The enchanting platter-sized full moon of Kojagiri arose on the horizon of Dwaraka. Today all men and women of Dwaraka assembled on the shore of the lake in the great garden in the heart of the city. Some expert Yadava musicians had dug deep ditches in the ground. Those were plastered with clay and limestone from inside. Tanned leather covers were stretched and fitted on those holes. It created huge kettle drums in the ground like the war drums. Around it sat eight bare, muscular Yadava drum players. They were flanked by other instrument players who held instruments like the horn, trumpet and cymbals. The entire garden was lit with tiny lamps. Many cauldrons sitting on huge stoves contained boiled milk. Men, women and children were leaving the chambers of the royal palace located near the Sudharma royal assembly of Dwaraka wearing fancy and colourful costumes. In the evening, all my seven vahinis had arrived from the island of Queens’ mansions and gathered in Maharani Rukminivahini’s chamber along with their sons. With Rukminivahini’s permission they left in separate chariots along with their sons towards the great garden. Chief Minister Vipruthu stood sincerely at the big gate on the east of the garden to receive all the men and women of the Yadava royalty. He held the jewel-studded, decorated golden royal sceptre of the Yadavas in his right hand.
As midnight approached the great garden got fully crowded and was abuzz with the chatter of Yadava men, women and children to such an extent that the sound of the ocean became inaudible. The ebullient Yadava crowd assembled enthusiastically for the Rasa was waiting for only two chariots now. Even the moon that was dispersing dense, white light was eager to see the faces of Krishnachandra and Rukminivahini of the Chandravansha. The chariot of Maharaja Vasudeva who was the honourable chief guest of the Rasa was in front of us. He was sitting with both Maharanis and our Udhodeva in the embellished chariot. The aged Maharaja’s pure white, thick beard was fluttering with the ocean wind.
In the Garudadhwaja chariot behind them were Srikrishna, Rukminivahini, Subhadra and I. With a whip in his hand Daruka was steering the chariot carried by the four moon-white horses Meghapushpa, Balahaka, Shaibya and Sugriva at a slow pace.
We arrived at the garden where the Rasa was going to take place. Chief Minister Vipruthu welcomed us. Subhadra and I were the special guests of tonight’s Rasa. We walked together as a couple behind Maharaja Vasudeva, both the Maharanis, Srikrishna, Rukminivahini and Udhodeva. We came near the cauldron full of milk. Srikrishna picked up a wooden ladle and a wide bowl. Gargamuni chanted a mantra. As soon as he finished it, saying “Hail Goddess Ida” Srikrishna dipped the ladle in the cauldron. He scooped a layer of cream as thick as the teak leaf in the bowl, and poured a pot full of milk on it. He offered a bowl of that Prasada to me as the honourable guest and son-in-law. Following that Rukiminivahini also handed a similar bowl to Subhadra.
We savoured the incredibly delicious thick cream and drank the milk to our heart’s content. After us the Prasada was distributed among all the royal men and women. Once the distribution among the royal circle was over, groups of Yadavas attacked the many cauldrons placed on the stoves kept in various locations shouting “Hail Goddess Ida”. White-bearded Vasudevababa entered the Rasa arena decorated with flower garlands. As a senior honorary he flung a fistful of vermillion in the sky hailing Goddess Ida. At that moment, a cacophony of many Rasa instruments arose. Today, in the beginning, only selected men and women were in the Rasa arena. They were all from the royal circle. Vasudevababa and Devakimata and Rohinimata who had grown old now but were still enthusiastic, played among them for some time. Srikrishna was surrounded by Rukminivahini along with other vahinees – Bhama, Jambavati, Satya, Mitravinda, Lakshmanaa, Kalindi and Bhadra. Notably, Kasheru who was a representative of the Kamarupa women, was also there. It was the very first time I was participating in the Rasa. I went with Udhodeva and Subhadra to Srikrishna asking for his blessing in order to not make any mistakes. In the pure white light of the full moon that Krishnachandra among the men seemed so very different to me. I had never seen him like that before.
