Epics of India Storybook

Bhisma lay on the battlefield, the lone living warrior among the corpses. The few survivors had left the plain in pursuit of Aswatthaman. He felt that his life was a failure. Had anything he had done produced positive results? He reflected on the events of life. His choice of Pandu, the younger, as king over Dhritarashtra, the older, produced the strife over the throne that brought about the war. His harsh treatment of Amba had caused her to vow to kill him. He had instructed the Pandavas how to kill him, and they had successfully done so. He could not help but wonder how these situations and his life as a whole could have — and should have — gone differently.

But he knew that he had made the correct decisions in those cases; what else could he have done? He had graciously and generously allowed Amba to return to Salwa untouched; the evil against her had been committed by Salwa. The events of Dhritarashtra’s reign proved that he was unworthy to rule as king; Bhisma should not have given him the kingship instead of Pandu. Telling the Pandavas how to defeat him in battle was noble and honorable; Arjuna was simply the stronger warrior, and the stronger warrior deserves the victory. He had no regrets for the choices that he had made.

The more he reflected, the more he thought that his life had not been a failure after all. Good (the Pandavas) had prevailed; evil (the Kauravas) had been defeated. Perhaps more was at stake in this battle than just the Kuru throne; perhaps at stake was the whole world. The gods had appeared on one side to fight in this battle, and the asuras and rakshasas had appeared on the other side. The more he thought about the battle, the more he realized that this war had been a cosmic struggle between good and evil for rule of the universe, and good had triumphed. Though the world had been scarred and nearly destroyed, much of the evil from it had been cleansed.

He had previously been given the honor of choosing the time of his death. After this reflection on his life and its purpose, he realized he had been brought into the world to bring about a generation that would nearly destroy the world but that, through this destruction, would cleanse it of evil. He had ushered in this generation and participated in the destruction they caused. The world had reached its darkest and coldest moment. It seemed to Bhima that the winter solstice, the darkest and coldest day of the year, best symbolized the current situation of the world.

But the spring of the world would soon follow. He knew his life’s work was complete: others would experience the joy and the warmth of the rebirth. He decided that he would die at the approaching winter solstice, a fitting symbolic end to his life. He had played his part in the cosmic drama, and he knew he would be rewarded.