Bhishma

Grandsire, and one of the
major contributors to the great war of  Mahabharat

 

In my view, one of the main person responsible for the entire war of Mahabharat, is Santanu-putra, Ganga-putra, Devavrat Bhishma !  I am not the only one to say so.  Shri Krushna himself blames the grandsire for being the root cause of the war on the 9th day of the battle as he rushes to kill him with a chariot wheel.  Shri Krushna's frustration is with Bhishma's hypocritical stance of emotionally supporting one side, whilst actually fighting for another in the war.  When the heart and mind are not united, only confusion reigns.

Sadly, though born with great intelligence, great strength, great future prospects, Bhishma-Pitamaha exercised none of this in his confused idea of “duty” – Dharma.

1) First time he faltered was, when he gave up his rights to the throne and took up celibacy for sake of his step mother’s ambitions !  As a prince, and an heir, he had no right to take such an oath without due consultation with his subjects.  They had a rights over him which he availed without due consideration.

No one can know the future.  How could Devavrat jeopardise the future of Kurus by assuming that the child / children born to his step mother will be able leaders of the kingdom ?  Only a gambler gambles on the unknown future.  A prince has no right to gamble away the future of his subject.  That is definitely against dharma !

2) The next time he strayed from dharma was when he suggested Dhritrastra should be the king, as he was the elder of the three sons of Vyas.  To give Dhritrastra a false hope that he could or should be the king, sowed the seeds of doubts and constant feeling of being short changed by the Kauravas.

If Vidur knew that Pandu was the better of the three, surely, Bhishma knew this too !   To let Vidur be the fall guy who must stand in the way of Dhritrastra’s coronation and take on the life long hatred of his sons, was unfair of Bhishma.  As the elder of the clan, it was his duty to make a stand and be the one who makes such a monumental political and family decision.  But he let a junior take the responsibility of the senior, with no way of providing any political protection to the junior.  Poor Vidur, he suffered terribly at the hands of the Kauravas in their court for this reason alone. 

Just as Vidur was born of a non-royal, so was he and so were his step brothers.  Ganga and Satyavati were no princesses.  To deny Vidur the throne simply because of his mother, rather than merit, was unfair.

3) Third fatal error occurred when Bhishma was unable to give Yudhisthir his inalienable rights to the throne.  Dhritrastra was only the caretaker of the throne.  He assumed full control and his sons consolidated that control under the very nose of Kuru-vrudha Bhishma !   Having seen that amongst the 105 Kuru princes, Yudhisthira was the most able and worthy to be the king, Bhishma should have awarded him the crown and insisted that he sit on the throne of his father, as was his right.   Bhishma failed at this major turning point in Kuru history.

4) Having known the conspiracy and conspirators who attempted to murder their clan members with such audacity, Bhishma remained silent !  If Vidur and Vikarna knew about the poison attempts, so must have Bhishma.  His spies must have been just as alert as those of his other family members.  Varanavrat was a major incident which emboldened the young Kauravas to use such evil means to carry out their political designs.  It was the responsibility of the eldest of the Kurus to stop such plans in their tracks, and once carried out, to punish the culprits without mercy. 

A nation where the very princes of the country are so vulnerable to murder, what hope is there for the ordinary subjects ?  Rot may start in any part of the tree, but, it will eventually get to the roots and kill the entire tree !   The best thing to do is to cut off the infected branch.  That is the merciful thing to do.  For the sake of a single branch, you can not let the entire tree die !  Vidur explained this time and again, advising the Kurus that for the sake of the nation, a single person or a family could and should be sacrificed.

5) On their miraculous return from Durpad’s court, Bhishma should have accepted the corrupt nature of the Kaurava branch of the family and cut if off from any future rights to the throne.  Now, when Duryodhan’s evil plan had become so public (as opposed  to family secrets of earlier attempts on Bhima’s life), it was an ideal time for Bhishma to do the right thing by the throne of the Kurus and the subjects of Hastinapur. 

Yet, once again he failed due to some misplaced sense of duty towards the incumbent on the throne rather than the throne itself !  There is no need to think that there was no precedence for this in the past.  King Bharat, who gave his name to the clan, himself decided to cut off his 100 sons from the good of the kingdom and passed the throne to his adopted son.

Division of the kingdom into two halves was a sad decision and it should never have been taken by the Kurus.  As the eldest, Bhishma could and should have averted this.  Surely, you should not cut your nose to spite your face !

6) The most well known incidence when Bhishma failed not only his family, but the entire society, is when he did nothing to help Drupadi during the druta-sabha.  No matter what the legal status of a slave or his wife, the status of a woman in an assembly of civilised citizens should have been of paramount importance.  To have stayed silent at that momentous moment is unforgivable. 

This was probably the lowest point in the life of this great man.  To have to silent sit and watch while the entire world you have created collapses around you, must be the most painful thing on earth.  Bhishma gave up any prospect of a family, children, kingdom, kingship and all this, so that his step brothers could have all that should have been his.   It was not to be !  To see the very children he raised with such love and care, fight such dirty battles, and so openly, must be heart wrenching.

