JHCal

As Mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam Purports by His Divine Grace, A. C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada that Bhishmadev was much more superior to Arjuna in strength and archery but Karna was his equal therefore Krsna had to device crooked means to win that battle. The ratio was 3:1 in favor of the Kauravas, that is to say if the match between Arjuna and Karana carried on any longer, The Kaurava Army would have overpowered the Pandava Army. At the end of the war, Krsna did tell Arjuna that the Pandava victory was only due to Sri Krsna, Sri Krsna mentioned that Karna, Bishma, Drona, Kripa were all like sharks where as Arjuna was a fish in the great ocean of battle. The Devotee is always victorious, Krsna wanted to broadcast that fact that no matter how powerful the person maybe, if he fights in the side of irreligion, he will lose. A devotee is always surrendered to the Supreme Lord and executes his duties on the Lord's order. Karna, Drona, Bishma also derive power from the Supreme Lord too, as Krsna says "I am in the ability in man" in the Bhagavad Gita. But if they use that power in the wrong way, that power eludes them when they need it most.

Hare Krishna prabhuji, What a beautiful pastime, I was wondering where you got this from? Visnu Purana? Ys. JHCal

Yep...agreed! Beeshma is a respected elder and not a fool, Arjuna can defeat him singlehandedly if Krishna so desired this. Arjuna is unlimitedly powerful because of his own qualifications, he is the perfect instrument to exercise Lord Krishna's will. Bishma was an objective and logical personality who fought for Hastinapur, he was in obligation to fight, and he did promise that he will fight for the king but will not kill any of the Pandavas initially. Whether Karna is bad or not is a different topic, we can open another thread on that, we are talking about what makes a better archer. And the better archer is the one that is favoured by Lord Sri Krishna. This is an interesting topic for another thread, we are going outside the context of what are talking about. Agreed...because the war was one only by the will of the Lord, but not to forget also that this is the Lord's Lila, the Lord's devotees play like they are egotistical so that we can learn from them. Lord Brahma stole away the cowherd boys and calves, this doesnt show that he was offensive, but he carried out a play that way so that we can learn from it. Also we must wonder why Lord Sri Krishna instructed only Arjuna the Bhagavad Gita, this was due to his qualifications as the perfect student and his dearmost devotee friend, a devotee has no ego. If Arjuna had ego, he would be unqualified to recieve the Gita, so therefore he pretended to be egotistical so that we learn from them. Yes, agreed, the Lord likes to give credit to his devotees, so in the Gita it is said: Wherever there is Krsna, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion - Chapter: 18 - Shaloka 78 We dont say Arjuna is worthy, we say Arjuna is worthy because Lord Krishna saw him to be qualified as worthy, because he is the Lord's devotee and a suitable candidate for recieving the Bhagavad Gita. We are not challenging Karna as a person, again this is another topic...something like "was Karna good or bad?" The Skanda Purana says that the Lord and His devotees are never seperate, so they are both great, the devotee is great because he is a devotee of Lord Sri Krishna, and the Lord is great because he is achyuta: Infallible. When the Lord descends to earth, His devotees come along with Him, so he is never seperate from His devotees. The Lord is always victorious therefore His devotees, who carry out His orders are also victorious because they exercise His will. The Lord has not cast creed, country because He is absolute, to him there is no difference what faith a person follows or what country we are from, He sees us as His children. Genes are not carried because as you may know there was a massive fraticidal war among Krishna's dynasty and no one was left to carry out the family lineage (genes) Actually the Lord is our dearmost friend and father, He wants the overall best for us, and only His devotees can take us to Krishna, so both should be respected. Please forgive for my offences where caused, just trying to be objective as possible. You had some great points. But just to defend the sanity of the thread, we need to be clear what we are talking about, something are well out of context. JHCal