Two Volumes spanning 1574 pages.

Started reading on 26 May after taking four days to gather the courage to actually start!

Finished on the night of 21 June.

Spent the better part of three weeks ignoring every task because I just couldn’t let go of this masterpiece. Sharing some thoughts ..

First and foremost .. JUST ORDER A SET FOR YOURSELF!

The narration is brilliant, broken down into small chapters so as not to make reading it a daunting task. On the other hand, this makes the books difficult to put down, given the greed of reading ‘just one chapter more’!

A true masterpiece of human relationships and politics from a different age altogether, from a churning of ages in fact. Just a cursory reading gives you so many insights and so many epiphanies that one ends up kicking oneself for not having read this much earlier.

The biggest realization that dawned upon me while reading this masterpiece was the fact that killing of folks who were against Dharma wasn’t frowned upon. It was in fact, considered to be one’s bounden duty to do so. No courts were assembled to pass verdicts either.

That said, there were very few mortals that were infallible.

Even Yudhishthir had to atone for the sin of telling a half-truth to Guru Drona in the battlefield, before he was accepted into heaven. That said, he only told the half-truth because there was no other way for Dharma to prevail. That, and the fact that he was ordered to do so by Lord Krishna himself! Thus Yudhisthir was justified in doing what he did.

In fact this was almost the underlying theme throughout the Mahabharat – The constant tussle between Rajdharm and Swadharm. At different times, one or the other prevailed, depending on the situation and sometimes, gentle nudging by the Lord himself.

In fact, thousands of years later, even Chanakya guided Chandragupt Maurya with much the same advice.

Then there is the overwhelming tide of fate which no one, not even Lord Krishna himself, could turn back. This too was used as a perfectly acceptable justification of various actions by various players throughout the Mahabharat. So much so that even Gandhari’s curse regarding the end of the race of Yadavas and of Lord Krishna himself too was humbly accepted by the Lord, stating that it was indeed what was fated.

That said, when the time for the inevitable came, even the Lord himself hoped against hope that some miracle might save his clan. After all, he too was in a human avtar!

However, fate prevailed, as always, including the death of the human form of the Lord himself.

This was yet another underlying theme of the people that lived in that age – Unquestioning acceptance of the inevitability of fate when the time came. This was as true for Duryodhan as it was for Bheeshma or Dronacharya. Yet they carried on doing their Dharma, awaiting their fate.

Duryodhan took a long time to understand this. And the loss of a number of his best warriors, including Karna. But realize this ultimately, he did.

Even on deathbed, he held Yudhisthir in high regard, implicitly knowing that he was indeed the Dharmputra and without any malice.

Drona knew that Dhrishtadyumna was born with the specific purpose to kill him. Yet when he was sent to Drona’s ashram for education, he taught him everything he knew and ensured that he became an excellent warrior. Dhrishdyumna was the Pandava Senapati when he killed Dronacharya on the battlefield when he was the Kaurava Senapati.

There was a lot of hue and cry over the way Dronacharya was killed, when sitting in Dhyan, unarmed.

Yet, it was Drona himself who had told Yudhisthir about the only way he could be killed.

And this, in the middle of the war when the Pandavas had no answers to their Guru’s valour! Dharma wasn’t yet fully dead.

This was the case with Bheeshma as well, when he himself told the Pandavas that only way to kill him was to have Shikhandi give him battle. He knew, it was Amba who had come to claim him for herself after her humiliating end two lifetimes ago. He gladly accepted death at her hands.

Then there was Karna .. the ultimate tragic hero.

He made it a point to have a moment with all his four brothers on the battlefield wherein he disarmed them gave them the gift of life. After knowing the truth post war, these were the most cherished moments for them all.

A major highlight was the Geeta. It took me four and a half decades in this lifetime to realize that the Geeta was called thusly because the Lord actually sung it as a geet to Arjun on the Battlefield!

Such beautiful insights in the short excerpt of the Geeta within this book!

It is the primal truth, which deep down I think most of us know .. atleast those of us who hail from these lands of Bhaaratvarsh for sure. Yet, in the midst of short-term goals of our mortal lifetimes, we lose sight of the ultimate goal – Mukti.

It might actually be a good idea to take a break from the urgent and focus on the important every once in a while. But then, there needs to be a healthy balance in performing your manifest duties and yet, striving towards Mukti.

Ultimately, what I feel perfectly summarizes the message is the fairly popular shlok:

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।

मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥

Bottomline: Just do your dharma without any attachment to the final outcome.

So long as you remain true to your cause, and detached from the end result, you are doing good. The atman is neutral, as unaffected by good as it is by bad. Ultimate aim is to become one with it!

The one thing that I had no idea about, was the knowledge imparted by Bheeshma to Yudhishthir after the war, while he waited for the Sun to change its direction to Uttarayan before he left his body.

Such wise words of wisdom and knowledge were imparted by him to his grandson that it merits to be studied in its own right, especially by politicians and public servants of today.

