Bhimasena Urges Yudhishthira to Wage War Immediately

Bhimasena spoke. He had been silent long enough — thirteen months of forest exile, of watching his brothers sit in patient misery while the Kauravas enjoyed what they had stolen. Now he turned to Yudhishthira and said what he had been holding inside. "You have made an agreement with time," he said. "But time has no end. It is without measure. It is a current that carries everything away. You are a mortal, tied down by time — how can you think that time is directly before you?" Life, he said, diminishes like collyrium picked up with a blade of grass — less with every touch. Each instant shortens it. Only someone whose life has no end, or who knows its exact measure, can afford to wait. The rest of us are running out. "If we wait for thirteen years," Bhimasena said, "our lives will be shortened. We will be nearer death. The bodies of those who have bodies are always overtaken by death. Therefore, we should work towards obtaining the kingdom before death arrives." He spoke of enmity. A man who does not avenge it — who has the strength to extend the earth but does nothing — fails to achieve fame. He remains incomplete, like a useless cow. If a man cannot avenge enmity because he lacks strength, his birth has been useless. He has been born in an inferior lineage. "Your arms will be laden with gold," Bhimasena said. "You will attain fame. Use the strength of your arms to kill those who hate you in battle and enjoy the riches. If a man goes to hell after killing a deceitful person, that instantly becomes like heaven to him." He spoke of what was burning inside him. "The torment born from anger burns more than fire. I am tormented by it and cannot sleep during the day or at night." He spoke of Arjuna — Bibhatsu, foremost among those who draw the bowstring — now supremely tormented like a lion in its den. Like a giant elephant suppressing the heat inside him, though unaided he could take on all the archers in the world. He spoke of Nakula and Sahadeva, seated benumbed and dumb, pleasing only Yudhishthira. Of their aged mother Kunti, who had given birth to warriors. Of all their relatives and the Srinjayas, who wished them well. "I and Prativindhya's mother — Draupadi — are greatly tormented," Bhimasena said. "What I am saying will be agreeable to them too. All of them have attained great grief. All of them will welcome war." Then he turned to the nature of his brother. "Mean and weaker ones have stolen our kingdom and are now enjoying it. You are bearing this misery so that your conduct is not tainted out of tenderness and gentleness. But no one will praise you for this. Your gentleness is like that of a brahmana. How have you been born as a kshatriya? Those who are born in that womb are usually cruel-minded. You have heard about the dharma of kings, as recounted by Manu. They are cruel, characterized by deceit and are against pacification." He asked Yudhishthira directly: "Why are you behaving like a crippled one? You have intelligence, valour, knowledge and birth." He spoke of concealment. "You wish to conceal us, like hiding the Himalaya Mountains in a handful of grass. You are famous throughout the earth. You will not be able to live secretly, undetected. The sun cannot pass undetected in the sky. How can Jishnu — Arjuna — remain unrecognized? He is like a giant shala tree, like a palasha tree with branches and flowers. He is like a white elephant. How will Nakula and Sahadeva, who are like lions, remain hidden? Krishna — Draupadi — is the mother of brave ones and the performer of sacred deeds. She is famous. How will she remain unrecognized?" He spoke of himself. "All the subjects know me, even the children. I see myself as unrecognized as Mount Meru." He spoke of danger. They had exiled many kings and their sons from their kingdoms. Those kings now followed Dhritarashtra. Deprived and exiled by the Pandavas, they would not have pacific feelings towards them. They would try to injure them. They would employ spies. There would be great danger of detection. "We have already lived in this forest for thirteen months," Bhimasena said. "Regard that as equal to that number of years. The learned ones have said that a month can substitute for a year, like putika is a substitute for soma. Act accordingly." He ended where he began: with the call to war. "Therefore, make up your mind to kill your enemies. For kshatriyas, there is no dharma other than that of fighting."