~*~Killing of Kirmira~*~

We human beings are indeed very peculiar. Whenever we find ourselves face to face with an unforeseen threat, we seek protection from that Almighty. I, like every other human being, sat on the ground, joined my hands, and started praying to the Lord of Three Worlds for saving my family from this impending danger. "Lord, please save my family from this impending danger. They have not done any sin to get perished in this manner. I am the only sinner. You may take my life as a punishment but please save my brothers, our Panchali, and our guests."

Somewhere at the other part of the forest, a deep dark cave was getting echoed by loud snoring.

Soon the fiery eyes of owner of those loud snores cracked open. He sprang up to sit. Those fiery eyes were beaming with excitement.

He took a long deep breath greedily and roared, "Humans...So many humans.....Yes, I can smell them. Finally, my hunger will be extinguished." Saying this the beast started laughing demonically. 

The beast came out of his den and started following the smell of human, annihilating everything on the path.

Birds left their nest, and cried violently. Nocturnal animals went inside their dens. Wolves started howling to alert everyone. Lions and tigers also started roaring. Deer, bison, and all animals started fleeing towards safer locations.

*****

I continued praying with all my heart and soul. I felt slight tremor on the soil. Fearing, this to be an early sign of terrible earthquake, I quickly stood to call all my brothers, Panchali, and our guests to evacuate their respective dwellings.

But my feet suddenly stopped on its tracks. From the darkest woods infront of me, emerged a huge beast. It was at least 10 times of my size. Its eyes and sharp teeth were gleaming like molten copper. It had huge black horns. Its hair, arms and legs were blazing like fire. Its arms and body seemed as if they are made of vajra. Its nails seemed like sharpened double sided swords. The sky around him was flickering with huge lightning bolts. Just a glimpse of this sight can instill fear in anyone's heart.

(Author's Note: Agreed Pandavas were super human, strong, and unvanquishable. But this time, they were not alone. They had guests with them, and as well as their dear wife Panchali, who was not used to the life at woods. So, Yudhishthira fearing for the sake of their safety is quite normal.)

Quickly calming down my feelings, I stood upright in front of that monster and firmly addressed him, "Who are you? What should I do for you?"

The monster came closer to me. I could feel my skin scorching under the blazing fire of his limbs.

He roared back to me, "I AM THE GREAT KIRMIRA, KING OF THIS KAMYAKA FOREST. Till now, whoever has entered my forest, has never been able to get out of this forest. You know why? BECAUSE I ATE THEM ALL." Saying this the demon started laughing like a maniac. Then he continued, "Who are you, why have you come into my forest to become my food?"

I replied in a humble tone, "I am the eldest son of Great Pandu, Yudhishthira. I have lost all my wealth, kingdom, and everything, I have come here with my brothers, Bheem, Arjun, Nakul and Sahadev and our dear wife Panchali to serve 12 years of exile."

After listening to my reply, Kirmira's rage seemed to flare up. He growled, "BHEEM!! Then let me reintroduce myself, I am the brother of the demon king Vakasura, whom your brother had killed mercilessly in the woods near the town of Ekchakra. He also killed my dear friend Hidimb."

I am very much aware, that my dear brother Bheem possessed strength of 10,000 elephants and can easily defeat this demon. But, all these years, the habit of being the eldest brother had somehow made me anxious for the safety of my brother.

Kirmira continued, "I have been looking for your brother since a very long time and today fate has favoured me by sending you all here. Today, I will certainly avenge the death of my brother and my dear friend by killing your brother Bheem. Then, I will eat all of you." The demon again started laughing.

While listening to this cruel planning of the monster for my little brother, my heart raged with fire. How dare that he talked about killing my brother, while I being still alive.

Somehow, I calmed my fury, rebuked Kirmara, "You call yourself the king of this forest, yet you don't know how to behave like a king. A king shall always follow the path of virtue. Your brother and your friend were sinners. They found pleasure in torturing people. Hence, my brother punished them rightfully for the sins they had committed. You still have time to return to the path of virtue. Leave us and return to your abode, we will not harm you."

Kirmira was extremely displeased after listening to my argument. He growled, "You weak human, just shut up. I will not listen to any of your advices. How dare you call my brother and friend sinners? Fine, they tortured, people, but those people were not their acquaintance. What about you Samrat, who staked his own brothers and wife in the game of dice? Aren't you a sinner yourself? Let me punish you first before I punish that brother of yours."

I was stuck. Numbness took over my body. The words of Kirmira, started ringing in my brain. Then, as if in a trance, I kneeled down infront of him, and said "Fine, do whatever you want to do with me."

I could feel Kirmara approaching me towards me. Suddenly, I was brought out of my trance by the loud roar of Bheem, "Stay in your limits, you wicked creature. You wanted Bheem, right. Here I am. Very soon you will also join your brother Vaka and your friend Hidimb at the abode of Yama."

