The greatest hero of Mahabharat was Arjuna, the son of Kunti. He was born to relieve the earth of her burden. He was a true devotee, friend and ward of Lord Krishna. He always enjoyed the company and benevolence of Lord Krishna who saved his life on many occasions.

Since childhood, Arjuna was sharp witted, agile, valiant, patient, brave, self-containing, kind and determined. At the time of his birth a heavenly voice had proclaimed: " This boy will be as valiant as Lord Shiva and as invincible as Indra and will bring honour to your name. As Lord Vishnu had blessed his mother Aditi. Not only Kunti, but all those present there heard the proclamation. Thus, the super-natural powers of Arjuna had begun to become apparent right from his birth.

Education of Arjuna began along with his brothers and the sons of Dhritarashtra first with Kripacharya and then with Dronacharya. Pleased by the service, concentration and intelligence of Arjuna and with the efforts of Dronacharya, no archer could match Arjuna and indeed he was the best archer of his time. To pay his dues to Dronacharya, he defeated Drupada and brought him before his Guru. Hearing the news of Draupadi's Swayamvara, the Pandavas too were heading towards Drupadnagar in the guise of Brahmanas. On the way, they encountered the Gandharvas, Arjuna defeated them and made friends with the Gandharva king Chitrarath. It was Arjuna who successfully hit the eye of a whirling fish at Draupadi's Swayamvara and thus won her as his wife. The great kings who had come for the Swayamvara, failed to hit the target. Since Arjuna and the other Pandavas were in the guise of Brahmanas, all the other unsuccessful kings got together to defeat but, before the relentless shower of Arjuna's sharp arrows and powerful blows of Bheema's mace, they could not hold ground.

At the time of Khandava's burning, even the gods were defeated by Arjuna's valour. Pleased by his valour, Agni and Varuna gifted him many divine weapons. During the exile of the Pandavas, Sage Vyasa visited them and said that Arjuna was the fellow Tapasvi Nar himself. Nobody could defeat him. Hence, Vyasa advised the Pandavas to send Arjuna to receive divine weapons from Lord Shiva, Kuber, Indra, Varuna and Dharma raj. With those divine weapons, they would be able to win back their lost kingdom. Thus Arjuna began his penance at Indrakeela Mountain. There, Indra appeared in the guise of another Tapasvi and tried to distract him with allurements of heavenly comforts. But Arjuna kept on insisting to be taught the art of weaponry. Thus pleased, Indra told him to please Lord Shiva first and then come to heaven to receive all kinds of divine weapons. Arjuna began to do severe penance to please Lord Shiva. Pleased by his penance, Lord Shiva appeared before Arjuna in the guise of a Bheela(tribal). Dispute began between them over the killing of a wild boar and soon it turned into a fierce battle. Lord Shiva was pleased with the archery skills of Arjuna and appeared with Parvati in his original form and taught him the divine Pashupatya Astra that had the power to even defeat the gods. Thereafter, Indra, Yama, Varuna and Kuber too appeared there and bestowed Arjuna with weapons like Danda, Pasha and Antardhaana respectively while Indra invited Arjuna to heaven and sent his chariot to bring him. There, he received many divine weapons. He also made friends with Chitrasena and learnt Gandharva art(playing musical instruments and singing). Having perfected in weapons and by the permission of Indra, Arjuna destroyed the giants Nivata- Kavacha who were terrorizing the beings under the sea. On his way back, Arjuna also killed the demons Kalikeya and Paloma. At last, Arjuna returned and joined his brothers.

During their one-year secret stay in Viratnagar, Arjuna demonstrated classical skill. With a view to locate the Pandavas before the end of their secret stay, Duryodhana had launched an attack on Viratnagar. The king Uttar went with Arjuna who was in the guise of a eunuch Brihannala as his charioteer. But seeing the great warriors like Bheeshma, Drona, Karna, Kripa, Ashwatthama and Duryodhana, he began to flee in panic. But Arjuna stopped him and asked him to ride the chariot and he fought so fiercely that the Kauravas retreated.Thus Arjuna set an example of faithfulness to king of Viratnagar.