Unlike Drona and Krupacharya, he had no compulsion to stay silent.  Yet he did !  This is the biggest enigma of the entire Itihas !!

7) Bhishma could and should have stayed out if the cattle wrestling at Virat's borders.  He knew it was a ploy to unmask the Pandavas.  He should have stayed away from this macabre game of hide and seek and told the Kauravas that if they wanted to play this dangerous game, they were on their own !  Yet, he did not.  He took an enthusiastic part in the war.  When he was defeated, he praised Arjun, but did nothing concrete to stop Duryodhan from carrying on with his policy of denying Pandava's their rights.  Though the gandsire was capable of defeating countless enemies, he was defeated countless times by Duryodhan !!

8) The Peace Conference attempted by Shri Krishna, was the last possible opportunity for Bhishma to stop the rot in the family.  It was already late, very late, but there was still the chance to arrest the fall of the greatest royal family of Aryavrat.  To stop the murder of thousands of princes, tens of thousands of soldiers and ruining the lives of millions of dependants, was in the hands of Bhishma.  Had Bhishma stayed away from war, Krupacharya and Drona would have had excuses to abstain as well.  Duryodhan and his cohorts could not have lasted long with just Karna at their head.  A proved by the battle itself, Duryodhan's favourite generals lasted just 3 days out of 18. 

Sadly, once again, Bhishma did not rise to the occasion, and once again the potential of greatness, remained just that – a potential.  Hopes of having a fair hearing failed as Bhishma claimed inability to influence the events, Dhritrastra's incapacity to act and Vidur's departure out of despair, left Kurus in the lurch.  Bhishma vowed to fight on behalf of Duryodhan and once again the great grandsire failed the Kuru clan.

9) Bhishma could have followed Vidur’s example and walked away from the battle in the name of Dharma - his duty to the clan.  He didn’t.   Egged on by the Kauravas and their cohorts, he decided to stay on and provided the longest reign of any chief Generals in charge of the Kaurava armies.  Sadly, he was fated to see the carnage of Mahabharata with his own eyes, unlike Dhritrastra. 

10) Throughout the war, even on the last day, Duryodhan kept asking his grandsire, the great Bhishma, to give up his weapons and let Karna join the war.  Why didn't Bhishna not take up this opportunity and retire from this terrible fraternal war !  Had he done so, the carnage of Mahabharat could have been contained and the war would have ended much earlier.

11) In his own youth, Bhishma had Kidnapped the Kashi princesses for his step brother.  This was a rash act by any account.  As an heir to the Kuru throne, Vichitravirya could have had any number of princesses as his bride.  Having kidnapped and subsequently abandoned Amba, Bhishma sowed seeds of bitter karma that came to fruit in the great battle.  The princess whose dream he shattered was reborn as a transgender prince of Panchal - Shikhandi.  Standing as a shield for Arjun, Shikhandi exacted a terrible revenge for being kidnapped in a previous life.

Sadly, this great man died so late, so painfully, so fully aware of the tragedy that had befallen his beloved family.  If only he had acted earlier !  If only he had interpreted Dharma differently.  If only he had acted in defence of the country rather than the family !

Sadly, this is not a matter of Itihas – history – only !

Even now, the so called Bhishmas of the country, keep quiet when they should speak.   Even now, they sprout such talks as “due process of law” or “with the concensus of the minority community” !  It is their responsibility to act not to pass the buck !  

India is at cross roads in its history.
Having finally rid itself of foreign rulers, atlast it is able to charts its own future.  
However, there are too many Bhishmas, sitting in positions of power who are unwilling, unable and without due understanding to take this opportunity for what it is. 

Our history, culture and religious heritage is being thrown away at the rate of knots.  Our great persons and institutions, like the seer at Kanchi Mutt, are being derided in public, very much like Drupadi was, while the Bhishmas mumble "due process of law".  Our temples are being systematically looted by government enforced trusts, while Bhishmas spout homilies on fair distributions.  No church or mosque has to share its wealth with the nation, so why must the temples ?  To please religious minorities, justice and truth are sacrificed time and again. 

In their misguided attempt to be fair, the government enacts one reservation law after another, further isolating the masses from real opportunities.  Merit is murdered for sake of ideology, while modern Bhishmas look on silently. 

Convicted criminals are treated like state guests in top security prisons, while their "mercy pleas" against their executions await presidential consideration for decades on end.  Justice delayed, is justice denied.

Globally, China is allowed to bully and brow-beat world leaders into denying moral support for the Tibetan cause.  Even a meeting or a handshake with the Dalai Lama is considered a serious insult by the Chinese who have usurped and invaded his peaceful nation.  Yet, world leaders, like Bhishma, look on with sad eys, saying one thing, doing another. 

Lament is always too late.  After each terrorist act, Bhishmas of our nation beat their chests and wring their hands in impotent rage.  As a nation, we need to wake up to what is happening and take a stand.  In a democracy, it is the obligation of every citizen to make sure the state and the leaders they choose do not falter.

So citizens of India, awaken the Bhishmas of our nation and ACT !
Save our nation, least there be another great war !!
It will than be too late to ponder, "If only....."

 

� Bhagwat Shah   
[email protected]

 

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