The wake-up call

The Kauravas were so blinded by their macho mindset that they never considered the terrible price they would have to pay. Only when it was far too late did their hearts shatter. There was no retreat then, for all the chances to mend fences had been squandered by short fuses and monster egos.

This moment of implacable truth is vivified hair-raisingly in the Gita. The sheer sound is awesome: Paanchajanyam hrishikesho/devadattam dhanjayah/paundram dadhmau maha-shankham/bhima-karma vrikodarah BG 1:15. Hrishikesha Krishna blew his conch, the Panchajanya, Dhananjaya Arjun blew his, the Devadatta the God-given, while Bhima, the voracious eater and doer of astounding deeds, blew his mighty conch, the Paundram. Lord Krishna is referred to as Hrishikesha, He who controls/directs the senses of all living beings. Here in Kurukshetra it is the Lord who drives Arjuna8217;s chariot. At our individual level, it signifies that when we surrender to Goodness, to the love, honour and decency that pleases God, we directly receive the benefit of God8217;s grace, which then guides our lives for us ever on the right path. Arjuna is called Dhananjaya here presumably because he won 8216;aishwarya8217; dhan, wealth for his elder brother, King Yudhisthira through his conquests. Bhima, famed for his great appetite was the only Pandava of any real use in a crisis saving the whole family from the burning house of lac, killing Hidimba and Kichaka, you name it8212;and the poor guy got the least appreciation. Then Yudhisthira blew his Anantavijaya, Nakul his Sughosha and Sahadev his Manipushpaka and all the other heroes in the Pandava army 8212; Kashinaresh, Sikhandi, Drishtadyumna, Virata, Satyaki, Drupada, the sons of Draupadi and Abhimanyu, son of Subhadra, blew theirs.

These great war conches created such a tremendous uproar that both earth and sky vibrated with the sound. Sah ghosho dhartarashtanam hrdayani vyadarayat BG 1:19 That vibration shattered the hearts of the sons of Dhritarashtra. The Gita says this literally. Time has run out now for the Kauravas and each one of them, from Grandsire Bhishma to the youngest punk in the Kaurav Sena, realises with terrible certainty that these earthshaking sounds, led by the deafening roar of Krishna8217;s Panchajanya, spell only doom. In our private Kurukshetras here on earth, how do we ensure that the Lord is with us? We know the answer: Practise loving kindness, the only path to God. But we need constant reminding. Is that why millions of Indian homes display some representation of the Gitopadesam, in which Arjuna kneels besides his chariot to Krishna? A gentle visual wakeup call, so that we escape hearing those terrible conches roar for us some ill-starred day?