We often justify our wrong ways by quoting this adage. Many of the wars fought these days stealthily follow this principle. Even the terrorists use this to justify their dastardly acts. They even claim the support of their religious scriptures which apparently preach them that way!
I will not get into the debate on this topic, but only restrict myself to what happened in the Mahabharata war. Superficially, it appears as if Krishna was a votary of violence. He appeared to be bent on getting what he wanted at any cost. He forced an unwilling Arjuna to slay his own kith and kin, violating all norms and accepted moral principles. I have explained why such a conclusion is not valid both through the previous episodes, as well as in my concluding remarks in my book “Cruxof Mahabharata for busy people”. We should see Krishna’s actions in the proper context. Then probably we understand why Krishna did what he did.
The Mahabharata war started in all fairness. Right in the very beginning, both parties agreed to certain rules governing a fair combat. One of the foremost conditions was that parties involved should engage in war as their duty and not out of animosity. They were not supposed to attack each other at wrong times and wrong situations.
For example, the fighting should be only from sunrise to sunset. After sunset, the opponents should abstain from harming each other. Similarly, only equals should fight with each other. A soldier on horse back could not attack a barefoot soldier nor more than one warrior could collectively surround a lone warrior. Similarly, a warrior who is unarmed or in a situation in which he cannot defend himself, should not be attacked. If some injured warrior wants to leave the war filed, he should be allowed to do so and so on. So, ‘all’ was not fair in that war.
At least, that is how the Mahabharata war started. But as it progressed, rules were broken one by one, and what ended up was brutal killing, violating all norms and notions of humanity. In many cases, Krishna also abetted such violations. That seems strange since Krishna claimed that upholding righteousness was the purpose of his coming down to earth. Then why did he do that?
To understand the reason, we need to look beyond mere actions. We need to see the intentions and repercussions of not taking action at the right moment. Moreover, Krishna was more concerned about helpless people who laid their lives for no fault of theirs. It was not for favoring the Pandavas, nor for taking Draupadi’s revenge, not definitely for getting back the lost kingdom. All these provided the context, but not the main purpose. The purpose was to reinstall righteousness which had been toppled by the Kauravas. Only a person who has such clarity of purpose, one who has no personal interest, one who is detached with the results, could violate the rules. Krishna was one such person and that is the reason he gave more importance to end result and not the rules that could defeat the very purpose.
So, the terrorists who quote their scriptures, or people who misquote someone else’s scriptures for their selfish interests, should ask themselves about whether they have clarity of purpose and meet other requirements that could permit them to do what they do.
Having said this, let me briefly run through the war that took place for 18 long days, killing millions of people. You can get a more detailed description in my book “Cruxof Mahabharata for busy people”.
The war started with Bhishma taking on the command. Bhishma went on killing thousands of innocent soldiers on the Pandava side, just to keep his misplaced oath of loyalty to the throne. But Krishna was not impressed. Arjuna was not putting his full efforts to contain Bhishma due to the respect he had for him. At one stage, irked Krishna himself rushed forward to kill Bhishma, only to be restrained by Arjuna. Finally, Krishna forced Bhishma to offer himself to Arjuna’s attacks, when Arjuna attacked him by keeping Shikandi as a shield. Bhishma refused to attack Shikandi who was a born female and Bhishma considered it wrong to attack a woman.
After Bhishma, Drona - the preceptor of the Kauravas as well as the Pandavas took charge. He went on massacring Pandava soldiers. Drona joined hands with Duryodhana and Karna to mercilessly kill young Abhimanyu by surrounding him when he was in a helpless condition. That was the first blatant violation of the war rules. From then on, it was a saga of unfair war tactics.
Krishna fooled Drona in believing that his son Ashwatthama was killed in the war by Bhima. Struck by remorse, Drona dropped his arms. Waiting for such an opportunity, Drishtadyumna beheaded Drona, once again violating all norms.
When Karna’s chariot started sinking into the ground and Karna got down to lift it, Krishna forced a reluctant Arjuna to shoot and kill unarmed Karna. Similarly, when Duryodhana was hiding in a pond to safeguard himself, Krishna coaxed Bhima to challenge Duryodhana in such a way that Duryodhana had to finally come out of the hiding. In a duel that ensued between Duryodhana and Bhima, Krishna forced Bhima to attack Duryodhana violating all rules of mace wrestling. Duryodhana finally fell down in a pool of blood, waiting for his death.
In this way, Krishna did not care for any violations, keeping his ultimate goal in mind. His goal was to re-establish righteousness and safeguard innocent and gullible people. That could be done only by the Pandavas since they were righteous to the core. If the Pandavas had lost, that goal could not have been attained. It is important to note that neither Krishna was after any Kingdom, nor he had any animosity with the vanquished Kauravas, not even the Pandavas wanted to acquire the Kingdom by unfair means. Only under such circumstances, all the violations that had been abetted by Krishna were justified.
The war was almost over with only Duryodhana remaining on the Kaurava side. All his brothers and his close friend Karna were killed. Duryodhana was only waiting for his death. When Duryodhana was fighting for his last moments, there came Ashwatthama, a great warrior who was also the son of Drona.
Ashwatthama had on several occasions advised Duryodhana to avoid this war. But Duryodhana had not paid heed to his words. Like his father Drona, Ashwatthama had his misplaced loyalty to Duryodhana. Besides, he was furious about the deceitful way in which his father Drona was killed. So, he vowed to wipe out the entire Pandava clan to avenge whatever they had done.
How did Ashwatthama give shape to his fierce vow? Did he succeed in that? Let us see that in the next episode.
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