Friday, October 31, 2014

The Gurus of Hastinapur - Part 31

The Kaurava warriors could not believe what they were watching. Till now, the gleaming chariot with the two dark men was nothing more that blur, in the battlefield. No matter what or who appeared before them, either Arjuna mercilessly destroyed them or Krishna weaved through them with his chariot. The galloping of the horses was accompanied by a steady twang of the arrows making an impossibly beautiful rhythm. But then unexpectedly it stopped. More from the sudden absence of the sound than anything else, the Kaurava soldiers looked up towards the direction of the twanging of the arrows....Without the accompanying galloping of the horses, the twanging of the arrows seemed....almost incomplete.

That was when the Kauravas had the second shock....
Right there in the middle of the battlefield, Krishna had unyoked the horses and as Kaurava soldiers watched, Arjuna got down from the chariot. The Kauravas glanced at the sun warily hoping...really hoping that the sun had set, because otherwise there seemed no other reason for the actions of the Dark Lord. But the day was not yet over of surprises.
Krishna was tending to the horses as he was running his hands through the wounds of the horses, presumably treating them! Right there, in the middle of the battlefield...
That was when one of the Kaurava soldier realized the inevitable truth as he shouted out aloud. 'ARJUNA IS NOT IN THE CHARIOT!' He shouted. He looked at his fellow warriors, quiet frankly not able to believe what he himself was saying. 'Arjuna is not in his chariot!' the others repeated. The word got around the Kaurava army in surprisingly short time.
There were many warriors who believed that Arjuna was a great warrior only because he had the Dark Lord as his charioteer. While it was true that Krishna and Arjuna together were invincible, but Arjuna by himself was a formidable warrior and that time he proved it....
The Kauravas warriors probably thinking that Arjuna without the Dark Lord was weak, attacked him, as he was standing right there in the middle of field, his bow and arrow ready in his hands.....
*****

Krishna murmured as he lovingly tended to the animals.
Looking at him, it definitely looked like Krishna did not have a care in the world. The fact that the sun was now setting, the fact that they were in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by completely hostile enemies, did not seem to matter to him at all. Right now, his job was to attend to the injured animals and get them refreshed and that was all he cared about.....
Krishna smiled as he saw his lone warrior standing before him, firing arrows rapidly one after the other, at the warriors who was attacking him. The two of them were supposed to be surrounded by enemies, but then not one arrow reached Krishna...not one, actually...Arjuna had made sure of that. It almost seemed like there was an invisible barrier between Krishna and the Kaurava warriors, one that they they could not breach, no matter how hard they tried.
Krishna saw that the horses were now almost well, as he looked at Arjuna. 'Partha! The horses need water!' he called out above the twang of the arrows.
Probably it was not correct to disturb a warrior when he was fighting off almost an entire army standing right in the middle of it. But Krishna did not seem to think it wrong.
There was a rapid change in twang of weapons as Krishna heard a whizzing sound almost next to him. The Kaurava warriors who were facing Arjuna definitely did not know anything different, as the stream of arrows coming towards them seemed as relentless as before...
But none of the Kaurava warriors could explain it, when right there in the middle of the battlefield, where until a minute back was nothing but hard ground, was a beautiful lake...
'Let the horses have their fill, Krishna!' Arjuna said putting the Varunastra back. Arjuna permitted himself a small smile, as he saw the impossible expression which came on the faces of the warriors who were facing him....

**********

Duryodhana was furious. In fact Duryodhana was beyond that. This was the second time in two days, when what he had thought was a simple job was getting steadily out of hand. Yesterday, it had that boy...Abhimanyu, whom Duryodhana had dismissed nothing more than a young kid....Abhimanyu proved to be so disastrous that even his death could not make up for the loss that Abhimanyu had inflicted on the Kaurava army.
And today...All the Kaurava army had to do was to keep Arjuna away from Jayadratha and considering the sheer size of his army, that could not be an impossible task...or so Duryodhana thought. But Duryodhana had not counted on Arjuna's expertise, or the Dark Lord's capability of handling the chariot. The two men together were probably destroying more people today than most of his warriors had done overall till now...As if adding insult to injury, Arjuna was now taking time off coming out of his chariot and letting his horses rest...
Duryodhana was so furious that he drove his horses directly towards the man whom he thought was responsible for all this.
'You were our teacher!' he said as he found himself face to face with his teacher. 'You were invincible! You said no one could penetrate this Vyugha!' Duryodhana said as his words slurred in anger, as he looked dangerously close to the brink. 'And those two men defied you! Just like that!' 
Dronacharya looked at Duryodhana with hurt eyes as Duryodhana continued viciously. 'I think you are also like Bheeshma! You merely say that you will fight on my behalf and all you do is TALK!' Duryodhana shouted loudly.
Dronacharya closed his eyes as his took deep breaths to control himself. He opened his eyes and looked at Duryodhana. Dronacharya probably realized that no matter what he did, Duryodhana would probably never trust him. Dronacharya also realized that talking with the prince was also a waste of time. The prince would not believe anything he said anyway.
Dronacharya shook his head as he removed his armour.
Duryodhana looked shocked as Dronacharya got down from his chariot with his armour in his hand. 'This is one of the most powerful armours, which was given to me! The armours have also been made strong by the mantras of ancient times! Wear it, my prince! Nothing can penetrate this armour!'
Duryodhana looked shocked as he looked at Dronacharya, probably a little ashamed, that he had doubted his teacher. 'I am sorry! I....' Duryodhana said fumbling with apology as he saw his teacher helping him on with the armour.
'You are like Ashwattaman to me! I would forgive him too, if he spoke that way to me!' Dronacharya said quietly. Dronacharya took a deep breath and continued with a small smile. 'And go and fight, my prince! Go and fight the Pandava warriors and remember that nothing can hurt you...GO NOW!'

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