Devavrata, who was later bestowed the name of Bhishma( one who does the impossible), vowed that he would never marry to enable his father Santanu to marry the woman he loved, thus ensuring that there would be no claimants to the throne for his step brothers and their progeny and carried out his vow.(he also vowed that he would never ascend the throne).
After Duryodhana was mortally wounded and lay dying he says to Lord Krishna,
‘You have sided with the Pandavas,resorted to tricks that are against Dharma which You preach, made Jayathratha die by obscuring the Sun,kept Sikandi before Bhishma, made him drop the weapons,blew Your Panchajanya at the critical moment and ensured the death of Drona, ensured Vidhura from participating in the Mahabharata war, weakened Karna by engineering the disarming of him of his Makara,Kundala,his decision not to use Naagastra more than once,not to engage any of the Pandavas other than Arjuna in the war,deceitfully received the Punya of Karna in the guise of a Brahmin,made sure that Karna was kept off-balance by making Kunti to declare at a critical moment that she was his Mother….
You talk of Dharma?
Pandavas won because of your deceit.
You should be ashamed of yourself’
Vyasa writes,
‘ Krishna,The One who never bowed before any one ,averted Duryodhana’s eyes and looked down at the ground’.
The Devas showered flower petals on Duryodhana and Blessed him that he would enter Swarga.
Just before his last breath, Duryodhana apologies to Lord Krishna for his out burst and Govinda(the most sacred endearing name and the one Krishna likes most-one might notice that in Apara Karma,including Tharpana, Sankalpa, we say ‘Sri Govinda, Govinda,Adhya Sri Bhagavatha:’ never any other God’s Name for Govinda is the One who ensures Moksha;
As Rajaji says ‘if Sri Adi Sankaracaharya, who drank the ocean of Knowledge as one would from one’s palm, calls out to Govinda’-the other name which is dear to Krishna – Vasudeva, Narayana) and Lord Kesava Blesses him.
Such was the Culture of the people.
We will now turn to external references to this Culture from the Greatest language along with Sanskrit,Tamil.
……………………………………………………………………………… to be continued
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