Mahabharata – 104

by 

Sankar Mukherjee

&

Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                                   Aadivamsavatarana Parva

The episode of Sukracharya & Kacha is singularly beautiful & significant.Despite the divinity & prowess gods were helpless before the demons in their fight with the demons.Because the great Sukracharya was the friend philosopher & guide of the demons.He could revive the dead.

So the gods sent the the son of Vrihaspati the preceptor of the gods to learn the secret of reviving the dead at the feet of Sukracharya.Sukracharya knew full well the intention of the gods.But he did not hesitate to accept Kacha as his discple.He would readily disseminate his knowledge to the deserving.This was the magnanimity of the wise preceptors in the age of the Mahabharata.

Kacha the son of Vrihaspati however,did not hide his identity before Sukracharya.He stated who his father was.This frankness of his, this truthfullness of his touches our heart.

And he vowed that he would observe celibacy for thousand years.And when Sukracharya deemed it fit he would initiate Kacha in the lore of the reviving the dead.

It goes without saying that demons would soon learn who Kacha was.Once the secret of reviving the dead was disclosed to the gods  the demons would be outwitted by the gods.The demons could not themselves revive the dead.So they must not kill Sukracharya.Ofcourse you never know whether Sukracharya could be killed.But they could kill Kacha the disciple of Sukracharya so that the knowledge of reviving the dead could  not reach the god.So it lay in the logic of the affairs that they would try to assassinate Kacha.

Thrice  they assassinated Kacha but thrice Kacha was recalled to life.This shows the efficacy of Sanjivani mantra.But this is not all.We have learned how cruelly the demons disposed of the dead body of Kacha once he was killed.They cut Kacha’s body in thousand pieces & gave away those pieces to the dogs.But Sukracharya’s Sanjivani mantra reunited the cut pieces of the limbs of Kacha & Kacha came back to life whence no man returns.Another time Kacha’s body was flung into the sea.It must have rotted there & mingled with the water.But Sukracharya called Kacha back to life.In other words even if a dead body had mingled with the elements Sukracharya could seperate a person from the element & bring him back to life.Finally they killed Kacha & mixed his dead body with wine that was offered to Sukracharya himself.Now if Kach had to show up he must resurrect by way of killing Sukrachaya.But the foolish demons did not understand that a Brahamin of Sukracharya’s stature would not hesitate to sacrifice himself for the well being of his disciple.Besides had the demons not killed Kacha like that,Kacha could have to wait for years together to learn the mantra of reviving the dead.But trying to kill Kacha over & over again expedited the learning of the mantra by Kacha earlier than it seemed to be scheduled.And the activities of the demons simply scandalized Sukracharya.When he said that the killing a Brahamin can dethrone even the mighty king of gods.Sukracharya forecast that by way of killing Kacha the devout  Brahamin,the demons would never suceed in their design of destroying the gods.

May be in future there would be more fights between gods & demons.But Sukracharya’s prophecy would not be undone.

One wonders whether the demons are dominating the human society in the world today.But those of us who believe in the Mahabharata know that Sukracharya’s saying can never fail.