Relevance of Mahabharat II

 Introduction

In the last blog I wrote about relevance of Mahabharat by analyzing Bhishma and Dridharashtra. In Mahabharat every character and the actions of each character has more relevance today. Certainly I don’t think I have attained the stage of writing all the Characters as it may amount to writing entire Mahabharat which needs divine blessings of the God. I just planned to analyze few characters and the actions of few characters which have more relevance to our present life.

In addition to Bhishma and Dridharashtra, the character sketch and actions of Drona, Vidhura, Drupada, Kunti, Karna, Draupadi, Duryodhana, Arjuna, Sahadev, Salliya, Aswathama and finally Lord Krishna are extremely relevant. In my view the epic is relevant for every action of ours. We can learn from this epic as to how we should lead our life and how we should conduct ourselves. Lord Krishna’s actions in entire Mahabharat is great and it had strategy, blessings, protection and above all he gives answer to all of us to all our issues and questions.

Drona

In Mahabharata Drona is the most learned person. He not only read four vedas but also read fifth Veda which is art of archery, war strategy and use of weapons. Though by birth he is a Brahmin and he learnt Vedas but he also learnt the use of weapons and war strategy which is meant for Khashtriyas i.e Kings and the rulers. When a man of his stature has read so much he is expected to act in a more neutral way. Not only that he should control his senses and also he should preach what he learnt and never should he use of any of the art he learnt for his purpose. But did he do that? He too deviated from this path and his action started the downfall.

During his Gurukul days he and Drupada were friends. In that friendship Drupada promises to Drona that once he becomes king after completion of Gurukul days he would take care of Drona as Drona was poor Brahmin. As expected Drona goes to Drupada when Drupada becomes King and Drupada forgets the promise he made to Drona and insults Drona. Now Drona is upset and he wanted to take revenge on Drupada. Bhishma identifies Drona as a right teacher for both Pandavas and Gauravas. After teaching to Pandavas and Gauravas, Drona seeks “Gurudkashina” from Arjun, whom he considered as his favorite disciple. He request Arjun to go and fight with Drupada and also seeks Arjun to imprison Drupada. Arjun also does the same and he imprisons Drupada. Though Drona later releases Drupadha, Drupadha did not forget this insult heaped on him by Drona. He prays to Lord to bless him with a daughter and son; Daughter to marry Arjun and Son to kill Drona. In the end the King was blessed by Draupathi who marries Arjun later and Dristadhyumnan who later kills Drona.

Now let us stop and look at the action of Drona and Drupada

·         When both are best friends both had a great understanding and relation. When Drupada forgets and insults Drona is upset.

·         Drona seeks revenge and result is Drupada is imprisoned by Arjun.

·        Drona who was a teacher and man who studied four Vedas should have the grace of forgiving Drupada. But he refused to do and he wanted to take revenge.

·        The act of taking revenge by Drona leads to one more revenge from Drupadha and creates a permanent enmity between Drona and Drupadha.

·         Drupadha had committed but he failed to honor the commitment

·        Drona who was highly educated and most erudite person did not act according to his education and learning but deviated from the dharma suggested by Vedas which he should have followed but practiced the revenge which is the approach of a ruler or a warrior..

·         In the end Drona creates his own enemy and he writes his own downfall.

Relevance to today

·       Once it is committed and you are in a position to honor the commitment, never go back on the words.

·        The best of friendship can be maintained only if one has the grace of forgetting and forgiving. If act of forgiving is replaced by act of revenge, it leads to dangerous consequences and leads to disaster.

·        Any friendship or relation if is to be successful should be based on a good and sound understanding.

·        If friendship or relation is to be successful one of the persons in the relation should have patience, and also should learn the art of forgiving because in any relation difference of views or failure to meet one’s expectations is inevitable.

·        If revenge becomes the order then every act of revenge will lead to one more act of revenge and it will continue till last and it destroys both.

·        That is what happened between Drona and Durupadha. A simple act of forgiving was not practiced. An act of revenge by Drona lead to another act of revenge by Drupada and it continued till last.

