My trials, tribulations, triumphs and more... - Arjuna.

Chapter 25: War with Yavanas

Shortly after our emphatic victory over Maharaj Drupad, we could observe several significant changes, firstly it seemed like Duryodhan's anger and arrogance evaporate after being defeated and humiliated in the battle at the hands of Maharaj Drupad. Now, Duryodhan along with his friend Karna and Dushshasan were much saner and calmer and didn't try to provoke us, at least directly. They might have realised what we were capable of after our overwhelming victory over Maharaj Drupad. Secondly, we observed majority of persons in influential positions at the Hastinapur court were pitching in for Yudhi bhai's name as heir-apparent to the kingdom of Hastinapur. Also, we got to know that majority of the people of the kingdom were having very favourable opinion on Yudhi bhai to become heir-apparent due to his calm temper in dealing with difficult situations and also because of his immense knowledge of the scriptures. People respected Yudhi bhai for his calm and forgiving nature. Even though Duryodhan and Dushshasan were very hostile to us from the beginning, but Yudhi bhai always remained civil in his dealings with them and extended hand of friendship and brotherly affection to them, which unfortunately was never reciprocated by Duryodhan. I was more neutral in my behaviour with them, so was Nakul and Sahadev. We knew our wicked cousins Duryodhan and Dushshasan can never be trusted and so we were not naive about it, but nevertheless tried our best to control ourselves. Bhim bhai found it difficult to control his emotions though and was more vocal and reciprocated in kind whenever needed when dealing with Duryodhan, Dushshasan, Karna and that wicked uncle of ours Shakuni.

During this time, I was immersed in fine tuning my archery skills and was practising daily for few hours in the morning, for few hours in the evening and an hour in the night. I practised in the night, so as to hone my skills at fighting in pitch dark, as Acharya Dron instructed us that Rakshasas and Gandharvas usually preferred to fight in the night, so we have to be prepared for that eventuality. Kunti maa and Badi mata were not exactly happy with me for spending in many hours in such rigorous practice and they used to gently scold me to relax as my training was already complete. But, I used to respond back saying one should always continue to learn and practise and we will stop our growth once that habit ceases. They knew all this but still due to their motherly affection, wanted me to relax and not be so severe on myself. But, I never looked at it that way, for me, practise and learning new techniques were always enjoyable and I was passionate about it. By the grace of Mahadev, parent's blessings and acharya's teachings, I never felt tired or bored with my craft and instead always looked for something new to learn and grow my repertoire. Only because of that love and passion for learning all the time, I was able to master shooting with both hands, was able to shoot accurately in the dark and was able to become proficient in wielding all kinds of weapons. If I was not passionate or loved my craft, then it would not have been possible to learn all those techniques. One should have inherent interest and zeal to learn and the passion for learning should come naturally, when such is the case, it results in fun but if one is forced to do things due to various external factors then it becomes drudgery.

One day we were asked to assemble in the court of Hastinapur by our Pitamah Bhishm. In the court, Pitamah Bhishm raised the issue of the repeated acts of aggression committed by the powerful kingdom of the Yavanas. They were causing disruption to the trading routes of our kingdom and through our spies we got to know they were also laying out plans for a future group attack on our kingdom from all sides. They were of the opinion that since our Pitamah has become aged, they could now launch an attack on our kingdom without any fear. The Yavana kingdom was a very powerful one whom even the legendary warrior our late father Maharaj Pandu was not able to subjugate. To thwart the dangerous plans of the Yavanas, Pitamah Bhishm announced that Hastinapur should launch pre-emptive attack and destroy the adventurous plans of our enemies.

Pitamah Bhishm proposed the names of us brothers excepting Yudhi bhai for this mission and asked Bade Pitashree and Kakashree Vidur, if they had any objections to this, and both nodded to give in their approval. Surprisingly, Duryodhan, Dushshasan and Karna were quiet after hearing this proposal and did not raise any objection. Usually, they used to raise objection to any proposal which they thought would benefit us and bring us any fame but I think now with their confidence being very low after the severe beating they got at the hands of Maharaj Drupad, so they were wary to do any such adventure with the powerful kingdom of Yavanas.