6. Sahadeva

Sahadeva was the fifth and the youngest Pandava. He said, “We, the Pandavas, are worshipping Krishna. We shall eternally worship Him. If you people are jealous of Krishna, no matter who you are, even if you are my superiors or my elders, I shall kick your heads off with my thunder-feet.”

In the battle of Kurukshetra he killed the matchless treacherous Shakuni, the maternal uncle of the Kauravas. Indeed, Sahadeva was a hero. But his weapon-might was far surpassed by his scripture-light.

His temper was of the quickest, and he defeated even Bhima in anger-war. Once he said to Sri Krishna, “I tell you, I want to fight with Duryodhana. If necessity demands, I shall not hesitate in the least to swerve from the path of Truth. Let Yudhisthira (the king of virtue), Bhima and Arjuna stay with their sense of dharma (the inner code of life) if they want to. Not I, never!” On their Heaven-bound journey, when Sahadeva’s life-breath left his body, Bhima wanted to know the reason from Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira said to Bhima, “Sahadeva’s final departure from the earth-scene is due to his disproportionate pride. He felt that in scripture-light nobody on earth could ever equal him.”