Here is how Arjuna finally defeated Bhishma: Itw as Arjuna all the wayBheeshma stands, pierced but unharmed, invincible to all the shafts with which they have shot him so far. But one Pandava has yet to shoot at his Pitama. Arjuna still hesitates. Then, Krishna roars at him in the huge silence, "Kill him, Arjuna, or the war is lost!" At the critical moment, Arjuna cannot resist that command. His eyes bright with tears, he raises the Gandiva. With a heartbroken cry, Arjuna looses his first arrow at his grandfather. Even Shikhandi is quiet. The silence is broken by the hum of Arjuna's arrow and the soft noise it makes when it crashes into Bheeshma's body: the sound of skin and flesh being ruptured, of bones giving way, of blood spurting, all in an instant. Bheeshma roars. Dusasana has dodged past Satyaki and Abhimanyu, to be at his grandfather's side. Such a smile lights Bheeshma's face. He shines like a lamp of heaven on that field, when Arjuna's arrow strikes him. He cries to Dusasana, "That was not Shikhandi's arrow. It was Arjuna's!" Another shaft from the Gandiva smashes into his chest, drawing a font of blood. Bheeshma, the kshatriya, cannot help himself. He seizes a javelin and casts it at Arjuna like a bolt of light. Arjuna cuts it down. Another arrow takes his grandsire in his stomach, flinging him back against his flagstaff. Bheeshma cries out again, in agony, in joy. "Yes! These are Arjuna's arrows. How powerful he is, stronger than I ever was. Aaahh!" Three more shafts shatter his chest. The other Pandavas and Shikhandi shoot at him again, from every side, their barbs more telling, now that Arjuna has broken him. Bheeshma staggers in his chariot, hardly an inch of space left on his body where no arrow protrudes. Time assumes an extraordinary aspect on the field of war, when his grandsons cut their Pitama down. Each shaft with which Arjuna strikes his grandfather seems to age the day by an hour: as if the sun fled from this slaying. Shaking with grief, but his hands steady as if they belonged to someone else and his aim unerring, Arjuna strikes Bheeshma with five more arrows, burning astras that could consume legions. They light up Kurukshetra like five suns. They flash into the Kuru patriarch's breast and light him up like a God being worshipped with lamps. His eyes never leaving Krishna's blue face, Bheeshma falls out of his chariot with a sigh. So many shafts have pierced him that he falls not on to the earth, but on a bed of arrows! Some are longer than others and, with the weight of his body, they pierce him right through, so their points break out of his chest; blood from a hundred wounds forms a sacral pool under him . Yet, he lies in uncanny contentment, having set down his intolerable burden. His face shows no sign of the pain he is in; instead, the smile still creases it. A fine lambency enfolds his body, torn by his grandsons' arrows, ruined by Arjuna's virile arrows.
Menon, Ramesh (2012-12-09). THE MAHABHARATA: A Modern Rendering (Kindle Locations 19097-19106). . Kindle Edition.
Anupamaa
