The night before: Kṛṣṇa's promise, Arjuna's dream journey and the Pāśupata weapon

Classical

After Arjuna's oath, Kṛṣṇa could not sleep either. He called his charioteer Dāruka and told him that Arjuna was dearer to him than wife, kinsmen or relatives, and that he could not look at an earth without Arjuna. He said he would see to it the next day that Arjuna killed Jayadratha before sunset, and that the world would learn that he was Arjuna's friend: whoever hated Arjuna hated him, and whoever followed Arjuna followed him. He called Arjuna half of himself.

He gave Dāruka detailed orders. At dawn Dāruka was to have the chariot ready, with the mace Kaumodakī, the dart, discus, bow and arrows, the Garuḍa banner and the four horses Balāhaka, Meghapuṣpa, Śaibya and Sugrīva, all clad in golden mail. When he heard Pāñcajanya sounded in the Ṛṣabha note, he was to come to him at once. Kṛṣṇa said he would dispel Arjuna's wrath in a single day. Dāruka replied that victory was certain for the man whose charioteer was Kṛṣṇa and promised to do as he was told.

Meanwhile Arjuna, thinking how to achieve his vow, remembered the mantras Vyāsa had given him and fell asleep. Kṛṣṇa appeared to him in a dream. Out of reverence Arjuna stood and offered a seat, though he did not sit himself. Kṛṣṇa told him not to give in to grief, since grief is an enemy to action. Arjuna replied that Jayadratha would be put in the rear, guarded by the remnant of eleven akṣauhiṇīs and the great warriors, and asked how he could even get a sight of him; the sun, he said, sets quickly at that season. Kṛṣṇa touched water, sat facing east and told him about the Pāśupata weapon.

With it, Kṛṣṇa said, Maheśvara slew the Daityas, and if Arjuna remembered it now, he would be able to slay Jayadratha. If he did not have it, he should meditate on the god of the bull emblem, whose devotee he was. Arjuna touched water, sat in concentration and, in the hour called Brahma, found himself travelling through the sky with Kṛṣṇa holding his left arm. They passed the Himālaya, the Maṇimat mountain, the lake in Kubera's garden, the Gaṅgā and the Mandara hills, until they came to a blazing mountain, on which sat Śiva with trident and matted hair, with Pārvatī and his attendants around him.

Arjuna saw the offerings he had made each night to Kṛṣṇa lying beside the three-eyed god, and asked for the divine weapon. Śiva sent them to a lake of amṛta where his own bow and arrow were kept. In the water they saw two snakes, one with a thousand heads. Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna recited the hundred stanzas to Rudra, and the snakes became a bow and an arrow. They brought them to Śiva, and a tawny-eyed brahmacārin came from his side, took the bow, fixed the arrow and drew it. Arjuna watched his grip, his stance and the mantras Śiva spoke, and learned it all. The brahmacārin shot the arrow into the lake and threw the bow after it.

Śiva, pleased, remembered the boon he had given Arjuna in the forest and gave him the Pāśupata again, together with success in his vow. Arjuna felt the hair on his body stand up and thought his task already done. They bowed to the god and came back to the camp, as glad as Indra and Viṣṇu after getting Bhava's leave to fight Jambha. The text calls this a dream that Arjuna saw, and it ends there; what follows is the morning of the fourteenth day, with Yudhiṣṭhira waking to the sound of bards.

Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra

Who: Kṛṣṇa, Dāruka, Arjuna, Śiva (Bhava, Maheśvara), Pārvatī

Bound to

Arjuna learns of Abhimanyu's death and vows to slay Jayadratha or burn origin

Shiva the hunter gives Arjuna the Pashupata mirror

Arjuna and Krishna as Nara and Narayana mirror

Day fourteen: Droṇa's cart-and-lotus array hides Jayadratha origin

Places: Himālaya, Maṇimat, Mandara, Himalayan mountain of Śiva

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (read via archive.org copy of the sacred-texts text) Drona Parva, Sections LXXIX–LXXXI

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