Death to Bhishma!

महाभरत

Mahābharata

As retold by

Michael Dolan, B.V. Mahāyogi

AMBA PERFORMS AUSTERITIES

Amba was still not appeased.  

Parashuram

Paraśurāma said to her, “O gentle maiden, as these warriors, brahmaṇas, and gods are my witness, I was your champion. To the best of my power I fought to avenge the wrong done to you. I used all my military and mystic power against my student Bhiṣma, and yet could not overcome him, short of destroying the universe itself.  What more can I do?”

Bhishma, Amba, Shikhandi

Amba replied, “Bhiṣma may not be vanquished in battle, even by such a great champion as your holiness. My only hope now is to appease Shiva. I shall enter the life of a mystic yogi and by the power of asceticism, renunciation, penances and austerities I shall achieve the goal of mystic yoga and aquire such power as shall be necessary to avenge the wrongs committed by Bhiṣma.”

Mount Mahendra

Amba left for the mountains of Mahendra, where she spent long years dedicating herself to austerity and penance. I bade farewell to my ancient preceptor, ascended my war-chariot and returned to the city of elephants whence I had come. In the course of time I appointed certain friends with the task of spying on Amba to ascertain her movements. 

She entered a series of ashrams and practiced austerities beyond the powers of human endurance, elevating by Kundalini yoga her chakra energies to astounding levels. Without food, emaciated, dry, with matted hair, filthy, for six months she lived on air only and remained motionless. 

Worship of Shiva Lingam

And so, after giving up food and drink, passed a whole year like this standing in the waters of the river Yamuna. Amba was still not appeased.

LORD SHIVA APPEARS TO AMBA

The Lord Shiva, carrying his trident and riding a great bull, appeared before Amba. Lord Shiva asked her, “What would you have from me?” Amba, telling Lord Shiva her story, said, “As a woman, I have no longer any desire, neither for marriage, nor children and family. I am, however, resolved to become a man, to take up arms as a warrior and revenge myself on Bhiṣma.”   

Shiva riding Nandi the bull

  

Finally, Shiva promised her, “You shall slay him, but not in this lifetime. You will become a great warrior in your next lifetime, but first you must die to live. 

 You must build a fire and enter into it. In your next life you will remember all the sorrow that Bhiṣma caused you and you shall be born as a man. You shall be born as the son of Drupada and become a Maharatha, a chariot-master expert in the use of deaweapons. As a  fierce warrior known to the world as Shikhandi,  you shall cause the death of Bhiṣma.”        

AMBA ENTERS THE FIRE

With these words, Shiva, disappeared from before Amba. Amba, heartened by his promise, and determined to carry out his orders built a large funeral pyre on the banks of the Yamuna River. Setting fire to the wood, she watched it burn until the flames were hot and high. Calmly, her veins filled with the ice water of cold revenge, Amba entered into the heart of the fire and felt the flames licking higher and higher until she was consumed. 

"Death to Bhishma!"

As her rage burned with the fire, she screamed her final words as an earthly woman, “Death to Bhiṣma!”