In a work that begins in this fashion, Bhagavan Veda Vyasa throws up his hands helplessly in despair in the end, expressing his dejection. The lesson that strikes us is this: things like victory and defeat that assume great importance in the narrative are the expressed forms of the polarized elements of Realization and ignorance. In summary, nobody wins, nobody loses; everybody is merely drawn in by the Great Current of Life.
The scientist...
Complexity of Characters
This selfsame impulse is visible in the characters of Duryodhana and such others in a tangential fashion. Nobody regards Duryodhana and Dusshyasana as fools. There is no dearth of “analysts” or critics who regard Duryodhana as a tragic hero based on the premise that his behavior and actions are natural to his basic character. The dense intensity of blind attachment that pervades a person who is driven by desire and anger...
The Philosophy of Virtue is Worth Pursuing
The Mahabharata continues to occupy a preeminent place because it offers the great ideal of the elevation of one’s character. Exhortatory phrases such as “yato dharmastato jayaḥ” (Bhishma’s discourse to Karna) will unfold their true and full meaning only at the level of philosophy and not in the folds of the Mahabharata story.
Our experiences of joy and sorrow have a finish; however, the flow of Satya...
Characters are Akin to Shadows
The principles and tenets symbolized by the Devas and the Asuras in the Vedic lore have been clearly, vividly unraveled in the characters of the Pandavas and Kauravas. In the backdrop of this stream of thought, it is indeed appropriate to regard the characters of the Mahabharata as metaphors and akin to shadows.
The Kurukshetra war symbolizes that confrontation which occurs and should occur within us among the...
yadihAsti tadanyatra yannEhAsti na tat kvacit || (Adi Parva: 56:33)
That which exists in the Mahabharata exists everywhere in the world.
That which is not in the Mahabharata does not exist anywhere else.
Such laudatory exclamations, and the eulogies of the greatness of Bhagavan Veda Vyasa, the architect of Indian culture and civilization, are plentiful. Even if we regard the Mahabharata merely as a work of literature, it continues to...