Drona and Eklavya

When Drona was teaching to his students’ i.e Pandava and Gauravas, Eklavya who was the King for a Tribal region approached Drona to teach him. Drona refused as Eklavya was not a Kshatriya as Drona was willing to teach only for Kshatriyas. When Eklavya persisted, Drona allowed Eklavya to consider Drona as his guru in his heart and permitted him to practice. So Eklavya embarks on self-study and becomes a good archer but he still considered Drona as his Guru. Drona comes to know about it and he wanted to protect his best pupil Arjuna as Ekalavya was considered as good as Arjun. Hence Drona in order to protect Arjun,asks Eklavya to sacrifice his right thumb as “Gurudakshnina” and Eklavya sacrifices his thumb as a “Gurudakshina”. Since Drona committed to Arjuna that he would be number 1 archer, he did not prefer competition to Arjun in any form. Hence he used Gurudakshnina as a route to kill competition to Arjun. The rat race and competition for number 1 slot was prevailing even in Mahabhrat days.

Again Drona is a teacher. A good Teacher’s trait is to encourage students and he should be impartial to all. Again Drona failed here. The impact is simple. It came to him in a different way in his end. Drona had a great son and his name was Aswathama. Aswathama was a great warrior and he was one of the most learned person in Gauravas side . He was considered next to Bhishma and Drona in knowledge of Shastras, Vedas and war strategy. But the death of Drona and the act of Aswathama in the end of Mahabharata must be due to the sins committed by Drona by deviating from the path of justice which we will see later.

Kunti

The life of Kunti is the most important and offers a great teaching. Whenever we read Kunti’s life Karna’s life is inseparable part of it. In this blog I intend to analyze Kunti’s life related to Karna as that is more important in my view.

Prior to marriage Kunti was blessed by Sage Duruvasha and was taught few mantras and whenever she recites those mantras thinking about a god, she will get blessed with a son with the qualities of god whom she worshipped. As soon as she got the blessing of the sage, she wanted to try and immediately she looked at Lord Surya (Sun God) and worshipped him with that Mantra. With the result she was blessed with a son and he became Karna. (I am not getting into debate on scientific analysis of these issues as to how a person can get all these and morality issues which I will give it in my final blog)  Since she was not married she keeps Karna in a small box with her clothes and leaves it in river. This had a great impact on Kunti and Karna’s life . Let us analyse the consequences of this in their lives.

      ·         Kunti was not even matured enough to understand the travails of birth of a child and she   aspired for it. With the result neither she was happy nor did Karna.

·         Till the end Kunti and Karna suffered due to this.

·         Karna was acknowledged as son of Kunti only at the time of his death.

·         Though Kunti and Karna come to know about this just prior to battle, Karna request Kunti not to divulge this.

·         Karna knew Pandavas were his brothers and he wages battle against his own brothers to repay his gratitude to Duryodhana.

·         Yudhishir in the end became inconsolable on hearing Karna was his eldest brother and they Killed Karna. He even goes to accusing Kunti and Krishna pacifies both Yudhishtir and Kunti at that stage.

·         The moral is simple:

o   In life God or Destiny decides what you should get. You need to put your efforts to achieve the goal. If you try to get it before it is due to you or you snatch before it is due to you neither it bestows happiness to you nor you will be successful. Further the position or the product which you get due to this will also suffer.

o   Both the creator and illegitimate product will fail at the end. The fate of an illegitimate product despite the best of all characteristics will suffer at the end. Everything needs to be legitimate.

o   In life what you are entitled and what you deserve you will get provided you are sincere to yourselves.

o   Very often we pray to God and God does not answer the prayers immediately and he may answer very late. God has listened to our prayer but whether we deserve it or can we handle if we get it is the issue that we need to answer it to ourselves? God will give only when we can handle it. God will not give when we cannot handle it. If we still try to get it by any dubious method or means, it will lead to disaster.

o   Sometimes due to luck you or by grace of God are bestowed with rare qualities. One should know how to practice and when to practice. If it is practiced in immature manner, the result will be bad.

Conclusion

As I said earlier every character in this great epic has a teaching and relevance to our present life. I will analyze some more characters in next blog.