As I touched his feet he gently pulled me up. His golden crown was not on his head today. Instead a crown made of wild creepers was fastened tightly around his head. His dear peacock feather tucked in it was glowing in the moonlight. I stared in his fish-shaped eyes. His eyes that otherwise emitted the brilliance of the sun rays were serenely dispersing tranquil moonlight at this moment.
He smiled on seeing me quiet. Even today he asked me a puzzling question. He said, “Dear friend Arjuna, do you know what I would have done if Draupadi were here at this moment?” I was baffled that he was remembering Draupadi when his own sister Subhadra was standing on my left in the Rasa arena!
“I don’t understand what you would have done at this moment! Sometimes I don’t even understand what you say. Then how would I understand what you would actually do?”
He gave me a charming smile in the pleasant moonlight of Kojagiri. The twin tooth behind his rosy lips shone. Without a word, he removed the fresh Vaijayanti garland resting on his chest and putting it around my neck he softly said, “As a representative of my dear Sakhi Draupadi I am putting this Vaijayanti garland around your neck as the honourable guest of the day. Do you know who had given this to me?”
“No” I was stunned again.
“Radhika of Gokul, my beloved Sakhi!” He smiled again. He signalled to the musicians to begin the music for the Rasa dance. I, the third Pandava and the son-in-law of the Yadavas began playing Rasa with Subhadra as best as I could. He began dancing like an expert with all the men and women! One moment he was here, the next he was there and I could see him and only him in the entire Rasa arena. The moon kept rising in the sky. The Rasa dance kept getting increasingly interesting in a way that I could never forget.
I met Kuntimata as soon as I returned to Indraprastha after the Diwali celebrations. While sharing the account of Dwaraka with her I told her that I played the Rasa. I particularly shared the news with her that Krishna put the Vaijayanti garland around my neck which he had never done before with anybody else. She smiled slightly while hearing it. Today, for the first time I felt that her smile reflected a tinge of Krishna’s smile. She inquired about the wellbeing of Maharaja Vasudeva, Devakimata and Rohinimata and then said, “That he put his Vaijayanti garland around your neck has a lot of significance. Arjuna, never make the mistake of thinking that he plays Rasa only in the Rasa arena. He has been playing Rasa throughout his life and he will do it in future too. Do you clearly understand the meaning of him putting the Vaijayanti garland around your neck in front of all Yadavas?”
“What does it mean?” I asked her.
“Arjuna, he is going to conduct some kind of grand Rasa in the future. You will have the responsibility of playing the main role in that. Remember, while conferring commandership on a Kshatriya, a garland is put around his neck. He has quietly announced you as his future commander without performing any formal rituals – that too, in the Rasa arena!”
Since childhood I have been hearing such words of Kuntimata. Her words got me thinking. Whatever I was today was the result of her sanskaras.
In our childhood while we were living on Mount Gandhamadana, one night the wind blew out the lamp of Ingudi oil in our hut. We were having our dinner. The wild banana leaves lay in front of us. Mother had served incredibly tasty dishes on those. My four brothers waited till she re-lit the lamp with the fire from the stove. I kept eating even in the dark. By the time she placed the lighted lamp in front of us, my dinner was more than half way done. Seeing that, Bhimsena who couldn’t control his hunger said, “Dhana, how could you eat in the dark?” I was so engrossed in thought that I kept staring at the leaf. I had no clue what to tell him.
Kuntimata explained, “Sons, you can achieve everything with practice. Arjuna has automatically achieved it. Whether there is light or not while eating, the hand will reach only the mouth and he is accustomed to it. He will never forget anything that he learns once. You should also try it.” Saying so, she blew out the re-lit lamp
and said, “Now eat your dinner like you usually do”. We finished our dinner without any problem in the dark. After some time, she lit the lamp again. The banana leaves in front of us were completely clean. Her face had a tinge of brightness that we had never seen before.
Just like Kuntimata, Aacharya Drona had also inculcated deep sanskaras in us which were useful in actual life. Once he told all of us to shoot the eye of a stuffed bird hanging on a tree, only with a single arrow.
Just when each disciple took the stance the guru would ask him, “What do you see at the tip of your arrow?” As no one realized the intent of the question everybody answered something like, I see the leaves of the tree, the branches, many other birds, I see the sky and such.
