The Return of Bhishma

महाभरत

Mahābharata

As retold by

Michael Dolan, B.V. Mahāyogi

BHIṢMA RETURNS

            "In this way, I became a man. I was trained in the art of war and ready to rule a kingdom or challenge princes for the hand of a maiden in battle. I payed my respects to my guru and departed his ashrama, wending my way through the mountains and valleys." Bhiṣma continues, “In course of time I grew thirsty and stopped  by the banks of the river for water.  Cupping my hands I drank. When I looked up, I beheld a goddess in shining white. She stood on a lotus floating in the river and smiled at me. And as I focused my eyes, I realized that this goddess was my mother, who had so long ago taken human form to serve my father Shantanu, as wife. She gestured, saying, “Follow me.”

Stream in Himalayas

 So in the company of my mother, the goddess of the river, I traversed the valley, retracing the path through the foothills of the Himalayas that we had taken so many years ago when she had led me to the ashram of the sage Vasistha. 

In this way, we returned to the place where we had abandoned my father so many years ago, where King Shantanu ruled the valley. Many years had passed. At this time, having conquered various lands by force of weapons, my father had become a great king but he lamented the lack of an heir to his dynasty.

            One morning we reached the very spot where my mother had tried to drown me so long ago. There was my father, downriver a ways, a lost soul. He was staring into the waters of the Ganges as if hoping that one day his son would return. 

Shantanu and Gangadevi

I showed off my prowess with the bow by shooting thousands of arrows into the river, constructing a dam that stopped the flow of the water. King Shantanu, seeing the waters of the river stopped by my arrows was astonished. He came before me and asked, "Who are you?" 

Ganga-devi

But before I could reply, my mother appeared to him in all her splendor, four-armed, floating on a lotus. Shantanu was astonished. “O lady,” he said, “or goddess, whoever you may be. I lost a son on this river a long time ago. Pray tell me if you have the power, what became of my son and heir, the fair-haired boy with eyes blue as the ice of the Himalayas?”

Upon hearing these words, Gangadevi appeared before Shantanu once again in mortal form as the maiden he had married, and said, “My lord, don’t you recognize me? I was your wife while you questioned not my actions.”

            Shantanu who had bowed before her, amazed, recognized the fair beauty that had ruled his heart and ran to her and embraced her. “What has become of my only son?” he said. Gangadevi backed away and then waved to me. “Come here my boy” she said. I followed her gesture on my horse and rode up to where my father stood. “Here is your son” she said. “This is Bhiṣma. 

"This is Bhisma. your son."

He will be a great warrior and protect your dynasty. He is expert in the Vedas which he learned from Vasistha and in the art of war which he learned from Paraśurāma.” And so saying my mother once again assumed her form as a great goddess and disappeared on a golden lotus into the mists of the Ganges.

Bhisma continued, “My mother was the goddess of India's most sacred river: the Ganges. Known as Gangadevi, she was cursed by a brahmaṇa to walk the earth. This was long ago. I have already told you the story. At that time she was made to appear as the young daughter of a forest sage, and while she appeared as a mortal girl, she was the fairest of all young maids in great Bharat.

Shantanu and Ganga

“Try to imagine, my child, her black and shiny hair, her lotus-shaped eyes, blue as the ice of the Himalayas, her body curved, her arms lithe as the trunk of any elephant.  While she was shy and gentle, her heart was as passionate as a river that overflows her banks in the early days of the monsoon. My mother was a true goddess. But she disappeared from my life, that day, never to return.  My father was heartbroken, but happy to see me again. He welcomed me with open arms.

"So I was admitted within the palace of Shantanu, as his son, and the royal heir to all the Indias and greater Bharat. I told him of my adventures in the ashram of Paraśurāma and showed him the weapons I had acquired. So we lived in peace until one day, as he was crossing the river my father, Shantanu noticed a beautiful maiden. Now, since Gangadevi had left him he had lived alone and desolate but upon seeing the lovely maiden, Shantanu was charmed. He felt that he had finally found the young girl who could share his days and be the mother of his heirs."

Shantanu and Satyavati

            Now this girl was called Satyavati. She later became the mother of my brothers, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya and she had a history of her own.