Next moment, I felt Arjun, helped me to stand up and took me inside the boundaries of our hermitage. By this time, everyone, including those Snatak Brahmans were also awake. Rajguru Dhaumya, chanted some hymns which destroyed those fiery illusions of Kirmira. His hair, eyes, arms, and legs no longer blazed like fire.

~~~~*****~~~~~

Bheem's POV:

We were, sleeping or trying to sleep inside our hermitage, when suddenly a loud roar broke my sleep completely. Next moment all my brothers and Panchali also woke up. We could listen to the growling of a monster followed by our jyeshth's tone.

Anticipating the danger approaching, we immediately came out of the house and what we saw horrified us. A huge fiery monster, who claimed to be the brother of Vaka, was standing face to face with jyeshth. Jyeshth was rebuking that monster. Before we could understand from where this monster emerged, the words we heard, spoken by that monster, was enough to boil our blood.

That wicked monster dared to call our jyeshth sinner. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Arjun's, Nakul's, and Sahadev's clutch tightened around their respective weapon. Even my fists got tightened automatically.

But what was jyeshth doing. He was surrendering infront of that wicked creature. I might not have forgiven Jyeshth yet, but I could not let him perish like this. He might had forgotten his responsibility towards us at the Dyut Sabha, but I could not forget my responsibility towards my jyeshth.

[Author's Note: From Bheem's thought process, you can understand Bheem's wrath against his elder brother's has still not cooled down. This fact will play an important in my upcoming chapters.]

I immediately rushed towards jyeshth, to challenge that monster.

End of Bheem's POV

~~~~~*****~~~~~

For next one prahar, I along with my brother and Panchali witnessed that terrible war. Both Bheem and Kirmira uprooted unnumerable trees from their roots and hurled at each other, as if those trees were maces of Yama.

Then, Kirmira lifted a huge chunk of stone and hurled it on Bheem. But my powerful brother, firmly held the stone and within few moments the entire chunk got crushed into powder.

Their fight resembled the fight of King Vali and King Sugriva, who were fighting for possession of same women and kingdom during Ramayana.

Finally, Bheem lifted Kirmira off the land by holding his feet, gave him few strong twirls before throwing him at one side.

The demon, fatigued and exhausted, could not even lift his head. Bheem went near him, sat on his chest, and said, while grinding his teeth, "Now, no longer, you would have to weep for our brother and your friend. I am just about to send you to them." Saying this Bheem kept on hitting his elbow at the neck of Kirmira, until the last bit of life left his body.

Once the demon was slain, Bheem rose from his body and came towards us. I rushed to my little brother and took him in my embrace. My eyes were shedding the tears of joy and relief. 

I was trying to assure my heart that my little brother was fine. Bheem too wrapped his arms around me. Then, I broke out of the embrace and looked at the numerous wounds on his body, which he received during the fight. Some of those were deep, while some were bleeding.

Again, I became responsible for my brother's pain. I prayed silently to the Lord, to let me suffer the pain of all these wounds.

Clearing my throat, I said, "Bheem, go get your wounds treated from Nakul." Before Bheem could make any excuse, I called Nakul and said, "Nakul, please look after his wounds and let me know if you need anything."

Saying this I left to arrange for last rites of Kirmira. Sun had risen by then. May be, he was our enemy, but with death, every enmity and sins are washed away.

*****

Life was going on at its own pace. Relationship between my brothers and Panchali to some extent mended. But for me it was still long way to go.

My soul, never remained at peace. Anxiety and restlessness engulfed me all the time. Even while sleeping, nightmares haunted me. Only meditation brought me a brief sense of peace.

It was our 14th day of exile. I was meditating under a banyan tree. When I heard a soft call of, "Jyeshth". It was Bheem.

I opened my eyes and saw all my four brothers, dressed in their armour, and lashed with all their weapons, were standing infront of me.

"Anujo!! [Brothers], What is this?" I exclaimed.

Bheem replied wrathfully, "Let's Go Jyeshth."

"But where?", I questioned

"To attack Hastinapur and rightfully claim what belong to us.", Arjun replied.

"Hmm." I rose from my position and walked few steps away from them while facing my back towards them and said dejectedly, "But I cannot go back now. If you want you all can go back. You were not even supposed to come with me. It was me who staked all of you. I must do penance for the sins I committed towards you."

This time Nakul came towards me and said, "Jyeshth, have we ever complained you for that."

I immediately turned towards him and said back, "You all coming infront of me and proposing about attacking Hastinapur, isn't it one way of complaining. By the way, how could you all forget, that we must serve 12 years of forest life and 1 year in incognito."

Sahadev came towards me and said, "Doesn't Dharmashaastras say that in special occasions, completion of 13 days can be deemed to be as completion of 13 years."

I looked at Sahadev and said, "Yes, Dharmashaastras do say like this. But Shastra must not be used for one's own benefit. They must be used only for the betterment of society."

No one of us noticed, when Panchali came out of the hermitage and was listening to our communication until she said, "Whatever your jyeshth is saying is right. Dharmashaastras must not be used for one own benefit."

Then she looked at me and taunted, "Dharmashaastras must be used only prove righteousness in staking one's wife and brothers. Dharmashaastras must be used to prove in staying in mum when your wife is being harassed infront of the whole Raj Sabha of her in laws. Dharmashaastras must be used to forgive those who tried to disrobe your wife."

None of my brothers said anything. Their silence evidenced that they too agree with Panchali. 

Her each of these lines, felt like 1000 whips across my heart. What could I have said, because whatever she said was after all true. My soul felt as if it got drenched by acid. I simply lowered my eyes and tried to mask all my pain and grief.

Our trance got broken by the sound of chariot. We looked towards the direction only to find Kakashree Vidur, approaching towards us.