The soul can never cease to
be; who then can destroy it? Therefore, when Arjuna slew his cousins he
would merely remove their offensive bodies; their souls, unable to be
destroyed, would seek other habitations. To further impress Arjuna,
Krishna boasted of himself as embodying everything, and as having passed
through many forms. Faith in Krishna was indispensable, for the god placed
faith above either works or contemplation. He next exhibited himself in
his divine form to Arjuna, and the warrior was horror-stricken at the
terrible divinity with countless arms, hands, and heads, touching the
skies. Having been thus instructed by Krishna, Arjuna went forth, and the
eighteen days' battle began.
The slaughter was wholesale; no quarter was asked or given, since each
side was determined to exterminate the other. Flights of arrows were
stopped in mid-air by flights of arrows from the other side. Great maces
were cut in pieces by well-directed darts. Bhima, wielding his great club
with his prodigious strength, wiped out thousands of the enemy at one
stroke, and Arjuna did the same with his swift arrows. Nor were the
Kauravas to be despised. Hundreds of thousands of the Pandavas' followers
fell, and the heroic brothers were themselves struck by many arrows.
Early in the battle the old Bhishma was pierced by so many arrows that,
falling from his chariot, he rested upon their points as on a couch, and
lay there living by his own desire, until long after the battle.
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