Sharing some nuggets here in this blog post.

1. When time comes, never hesitate to wage war! Yudhishthir, this policy applies not only with enemies, but friends as well.

2. Greed is the single root of evil. Greed destroys dharma and punya.

3. Restraint is the quintessential dharma.

4. Time is always shorter than we believe, and a man must acquire virtue as quickly as he can. So, my child, avoid procrastination in your life.

5. It is desire that makes a man sin.

6. Abstinence from wine and meat is superior to celibacy.

7. When a man realizes how ephemeral this world is, he sees the truth; then death holds no fear for him. For, the fear of death springs from attachment.

8. If his spirit is enlightened, it doesn’t matter if a man lives in his home or in the forest. He is a sannyasin.

9. When a man is unattached to objects of pleasure, he is liberated.

10. What a King does depends on the times, and the King who does not hesitate to do what the time demands seldom fails. While a King who is unbending, seldom succeeds.

11. The King, on whom his people rely, must never hesitate to be ruthless with his enemies. It must not be beneath him to use treachery, fire and poison against them.

12. A King’s first dharma is to worship the Gods, and to honour the Brahmanas who are illumined men. But he himself should always be a karma yogin, a man of deeds.

13. I would even say that a king’s deeds are more powerful than destiny.

14. There is also a fifth man, who serves only dharma. This kind is rigid, and a king should exercise caution while confiding in him.

15. A King’s demeanour should be unafraid and straightforward. He must not be too mild. He will be disregarded if he is, and his subjects will have no respect for him. That doesn’t mean he should be harsh or tyrannical, and that his people should be unduly frightened of him.

These are just a few of the many nuggets of great wisdom imparted by Bheeshma to Yudhishthir. As I mentioned earlier, Bheeshma’s discourse to Yudhishthir merits an entire study by itself.

Bheeshma’s too was a life lived on a razor sharp understanding of dharma, even though he ended up fighting for Adharma in Kurukshetra. Yet, despite knowing that the winning side would be the one where the Lord himself stood, Bheeshma fought a good fight, true to his dharma.

Till the very last day of the war, he kept telling Duryodhan that his was a lost cause. He even accepted all barbs that came from the mouth of Duryodhan when the war wasn’t going his way. Yet, he was always aware of the larger picture, and kept loving Duryodhan till the very end.

Millennia after Maharishi Ved Vyas Ji wrote the Mahabharat, here was yet another warrior from the lineage of such illustrious ancestors who quoted the Mahabharat from his own final battlefield:

 

हतो वा प्राप्स्यसि स्वर्गं जित्वा वा भोक्ष्यसे महीम्।

तस्मादुत्तिष्ठ कौन्तेय युद्धाय कृतनिशचयः।।

These immortal words inspired Arjun to once again pick up the Gandeev and prepare to battle. These same words continue to inspire warriors such as the one above, even to this day.

Of course, even during the war, Arjun still had some moral dilemmas, especially when it came to fighting Bheeshma Pitamah and Guru Drona. At these times, verbal barbs by Lord Krishn were duly administered in order to remind Arjun of his Kshatriya Dharm.

Yet, Lord Krishn was still forced to summon the Sudarshan Chakra when Bheeshma was effortlessly cutting down the Pandavas’ army, while Arjun was unable to summon the Will to stop his Pitamah.

For Bheeshma, it was as if the Lord was coming at him not with a weapon, but a blessing instead. A blessing to rid him of the responsibilities and the weight that he had borne for so long. However, Arjun was able to hold back the Lord by promising to fight with all his might.

The one occasion that Lord Krishn actually used the Sudarshan Chakra was when Arjun had sworn to kill Jaidrath for his role in the killing of Abhimanyu. Arjun’s vow to immolate himself if he failed, gave an avenue to Drona and Duryodhan to win the war by just defending Jaidrath!

Lord Krishna wasn’t very happy with Arjun’s vow either, and he made his displeasure known on more than one occasion. Yet, he prepared to ensure Dharma prevailed, i.e., for which Jaidrath would have had to die.

Thus came the Sudarshan Chakra, to hide the Sun and fool the Kaurava’s into thinking that Arjun had failed to keep his vow!

Now, would you call it deception?

Or would you call it Adharma?

Regardless, what you or I think doesn’t matter one bit. Bottomline was that Jaidrath had to die. And the Lord ensured it.

Which brings me to another aspect that these books cover regarding the war – Lord Krishn too had his worries about the ultimate outcome of the war at times.

He worried about the Shakti that Lord Indra had given to Karna.

He worried about Karna himself.

Of course, Bheeshma and Dronacharya had already told the Pandavas about how they could be killed; this too at the Lord’s insistence at they asking their elders candidly!

Mind you, he was the Lord Himself! He knew what was fated.

Yet he being worried is something that I find quite amusing. His wards, the Pandavas, had their own free will and there definitely were occasions when they had to be guided, gently or sternly, as be the case.

