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.
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