Relevance of Mahabharat-I

Introduction

I am always fascinated by the story of Mahabharat. I must have read the story at least 10 times written by different authors. Heard the discourse by eminent persons at least 10 times. Each time when I read I am learning one new aspect relevant to life and relevant to present context. Even prior to Teleserial in Mahabharat in 1980's, I used to attend discourses in Tamil by Pulavar Keeran, Nagai Mukundahan etc; I must have read Mahabharat written by Late C.Rajagopalachari many times. From my younger days I am fascinated by the story and each character. In my view the entire story sketch of Mahabharat, characters in Mahabharat and the role played by each of them is so relevant to our present life.

Background and relevance

Mahabharat was a story between the cousins who fought against each other due to jealous fuelled by deceit and lust for power. The lust blinds and forces person to take wrong decisions and one need to face the consequences of the wrong decisions. The lust for power, lust for fame and lust for wealth increases the jealousy and it blinds people at critical times. Due to this all the decisions would be wrong and one writes their own downfall. 

Let us look at few instances

Dridharashtra (Duryodhana’s father) was advised by many ministers and eminent people like Bhishma, Vidhura and Drona not to have a war and was advised many times to give away 50% of the Kingdom to Pandavas. In fact he was reminded about the insult and injury happened to Draupadi in his court and he was warned that defaming a lady and disrobing her clothes is the most atrocious crime that can be committed by King. Having committed that sin Dridharashtra was advised by all to follow the commitment given to Yudhistir and give away 50% of the Kingdom. But he refuses to listen. Why? Is it because of his affection on his sons? Is it the only reason? No. His lust for the power which arises from two factors:

·         Though he was eldest he did not get an opportunity to rule the Kingdom when he was young and that was given to his younger brother Pandu who became the King. He was feeling jealous from the day Pandu was crowned as King and that jealous increased his lust for power.

·         When Yudhishtir was defeated in the game of dice and lost the Kingdom, though he felt bad and sad for them, but within himself he was happy because now he could become the King for the entire Kingdom.

·         His affection on his sons who did not follow any good principles blindfolded him completely and did not allow him to listen to good advice.

Normally whenever we do mistakes god in theist language and Nature in atheist language gives an indication in a different manner and forewarns that what is being done is not correct and gives an opportunity to correct. Even in this case it was not an exception.  Lord Krishna shows his Viswaroopa darshan to him when he was going as an emissary of Pandavas to plead on their behalf. He showed his Viswaroopam darshan to the King and warns him in different way. It was said when he showed his Viswaroopam to king everybody in that palace became blind for few minutes but Dridharashtra who was blind got the eye sight for few minutes just to see Lord’s Viswaroopa darshan. The reason for Lord Showing his Viswaroopam darshan to king was simple. He has given a message and through that he also informs him that “A powerful person like me will be on side with Pandavas and I will protect them. When a person like me comes and request you to give back the Kingdom to Pandavas you better give. Don’t expect that you can defeat them. “ But Dridharasthra never listens nor understood the message.  He wrote his own downfall and had he listened to the advise of Ministers and finally to the words of Lord Krishna he could have averted the war and the loss of so many lives.

The relevance is simple

·         The king should be right and honest. If the King is not right or honest the impact is not only on the King but on the subjects and the kingdom.

·         Never ever  develop jealous on any matter. If you are jealous you will not enjoy what you get and what you have. Finally what you get on account jealous or lust will not stay with you.

·         The jealous is starting point for lust and lust makes one to lose the ability to take right decisions.

·         The leader should take impartial decisions and he should not be blindfolded on any matters.

·         A commitment for a wrong cause and with wrong company even if it is your own people will not further the cause but only will only create a downfall.

