🚩Great Stories and Great Truths from Indian Epics🚩 ✒by Guru Balwant Gurunay.⚔
3. So great was the intensity of this war, that almost 18 crore warriors or civilian staff were annihilated. It all might sound funny, but when you see 200 crores of human worms, crawling around in today's India alone, it is quite possible that 18 crore people may have died then, in an area ranging from Indonesia to Iran, including every thing and any thing that falls in-betwen, then called the 'Bharat Varsh'.
4. For the purpose of this writeup, my aim is to concentrate merely on the names, and a very short introduction to those, who survived this war, as I shall reserve my righteous rights to answer the 'Hows and Whys', of this very complicated but very enlightening tale for another day.
5. The number of warriors who came out of MB, alive were 12. Some of them need no introduction, but some of them do, so I shall name them in a unique order set by me.
6. The first of the 12 is Krishna. We all know that Krishna is the greatest metaphor of all possible Godhood, which essentially has to be Trikaal-Darshi. Trikaal -Darshi simply is one who can witness the eternal time, layered in three layers of Past, Present and Future, all at the same time. Krishna is the most clear minded character in the epic. He is an illusion buster, inspite of himself being so Mayavi a personality, that the Maya itself, seeks his help in being able to dispel itself. As a result Krishna is a quick decision maker. Krishna is also all about being above Joys and Sorrows of this earth. Maharishi Shri Vedvyaas, eternalises Krishna, to the extent of pygmising the unitary trinity of 'Brahma-Vishnu and Mahesh'. There has been no characterisation or Incaration of Narayna, the CEO of worldly life, summarised better than Shri Krishna. Period.
12. Yuyutsu is the son of blind Dhritarashtra through Sughada aka Sauvali, a maid of Gandhari. He is the only Kaurava who outllived Mahabharta war. He chose the path of virtue, that is fighting for truth and justice, represented by Pandavas. Inspite of being born amongst the Kauravas, so noble was this daasi putra, that after having ruled Hastinapur for more than 36 years, when Pandavas decided to renounce the world and begin their journey towards heaven, or went in to Himalayas so to say, they made Yuyutsu the supervisor of their kingdom, till it could be handed over to Arjun's grandson, and Abhimanyu's son Parikishit.
15. Kripacharya survived the game, as he was required/destined to be installed as the preceptor of Parikshit, the future of Pandava clan.
1. Mahabharta is not just a story of Good Winning over Evil, or just about the 'Difficulty of being Good', as put by Gurcharan Das, or about flimsy morality and hypocrisy, but it is more about, bad decisions and evil intentions driven by shallow emotions of pride, jealousy and greed, which by default set about a chain of tragic events for individuals, family, friends, realatives, allies, and a whole big set of small and big kingdoms, that the Indian subcontinent was . (More on this later.)
2. What is of concern in this article is, that inspite of five Pandavas, each having atleast one of the five great strengths desired by human males, and Kauravas having their own strengths and flaws, that inspite of the presence of the 6th and the eldest and the best Kunti born Karan, the son of Sun, brilliant in character and skills, that inspite of the presence of seasoned aged, gritty and determined Bhishma, and inspite of the presence of great self sacrificing warriors like Barbrika and Aravana/Iravna, and Inspite of the presence of all that God could be personified as, in Lord Krishna, MB turned out to be a story of vast destruction, in which every one of the participating warriors died, barring just 12. Who survived this war, is a question often asked by many.
3. So great was the intensity of this war, that almost 18 crore warriors or civilian staff were annihilated. It all might sound funny, but when you see 200 crores of human worms, crawling around in today's India alone, it is quite possible that 18 crore people may have died then, in an area ranging from Indonesia to Iran, including every thing and any thing that falls in-betwen, then called the 'Bharat Varsh'.
4. For the purpose of this writeup, my aim is to concentrate merely on the names, and a very short introduction to those, who survived this war, as I shall reserve my righteous rights to answer the 'Hows and Whys', of this very complicated but very enlightening tale for another day.
5. The number of warriors who came out of MB, alive were 12. Some of them need no introduction, but some of them do, so I shall name them in a unique order set by me.
6. The first of the 12 is Krishna. We all know that Krishna is the greatest metaphor of all possible Godhood, which essentially has to be Trikaal-Darshi. Trikaal -Darshi simply is one who can witness the eternal time, layered in three layers of Past, Present and Future, all at the same time. Krishna is the most clear minded character in the epic. He is an illusion buster, inspite of himself being so Mayavi a personality, that the Maya itself, seeks his help in being able to dispel itself. As a result Krishna is a quick decision maker. Krishna is also all about being above Joys and Sorrows of this earth. Maharishi Shri Vedvyaas, eternalises Krishna, to the extent of pygmising the unitary trinity of 'Brahma-Vishnu and Mahesh'. There has been no characterisation or Incaration of Narayna, the CEO of worldly life, summarised better than Shri Krishna. Period.
