10/14/2011: Bheeshma's vow

Bheeshma gets up and goes. In Dhritarashtra's chamber, Shakuni is urging him to do 3 things as a plan of action. Just then, Bheeshma arrives, and asks to interrupt. After Dhritarashtra and Shakuni greet him, he asks Dhritarashtra for a confidential meeting, from which Shakuni can be excluded. 👏 Shakuni tries to object, pointing out that he's a well-wisher of the family, but Bheeshma looks @ him sternly & Shakuni leaves. Bheeshma then tells Dhritarashtra not to do anything on the succession that isn't just, or else, the integrity of the throne will start getting questioned. Dhritarashtra asks him whether he too thinks that Duryodhan is unfit to rule, and Bheeshma tells him it's not a question about Duryodhan, but about Hastinapur. Even a child knows who is fit to be Yuvraj. He warns him that if he does anything that's unjust, its consequences will haunt him for ever. He then tells Dhritarashtra that he's given his advice, but the decision is the king's.

Jambavati tells Krishna that Bheeshma looks like a very great personality, so why doesn't he grace the throne of Hastinapur? Krishna tells them that Bheeshma was not his original name, but something he got as a result of his actions. His original name was Devarath, and he goes on to narrate the story of Bheeshma to them.

Devarath was the son of King Shantanu and the yuvraj of Hastinapur. One day, he found his father sitting on his bed listless, and when he asked, his father asked to be left alone. Devarath then inquired and found out that his father had approached a fisherman for his daughter's hand, but was declined. Devarath then goes to the fisherman and asks him why he declined his father, and whether he thought his daughter wasn't good enough for the ruler of Hastinapur? The fisherman replied that as a father, he had the right to decline anybody, and that the reason he did was that he wasn't confident of his daughter's future - she'd be fine as the queen, but once Shantanu died, her sons would be second fiddle to him. He wants his daughter's son to succeed Shantanu. Devarath objects, saying that he is the yuvraj of the kingdom. When the fisherman refuses to part w/ her, he yields and promises that her son would succeed Shantanu and that he'd support him.

The fisherman was satisfied w/ that assurance, but pointed out that while Devarath can make that commitment, what about his descendents? Devarath acknowledges that he can't make promises on their behalf, but he can promise that he will have no descendents. He then goes to the river and takes his famous vow of being a Brahmachari, to which all the devas shower him w/ flowers and hail him as Bheeshma. He also vowed that as long as he lived, he'd have no offspring, and would serve Hastinapur until the end.

Krishna concludes the narration by telling them that Shantanu married Satyavati, and Devarath became Bheeshma and is what he is known as today. Satyabhama acknowledges his greatness, but asks Krishna a question. She points out to Bheeshma's vow to serve Hastinapur, and asks whether the very thing that made him so great wouldn't result in putting him in a dilemma - if serving dharam, since the two currently ain't synonimous? She also asks whether he'll fight on the right side in the great dharamyudh? Krishna tells her that she's asked a very important question, to which even Gangaputra hasn't found an answer to date. He points out to them that he is torn b/w dharam and rajdharm. However, Krishna points out that where there is dharam, he is there, and when he is there, there is no scope left for either doubt nor fear. He never abandons those who are on the path of dharam, so the question of his ever abandoning the Pandavas was just unthinkable.

My comments: Good way to round up the week by filling in the story of Bheeshma. Today, for a change, instead of asking her usual silly questions, Satyabhama seemed very insightful when she asked what Bheeshma's role will be come crunch time. They showed the entire scene of Bheeshma and Satyavati's father very well. Also, while Bheeshma looks exactly like the one in BRC, his voice is very different and refreshing. There was a bit of dragging in the beginning b/w Dhritarashtra & Bheeshma in exchanging niceties, which I didn't elaborate above, since it wasn't important.

Note: In the above poll, multiple selections allowed

i hv voted for shakuni in the poll.
Liked todays episode ,the way they quickly showed the story of Bhishma Pitamah ..taking his pratigya was awesome .
Maamik as Bhishma is good
today i loved the Green duppata of Lord Krishna so much ,the combo of green and yellow was super awesome😛😳.

Thanks, Sita.

Seeing today's episode, a thought did strike me about Bheeshma's vow.

Bheeshma made his vow to protect the throne of Hastinapur to Satyavati's father, since he wanted Satyavati's descendants to be secure. Made sense from that pov.

So, when he was picking b/w the Kauravas & the Pandavas and struggling w/ that dilemma, the question is - why was it a dilemma @ all? If the question was b/w the Kauravas and some other pretender to the throne that came outside the family, I can understand. But looking @ it from the POV of Satyvati's father, both Dhritarashtra's & Pandu's sons were her descendents, so speaking about his wishes, which was essentially what Bheeshma was honoring above all, why would it make a difference to him, since both were from Satyavati and neither from Bheeshma?

I know that if in a royal family a ruler had several sons, the dynasty name would go to the descendents of the elder one - this was the basis on which Duryodhan's brothers, rather than Yudhisthir's, were called the Kauravas/Kurus. Despite Pandu preceding Dhritarashtra as Hastinapur's king, his sons didn't carry the family name, and indeed, after Parikshit came to the throne, the dynasty was known as the Pandavas or Pauravas, but not Kurus. However, this wouldn't likely have bothered Satyavati's father, since his ultimate wish - that descendants of his daughter would continue to rule, would be fulfilled.

