Ghaṭotkaca’s Death and Kṛshṇa’s Plan

On the night of the war when Karṇa killed Ghaṭotkaca with the Indra-śakti, the Pāṇḍava army fell into grief. Arjuna then saw Bhagavān Kṛshṇa rejoicing. This is told in the Droṇa Parva of the Mahābhārata, in Chapters 178 to 181. A śakti is a divine spear. Indra had given this one to Karṇa in return for his kavaca (armour) and kuṇḍalas (earrings).

Arjuna asked why Kṛshṇa was glad. Kṛshṇa answered that the Indra-śakti was the one weapon that could have killed Arjuna, and it had now been spent on Ghaṭotkaca. He also told Arjuna of the events before the war that he had arranged to protect him.

Kṛshṇa rejoices

Ghaṭotkaca fell, killed by the Indra-śakti that Karṇa had kept for years to use against Arjuna. The Pāṇḍava army broke into grief. The great rākshasa had wrecked the Kaurava ranks for the whole night, and now he was gone. The camp was full of mourning and confusion, and soldiers were running in all directions.

In the middle of this, Arjuna saw that Śrī Kṛshṇa, seated in the chariot as his sārathi (charioteer), was celebrating. Kṛshṇa was laughing, showing joy and blowing the conch. To the grieving warriors around him this made no sense. Arjuna asked him directly:

“Madhusūdana! We are all mourning, and our forces are running away in disorder, and you are rejoicing. Why? This joy at an unlucky moment is as astonishing as the sea drying up or Mount Meru shaking. What is the reason? Tell me, if it is not a secret.”

The meaning of the Indra-śakti

Kṛshṇa explained: “Arjuna! This is truly a moment for joy, and I will tell you why. Karṇa has used the Indra-śakti on Ghaṭotkaca. That means Karṇa is now finished. Think about it. Who in this world could stand before Karṇa as long as he held that śakti? With the kavaca and kuṇḍalas, and with the Indra-śakti in his hands, Karṇa could not be defeated by anyone in the three worlds. Indra, Kubera, Varuṇa and Yama together could not overcome him.

“Even you and I together, with your Gāṇḍīva and my Sudarśana, could not have defeated Karṇa while he had that kavaca and those kuṇḍalas and that śakti. Indra himself took the kavaca and kuṇḍalas from Karṇa by a trick, for your good. And now the śakti too has been spent, on Ghaṭotkaca and not on you. Karṇa is now what he would have been without any of these gifts: an ordinary warrior, however skilled. He can be defeated. Without that śakti, no one but you can kill him, and I say this under a solemn oath.”

The wider plan

Kṛshṇa then told Arjuna of the larger plan by which he had protected him. These arrangements were made long before the war, over years and events that had seemed to have nothing to do with one another. He said:

“Arjuna, I killed Jarāsandha, Śiśupāla and Ekalavya before this war, to protect you. If Jarāsandha had been alive, Duryodhana would have asked him for his army, and Jarāsandha was a warrior who could fight alone against an army of the devas. If Śiśupāla had been alive, he too would have joined the Kauravas, and he would have been terrible. Ekalavya, in the forest, practised archery with such great dedication that he had become a second Paraśurāma. If his thumb had stayed whole, no one in the three worlds could have stopped him. Through your guru Droṇa, I arranged for that thumb to be given up.

“Bhīmasena killed Hiḍimba, Kirmīra and Baka. Ghaṭotkaca killed Alāyudha. And I myself had Ghaṭotkaca killed through Karṇa’s śakti, because this served its purpose.”

Ghaṭotkaca and the larger purpose

Kṛshṇa says that he himself caused Ghaṭotkaca to be killed. The Telugu text reads:

ఘటోత్కచుని గూడ నేనే యుక్తితో కర్ణుడు ప్రయోగించిన శక్తిచేత చంపింప జేసితిని

This means: “I myself, by a plan, caused Ghaṭotkaca to be killed by the śakti that Karṇa threw.”

Kṛshṇa adds that Ghaṭotkaca was a pāpātmā (a sinful one) who harmed brāhmaṇas and yajñas, and that his time of death had come under the same order of dharma that drove the whole war. He had held back from killing Ghaṭotkaca earlier because the rākshasa was useful to the Pāṇḍavas as an ally. When that use was over, his death served the larger purpose of draining Karṇa’s last great weapon.

Kṛshṇa ends: “I do all of this for the establishment of dharma. I am at ease wherever truth, tapas (austerity), dāna (giving), purity, dharma, modesty, Śrī, steadiness and kshamā (forgiveness) live.”

Karṇa is still a danger

Kṛshṇa also warned that Karṇa was very dangerous even without the śakti:

“Even now, Karṇa without the kavaca and kuṇḍalas and without the śakti is not a simple enemy. He is a true mahāratha, skilled, tireless and expert with every weapon. His bow is always raised high. He roars like a lion in the forest. He breaks the pride of great warriors as a mad elephant overpowers many herd leaders. At midday even great heroes cannot look straight at Karṇa’s shining. But he has one weakness. The earth will seize his chariot wheel because of an old śāpa (curse), at a moment when his mind is elsewhere. When that moment comes, and he is struggling with the wheel, you must strike at once. That is the only opening you will be given. Do not hesitate when I give the signal.”

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Droṇa Parva, Chapters 178–181