Bhīshma’s Mahāprasthāna
Bhīshma Pitāmaha (the grandfather of the Kurus) is the great warrior of the Kurukshetra war. After the war he lay dying on a bed of arrows. He waited there for the right moment to leave his body, taught the Pāṇḍavas, and at the end sang a hymn to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. This episode is told in Chapter 9 of the first skanda of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa.
The bed of arrows
The Kurukshetra war ended. Bhīshma had been struck down by the arrows of Arjuna, and he lay on the battlefield on a bed made by the arrows that had pierced his body. Bhīshma had the power of icchā-mṛtyu (choosing the moment of his own death). His father Śāntanu had given him this power as a vara (a boon). So he did not die. He lay awake and waited.
He chose to wait for Uttarāyaṇa, the sun’s turn to the north. This is the most auspicious time for a yogī to leave the body. He lay on the bed of arrows for fifty-eight days.
The Pāṇḍavas came to his bedside. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa came. Brahmarshis and devarshis (ṛshis of Brahmaloka and of the devas) gathered from every direction. In the days that followed, Bhīshma gave long teachings. He spoke on rājadharma (the duty of kings), āpaddharma (duty in times of danger), dānadharma (the duty of giving), mokshadharma (the path to moksha, liberation) and the duties of the different stages of life. These teachings form the core of the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata.
The Bhīshma Stotra
When the moment of Uttarāyaṇa came, Bhīshma drew his mind away from every other subject. He fixed his sight and his whole awareness on Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, who stood before him, and he spoke his last hymn.
In this stotra (hymn of praise) Bhīshma praised the following.
- The beauty of Kṛshṇa’s form as Bhīshma had seen it on the Kurukshetra battlefield. Kṛshṇa wore peacock feathers and carried a conch. He drove Arjuna’s chariot. The dust of battle lay on his lotus face. His armour was marked by the arrows of the great Kaurava warriors. He had received these arrows while keeping his vow to protect Arjuna without taking up weapons himself.
- The wonder of divine protection. Bhīshma’s own arrows did not touch Arjuna. Neither did the arrows of Karṇa, Droṇa, Aśvatthāmā, Śalya or Saindhava, as long as Kṛshṇa stood with him. In the same way, no weapon harms Prahlāda while the grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu shields him.
- The closeness of Kṛshṇa to the Pāṇḍavas. He acted as charioteer, as messenger to the Kauravas, as night-watchman on the eve of battle, and as friend and adviser. He did all this out of love for those who had surrendered fully to him.
- His last prayer: “In birth after birth, whatever body I may receive, may my mind be fixed on this Kṛshṇa. He is the charioteer who stands before me, his armour marked by my own arrows. My gaze is full of that dear form. Let this be my yoga, let this be my moksha.”
The attainment
When the stotra was finished, Bhīshma became silent. He held his gaze on the lotus face of Kṛshṇa without a break. He drew his prāṇa (life-breath) up step by step through the cakras (the energy centres of the body), as a yogī draws the thread of awareness upward through the body. His life-breath left him. Bhīshma had waited through the winter on a bed of arrows for this auspicious moment. Now he reached the state beyond all states.
The Pāṇḍavas and the ṛshis who stood around him mourned, wondered at what they had seen, and performed the proper rites. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa honoured the occasion with his presence.
Sources
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 1st Skanda, Chapter 9