Contray to belief that he was strong and could be easily provoked, few of know that he was a level headed person and he had a good sense of good and bad. Following are the few stories which uncover a part of him, which is sensitive. Read on.
Airavat – Indra’s elephant danced to the tunes of Bhima
One of the exploits of Bhima was to bring Airavat, the vehicle of Indra from heaven. Once, a ritual was to be performed by Kunti and Gandhari, which required Airavat to be present.
Kauravas made the elephant out of mud and performed the ritual but Bhima brought original Airawat to do the ritual. Arjuna facilitated by making a path of arrows from heaven to earth. Bhima then starts his way and fights with the elephant and brings it down to earth. Kunti, thus performed the ritual with grandeur as compared to Kauravas.
Humble Bhima
Perhaps the strongest person in the world at that point of time, but he was humility personified. When Shri Krishna asked them to provide an account of their powers, Bhima was most modest. Shri Krishna later told him that actually he was thousand times more accomplished than what he thinks of himself.
The greatest praise to him comes from Duryodhana. He names Bhima, Balarama, Keechaka and Shalya as the best warriors and the strongest. He named Bhima as the first person.
The righteous Bhima
He was not only the strongest person on earth, he had the measure of good and bad and was never afraid of saying the right things. During the game of dice, Bhima is the one who opposed the whole incident.
He rebukes Yudhishthira for getting into the game by suggesting that his hands should be burnt. When Arjuna tells him that he cannot do that to his older brother, Bhima reveals to everyone the Dharma that when elders commit mistakes, younger ones have to make it known and that mere mentioning of a punishment is enough and actual execution is not required. Thus Bhima punishes Yudhishthira for wrong doing, which is commendable and shows that he had an astute mind. He later on vowed to break Duryodhana’s thighs and drink blood from Dushashana’s heart.
Escape from Lakshagriha
While Pandavas were trying to escape Lakshagriha, there was a long tunnel made which connected the palace to the outer world. The path was long and could have tired all the Pandavas while escaping. The mighty Bhima, carried all pandavas and his mother on his soldiers and took them to safety. His strength and power indeed came handy while escaping Lakshagriha.
He left his wife for his brothers and mother
While Pandavas escaped the fire of Lakshagriha, they were spending time in a forest. That forest was the abode of demon Hidimb and his sister, Hidimba. When Hidimb came to know about the five brothers and their mother, He ordered Hidimba to make kill the pandavas as they will become his food. As Bhima was guarding Pandavas, Hidimba could not do as instructed. Enraged, Hidimb himself ventured out in quest of human flesh, but was duly killed by Bhima.
After killing Hidimb, Bhima wanted to kill Hidimba too as he thought that she might want to avenge her brother’s death. But the almighty has other ideas. Hidimba was attracted to Bhima and wanted to marry, but he declines, as he did not want to be away from his brothers. Hidimba then begged Kunti to allow Bhima to marry her as she was deeply in love with him and also because she was all alone now. After pondering for a while, Kunti ordered Bhima to marry Hidimba. Bhima reluctantly agreed on the condition that he could leave her once she bore a child with him. She agreed and they got married. Within a year, Hidimba gave birth to a son and Bhima left her to be with his brothers.
Punishing Kichaka
Another deed of Bhima was of killing of Kichaka. Kichaka was the commander of Matsya desh, where pandavas were hiding in agyaatvaas. Once he rteurns fromthe war and gets attracted to Draupadi, who eas acting as sairandhri. Against the advise of queen. he starts to make improper advances towrds her. In dire need of help, Bhimasena comes to her rescue. Draupadi calls Kichaka in a forest there Bhima was waiting for him.. After a great fight. kichaka was killed by Bhima. He had 105 brothers, who wanted to burn Draupadi along with their brother, they also met the same fate as of Kichaka.
Bhima’s family and wives
Besides Draupadi, Bhima had two more wives. One was the demon Hidimba, who had a son called Ghatotkacha. He played an important role in the Kurukshetra war. From Draupadi, he begotten a son called Sutasoma. Third of his wives was Balandhara, who was the daughter of ruler of Kashi. His name was Satsoma. He later became the King of Kashi. This is notable that he did not ascend to the throne after Yudhishthira despite being elder to Parikshit. Ghatotkacha and Sutasoma have both died in the war of Mahabharata.
