सञ्जय उवाच
एवमुक्त्वा हृषीकेशं गुडाकेशः परन्तप।
न योत्स्य इति गोविन्दमुक्त्वा तूष्णीं बभूव ह।।2.9।।
Sanjaya said Having spoken thus to Hrishikesha (the Lord of the
senses), Arjuna (the conqueror of ignorance), the destroyer of foes, said to
Krishna, "I will not fight" and became silent.
Here arrives
the most anticipated moment of the whole of Mahabharata. Bedeviled by dilemma
and bemused by his inner self, Arjuna refuses to fight. In the middle of the
battlefield when one of the most decisive war of the mankind is to be fought,
Arjuna finds himself at odds struggling with spiritual and emotional quandaries.
To him, it seems morally repugnant to ever assault his guru, his grandfather
and his father-like figures for the want of kingship. To him, the war seems
rather futile because having envisaged the debilitation of not only lives but
also moral culture, values and ethos that would follow war would be internecine
to both the parties. Standing amidst all the warriors, he can now see the lucid
future that is slipping towards destruction and finally in awe of his emotions,
even Gudakesha (Arjuna), the conqueror of ignorance, can’t keep his senses
still. Musing over the debilitation the will be afflicted on his clan once the
fight starts, he seems fearful of the future. The visions of the coming
annihilation have left his stupefied and now he stands in a mare’s nest. A mélange
of emotions have taken hold of him. On one side is an elder brother for which
Arjuna is ready to forsake the empires of the three worlds and on the other
side there are people who have made him capable of conquering the empires of
the three world. The predicament finally leads to Arjuna’s surrender amidst the
battlefield. The slayer of foes has been taken down by the constant waves of
emotions from both sides of his mind. Clouds of indecision have marred his
sight to such an extent that rumination seems impossible and Arjuna feels
defeated ever before the inception of the battle, even before taking up arms he
is feeling death, even before carving out strategies he is feeling swindled.
Such is his agony that the fighter who can silence thousands to death with a
single arrow from his quiver seems to be demanding a coup de grace. Having
ginormous power in hands and feeling a dearth of life in heart is such a
paradox that’s badgering him from within. Peace for him seems to be lie in
irresolution, because Arjuna can sense loss in every possible alternative he
has. If he fights for his brother, he knows, nothing will remain and
incalculable lives will be lost; if he doesn’t fight with his brother, history
will remember his as a dastard who forsook his own brother when the family
needed him the most. Appreciate the irony of the situation that despite having the
Lord himself sitting as his charioteer, Arjuna feels directionless,
notwithstanding having the Lord to steer paths for him, Arjuna doesn’t want to
tread the path. In everybody’s life, there comes a moment when he has
everything he needs and yet life seems so vacuous, a moment when indecision
seems to be the only feasible decision.
JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT
JAI MA BHARTI
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