TWELVE
His deep voice filling the yagnashala, Bheeshma began, "Sishupala, you were not born an ordinary child. You came into the world with three eyes and four arms. You were a freak and we heard about you in Hastinapura."
Sishupala stiffened where he sat, so full of contempt. He had never heard this before, yet he knew Bheeshma was telling the truth.
Bheeshma continued, "The monstrous child didn't cry like a human baby but brayed like a little donkey, as demons do when they take a human form. Your parents were horrified and decided to do away with the freak. He couldn't be raised as the heir to the Chedi throne."
"You lie," breathed Sishupala, but his voice lacked conviction. What the Kuru patriarch was saying was irresistible and light was breaking savagely into the Bull of Chedi's dark spirit.
Bheeshma ignored Sishupala. "When your father Damaghosha thought of killing you, a disembodied voice spoke to him, 'Your son will become a great kshatriya; keep him with you and raise him. It is not time for him to die and you are not the one who will kill him. But his killer has also been born.'
Your mother Srutadevi cried, 'Who will be my son's killer?
The asariri replied, 'When you place the child in his lap, your son's third eye and his superfluous arms will vanish.'"
"Strange tales you tell!" scoffed Sishupala, but he was plainly uncertain. "But are they any more than your senile fancies?"
Bheeshma was undeterred. "The kings of the earth heard of the freak born in Chedi and came to see him. Damaghosha welcomed them, because he wanted to discover who would be his son's killer. Your father brought you in and set you in each king's lap. But your third eye still glared at every kshatriya there and your four arms remained."
Bheeshma paused; silence held the yagnashala. Slowly, the Kuru patriarch resumed, "One day, his Yadava cousins, Balarama and Krishna, came to Chedi to see Sishupala. He was handed to Balarama first and the child brayed at him.
Then Srutadevi placed her son in her younger nephew, Krishna's, lap. There was a flash of light and the infant's third eye had vanished and his extra arms. He lay in his cousin's lap and now cried like any human child. The bestial voice was gone and Krishna held him, laughing softly.
Srutadevi is Vasudeva's sister. She knew his own cousin would be her son's killer. She said, 'Krishna, I have a favor to ask you and you must not refuse me.'
'Anything for you,' said Krishna.
'Promise me you will always forgive my Sishupala any offence he gives you.'
'For your sake, I will forgive him a hundred times!"
She hugged him and never dreamt that Sishupala could offend Krishna a hundred times. They were cousins, after all, not enemies. But when Damaghosha heard what had happened, he did not believe Krishna's promise to pardon Sishupala a hundred offences.
When he was still a boy, Damaghosha sent his son to Girivraja to become Jarasandha's pupil. Who else on earth opposed Krishna as boldly as the rakshasi's foster-son?
Jarasandha had heard about young Sishupala and, when the prince arrived in his sabha, he welcomed him, crying, "What a handsome fellow you are. I will make you a lion of a kshatriya!"
In Girivraja, Sishupala met another prince who was Jarasandha's pupil and who would also become Krishna's inveterate enemy: Rukmi of Vidarbha. Rukmi and Sishupala became great warriors and greater friends. When Sishupala visited Vidarbha with his friend, once, he saw Rukmi's sister, Rukmini and fell in love with her. When he told Rukmi, his friend promised Sishupala his sister's hand. Sishupala walked on air, thinking he would soon have the most beautiful bride in the world. But Rukmini already loved Krishna of Dwaraka."
None of the kings in the Mayaa sabha stirred. Bheeshma continued unhurriedly, "Meanwhile, Jarasandha had sworn to avenge Kamsa's death. He took eighteen armies to Krishna's gates in Mathura and in half of them Sishupala fought against his cousin. Every time, Jarasandha was defeated and each time Krishna spared Sishupala's life.
Sishupala was certain Krishna would not harm him, no matter what and his arrogance grew. Whenever a battle was lost, he would abuse Krishna foully. Even if Balarama wanted to kill him, Krishna stopped his brother, saying, 'We must spare him for our aunt's sake.'
That is why Sishupala behaves as he has today, that he dares abuse even me. He is sure that Krishna will not kill him.
And Sishupala hates Krishna; it was on the day he was meant to marry Rukmini, that the Dark One carried her away from under the eyes of a hundred kings. He has never forgiven Krishna for that. But when Rukmini loved Krishna, how could Sishupala even dream of having her?
This, my lords, is why he raves here as if he has lost his mind. I say to the rest of you, it would be reckless to follow a man who is as unhinged with envy as this one."
The patriarch saw the kings now cast dark looks at the Bull of Chedi. Some of them cried, "For shame, Sishupala, you misled us."
"This isn't a kshatriya's way."
Bheeshma said, "Sishupala has exhausted the hundred pardons Krishna promised his mother. His time to die is here."