During the battle of Mahabharat, Jayadhrata killed Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna. Arjuna took an oath to kill Jayadhrata before the sunset. The Kauravas put all their forces to protect Jayadhrata. But Arjuna reached near Jayadhrata and with the blessings of Shri Krishna, he cut Jayadhrata's head in such a way that the head flew in the air and dropped in Jayadhrata's father's lap.

Once some robbers were running away with the cow of a Brahmana. Hearing the cries of the Brahmana, Arjuna assured to help him, but his weapons were at home in the room where Yudhishtir was along with Draupadi. It was agreed among the Pandavas that whenever a brother was with Draupadi and another brother intruded, the intruder would have to go on a self-imposed exile for 12 years. But Arjuna fetched his weapons from the nuptial room and recovered the cows from the robbers. Later on, Arjuna went on his self- imposed exile for having intruded the privacy of Yudhishtir.

In another instance, when Arjuna was in heaven, Indra decided to test his celibacy. He sent Urvashi to his room at night. She lured Arjuna to indulge in sensual conjugation but Arjuna addressed her as 'mother'. As Urvashi was blinded by lust, she cursed Arjuna that he would become a eunuch. When Indra came to know about the curse, he told Arjuna that the curse would serve him as a boon during the one-year stay in hiding and after spending that period he would regain his masculinity.

After their one year stay in hiding was over, the Pandavas revealed themselves before the king of Viratnagar. The King was willing to marry his daughter Uttara to Arjuna, but Arjuna had taught her the art of singing and dancing and saw her as his daughter and politely refused the proposal. Uttara too saw Arjuna as her teacher and was hence respectful to him. So Arjuna agreed to marry his son Abhimanyu to Uttara.

Lord Krishna and Arjuna were like one soul in two bodies. Arjuna had submitted totally to Krishna, At the beginning of the Mahabharat war, Lord Krishna preached Arjuna with the knowledge of the Bhagwad Geeta, Thereby ending all his attachments and affections for the rivals. Though Lord Krishna had proclaimed not to take weapons during the battle, but on many occasions, he took weapon to protect Arjuna. When Bheeshma Pitamaha was the commander of Kaurav's army, appeared quite invincible even for Arjuna who proved almost helpless before Bheeshma's shower of arrows. So, taking a wheel on one occasion and leash on another, Lord Krishna himself ran towards Bheeshma. At another moment, Lord Krishna himself took the all destroying, lethal Vaishnavasthra, which was launched by Bhagadatta on his own chest. Similarly, Lord Krishna pressed the chariot to save Arjuna from Sarpamukha arrow of Karna. Putting Ghatotkacha, the son of Bheema against Karna in order to instigate him to launch Shaktibaana that he had received from Indra to kill Arjuna was also a strategy of Lord Krishna.

Indignant by the crafty assassination of his father Drona, Ashwatthama attacked the Pandavas with Agneyastra that caused heavy destruction, but by the virtue of Lord Krishna, Arjuna and the Pandavas escaped unhurt. Seeing them alive, Ashwatthama left the battlefield vowing to kill them inspite of the war being over. He killed the five children of the Pandavas mistaking them for pandavas, but again seeing Arjuna coming towards him, the terrorized Ashwatthama launched the most powerful weapon Brahmastra. To counter it, Arjuna also launched Brahmastra. When both the Brahmastras collided, it resulted in thunder, meteors began to fall causing massive disturbances. Convinced by Vyasa, Arjuna brought back his Brahmastra, But devoid of any control Ashwatthama could not bring his back. At last with the permission of Vyasa, Ashwatthama directed his Brahmastra towards the foetus of Uttara. Here again, Lord Krishna protected the foetus that was eventually born as King Parikshit.

Life of Arjuna was indeed a divine life. More you reflect on it, the more idealistic and educative his character appears. Such a divine personality is indeed rare.