So, if hypothetically, Bheeshma had decided to pick the Pandava side over the Kauravas and fight against them, he'd not have been betraying even Satyavati or her father, since he'd have been fighting for Yudhisthir's accession to the throne, as opposed to Dhritarashtra's continuation/Duryodhan's succession to the throne. Given that loyalty to the family, rather than the throne itself, is what Satyavati's father wanted, seems like Bheeshma made a wrong decision for a pretty bad reason.

Anybody else see this point?

Vrish i feel Bhishma gave up before the greedy ambitious wishes of satyavatis father...at that time Bhishma was totally blind in the love of his father so he took this decision of remaining a bachelor thruout his life in a haste .

and Bhishma fought from Kauravs side to prove his loyality to the Namak of Hastinapur ...
yup Bhishma shd hv never fought from KAURAVS SIDE ..he was the epitome of satya and Dharma so he shd hv been with the Pandavs ...

More then Bhishma, it is Shantanu, who's started all this. To marry Ganga he agreed to her condition,Out of 8 Vasu's 7 were liberated by her, he stoped her doing the same for the 8th Vasu, who when his father fell for Satyavati took this vow, for his father's happiness. Since then Bhishma has lived for his vow. So this is basically a tale of various characters falling for their desire of woman, power, kingdom, with Krishna showing path of Karma-yoga.

I've voted for Duryodhana, he got better screen presence,compared to others. He was good as Tatya Tope in JKR., I've seen only 3 epi of that show, but kind of like his screen presence.

^^^ Actually, Ganga was not planning to drown the 8th. Previously, when the Vasus first asked her to mother them and liberate them, she told them that she had to fulfill her womanly duties and have @ least one son alive, and so the 8th son wasn't going to be killed. Of course, Shantanu didn't know that, and any father would snap @ the idea of his children being killed. Shantanu was responsible in his greed for Satyavati - had he forsaken her, Bheeshma would have remained his yuvraj, and succeeded the throne.

Sita, my point was that both the Kauravas & the Pandavas were descendents of Satyavati, on whose behalf her father was the recipient of the vow. So it's not like he'd have betrayed Satyavati had he picked the Pandava side. I'm just puzzled that nobody suggested to him this rationale - it would have saved him a lot of heartache. But I don't agree that he was the epitome of dharma - his abduction of Amba, Ambika & Ambalika and refusal to let their swayamvar happen, his requesting Gandhari for Dhritarashtra and his acceptance of Draupadi's vastraharan - all make him an overall villain in the story.

Originally posted by: .Vrish.

^^^ Actually, Ganga was not planning to drown the 8th. Previously, when the Vasus first asked her to mother them and liberate them, she told them that she had to fulfill her womanly duties and have @ least one son alive, and so the 8th son wasn't going to be killed. Of course, Shantanu didn't know that, and any father would snap @ the idea of his children being killed. Shantanu was responsible in his greed for Satyavati - had he forsaken her, Bheeshma would have remained his yuvraj, and succeeded the throne.

Sita, my point was that both the Kauravas & the Pandavas were descendents of Satyavati, on whose behalf her father was the recipient of the vow. So it's not like he'd have betrayed Satyavati had he picked the Pandava side. I'm just puzzled that nobody suggested to him this rationale - it would have saved him a lot of heartache. But I don't agree that he was the epitome of dharma - his abduction of Amba, Ambika & Ambalika and refusal to let their swayamvar happen, his requesting Gandhari for Dhritarashtra and his acceptance of Draupadi's vastraharan - all make him an overall villain in the story.

oops vrish i repeated the dialouges of Lord Krishna in the show when Bhishma was introduced ...yup his abduction of Amba ,Ambika and Ambalika ...and asking the beautiful Gandhari to marry the blind Dritrashtra was def .Adharma ...and i liked ur suggestion ,i wished MA GANGA wud hv suggested this to her son...that wud hv saved him from all the heart ache...

Originally posted by: .Vrish.

^^^ Actually, Ganga was not planning to drown the 8th. Previously, when the Vasus first asked her to mother them and liberate them, she told them that she had to fulfill her womanly duties and have @ least one son alive, and so the 8th son wasn't going to be killed. Of course, Shantanu didn't know that, and any father would snap @ the idea of his children being killed. Shantanu was responsible in his greed for Satyavati - had he forsaken her, Bheeshma would have remained his yuvraj, and succeeded the throne.

Sita, my point was that both the Kauravas & the Pandavas were descendents of Satyavati, on whose behalf her father was the recipient of the vow. So it's not like he'd have betrayed Satyavati had he picked the Pandava side. I'm just puzzled that nobody suggested to him this rationale - it would have saved him a lot of heartache. But I don't agree that he was the epitome of dharma - his abduction of Amba, Ambika & Ambalika and refusal to let their swayamvar happen, his requesting Gandhari for Dhritarashtra and his acceptance of Draupadi's vastraharan - all make him an overall villain in the story.

I guess we can disagree on BRC - too much of the Mahabhashana was invented.

In the original texts, Bheeshma never took the second vow to be loyal to Hastinapur. The only vow he took was the first one. His decision to fight on the Kaurava side doesn't look like driven by any vows