A Day of Valour : The Story of Arjuna

 A Day of Valour : The Story of Arjuna from The Dharma Forest by Keerthik Sasidharan. 

Arjuna, also known as Partha and Dhananjaya beloved, conflicted and melancholic in equal measure, was uncertain of the ultimate cost of the war he intended on winning.

Krishna said, "The only enemy you can't defeat today is the setting sun. Over all others you can be victorious."

Yudhishtira had these thoughts always, : "who am I deceiving? I want to rule over Hastinapur, and these are costs, real and psychic, demanded by that ambition. "

Krishna consoled Yudhishthira, 'Not all forms of valour require weapons. Some forms of courage require keeping silent, suffering insults and struggling from within'.

Arjuna's immense faith and devotion were means to the ultimate end, the surrender of one's persona itself. 

Arjuna was like a creeper that would have grown inevitably, but the presence of Krishna as a tree, allowed him to climb further up and see the world. 

Susharma accepted Duryodhana's task to kill Yudhishthira along with his army called Samsaptakas, performs a Yagna, which ends with their own last rites. All of his army has given up the hope of returning alive after challenging Arjuna. Susharma, along with his 5 brothers Satyartha, Satyavarma, Satyavrata, Satyeshu and Satyakarma gets prepared in a special attire for war. Next morning, they challenge Arjuna to fight with them.

Arjuna, entrusted the protection of Yudhishthira to Draupadi’s brother, and asks Krishna to drive the chariot towards Akshouhini of Samsaptakas. On day 13, Susharma and his army of Samsaptakas again challenge Arjuna.

While Arjuna is kept busy, Yudhishithira is thrown the challenge of Chakravyuha. When nobody was able to face it, Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna, volunteers to break it. He claims to know the entrance technique, but does not know how to exit.

He asks remaining four pandavas to follow him, while he enters. But Jayadratha, who had the boon to block pandavas for one day, stops them from entering the chakravyuh. Abhimanyu enters alone and is killed mercilessly by all Kaurava warriors. When Arjuna finishes the entire akshauhini of Susharma and returns, he finds dead body of his son.

His son's death brought added vigor in Arjuna and he decided that the boy must be avenged.  

"Time is our past reborn"

Many believed, that if there is no Arjuna, there is no Pandava war. 

In battle, one must be light like a bird, purposeful, diligent and not aimless like a kite. 

The brothers agreed that none should intrude if Draupadi was alone with one of the others, the penalty for doing so is a year to be spent in exile during which the culprit must remain celibate.

When Arjuna, his siblings, mother and Draupadi returned to Hastinapura, Dhritarashtra determined to avoid a rivalry developing for control of Hastinapur by splitting the kingdom, with half of it being left to his own eldest son, Duryodhana, and half to the eldest son of Pandu, Yudhishthira.

Arjuna inadvertently broke the pact with his brothers, intruding as he sought to collect weapons whilst Yudhishthira, was alone with Draupadi. He felt obliged to go into exile despite Yudhishthira's attempts to dissuade him. He decides to walk away into a forest of responsibility towards his deepest self - his Dharma Forest. He promised to write to Draupadi, before he left. 

Draupadi's prayer had always been to keep evil away from her womb, home, husbands and kingdom. 

It was this event that led to him forming a close relationship with his cousin Krishna because he ignored the celibacy condition of the pact and married three people on his travels, the first of whom was a Naga princess named Ulupi, with whom he had a son called Iravan. His second marriage was with a princess of Manipura, Chitrangada, who bore a son named Babhruvahana. The third was with Subhadra, the sister of Krishna. This last event, which took place in Dvaraka, is not the first meeting between Krishna and the Pandavas in the story but it does mark the start of a bond, sealed with the birth of the couple's child, Abhimanyu, whom Krishna adores.

One day, many years before this great war, Krishna said, 'My dear cousin, Arjuna. Darling of my aunt! Karna is a disease that afflicts you. You, the body, can never rid itself of it, neither can he, the disease, live without the sustenance of your body. Though often Arjuna and Karna fought each other, they resembled each other in mannerism.  They did face each other in the battle field as well, how Arjuna saved Bhima was covered in this chapter, may be more to follow in the chapter on Karna.

What is covered here is the fight with Jayadratha, who had tried to kidnap Draupadi from the forest. He was married to the only sister of Kauravas. Dronacharya arranged a combination of 3 vyuhas (military formations) in order to protect Jayadratha from Arjuna. The first one was Shakata vyuha, the cart formation; the second one was Suchimukha Vyuha, the needle formation; and the final was Padma Vyuha (Lotus Formation). 

Bhima, Satyaki and Arjuna tear through the Kaurava army. But it was clear that Arjuna couldn't accomplish the goal before the sunset. At a climactic moment, with the sun nearly set and thousands of warriors still between Arjuna and Jayadratha, Krishna sends him Sudarshana Chakra in order to mask the sun and create an illusion of sunset. The Kaurava warriors rejoice over Arjuna's defeat and look forward to his imminent suicide. Jayadratha, who was hiding behind Duryodhana, is relieved that he was saved. Therefore, he comes out of the formation. Suddenly the sun is free from the eclipse and Krishna tells Arjuna, pointing at the sun that the sun had not set, but it was only an illusion by him. He then points at the hiding Jayadratha, telling Arjuna to sever his head and shoot the head into the lap of Jayadratha's father. Arjuna quickly picks up his Gandiva and shoots the Pashupatastra at Jayadratha. Jayadratha's head is taken with the arrow far from the battlefield, finally landing on the lap of his father, Vridhakshatra.

Kauravas were already scheming, plotting, conspiring, a counter-attack. But all that would come another day. For now, as the darkness began to rush in, Yudhishthira breathed in the human smoke from this crematorium of histories that would burn all night in the name of Dharma. 

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His father, being a sage had granted him a boon that whosoever will be responsible for his son's severed head to fall onto the ground will have his head burst into 100 pieces. Therefore, when his father, horrified at having his son's head in his lap, hurriedly got up, the severed head fell to the ground, killing Vridhakshatra at the same moment. Jayadratha is succeeded by his son Suratha through his wife Dusshala, who did not participate in the War. However, a few years later, after Yudhishthira becomes the king, he performs the Ashvamedha Yagna. He sends an army to guard the horse, with Arjuna as the commander-in-chief. Arjuna soon marches towards Sindhu Kingdom, and when this news reaches Suratha, he ends his life fearing that it will be impossible for him to face Arjuna. When Arjuna reaches Sindhu, he hears of what happened, and feeling bad for his sister Dushala, he installs Suratha's infant son as the next king of Sindhu and returns without a battle.