Let us go to grand epic, Mahabharata. Visualize the scene of battlefield. The battle is approaching its end. Bhishma Pitamah is lying on the bed of arrows. Sri Krishna and Pandavas are standing around the site.
Let us take a recap of the personality of Bhishma Pitamah.
– He was the son of King Shantanu and Ganga.
– He had taken a vow that he would never rule the kingdom of his father, the son of his wife would rule it.
– He was an intense celibate. This practice of Brahmacharya had instilled immense strengths in him.
– He had the choice of accepting his death, by his own sweet will.
– His strengths were used by Duryodhana, as he had asked Bhishma Pitamah to kill all the five Pandavas.
– But, later he had asked Arjuna to kill him. He told Arjuna the way of accessing his willful death. And, finally the most beloved Bhishma Pitamah was on the bed of arrows. The death was awful, though he received Salvation. He was pierced by the arrows shot by his beloved Arjuna and remained on the suspended deathbed for several weeks.
– Bhishma Pitamah had the power of hindsight, viz, he could see his previous births. His virtues were unquestionable in all his births, but there were few petty mistakes which invited his sufferings.
This conversation will unveil the cause of death of such a pious soul, in a painful way.
(Sri Krishna and Pandavas are standing around the bed of arrows.)
Bhishma: O Madhusudan! Thou have given this being a power of retrovisions. I have seen my past deeds, and I am unable to decipher the karmas which forced me to lay on the prickly death bed.
Sri Krishna: O great warrior! Thou should see the adjacent preceding birth, the seventy-second one.
(Sri Krishna carries his vision to his seventy-second birth. Bhishma Pitamah sees that he has placed a hot log on a trail of ants as a part of juvenile mischief. He understands it.
Arjuna is also the part of the conversation. A doubt drops in his mind.)
Arjuna: O Keshav! I agree to Thy words of action and fruits. But, Thou also say that we shall not reap the fruits, if we surrender at Thy Divine Feet. So, why is Pitamah forced to suffer his deeds, despite the fact he is totally surrendered?
Sri Krishna: Yes, I have said the same. But, he had committed a mistake, despite his selfless virtues. O Parth! Remember the day of Dyut Krida (the day of gambling in the court in Hastinapur). After you all lost the game, Draupadi was forced to come in court, and was humiliated amidst all the courtiers. Vidhur, the wise minister, and Vikarna, one of the Kauravas, were absolutely against the decision of cheerharan (humiliation of Draupadi). In protest, Vidhur had left the court. But, Pitamah was the absolute witness of the entire crime event. Though he was chained in the words to his father, but he could have placed his views and protested against the crime. But, he saw the event, without a speck of retaliation. He could not have attained success in saving the humaneness, only I could revert the event, but efforts were mandatory.
And, you will not suffer for these actions in the war, but your helpless attitude before and after the event of gambling would make you suffer as well.
WHAT HAPPENED LATER?
Bhishma Pitamah attained Salvation on the day of sankranti, and united with Sri Krishna. He could have nullified his previous fruits of past deeds, if he would have take some efforts to save the humaneness in the court.
And, the Pandavas had to suffer in the heavens for sometime, and then were freed into Eternal skies.
All these dialogues were portrayed by Sri Krishna as a Guru, of Bhishma Pitamah and Pandavas.
Moral- If wrong deeds are performed by a person, and he has not surrendered at the Divine feet of Guru, he is forced to suffer his fruits, in a magnified manner. But, if he finds the Guru, but his past actions are not good, then the fruits are born by the person, in a dilute way. The fruits can’t be avoided.