Barbarika, The disciple of Krishna

The character of Barbarika in Mahabharat is symbolic of a pupil's devotion and sacrifice for his teacher. Before the Mahabharata war started, Lord Krishna asked every maharathi how many days he would take to finish Mahabharata war alone. Lord Krishna asked Bhisma, who said he will take 20 days to finish the Mahabharata. Lord Krishna asked Dronacharya, who said he would take 25 days. Then he asked Karna, who said he would take a month, and so on. He then asked Arjuna, "how many days would it take for you to finish the Mahabharata". He replied, "18 days".
After this Krishna asked Barbarika the same question. Barbarika replied that he would take one hour. Krishna asked Barbarika to prove his claim of finishing the great Mahabharata battle in one hour. Krishna said, "if you can tie all the leaves of the peeple tree, I will believe that you can finish the war in one hour."
Barbarika took one arrow from his quiver and put it on his forehead and chanted a mantra, meanwhile Krishna broke one leaf from the peeple tree and hid it under his foot. Barbarika left the arrow tied every leaf of the tree and finally started revolving around Krishna's feet to tie the leaf under Lord Krishna's foot. Lord Krishna blessed Barbarika, "you are the greatest living Kshatriya on this earth today, and no Kshatriya will be as brave and powerful as you are".
Lord Krishna asked Barbarika on which side he would fight in the great battle of Mahabharata. Barbarika told Krishna that he had a pledge that he would always fight from the losing side. Krishna said, "When you fight, the other side will always be the losing side, so decide which side you will fight". Barbarika could not decide which side to fight due to his pledge of "to fight always from the losing side". Though he always wanted to fight from the pandava's side due to his son and child relationship.
Krishna asked, to whom you consider your teacher. Barbarika replied, "O supreme Lord, to You". Krishna said, then give Me My Gurudakshina (gift to teacher). On this Barbarika replied, "please ask, what do You want in Gurudakshina". Krishna asked, "give Me your head". Barbarika took a sword and cut his head and gave it to Krishna on his own hand. On this Krishna became very pleased and said, "ask what you want Barbarika". Barbarika said, "I would love to watch the Mahabharata battle live." On this Krishna made special arrangement and placed his head on two bamboo and placed it on nearby mountain so that he can watch the complete Mahabharata battle. Barbarika watched the great Mahabharata battle live.
After the Mahabharata war every one alive on the Pandava's side claimed that, he finished the war. And they started fighting, on this Krishna told that, "let's go to Barbarika, he has watched the complete Mahabharata battle live, so he can give his decision on this". They all went to Barbarika and asked, "who do you think finished the war?" To this Barbarika replied, "O Lord Krishna I have not seen anyone other than You doing anything in the war, You have done everything". On this everyone returned and understood the Krishna's role in Mahabharata.