Sishupala gave the roar of a cornered beast. Turning on Krishna, he cried, "Come cowherd, fight! I am tired of talk. This old fool says you will kill me, but I warn you this won't be like seducing gopis in Vrindavana. It is a fight to the death I want. Dare you fight me?"
Krishna rose. He said to the other kings, "Twice a hundred times I have spared this fool's life for his mother's sake. Today you have all heard him abuse not just me but Bheeshma. You have provoked me repeatedly, Sishupala and I did nothing to you. Once you set fire to Dwaraka when I was away. You tried to stop my father Vasudeva's Aswamedha yagna. You attacked our king Ugrasena on Raivataka. You were born to a Yadava princess and you are my cousin. But you have always hated our people.
As for women, you forced yourself on so many. I should have killed you when you and your friend Karusha molested the Yadava princesses and their sakhis on the highway through Anarta. You ravished Akrura's wife.
My lords, I have not the time or the patience to recount all this man's crimes. But, worst of all, he wanted my Rukmini for himself…"
Sishupala howled, "I wanted your Rukmini! To whom was she given by her brother and father? Whose bride was she to become when you abducted her? She was mine, cowherd, mine! You stole her from me."
Still calmly, Krishna said, "I have forgiven you as much as you deserve. I will forgive you again, today, for Yudhishtira's sake: because I do not want to desecrate his yagna. But you must ask Bheeshma's pardon, Sishupala," his voice grew softer, "or I will be forced to kill you."
Sishupala laughed in his face. "Ask the pardon of this old eunuch? At a cowherd's command. You forget I am a kshatriya and a king!"
Those were the last words he ever spoke. Suddenly, Krishna had the Sudarshana Chakra burning over his finger. He flicked his wrist forward sinuously and the blinding disk cut Sisupala's head from his throat in a flash of blood. The huge Bull of Chedi, pale as mist, fell dead in the midst of Yudhish tira's Rajasuya yagna and his head rolled away by itself. Blood gushed from him, spreading in a dark stain on the ground.
Every kshatriya was on his feet and Krishna stood there, cool as ever. A pulsing light, like a small sun, issued from Sishupala's neck and flared into the Avatara. He glowed with it briefly, before it was part of him and subsided into his mystery. Krishna laughed softly.
Outside, thunder rent the sky and black clouds, which had gathered unnoticed, began to lash Indraprastha with torrential rain. Strange meteors flared out of the heavens and the earth shook with deep tremors. Far away, the sea rose in tidal waves and dashed against his shores. It seemed the killing of Sishupala at Yudhishtira's Rajasuya yagna presaged some terrible calamity for the world, most of all, for its kshatriyas.
Yudhishtira ordered his brothers to honorably cremate Sishipala and crowned his son king of Chedi. Hardly any of those kings and princes, not even the Pandavas, noticed that Krishna's eyes were full of another joy. None of them knew he had just ended a curse of ages and restored Vishnu's dwarapalaka, Jaya, to eternal life. Narada, who knew all about that curse, smiled.
Once, on another world, some rishis had come to Vaikunta to visit Narayana, who lies upon the waters of eternity. But Vishnu's gatekeepers, Jaya and Vijaya, barred their way because the holy ones came as chattering, mischievous children.
The munis cursed Jaya and Vijaya to three demonic lives on earth. Vishnu promised them that he, too, would be born into the world to deliver them. The first time, in a mythic age, the two had been born as the golden-skinned demons, Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashyapu, who terrorized creation for a million years. Vishnu came as an awesome Boar and a dreadful Manticore to kill them.
The second time, at the beginning of the dwapara yuga, nine hundred thousand years before Krishna's time, there had been the sinister rakshasa Ravana and his brother Kumbhakarna. Vishnu came as Rama to rescue the earth from their satanic tyranny; and to release them, as well, from another monstrous incarnation.
Now, as the dwapara yuga ended, Jaya and Vijaya had been born as Sishupala, the Bull of Chedi and his friend crooked-teeth Dantavakra, king of Kalinga. Krishna had redeemed his dwarapalaka Jaya. Dantavakra waited for the Dark One outside the city, beside the midnight-blue Yamuna. Having received the purodasa, Krishna had to go alone to the river for the avabhruta snana, the closing ablution.
Dantavakra attacked him there. Vishnu's Avatara liberated Vishnu's other gatekeeper with a blow of his mace, shattering his head like a melon. Meanwhile, many of the kshatriyas at the sacrifice were shocked at the calm and brutal slaying of Sishupala. Seeing the omens of the elements after the killing, they may have thought of leaving before the sacrifice was completed; but Krishna stood at the door with the Sudarshana Chakra whispering over his finger. Yudhishtira's Rajasuya was properly concluded in marvelous Indraprastha, while sinister omens swept through the world.