Love and Sacrifice- Aspect of Relation Management

Mahabharat is a classic piece to educate us on relation management.  Normally in every relation the expectation is equally intense or equally reciprocating. But sometimes or very often the relation is influenced by requirements of other person. The love or affection will be there as long as the requirement of the other person is there. The moment the relevance of other person is lost to our life or our requirement on other person is over the relation becomes insignificant and the respect for relation is lost.  Let us take few characters and their approach:

Bhishma’s life

Bhishma’s life is a classic example of his love for being taken for granted and through his life he spent time on serving others. He sacrificed his marriage due to his love on his father. Since his father had developed love on Sathiyavathi and in order to allow his father to marry Sathiyavthi he sacrificed his marriage life and he took a vow to continue to be a bachelor. Again here Bhishma was completely blindfolded by his emotional love on his father and his father took advantage. Had he not sacrificed his life may be Mahabharat would not have been there. This is the starting point for Mahabharat.

Next his love on his Pandavas. His love and affection on Pandavas was very high; More than his love on Duryodhana;. But despite his love and natural affection on Pandavas, he fought against them in war. Reason is simple. He is indebted to his Kingdom Hasthinapur and he took a vow that he would fight battle till last to protect his kingdom. Though he did not like any of the acts of Duryodhana, he was on Duryodhana’s side because of his commitment and vow to protect Hasthinapur. Duryodhana knows his weakness and his love and commitment on Kingdom and he took advantage of his love and commitment. Duryodhana never followed Bhishma’s words. If Duryodhana had some respect for Bhishma’s words he would have followed some of his advice; unfortunately he never followed his advice but he used Bhishma’s love for his personal purpose.

Bhishma realizes the mistake of Duryodhana and his father and he advises many times. They did not heed his advice. Though Bhishma realizes that he is waging a losing battle but he decided to go for war and agreed to lead Duryodhana and his brothers in war.  When he is in the last stages and he falls on arrow’s bed in his last days, he teaches Dharma and about the importance of life and principles to be followed. This day is called “Bhishma Ekadasi”. On Lord Krishna’s advice Bhishmacharya answered all the questions that Yudhishtira asked with regard to the duties of a good ruler, and the principles of right and wrong. This conversation between Bhishmacharya.s and Yudhishtira is nothing but .Sri Vishnu Sahasranaama. The day on which Bhishma taught is Ekadasi day and that day is called “Bhishma Ekadasi” which is the most revered day for all Vaishnavites and devotees of Lord Krishna and Mahavishnu.

The relevance of Bhishma’s life

·         His love on his father is high and he decided to be a bachelor through his life for the sake of his father.  Bhishma’s was blessed by his father to decide his day of death and Bhishma committed to save the Kingdom and the King who will rule Hastinapur.

·         He is aware that Duryodhana and his brothers are taking advantage of his love and commitment to his Kingdom and Duryodhana brothers did not heed to their advice.

·         He went on to complete his commitment and his promise to his father, his commitment to protect his Kingdom notwithstanding the fact he lost his bachelor life, Duryodhana and brother never listened to his advice.

·         The commitment of Bhishma was completely used by Duryodhana to commit all mistakes. The moral is though you may be righteous person and honest person, if you commit to a wrong person what comes back to you is pain and not enjoyment on this. Bhishma was pained through his life due to Duryodhana and he was prevented to do any thing because of his commitment to Kingdom and his vow to protect the legacy of Shantanu and the ruler of Hastinapur.

·         The end is simple: Though he lost the war at the end he is one of the few souls in Duryodhana who was blessed by Lord and he got the blessings of Lord Krishna to preach “Vishnu Sahasranamam” which is the most popular in today’s world.

The difference between Dridharashtra and Bhishma was simple. Dridharashtra love was fuelled by Jealous and lust for power where as Bhishma’s commitment was laced by love, sacrifice and good thoughts. Bhishma ‘s commitment was to protect the Kingdom and laced with justice whereas Dridharashtra ‘s commitment was opposite. The relevance is simple:

If the commitment is accompanied with Love, Right thoughts and constructive thoughts, you will be rewarded in some way or manner by Lord; Though Bhishma was pained in his lfe due to the acts of Duryodhana, yet his end was a memorable and Lord Krishna blesses Bhishma at his death by making him to teach to this whole world. On the other hand if the commitment is accompanied with jealous, deceit and lust, neither you will enjoy nor the subject or the object you gain will stay with you for long.

Since I cannot explain in three pages I started with few characters and I tend to explain other characters in my next blogs. Let me explain in next blog how other characters explain to our life.