-to-eye and thus, Kashiraj blew his conch shell extra loudly to show all his hatred through those sound waves.
This reincarnation of Amba happened in the form of a female born to King Drupad, who also had a bone to pick with the Kauravas and Guru Dron specifically. This daughter of Drupad later went to learn the warfare tactics and battle laws from a Dandi Yaksha (those who are especially blessed by Gods to grant one impossible yet logical wish to someone highly deserving if they are happy with the person) and then gained the blessing to be a male and be able to fight her own battles.
Amba, thus in her reincarnation phase became the Shikhandi who was actually a woman and who had pledged to finish Bheeshm Pitamah.
Now the question can be, why Amba’s reincarnation, King Drupad’s daughter could not do this as a female and why did she need a mask for this?
The answer is very simple. There are two reasons:
- In those days, it was not common or allowed for females to fight on the battlefield or learn war tactics. It was considered a harsh combat science and it was reserved only for the males. So females fighting a battle was out of the question and whatever happens, if the females wished to fight a battle as a female, she was not accepted by her own folks as the person capable of doing this, let alone the opponents. So, she had to undergo a transformation and this was only possible if there was an impossible wish granter who could do this so that she can complete the main reason for her rebirth.
- Even if she had gotten to the point of fighting a war as a female, everyone knew that since the day Bheeshma Pitamah was cursed by Amba, he had pledged that he will never see a woman, never marry, never accept kingdom and never be a king. He also pledged that he will never fight a woman, whatever happens. This was the main reason that if Shikhandi came in as a lady to fight, Bheeshma Pitamah will not fight her and the first rule of battle is to not fight against someone who does not have the equipment on in a ready position as that is considered bluffing.
So Kashiraj and King Drupad both took out their conch shells and roared high in the sky to let everyone know that all the people who had some or the other bones to pick with the other person were ready for a fight for a larger goal as well as a smaller goal.
Shikhandi, who didn’t know that his body transformation was known by Bheeshma also took out his Shankh and decided to roar a huge shout because even he was obsessed with the completion of his promise of killing Bheeshma Pitamah and ending the arrogance of knowing everything and being the best from the Earth and giving a lesson that even if you are the strongest, there is something that can always handicap you if you are not ethical.
As we have already discussed, Drishtadhyumna, the arch-rival of Guru Dronacharya and the son of King Drupad was also fighting the battle from the side of the Pandavas because even if he did not like the Pandavas much as he was always second to Arjun, he disliked Kauravas more because even if Arjun was better than Dhrishtadhyumna, he never let him feel such unlike Duryodhan who was as good as Dhrishtadhyumna but always treated him like an outsider because he was not from Hastinapur and he had nothing to do with the one hundred and five brothers of the Hastinapur Kingdom. So, Dhrishtadhyumna followed his father and went on to take the war front with the Pandavas. To announce his presence to the Kauravas, Dhrishtadhyumna also took out his conch shell and blew it onto it to show everyone where his loyalty and priorities lay.
Conclusion
War is never healthy. There is a dark side to everyone and when there is a chance to vent it out, the loyalties of the person make the least sense because no one knows what could trigger any such thing and why would anyone be compelled to take an action which would be so unlike them. Here also we see that the people supporting anything are not doing it just out of pure intentions of the side they support but due to their own side benefits too that they want to achieve out of this. Everyone was concerned about achieving their small objectives and getting what they want at the side while supporting the larger objective of fighting for the right and supporting the ulterior motive of defeating the wrong. Let us see where this takes us, although we all know that the battle of Mahabharata was not considered a successful one because the ones who lost had lost everything and the ones who gained everything renounced the world and went to heaven. So let us see where this takes us.
This was all about Shlok-17, Chapter-1 of Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta. See you tomorrow with Shlok-18, Chapter-1. In case you have missed out on Shlok-16, Chapter-1 then you can check it out here.
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