Once upon a time, there was a man named Shantanu. He fell in love
with a woman who was very mysterious. Her name was Ganga. She only agreed to
marry him if he didn’t question her. He was so lovestruck that he agreed. His
wife had deep psychological issues and drowned all of their offspring except
the last one. She had reasoning for why she did this, although she never told
him why—and she didn’t have to since he agreed in the beginning to ask any
questions.
The youngest son that was still living went by the name Bhishma.
Bhishma’s parents never told him what happened to his siblings, although he had
heard his mother speak of her previous pregnancies. He was a happy boy growing
up even though he didn’t have any other siblings to play with. For the most part,
he spent time with his mom—he was the definition of a momma’s boy.
The first day of school had arrived and Bhishma had to be
separated from his mom 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. He dreaded it at first,
but as time went on he began to gain some autonomy. One day, on his way to
school, he ran into some classmates. They asked why his mother had drown all of
his older siblings. “What?” He exclaimed, “My mother is a wonderful woman. She
has always been there for me. There is no way she could ever do that!” Enraged
by what they had said, Bhishma stormed home to tell his mother of the terrible
rumours he heard.
When Bhishma asked Ganga about the drownings, she was speechless.
She had completely forgotten about those tragic events that were suppressed so
deep in her memory. “Oh, son….” She
explained, “I have wanted to tell you for many years, but there is no way you
would ever understand. I didn’t want to hurt you.” Expecting her to tell him
that it was all a lie, Bhishma ran out of the room in tears. He felt so
betrayed by his mother that he decided to run away; after all, she was the most
important person in his life and she couldn’t even tell him the truth!
Bhishma ran away into the forest where he was attacked by a
rakasha. He screamed for his mother’s help but he was too far gone at that
point. The next day, Ganga had to bury her son that would still be alive had
she told him the truth from the beginning.
Photo of Bishma brought to his father grown; found online.
Author’s Note: I decided to have Bhishma grow up in a normal
community with his mother and father instead of having Ganga return him to his father when he was grown.
During this time he finds out about the drowning of his older siblings through
other children at school. I made it seem more like a realistic story because
tragic events like that would be talked about in a society like ours today. The
moral of the story is that your past actions will always catch up with you if
you choose not to face those demons or “skeletons” in the closet.
Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.
