An Hour of Wonder: The Story of Bhishma

 An Hour of Wonder: The Story of Bhishma; from The Dharma Forest by Keerthik Sasidharan.

In the midst of a world rendered unrecognizable by the lust for power, malice and the machinations of war stand Bhishma, contemplating the immeasurable death he sees around himself as a man who cannot die. Born as Devevrata, he became Bhishma, when he decided to renounce family life, to let his father marry again, and then he was the Pitamaha for all. 

Form is destiny revealed as function, Amba is Shikhandi, who alone could kill Bhishma.

Neither side of the battle wanted him anymore - each claimant to the kingdoms of Hastinapur . One side sought to kill him despite their affections while the other, ostensibly his own side, sought his removal out of disgust. 

Killers in service of Dharma. But killers nevertheless. ..Our deaths can only be explained in the language of our lives. No one can escape it.  Bhishma had resolved not to kill a woman with own hands. Bhishma himself told this to Pandavas, and blessed them saying 'May you always seek Dharma', 'Where there is Dharma, there is always victory'.

Dharma worked its way to mete our ends that reflected the nature of Bhisma's singular life that was both, horrific in the violence he had unleashed to save the house of Kurus from implosion and also magnificent in the grandeur with which he performed his life's duties. 

Words began to seem irrelevant. Sounds were an afterthought. Bhishma began to meditate on the wonders of this life, sinking into the unfathomable self, where neither body, nor this war, nor temples or kingdoms existed. All that was there was a mind meditating on wonder - wonder at the mere act of being alive, having lived and awaiting that finality called Death beyond which not even the Gods knew what lay, until yet another life and other wonders revealed themselves.

Bhishma was one of the most powerful warriors of his time and in history. He acquired his prowess and invincibility from being the son of the sacred Ganga and by being a student of Lord Parashurama. Despite being about five generations old, Bhishma was too powerful to be defeated by any warrior alive at that time. In spite of playing completely different roles in the events that shaped the destiny of Hastinapur, indeed the whole Bharata, both these mighty personalities had great respect and love for each other. Bhishma was much older than Krishna and an extremely learned and brave man enjoying reverence by all around him. Bhishma was also well aware of Krishna’s divinity and was his great devotee. Krishna, in turn, loved Bhishma for his complete devotion to him and understood that his actions were guided by his understanding of the Vedas and Vedic traditions and the fact that  this understanding was too deeply rooted for him to accept and support the changing moral standards and world view that Krishna wanted to establish. For Bhishma, it was important to do his duty as he saw it, all the while knowing that ultimately, Krishna’s wish would be supreme.

Bhishma was cursed and born to live a painful life and he did so without any complaints. A warrior sans peers, he ensured Hastinapur was protected from any and all external threats and died in the process, finally satisfied in his heart that the throne now belonged to a righteous king.

Even when on his death bed Bhishma continued to teach governance to Pandavas from his sharshhayya. Death would not come to him easily even there. He could choose his hour of death when the sun jouneys into the northern declension, away from death and into life.