The size of Mother Earth compared to the Universe is that of a bacteria to the Human eye.Yet, the complexities of human emotions makes us believe that the Earth is huge and a vast area of dark hell.
The Value system of Mankind has degraded to a nadir in the modern era.There is so much negativity around us. Yet we pray to God, and nothing happens despite Offering the most precious gift to the God we pray. Everyone of us has problems in our lives. We all have seen success and failures.This Blog is about how indifferent we are to the success and failures of our lives and how much we have forgotten to live our lives without any value system in it.We are just breathing but we are not living.
Personally, I have never believed in having inspired from others.I had never been inspired from Mahatma Gandhi.Neither from Abraham Lincoln nor from Mother Teresa and I would never believe, when a person is inspired by me too.The real inspiration for me is only ME. Because we all have that god gifted inner strength in us and only that we don't recognize this inner potential in us that we look outside for inspiration.This is the dark age, and we all need help and We all face tough questions in our lives and i have always turned the same pages to seek answers.THE MAHABHARATA.
The teachings of the great Epic are so powerful and so very much relevant to our times that it completes all my spiritual needs.The emphasis on Karma yoga is in a very true sense a master stroke and nothing can beat this universal truth.The Mahabharata is the book of Peace and also the book of War.
The thought of writing a blog on the Mahabharata, was on my mind for about 3 months now. I wanted to write it with utmost honesty and sincerity. As well, given the sheer size of the Epic, i genuinely doubted my skills as a blogger. Howerver i have started writing this blog without knowing where to end. With blessings from Lord Krishna.........
The Mahabharat was recited by Sage Ved Vyasa and written by Lord Ganesh.
The entire epic is in the form of 18 parvas or parts.The Mahabharata starts with Sage Vaishampayana performing a Sarpa Yaga for Emperor Janmejaya (The Great grand son of Arjuna) and it is during this yaga that the sage recites to Janmejaya, the story of his ancestors and the entire 18 parvas of the Mahabharata.
The one thing that comes on to our minds, when we think of the Mahabharata, is the great War that took place at the Kurukshetra.Such huge was the War, that one could clearly hear the sound of the Great Arjuna's Pratyancha (thread of the Bow), from miles apart. Lakhs of soldiers were killed during that 18 day War, that the color of the soil is red, even today. However it must be mentioned that Lord Krishna tried many strategies to avoid the War and that peace must be established at all cost.He advised the Pandavas to avoid the War until all other options of establishing Peace have dried up.So much, he tried valiantly, that he himself went to Hastinapur for a Peace talk with the Kauravas.Krishna requested Dhritharashtra for five Villages, in return for Peace but the arrogant Duryodhana refused to offer even with land as much as the point of a needle.Duryodhana Clearly wanted war over peace.
Today in our Modern society, seldom, that Peace is given a chance.While the Great Epic War of Kurukshetra was fought for the rights of the Pandavas, the War of the modern societies take place for control over Oil,natural resources and World dominance. Countries are ever increasing their budgets on Defense and Security and there seems to be no end to this scenario.
There is so much that Humans have degraded over the thousands of years and no wonder that this is the Dark Age beyond any doubt and contemplation.
Many many years before the Kurukshetra War, Lord Krishna made Ugrasena as the King of Mathura after Killing King Kamsa. Jarasandha, the Father-In-law of Kamsa wanted to take revenge on Krishna for killing Kamsa.Jarasandha was a powerful King of Magadh and swore to kill Krishna and began attacking Mathura from all sides.The Lord made sure that he never did any thing before its time had come.He defeated Jarasandha every time.The Lord decided to move away from mathura and set up a new Land which is safe and secure from all four sides........The Dwaraka.....However, people of Mathura refused to leave .That it would be an act of a coward to leave their lands at Mathura and it would be a submission to Jarasandha, whom they had defeated on many occasions earlier.Krishna explained to his people,that he wouldn't mind being called by any name and that War should be fought only when there is no other option left.Besides Jarasandha was waging a personal battle at Krishna and the lives of thousands of soldiers cannot be put to risk just to satisfy the ego of Jarasandha.
Would any country of this era shown such Maturity.It is
unfortunate that most of the Wars of modern era are fought purely to satisfy one's Ego.For instance, the Vietnam War,The Iraq War, hope nobody forgets the 2 World Wars.I fail to recollect any war of the modern era which was fought to establish Peace.It is going to be very hard to justify the death of millions of people.Mother Earth has just become a junk of skeletal remains.
It is often said that the word "Democracy" was invented in INDIA.Though i have not found any proof of it, below are a few examples from the great EPIC.
- Yayati made Puru his heir even though he wasn't the eldest of his sons.
- Bharat made Bhumanyu ascend to his throne, denying all his nine sons, because he considered them incompetent.
- Shantanu became king ahead of his elder brother Dhritarashtra
That was the era that Kings gave poeple a serious thought ,that the King was merely a servant of the people and the people were in true sense, the King .Such, were the great Kings of that era.
