On my earlier post on Manmohan Singh, one of my friends asked me a query regarding my reference to Bheeshma who looked away from Adharma rather than questioning it or taking action against it. He asked was it not because he was “pratigya baddha” (vow-bound) to serve the Hastinapur throne regardless of who sat on it. My short answer to him was “I consider a man who suffers “bhrashta” under whatever compulsions (even if dharma, including coalition dharma!) as bhrashta himself as he always has a choice to say No to it. However, I thought, it may require a bit more elaborate explanation purely from the context of the character, Bheeshma as how I see that. Bheeshma, had taken a vow to serve the Kingdom and the throne, but I don’t think he vowed that he would do it regardless of whatever Adharma the King does. In case he did so, then he was wrong or was too rash/hot blooded in taking that, or was not wise enough to foresee the unintended consequences of the same (which is quite understandable as he did it while he was too young) to appropriately caveat it. But then Bheeshma the old man is surely wise enough to know what is right and wrong so if he is still hell-bent upon saving his honour by not breaking his vow, so not speaking against a wrong, then obviously his own honour for him is more important than a hapless lady’s who was being disrobed in the King’s durbar for no fault of hers, that too while she was menstruating! But then one can’t be surprised about his utter disregard to other people’s honour. When he abducted Amba, Ambika and Ambalika from the Kingdom of Kashi for his brother Vichitravirya, he released Amba when he knew she loved King Salva, but when she came back, King Salva refused to accept her saying she had become “impure” by another man’s (Bheeshma’s) touch. Amba returned to Bheeshma and asked him to marry her, as her own honour had to be protected and Kshatriya Dharma says, one who took her must own her. Again Bheeshma refused to marry her citing his vow to remain celibate! So when it comes to his own honour and vows, Bheeshma had no qualms to uphold them even if it is at the cost of someone else’s, that too caused by him! In her book Yuganta, Iravati Karwe beautifully exposes the fallacies in Bheeshma’s reasoning and also how he was a “power-hungry” person though he had pledged to relinquish the throne. At the age of ninety he still wanted to command the army, though Karna was younger and more eligible as a commander. In the first ten days of the war under his leadership, the morale of the Kaurava army was low and still he would not give up his position until he was felled. Interestingly, he had the boon to die whenever he wanted and being a Vasu who was cursed to be born in Earth, his first objective should have been to go back to his abode as how the other brothers could, when Ganga threw them back to water when they were born. Yet at the ripe age of ninety plus, when his contemporaries were either dead, or had gone for Vanaprastha as per their dharma, Bheeshma was still choosing to be at the helm, much like some self-serving old politicians and Industry captains who either don’t retire or keep resurfacing after retirement! Rings a bell!? Or No!?
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 15:34:39 +0000
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