No.3
Then, a blazing mass of red clouds was seen to suddenly appear overhead, and from those clouds came showers of weapons such as chakras and thunderbolts. Karna tried to smash all of these weapons with his arrows, but was this time unsuccessful, and so a great massacre of the Kaurava army ensued. Then, as the oppressed Kaurava warriors gazed up into the sky, they saw innumerable fierce Rakshasas. With blazing mouths and sharp teeth, those Rakshasas were hurling showers of darts and other weapons down upon them, and thus they were being pierced and crushed on all sides. At last, all of the surviving Kaurava soldiers fled from the scene of the battle, and so Karna was left alone in the midst of the shower of weapons.
Karna did not waver, however, and he continued to send a steady stream of arrows into the sky while fresh horses were yoked onto his chariot by a new driver. Ghatotkacha then hurled a staghni weapon with wheels that killed these horses, and after getting down from his disabled chariot, Karna attempted to dispel the Rakshasa’s illusions by means of his celestial weapons. His attempts turned out to be futile, so Karna began to fearfully think about what he should do next. Upon seeing how their leader had become highly vulnerable while being severely assaulted by showers of weapons, the Kaurava warriors began to shout, “O Karna, now is the time for you to invoke the infallible dart of Indra! The sons of Dhritarashtra and our entire army are about to be consumed by this terrible Rakshasa! Therefore, please kill Ghatotkacha immediately so that the survivors can contend with the Pandava army tomorrow.”
When Karna heard these anxious pleas and saw how Ghatotkacha’s devastating attack was annihilating the Kaurava army, he made up his mind to employ Indra’s infallible dart which he had worshiped for many years in the hopes of killing Arjuna. When Ghatotkacha saw Indra’s dart in Karna’s hand, he immediately assumed a gigantic form and began to fearfully run away from the battlefield at full speed. However, when Karna hurled that wonderful dart, it immediately dispelled all of Ghatotkacha’s illusions, pierced him right through the chest and it then soared all the way up to heaven. Being fatally wounded, Ghatotkacha let out a terrible roar and then fell down dead upon the ground. And yet, even at the point of death, the heroic son of Bhima wanted to do something to benefit the Pandavas. Thus, while falling, Ghatotkacha kept expanding his body and then purposely landed upon the most dense portion of the Kaurava army. In this way, Ghatotkacha crushed to death one full akshauhini while breathing his last.
In spite of this, all of the Kaurava warriors shouted with joy, for they had become highly relieved just to see how the terrible Rakshasa had at last been slain. Meanwhile, Karna had ascended Duryodhana’s chariot, and at this time, all of the Kaurava warriors came and worshiped him with great respect and gratitude.
On the other side, the Pandava warriors became very aggrieved, and their eyes filled with tears. The only exception was Lord Krishna, and although it seemed highly out of place after the slaying of Bhima’s son, He laughed loudly with great joy. Indeed, after warmly embracing Arjuna, Lord Krishna began to dance in ecstasy. Then, after once again embracing His dear friend, Krishna stood up on the chariot and repeatedly uttered exclamations of jubilation. This incongruous sight only served to aggravate the grief of the Pandava warriors, and Arjuna, who was extremely morose, then said, “O Krishna, such an exhibition of happiness on this sad occasion does not seem at all befitting to me. Still, there must be some very grave and inscrutable reason for Your jubilation, and so I request that You kindly disclose it.”
Lord Krishna replied, “My dear Arjuna, listen to Me, for I shall immediately dispel your grief. The reason that I am happy now is because Karna has wasted his infallible dart. Don’t you see? Now, you are free to fight with him without anxiety. Karna was the single greatest stumbling block on our path to victory. Indeed, if he were still in possession of his original celestial armor and earrings, then no one would have been able to vanquish him: neither all of the demigods, nor yourself with your Gandiva bow. Even now that Karna is bereft of his natural armor and earrings and his prowess is only mild in comparison with that which he originally possessed, he is still only capable of being killed by you and no one else. My dear Arjuna, I want you to know that it is only for your sake that I had formerly killed many demons who had posed themselves as kshatriyas. And, even I had to accomplish such feats with the help of various contrivances.”
Arjuna inquired, “My dear Lord, what do You mean by saying that You had to kill all of those demoniac kings with the help of contrivances?” - Mahabharata, Drona-Parva