7. The second is Yudhistra, although I would have liked it to be Karna, but Yudhistra is the incarnation of ultimate levels of tolerance, patience and justice, that gets extended to ultimate levels of Injustice. He is thus characterised, for the sake of portraying spiritual adventure, and to imbibe in the reader of the book, an ultimate understanding of core sociological and psychological truths.
8. The third survivor is Bhima, the metaphor of great mental and physical strength, the father of Ghatotkach and grandfather of Barbrika. Bhima was in fact much above all Pandavas in terms of all possible Strengths.
9. Then ofcourse comes Arjuna, who was Devouted to lord Krishna, and is an absolute metaphor of concentration, and focused effort. Very disciplined, a soldier par excellence, and a symbol of understanding and obedience, he also is a symbol of closest possible relationship betwen man and God, that of friendship. Arjuna gets maximum attention, guidance and direction from Shri Krishna.
10. Then fifth and sixth come Nakula and Sahadeva, their qualifications being Pandava siblings alone. They have other talents and skills like being great swordsmen and horsemen, but their major qualification was being Pandavas born of queen Maadri.
11. Yuyutsu, Satyaki, Kritavarma, Ashwatthama, Kripacharya and Vrishaketu are the remaining six.
12. Yuyutsu is the son of blind Dhritarashtra through Sughada aka Sauvali, a maid of Gandhari. He is the only Kaurava who outllived Mahabharta war. He chose the path of virtue, that is fighting for truth and justice, represented by Pandavas. Inspite of being born amongst the Kauravas, so noble was this daasi putra, that after having ruled Hastinapur for more than 36 years, when Pandavas decided to renounce the world and begin their journey towards heaven, or went in to Himalayas so to say, they made Yuyutsu the supervisor of their kingdom, till it could be handed over to Arjun's grandson, and Abhimanyu's son Parikishit.
13. Satyaki, a member of Krishna's 'Vrishi Yadav' clan. is another survivor. Satyaki was a student of Arjuna, and a devout of Krishna. He was a member of Yadav army, but Inspite of Krishna having given his army to Duryodhan, Satayaki still remained committed to fight for Pandavas.
14. Then comes Kritavarma, who joined Kauravas and led the Yadava army, which fought for Duryodhan, only as duty to upkeep the promise of Krishna's army's support to Kauravas. Kritavarma was later a part of the core team of Ashwathama along with Dhristadyumna and Shikhandi, which carried out a unethical night raid in Pandav camp, after retreat. They jointly killed five sons of Draupadi from her 5 pandav husbands, mistakenly assuming that they were the Pandavas, themselves. This by many is considered the beginning of an era when ethics in war became extinct, and striking at a sleeping enemy became a norm.
15. Kripacharya survived the game, as he was required/destined to be installed as the preceptor of Parikshit, the future of Pandava clan.
16. Ashwathama, the son of Dronacharya and Kripi (sister of Kripacharya), fought on the side of Kauravas along with his father. Since born as a Chiranjivi, it was virtually impossible for anyone to kill or defeat him. That’s why he survived Kurukshetra war, some how spared by Krishna's stealthy killings of invincible warriors of the great war. He was the chief conspirator in killing five sons of Draupadi in a night time operation, breaking the rules of ethical warfare, then. Ashvatthama however believed that rules of fairplay were already broken, when an elephant also named Ashvatthama was killed as a part of a conspiracy, only to stun, shock and kill his father, Guru Drone.
17. Vrishaketu, was the twelfth survivor of MB. He was the son of Karna and his wife Vrushali. Karna had two wives, Vrushali and Supriya and had ten sons, Vrishasena, Vrishaketu, Chitrasena, Satyasena, Sushasena from Vrushali ; and Shatrunjaya, Dvipata, Banasena, Prasena and Sudama from his wife Supriya. Sudama died during Draupadi's swaymvar, where as 8 of his remaining 9 sons, barring Vrishketu, died in Mahabharta war. After the war was declared over, and Vrishketu's identity was revealed to pandavas, he was taken under the patronage of Pandavas. He was the last mortal who had the knowledge of divya-astras, the knowledge of divine weapons. Pandavas especially Arjuna, had great affection for this kid. He may also have been a source of finding solace for Pandavas, as they seeked penance for the sins committed by them against their brother Karna, in denying him his righteous place.
18. Thus these 12 were the only survivors of Maha Bharata, the great Indian subcontinent war, and they played important roles in directing the affairs of Bharata Varsha, after almost a complete annihilation of it.
🚩तत्त सत्त श्री अकाल🚩
©✒ Guru Balwant Gurunay⚔
🚩तत्त सत्त श्री अकाल🚩
©✒ Guru Balwant Gurunay⚔
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