How can one forget the Krishna/Arjuna friendship or even the Krishna/Sudama friendship or even the Duryodhana/Karna friendship.Not that its impossible in this era,but we hardly try being a true friend.
Numerous examples of pure human emotions that this great Epic offers
One day, when Guru Dronacharya was busy teaching the Pandavas and the kauravas, a small kid by the name Eklavya turned up to seek a meeting with Guru Drona. Dronacharya was very much imperssed with the sheer desire of the Kid to learn Shastra vidya from him.Drona turned the boy away saying that he was already employed by the King of Hastinapur to give his teachings to the Pandavas and the Kauravas and that he could not accept any students who did not belong to the royal dynasty.Eklavya was disappointed.He went home and made a statue of Guru Drona and began practising Archery.His belief that the statue would teach him, kept the boy determined.Over the period of time, with sheer hardwork, Eklavya had become a very good archer and probably the only one who could defeat the great Arjuna.
One day Dronacharya,the kauravas and the Pandavas came hunting into the Jungle.In the night, everyone were disturbed by the shouting of a Dog.There was a sound of an arrow whcih hit the Dog's mouth and finally the barking stopped.Drona went out in the dark to see who shot the Dog.He was surprised to see that it was Eklavya.Eklavya touched his Guru's feet and showed the Guru the statue in front of which he practised Dhanur Vidya (Archery).The Guru was moved and he instantly knew that Eklavya was a big threat for Arjuna,cos the great Arjuna was to participate in the Great epic war which was going to come.The Guru knew he had to sop Eklavya and hence he instantly asked for his thumb as the Guru Dakhshina.The great Eklavya happily cut his thumb and had put it at his Guru's feet.
This is the reason Mahabharata was made.These are the human values,our culture and our tradition.These are the teachings to the Mankind from the God,from the Lord.
Guru Brahma
Gurur Vishnu ,Guru Devo
Maheshwaraha
Guru Saakshat
Para Brahma , Tasmai Sree
Gurave Namaha
Probably one of the biggest lessons from the Mahabharata and this could only Happen during the War
and coming from the great himself,the Gopala,the Giridhara,the Vasudeva,the Krishna and this is the ultimate learning and there can be no other greater learning than this.This is lesson of THE TRUTH.
The Great teachings of the Lord Krishna to Arjuna.Even the great Bheeshma felt jealous Of Arjuna.How Bheeshma cried for the air to carry a small bit of sound what Krishna was saying to Arjuna.The great Bhagawad Gita.
When you have to choose between Dharma and Adharma,one has to always choose the Dharma and following the Dharma can never be Adharma.Be it the father,grand father or be it the brothers or ones own family members, following the path of Dharma is the primary responsibility of Mankind.That Dharma must be achieved at all cost and hence it is absolutely acceptable that Yudhisthira had to tell the only Lie in his life, during the great War of Kurukshetra.He had to tell Guru Drona that his son Ashwathama had been killed.Ashwathama was immortal and could never be killed but what got killed was an elephant with the same name as Ashwathama . Guru Drona knew that Yudhisthira can never lie and was extremely upset thinking that his son was killed.While laying down his weapons in grief , commander-in-chief of the Pandava army, The Dhrishtadyumna killed Guru Drona from behind separating his head from the body.
The great Arjuna was so much fond of his Pitamaha Bheeshma, little did he know that one day he would kill Bheeshma for the sake of Dharma. On the 10th day of the 18 day war, Arjuna let Shikandi (the Half man) on his chariot.Knowing that Bheeshma would not fight with Arjuna, as long as Shikandi was on his Chariot, the Great Bheeshma Pitamah could not fight and thus he was lying on the bed of arrows which had pierced his body.
Arjuna wanted to take revenge on Jayadhrat for killing Abhimanyu in a Chakravyuha. Jayadhrat danced around the dead body of young Abhimanyu. He vowed to kill Jayadhrat the very next day or self immolate.Krishna had to create a solar eclipse with his Sudarshana Chakra , so that Jayadhrat would become complacent and the moment the Solar eclipse ended, Arjuna shot the arrow with his full might and killed Jayadhrat.The Lord had to do this not because he was Arjuna's friend, but because he was on the side of Dharma.
Even the King of Anga, the eldest brother of Arjuna was killed only by deceit.Arjuna had to kill Karna Knowing that Karna got down from his chariot, since it was stuck in mud.There are numerous instances of breaking the War rules, however it was not the Pandavas who broke the rules first.The Pandavas broke the rules only after the Kauravas broke it first.
Following the path of Dharma can never be Adharma.
Mankind of the modern era has a lot to learn from these teachings.Excitement is the root cause of all the problems in this World.We must learn to be Stithapragya (balanced). We must learn to accept our failures just the way we accept our Succcess.We all owe this to ourselves.When we learn to do that, we are no more afraid of our failures.We are no longer affected by our Failures.We must evolve as a better society.We must bring the value system into our lives. We must do our Karma without expecting the fruits of it. I am trying to do it every day.I am not a perfect person.
I am just trying to live the Mahabharat, everyday.