I told him, “I can clearly see the tip of my arrow touching the bird’s eye” Hearing that Gurudeva was very pleased with me. He had taken efforts to teach me how to pierce a target just by hearing its sound. I knew only two other master archers who were experts in sound targeting. One was Ekalavya and the other was the charioteer’s son Karna!
The impressionable days of adolescence in Hastinapura never got erased from our hearts. It is the rule of nature that every being gets curious about his surroundings, which raises many questions in the mind. The path of seeking answers to these questions leads to perfection. A man’s body develops virility. A woman’s body achieves femininity. This impressionable period in everyone’s life till achieving maturity is very crucial. It is during this period that one’s character gets shaped. We spent our adolescent days in the royal city of the Kurus. The citizens of Hastinapura revered our world-conquering father – Emperor Pandu. We received the same affection in abundance from the men and women of Hastinapura during this period.
All of us, the members of the Kuru family lived in the royal palace that was erected by Maharaja Kuru a long time back. The Kuru dynasty had a great lineage of rulers such as Hasti, Kuru, and Ajamidha who were valiant, virtuous and concerned about their citizens’ welfare. Grandsire Bhishma had protected this dynasty with his own life whenever it was on the verge of extinction for whatever reason.
Grandsire Bhishma was Dhanurveda incarnate. He was a celibate for his life as per his promise to his father Maharaja Shantanu. In prowess, he had achieved the Himalayan zenith of Purushartha by defeating his own guru Bhagvan Parashurama. He had attained the eminence of a staunch Rajayogi in spite of living in the puissant royal palace of the Kurus. Even in Hastinapura his daily routine was just like the sages in the Himalayas. Even at this age he used to get up at the Brahma Muhurta, and would always perform his morning rituals after bathing in the Ganga. He would pray and recite various mantras. Then he would stand on the charity altar and offer clothing, jewellery, cows, and so on to the guests coming from various kingdoms to Hastinapura. After that he would visit the armoury of the Kauravas and Pandavas. Sometimes Mahatma Vidura or the royal charioteer Sanjaya would accompany him, sometimes rulers visiting from various kingdoms would be with him and at other times there would be sages, who had a white beard like him and glowed with the brilliance of their meditative powers. When he entered the armoury Aacharya Drona and Kripa would welcome him with a smile. The armoury would get filled with his presence! He would thoroughly check the progress of all hundred and five of us by addressing each one of us by our names. Along with us he would also inquire about the radiant Karna, son of a charioteer, who was one of the disciples of Aacharya Kripa. Drona’s son Ashwatthama was his favourite.
In that age of adolescence our ideal was the son of Ganga, grandsire Bhishma. The moment I saw his chariot entering the premises of the armoury, I would run towards it like a bird. I was the one who would pay obeisance to him before anybody else by touching his feet. He would immediately pick me up and putting his lean-fingered right hand on my head he would say, ‘May you be victorious, oh son of Pandu’. Generally, he smiled very rarely. But when he did, it was a pleasant experience – of watching a tall summit of the Himalayas shining in the radiant sun rays because of his thick white beard and pure white teeth. I would listen to every word of his very attentively. He talked about Kuntimata with utter respect and honour. It was due to his awe that all of us, the disciples of Drona, received flawless and thorough education of weaponry. I had noted a specialty of grandsire. He was free from jealousy and therefore had no enemies. Indeed, grandsire Bhishma was the fruit of all the virtuous deeds of generations of the Kuru dynasty. His physical presence was as reassuring as the rising sun on the eastern horizon dispersing millions of rays every morning, after its absence in the sky at night. He was renowned as ‘Grandsire’ not only in Hastinapura but throughout the entire Aaryavarta as well as the distant kingdom of Gandhara. My subconscious mind was greatly influenced by grandsire.
Perhaps because of that, I could never forget that it was he who had first addressed Srikrishna, who was my perfect ideal, as ‘Vaasudeva’. So, grandsire Bhishma was the one who influenced my mind the most with the deep impression of Srikrishna.
