Bhīshma Stotra (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)
The Bhīshma Stotra is the hymn of Bhīshma Pitāmaha to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa at the time of his mahāprasthāna, his great departure. He lay on his bed of arrows. He drew in his senses and fixed his eyes and mind on Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, who stood before him, and he spoke this hymn before he gave up his life-breath at the good moment of Uttarāyaṇa. It is found in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, first skandha, Chapter 9, and is one of the best-known last prayers in the Purāṇas. It is a warrior’s last vision of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, told in the speech of the battlefield.
The setting
Bhīshma had lain for fifty-eight days on the bed of arrows. The arrows had pierced his body when he fell in battle, and he lay on them by his icchā-mṛtyu (the power to choose the time of his death). In those days he gave his long teachings to the Pāṇḍavas, the ṛshis and Bhagavān Kṛshṇa who were gathered round him.
Then the moment of Uttarāyaṇa, the northward turn of the sun, drew near. Bhīshma had been waiting for it. It is the most auspicious time for a yogi to depart. When it came, he stopped all teaching. He took his mind from every outward thing, steadied his gaze, and fixed all his thought on Bhagavān Kṛshṇa standing before him. Then he spoke his stotra.
The vision of Kṛshṇa on the battlefield
The stotra opens with the form of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa that Bhīshma holds in his heart’s eye. It is not Bhagavān Kṛshṇa in divine glory. It is Bhagavān Kṛshṇa as He looked on the battlefield of Kurukshetra:
- standing on Arjuna’s chariot
- dressed simply, holding His conch, with a peacock feather in His hair
- on His face, the dust of the battlefield mixed with the divine light of His features
- on His body, His armour, marked and dented by the arrows shot at Him by the great Kaurava warriors, Bhīshma’s own among them
Bhagavān Kṛshṇa took those arrows on His body to keep His vow to protect Arjuna without taking up a weapon Himself.
The wonder of divine protection
Bhīshma thinks in the stotra on what he had seen. Bhīshma himself, Karṇa, Droṇa, Aśvatthāmā, Śalya and Saiṃdhava were the greatest warriors of their age, and the whole army trembled before them. Yet none of their weapons could touch Arjuna while Bhagavān Kṛshṇa stood at his side.
The Kaurava army was like an ocean of power, wave on wave of warriors, with a force too great to count. Yet the presence of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa as a charioteer drained their āyus (life span), tejas (radiance) and bala (strength) before one deciding arrow had to be shot. No weapon can harm Prahlāda while the grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu shields him. In the same way no arrow could find Arjuna while Bhagavān Kṛshṇa stood there.
Bhīshma knew this from the other side. His arrows kept missing and his plans kept failing. His great experience counted for nothing against one devoted archer covered by the grace of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. In the stotra he praises this fact with wonder and respect, and without bitterness.
The closeness of Kṛshṇa’s service
Bhīshma marvels at how close Bhagavān Kṛshṇa stood to the Pāṇḍavas. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa could command the universe with a thought. Yet He chose to:
- drive Arjuna’s chariot, hold the reins and look after the horses
- go as a messenger to the court of the Kauravas, a task beneath any king, let alone Bhagavān Kṛshṇa
- stay awake through the nights and watch over the camp of the Pāṇḍavas
- act as their counsellor, friend and confidant through every danger
He did all this not because He had to, but out of prema (love) for those who had given themselves to Him. Bhīshma holds this to be perhaps the most wonderful thing about Bhagavān Kṛshṇa: the infinite one, who needs nothing, serves the finite one who has given himself to Him.
The final prayer
The stotra ends with this prayer:
“In birth after birth, in whatever body I receive, in whatever world I am born, may my mind be fixed on this Kṛshṇa: the charioteer who stood before me, His armour marked by my own arrows, His lotus face before my eyes. Let this be my yoga. Let this be my moksha.”
Bhīshma asks that in every birth, wherever he is, his mind may find its way back to this very form of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, as he saw Him most clearly at that moment.
The departure
When the stotra was finished, Bhīshma fell silent and drew his prāṇa upward step by step. His life-breath left him, and he reached Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. The ṛshis and the Pāṇḍavas who were gathered there honoured the moment with the proper rites. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa was present throughout, as He had been on the battlefield, on the chariot, as the charioteer. Now He was present at the departure of one of the greatest devotees of that age.
Sources
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, first skandha, Chapter 9