certain un answered questions

How was it that Bhishma could lay on a bed of arrows, postponing his death until the sun changed its direction of course’ are not for us to answer.  That Bhishma was one of the eight Vasus, by name Prabhasa, cursed to be born as a human being and thus was a superhuman by birth, added to which was the blessing that he received from his father Santanu, is enough and sufficientfor our purpose.  There are certain other questions like how could Alambusha, the brother of Bakasura, be the son of none other than sage Rishyasringa, though interesting, donot fall within our scope.  They are there and it is enough for us that Vyasa says so and that serves our purpose inasmuch as it does not interfere with the flow of the story or the way in which the characters are structured.  

These demonic elements do pose an interesting scope for study indeed.  Kamsa was a demon while his sister Devaki was human; Jarasandha was a demon; the Lord’s son Naraka himself was a demon and the invincible Bhagadatta was a demon too, and inherited the Vaishnavastra from Naraka.  There are other demons in the story who fight both in the side of Kauravas as well as Pandavas.  The how and why of all these demons are not for us to study.  They are there, and they are there.  That’s that.  It does not make a difference to the story or the flow of events.  Who can ever study a Paradise Lost without accepting Satan, or who can study Prometheus Unbound of Shelly, without accepting such supernatural elements and powers!  It’s all part of poetry and it has to be accepted as-is-where-is.

If that is so, the role of Lord Krishna is something to be pondered and absorbed in mind before we venture into our attempt.  In Ramayana, the picture is very clear.  Rama holds himself and regards himself as a man and nothing more than a man.  Of course, there are a few characters around in the Epic who know the secret behind the Avatar.  I am reminded of a verse in the Sethu Bandhana Padalam of Kamba Ramayana.  There, Varuna finally appears before an angered Rama, who attempts to use the Brahmastra on the ocean.  Varuna pleads: annai nee You are my mother athtan neeyE You are my father allavai ellaam neeyE You are everything else pinnum nee munnum neeyE You are the End and You are the Beginning pErum nee izavum neeyE You are the Heaven and you are the Hell ennai nee igazndhadhu endradhu enganE?  How is that you (attempt to) slight me (by shooting the Brahmastra on me), when eesan aaya unnai nee uNaraai You who are the Lord Himself, are not aware of Your own Self, naayEn enganam uNarvEn unnai how is that this wretched dog of myself to know you, to know you as You are.

Rama doesn’t take cognisance of such words, whenever they are uttered or whoever utters them in his presence.  He just takes no notice of such praises, be it Varuna, or Indra (in the Ashrama of Sarabhanga) or Garuda (when bound by the Serpent Noose of Indrajit)  Until the very last moment he maintains that he is a man, son of Dasaratha, even after Brahma appears before him and tells him that He really is an Avatar.  This continues till the last scene, when Yama comes to him at the behest of Brahma, to invite Him back to His Abode.

It is as simple as that.  The Lord came in the form of a man and refused to look at His own self till the last moment as Lord, but considered and acted and behaved like a man through and through (exceptingfor his superhuman feats).  But it is not so in the case of Krishna.  Though one has to go to the Bhagavata to know His earlier days at the Gokula, and the Mahabharata is silent on that aspect, he makes it very clear at every available opportunity that He is an avatar and that He is the Supreme.  There was a division of men who acknowledged this, and were aware of who they were fighting against, and still chose to fight on the side of Duryodhana.  These include people like Bhishma, Drona, etc.  And there were people like Duryodhana who simply laughed off his Viswaroopa that he assumes at the royal court and pooh-poohs that ‘I am well-versed in Adharvana Veda and I can perform such tricks too’.

Fine.  We understand all that.  There always is a set of people who follow His steps and others who oppose Him.  And a third category which is left neither here nor there, and simply remains there just because they have one reason or the other of their own to justify their stand.  The way Bhishma had to stay with Duryodhana and Drona decided to stay with him are not the same.  Both have different forces that drove them to that common decision.

But the strange aspect of Lord Krishna is—to use the famous phrase—that he acts as if he has ‘selective amnesia!’ He chooses to display his supernatural, Supreme Self at will, and think, act and plan like any other ordinary man at his own will.  This isone aspect of the role of Krishna which one has to remind oneself of, always.  

We will elaborate a bit on this.
                                                                                               courtesy;                           Hari Krishnan
                                                                                                      hari.harikrishnan@gmai