Maharaja Dhritarashtra of the Kurus was a grandmystery that no one could fathom. Among all the members of the royal circle that I had seen, the lives of grandsire Bhishma and Srikrishna were eventful with respect to thoughts and actions. Their lives were like prodigious volumes of literature. Still, I could read and understand every single page of those. Maharaja Dhritarashtra was the only piece of literature, in the first chapter of which I was stuck for my entire life – the chapter of the greed for power and blind love for a son. It was Srikrishna who safely pulled me out of it many years later.
Was Maharaja Dhritarashtra blind? Now, after a great deal of experience I clearly feel that he was not blind at all. The million eyes of his mind saw one and only dream in various manifestations, that of seeing his eldest son Duryodhana formally enthroned as the ruler of Hastinapura. I am quite sure that if that had happened he would have left Hastinapura the very next day for Vanaprasthashrama. Maharaja Dhritarashtra was the one and only person in my life who I felt was constantly telling me with his lamenting, wet and blinking eyes, ‘Oh Arjuna, son, you are the master of sound targeting. How can’t you hear this lamentation of my heart! It is my only wish that my son Duryodhana inherits the throne of Hastinapura after me. You Pandavas who unexpectedly showed up here and are becoming an obstacle in achieving that goal should return to the forest just as you came.’ People become blind in their greed, but this king of the Kurus always remained sighted with his mind’s eye on the royal throne due to his selfish desire. He kept dreaming of only one thing – the coronation of his son.
Initially, I was surprised to see that he recognized any man or woman who entered his chamber even when they didn’t announce their names. How could he possibly do that? Human beings generally have five senses. This Maharaja of Hastinapura who outwardly spoke amiably, possessed a sixth sense that no one could ever see. It was his greed for the royal throne.
Though I never addressed Maharaja Dhritarashtra as ‘kaka’ even by mistake, I often addressed his Maharani – Gandharidevi as ‘kakee’. Just as we Pandavas felt love and respect for Kuntimata, we felt the same for this kakee. She also reciprocated with the same pure love. Just as Srikrishna’s most beloved Yoga was Premayoga, Gandharimata’s most spontaneous feeling was the same, Premayoga. Sometimes I used to think, what if this mother of ours had been born in Srikrishna’s Yadava family of Dwaraka! She would have reached such zenith of greatness that no one can even imagine. Just like every woman she also saw a dream throughout her life – that her eldest son Duryodhana had become a righteous person. That dream of hers was never fulfilled – nor was it going to be.
Recently, while thinking about Duryodhana a strange thought was bothering me. I strongly felt that even thinking about him was torture. Nowadays I have been thinking, what if he had been born as the hundredth Kaurava? Sometimes I wondered what if he had been born as the sixth Pandava amongst us. But in his vocabulary what-ifs had no meaning at all. His mind and life was like a lone insolent wild boar. Whenever a thought came to his mind, or rath
er it was fed in his mind by Shakuni mama, he knew only one thing – to hit the Pandavas head-on! He didn’t bother about the consequences of attacking us in this manner.
The glory of our Kuru dynasty was totally eclipsed by only one person – Shakunimama of Gandhara. He was sly inside out. Maharaja Dhritarashtra had a sixth sense – that of the greed for the royal throne. This Shakuni also had a sixth sense – that of innate subterfuge. Only one example can correctly describe his deceitfulness – a scorpion’s deadly poison is hidden in its crooked pincers. Each and every atom of this Gandhara scorpion had pincers full of subterfuge. He was so full of poison that even if Shivashankara who got a blue throat due to swallowing the poison that came out of the ocean-churning for the sake of world’s wellbeing had met him some time, he would have winked at him and said, “Oh Lord, you are so wonderfully fair except for your throat! This blue throat looks like an ugly patch on your face. My Gandhara guru in the science of medicine has given me a divine remedy. If you apply it, in an instant your blue throat will become fair like Parvatidevi’s complexion. But this paste is dark black in colour. Bholenath should not look at its colour!”
That paste given by this Gandhara physician would have been as lethal as the stored poison of a black snake. Only Shiva knows if he would have been able to endure it.
Shakuni was the master of slander. I could never figure out, how a virtuous sister like Gandharimata got a wicked, crafty brother like him? Seeing them together on a few occasions I would strongly feel that a person never has any control over his birth.
Srikrishna- the Lord of the Universe Page 71
