Mahabharata Revisited.....Jaya & The palace of Illusion

Thanks to Greeshma for provoking me to revisit Mahabharata.



The Mahabharata is an ancient Hindu epic where:

A son renounces sex so that his old father can remarrry
A daughter is a prize in an archery contest
A teacher demands half a kingdom as his tuition fee
A student is turned away because of his caste
A mother asks her sons to share a wife
A father curses his son-in-law to be old and impotent
A husband lets another man make his wife pregnant
A wife blindfolds herself to share her husband’s blindness
A forest is destroyed for a new city
A family is divided over inheritance
A king gambles away his kingdon
A queen is forced to serve as a maid
A man is stripped of his manhood for a year
A woman is publicly disrobed
A war is fought where all rules are broken
A shift in sexuality secures victory
The vanquished go to paradise
The victors lose their children
The earth is bathed in blood
God is cursed
Until wisdom prevails.

Devdutt Pattanaik have beautifullly retoled Mahabharata in a simple and lucid style; for all to understand in his 'Jaya'.

It is said that Vyasa knew it, before it happened chanted it to Ganesha, who penned it down. The longest epic poems in the world; and lucky enough to watch BR Chopra's version on TV in between 1988-1990; was engrossed in reading both the versions of the book back to back.


At the same time, happen to read 'The Palace of Illusions'; Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni gives us Panchaali's Mahabharata.

Both Interesting; Divakaruni says, Vysa had foretold that there would be three dangerous moments and at that time you need to hold back;
1. Just before wedding hold back your question.
2. When husbands are at the height off their power, hold back your laughter.
3. When you are ashamed; hold back your curse.

The thought of 'mine' and 'theirs' is the cause of trouble, if the King could see all as his, and love all alike, the war would never have occurred.

“Your childhood hunger is the one that never leaves you. No matter how famous or powerful they became, my husbands would always long to be cherished. They would always yearn to feel worthy. If a person could make them feel that way, they’d bind themselves to him—or her—forever.” 

The art of kingship is: A ruler should know how to conceal his own weaknesses. He should choose his servants carefully. He must cause dissensions among the noblemen in his enemy's kingdom. He should be forgiving, but not excessively so, for the men of evil heart would take advantage of him. His innermost thoughts must be concealed even from his nearest ones.

But what had to happen; had to and Panchali could not hold back.

The power of a man is like a bulls charge, while the power of a women moves aslant, like a serpant seeking its prey. Know the particular properties of your power and use it wisely.

Aren't we all Pawns in the hands of time, the greatest player of all? But even a Pawn has a choice.

Father is equal to heaven, but mother is even greater and so Pandavas decide to share their wife.

Expectations are like hidden rocks in your path - all they do is trip you up. For one person to gain desire, others have to give up theirs. Distance is a great promoter of harmony. God gives you what you want with one hand and takes away something more valuable with the other.

A situation in itself is neither happy nor unhappy. It's only your response to it that causes your sorrow. Be Calm. The life we live today is only a bubble in the cosmic stream, sharpened by the karma of other lifetimes (of the same life or another); one whom you hate may have been your beloved and vice versa. Why weep for any of them then?

Then there are two great teachings:

1. Yudhisthirs answer to Yaksha's questions:

-More numerous than grass is: Thoughts that rise in the mind of man.
-Truely wealthy is: That man to whom the agreeable and disagreeable, wealth and woe, past and future are the same.
-Most wonderous thing on earth is: Each day countless humans enter the Temple of Death, yet the ones left behind continue to live as though they were immortal.

2. The Song or the Geeta: Krishna's word motivating Arjuna:

The pleasure that arise from sense objects are bound to end, and thus they are only sources of pain. Don't get attached to them. When a man reaches a state where honour and dishonor are alike to him, then he is considered supreme. Strive to gain such a state. Weapons cannot harm it, fire cannot burn it; it is eternal, still and blissful. Man drives to wrongdoing in spite of good intention because of anger and desire, our two direst enemies and their offspring revenge...

Important to have victory against the six inner enemies that plague us all: lust, anger, greed, ignorance, arrogance and envy.

After the war, who was the real winner and who the loser?

Karna......The ..(failing to get words): Thought of giving him a special mention as it is friendship day today, and was there and will there ever be such a great friend?

A friend, stays a friend untill the end
Though Forgiveness eluded; forgives,
And gives away what could have saved his life,
A life paralyzed because of a promise kept?

Moreover (t)his is the main difference in both the books.

At the moment when Karna died, the sun plunged behind a cloud so dark that people feared it would not return. Despite the brutality of his death, his face held an enigmatic smile. A divine glow left his body and circled the battlefield as though searching for something before discarding this world.

Forgiveness: It is a virtue that eludes even the great! Is the desire for vengence stronger than the longing to be loved?

The purpose of life is to love, how well you live comes down to how much you love. The heart is wiser than the head. Honor it. Turst it. Follow it.

We cannot force ourselves to love - or to withhold it. At best we can curb our actions. The heart itself is beyond control. That is its power and its weakness.

Krishna's love was a balm, moonlight over a parched landscape. We came out of fire, and return to it; we are all instruments in his hands and he is the doer...

“Your childhood hunger is the one that never leaves you. No matter how famous or powerful they became, my husbands would always long to be cherished. They would always yearn to feel worthy. If a person could make them feel that way, they’d bind themselves to him—or her—forever.”