After
Krishna and Arjuna had finished their conversation,
engaged they spirited and energetic in the battle with
their nephews. Arjuna therein took, together with his
four brothers, up his arms against also de army of the
Yadus of Krishna himself which fought at the side of
the Kauravas. Before the battle began had Krishna in a
diplomatic meeting offered the Pândavas and the
Kauravas a fair choice with the words: "You either
fight against me or against my army".
The
battle between the family members lasted for eighteen
days. In these days were, one after the other, all
their opponents defeated. While as good as every
Kaurava found his demise in the fray because of the
karma which, exposed with it, had led to a corruption
of skills and concrete support, doubtful
presentations, bad association, envy, anger and a poor
spirituality, was this not so with the well trained
Arjuna and his army of insurgents who were constantly
advised and protected to the perfection by Krishna's
spiritual power, control and personal presence on the
battlefield as a charioteer. Together with him was no
enemy spared, and found even, some time after the
battle, the Yadu-clan of Krishna himself its demise in
a collective fight against itself, exactly the way
Krishna had planned it for all the sitting powers of
the time.
Duryodhana,
Arjuna's archenemy, fell, hit on the battlefield by
Bhîma's club, with a broken spine and thus had
to pay for all the foul tricks and schemes he with his
brothers had employed in his repressive campaigns in
the past. The blind uncle Dhritarâshthra lost
his credibility and authority as a founding father and
man of wisdom and withdrew to Himalayas where he
literally burnt up in the flames of penance. Thus
ended also his life together with his destructive
family attachment. Yudhishthhira, the eldest
Pândava, became, with the support of Krishna,
the new king. But never again was the honor of the
family definitely restored. The closed ranks they had
always formed, had collapsed and so had the public
morality associated with it. Kali-yuga, the age of
quarrel had commenced. Whereas in the old days of the
yugas before, there had been an undisputed rule of
emperors and great kings representing the four legs of
the bull of dharma, the four values of truthfulness,
faithfulness, sacrifice and compassion, were these
values ever since found in decay.
The
break the traditional family rule had suffered was
that severe, that the close association of the
dynastic religiousness of sacrifices, welfare
activities, charity and public ceremonies at the one
hand and the secular rule of the state at the other
hand, definitely had alienated into two separate
societal worlds. The righteous rule and the brahmin
intellect had separated. Arjuna's grandson
Parîkchit, who, born with a fine intelligence
and character, had a keen eye for everyone and
everything, and personally never missed an opportunity
to defend the dharma, had followed in uncle
Yudhishthhira's footsteps in his acceptance of the by
his uncles arranged transference of the throne when he
was still a boy. That rule of his was was also the
last rule representative of the old age. Because of a
conflict which had risen between his person and a
representative of the class of the wise men, withdrew
also he, the last great ruler of the family, fallen
from public grace. He stood back after having been
cursed by the son of a meditating sage, who was
insulted by Parîkchit because he hadn't properly
welcomed him at his hermitage.
Parîkchit
in his insult
had maintained that the alienated intellectuals and
the priesthood were all too lax and uncommitted
escapists, locked up in their own self-righteous ivory
towers. But later on could he no longer maintain this
offensive position. In the end he turned out to be a
staunch and dedicated brahmin himself, after he,
because of the curse, had given up his rule. He sat
himself down at the feet of S'ukadeva, the son of
Vyâsadeva, who in the week of fasting which he
according the curse had to fulfill until his death,
enlightened him on the entire history of the vedic
culture including the story about the life of Krishna,
the Fortunate One, which later on was handed down in
disciplic succession as the Bhâgavata
Purâna, the most important collection of
stories or bible of the Hindus (there are eighteen big
ones and small ones). The integrity of the dynasty had
definitely died along with him and could in its full
glory only be retraced in the closed circles of the
religious communities of the priests, sages and
scholars who today are called the teachers, the gurus,
of example, or the âcârya's, who
traditionally are divided in different schools of
learning or sampradâyas. Because the
classical rule of the dynasty of Bhâratavarsha,
or India, was never again restored to its original
glory, and, in that sense, the world order it stood
for definitely had fallen apart, continued the common
man worldwide, without much honor and decency,
quarreling in the political age of Kali-yuga until
that ego struggle had reached the end of its synergy,
and a new era for the planet earth had dawned.