All that I can say is that He played his part in human form perfectly – that of the सूत्रधार of this saga!

He worried when he needed to, he smiled when he needed to, and he celebrated when he needed to. Yet, he was The One, who otherwise sits unperturbed in the heavens above.

Coming back to Karna, Lord Krishna made him use the Shakti on Ghatotkacha, in order to ensure the safety of Arjun in his moment of reckoning.

Karna himself already knew that he was to die at the hands of Arjun.

He also knew that he would forget the mantras to invoke his Devastras.

He also knew his true identity and lineage.

He had been told of it by his mother herself, as well as by Lord Krishna, both of whom requested vehemently that he join his brothers, the Pandavas in the war.

Karna chose not to.

Karna had no choice.

Karna was one of the very few who was not just obligated to fight for Duryodhan, but who actually saw the good side of him. He was also one of the very few people whom Duryodhan could actually call a friend. He just could not betray him. So Karna fought as hard as he could.

Of course, he was fated to die, thanks to the curse of Lord Parshuram and that unknown Brahman. Lord Krishna didn’t waste time in prompting Arjun to kill his eldest brother when he was not just busy trying to free the wheels of his chariot, but had also in fact, implored Arjun not to shoot in this duration.

Yet Arjun shot the final, fatal arrow in this very moment when Karna was at his most vulnerable.

It was fate.

It was the Lord himself ordering him to do so.

And thus he did.

Karna too, like many others, was a good guy fighting in the wrong side. He had to die. Yet his death wasn’t an occasion of joy. I’ll quote from the book about this moment :

When he kills Karna, Arjuna raises his conch, the Devadatta, and blows on it, and Krishna sounds his Panchajanya. Neither blows a joyful note. It is as if they, his enemies who killed him, are sad he is gone. Arjuna feels a part of his own life has ended.

Unquote

Karna had played the role of the eldest brother of the Pandavas as well as the inseparable friend of Duryodhan, to perfection. The way for reconciliation was to die during battle. Yet, he had humbled each and every Pandava in battle once, including Arjun, before dying.

One other aspect that kept jumping out at me was the fact that even these mightiest of warriors weren’t beyond a tactical retreat in face of enemy if things weren’t going their way. These included Duryodhan, Karna, Dronacharya and even Bheeshma himself.

In fact, all of them together were forced to retreat by Arjun when he fought for Uttara Kumar at the end of his Agyatvaas.

But as I type this particular chain of thoughts, another one jumps at me – Not once did any of the Pandavas chose to, or have to leave the battlefield.

Being firm in Dharma ensured that they prevailed each and every time. Of course, Dharm Dev himself killed them all, except Yudhishthir, when he came as a Yaksha to test him by the pond where they wanted to drink!

All in all, the Lord ensured that the Pandavas prevailed. He used all means required to ensure that. It wasn’t always what you may call to be in perfect sync with us mortals’ understanding of Dharma.

But the Pandavas had so totally surrendered themselves to Him, that they never questioned Him.

They didn’t need to either!

That said, there are far too many lessons to be learnt even for modern days.

Most importantly, when it is a question of the interests of Rashtra, swadharm can always take a backseat This is the burden that a King has to bear, for his Rajdharm is to ensure that his people flourish.

Vyasa Muni tells this to Yudhishthir in to help him overcome his grief after the War: A King has no right to indulge his own grief. A just King’s time has always belonged to his people, and only to them .. His task is just to rule them; beyond that he has no other truth, or life.

As I conclude this blog post, I’ll just jump back to the ‘questionable’ means used by Lord Krishna. He is crystal clear in his explanation to the Pandavas – ‘If we had not used some judicious deceit, this war would have been lost .. For me, nothing could be worse than that.’

This is what the Lord told his elder brother, Balaram, when he wanted to kill Bheem for delivering the unethical blow to Duryodhan’s thighs:

Quote: If you did not fight against evil, atleast you must not fight for it. Kali Yuga has come to the world. Nowhere on earth shall pure dharma be found any more, but only mixed with Adharma. The fault is only time’s. Evil and violence are the signs of the Kali. Destiny fulfills herself darkly in the fourth yuga, and this is only its beginning. Unquote

Of course, Duryodhan himself went in peace, assured of his place in heaven, for having died a Kshatriya’s death as well as doing further penance by lying on the battlefield in unbearable pain, before passing on. And he did find Swarga, as did all the Rakshasas who had been born as his brothers, not only by dying on the battlefield but also due to the immense virtue accumulated by their mother herself.

I close this blog post by yet another quote by the Lord: All things in this world exist for a purpose; when their purpose is served, the cease to be. And so it is with men, Arjuna. It is so with all of us: even Me.

Thanks for your patience, folks.

I found this book immensely enjoyable to read. And my kids too will read the same in the days to come.

Do read yourselves too, if you can.