Icchā-Mṛtyu: Death by One’s Own Will

Icchā-mṛtyu means “death by one’s own will”. It is a rare boon that gives a person the power to decide the exact time they will leave the body, instead of being taken by death at the usual, unchosen moment.

The best-known example in the Mahābhārata is Bhīshma Pitāmaha (the grandsire of the Kuru family). He received this boon from his father, Śāntanu, in thanks for his great vow never to marry. He used it at Kurukshetra. Lying on his bed of arrows, he stayed alive for fifty-eight nights, waiting for the sun to turn north into Uttarāyaṇa, the auspicious half of the year. Then he gave up his prāṇa (life-breath) by a careful step-by-step withdrawal through yoga.

How Bhīshma Received the Boon

Bhīshma, then called Devavrata, made two vows before Dāśarāja, the father of Satyavatī. The second was the harder one: never to marry, never to father a son, and to live in complete brahmacarya (celibacy) all his life, so that only Satyavatī’s children would inherit the Kuru throne. His father Śāntanu was overwhelmed by the size of this sacrifice. In return he gave his son icchā-mṛtyu, the power to choose the very moment of his own death.

Using the Boon: The Bed of Arrows

The clearest picture of icchā-mṛtyu at work comes at the very end of Bhīshma’s life. On the tenth day of the Kurukshetra war, Arjuna shot him down with arrows, fired from behind the shelter of Śikhaṇḍī. Bhīshma’s body was held up above the ground by the arrows that pierced it. This was the śaraśayyā, the bed of arrows.

He did not die at once. He declared that he would not give up his prāṇa until the sun turned north into Uttarāyaṇa, the most auspicious time for a great soul to depart. He stayed awake and in full command of his mind for fifty-eight nights. In that time he gave the whole body of teaching that fills the Śānti Parva and much of the Anuśāsana Parva, including his account of the Sāvitrī mantra and the Vaṃśānukīrtanam (the telling of royal family lines).

When Uttarāyaṇa arrived, Yudhishṭhira, now crowned king, came back to Kurukshetra. Bhīshma then formally asked Kṛshṇa for leave to give up his body, and received it. This is a striking detail. The boon of icchā-mṛtyu was his by right, yet Bhīshma still asked for Kṛshṇa’s permission before leaving, as the last act of a life spent respecting dharma. Kṛshṇa gave it. He called Bhīshma free of pāpa and “another Mārkaṇḍeya” in his devotion to his father, a man before whom death itself stood bowing like an obedient servant, waiting for his command.

How He Left the Body Through Yoga

The Anuśāsana Parva’s account of the death itself is remarkable for how exactly it describes icchā-mṛtyu. It is shown not simply as a boon used by command, but as a yogic achievement that needs precise discipline.

Bhīshma fell silent for a muhūrta (a period of about forty-eight minutes). Then, one step at a time, he drew his mind and prāṇa up through the dhāraṇā-sthānas, the seats of concentration in the body. Nīlakaṇṭha’s commentary says these are the cakras (energy centres): mūlādhāra, svādhishṭhāna, maṇipūra, anāhata, viśuddhi and ājñā. He drew breath and mind upward, stage by stage, from the base of the body to the crown.

As his prāṇa left each limb in turn, that limb became viśalya, free of arrows. The deeply lodged shafts were no longer held by flesh filled with prāṇa, so they simply came loose and fell away. In moments his whole body was free of arrows. Vyāsa, Nārada, Asita, Kṛshṇa and all the gathered kings saw this as a mahā-āścarya, a great wonder. His prāṇa then broke out through the crown of his skull (kapāla) and rose into the sky like a great ulkā (blazing light). Dundubhis (drums) sounded from the sky, flowers rained down, and the siddhas (perfected beings) above cried out, “Sādhu! Sādhu!” (“Well done! Well done!”).

Icchā-Mṛtyu and Vīra-Śayana

Bhīshma’s death also belongs to vīra-śayana, the honourable death of a warrior in battle. But icchā-mṛtyu is a separate and rarer thing. Vīra-śayana is about the manner and the dharmic honour of a kshatriya’s (warrior’s) death in combat. Icchā-mṛtyu is about the sovereign power to choose the moment of death itself, whenever the body happens to be wounded.

Bhīshma is unique in having both. He fell in vīra-śayana, struck down in battle with arrows in his flesh, and yet he did not actually depart until fifty-eight nights later, at a time of his own choosing. The two work together rather than against each other.

When Kṛshṇa compares Bhīshma at the moment of his departure to Mārkaṇḍeya, in devotion to his father, he points to Mārkaṇḍeya as another figure in the tradition known for very long life and power over death.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva, Chapters 96–102
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīshma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 167
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīshma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 168