Mahabharat, Vagvad-Gita and we

Shantimoy Chakraborty

The purpose of this essay is to give an idea about the greatest epic of this world, which does not have a parallel to contribute in philosophical, social, political and many other aspects of human civilization. It has set the rules for our lives: sense of justice, duties of the rulers, duties of the citizens, right of the public to express their dissatisfaction with a Government decision, the ruler’s response to it, the freedom and right of women, the relation between teacher and learner, the relation between older and younger, the duties of everybody in crisis etc. The greatest height the sense of Mahabharata attained when the Grandfather Vishma told the people around Him just before He died ‘ Do not divide your Motherland as she is your mother, like you do not cut your own mother in two halves because you two brothers can not live together. Everything happens after division is only destruction and animosity and even worse’. We, the people of sub-continent feel His words by heart and witness the devastating results of the division of our Motherland even after 75 years after the event. Nobody knows the future. The geographical borders may change many more times because it all started in 1947 contrary to the advice of Grandfather Vishma.

Encyclopaedia Britannica says ‘Above all, the Mahabharata is an exposition of dharma (codes of conduct), including the proper conduct of a king, of a warrior, of an individual living in times of calamity, and of a person seeking to attain moksha (freedom from samsara, or rebirth). The poem repeatedly demonstrates that the conflicting codes of dharma are so “subtle” that, in some situations, the hero cannot help but violate them in some respect, no matter what choice he makes.’ To tell the truth the latest version of the above statement by Encyclopaedia forms the basis of many political and social principles.

From the very beginning the Mahabharata had all the elements of human life depicting the nature of human beings, their lust, their hesitations, their struggle to find the true and just ways of actions. All the events illustrated in this great epic ultimately confines to the fact what Grandfather Vishma said in his deathbed of arrows.

Having said all these above, the importance of the teachings of Lord Krishna throughout the conflict of ‘Kurukshetra War’ has no comparison in any other works of the Human history in terms of theological philosophy and that what he said in that chapter of the Mahabharata is the essence of Indian philosophy explaining the purpose of life, creation of the universe, the eternal life cycle, duties of a person, devotion and above all the right of individual to decide his duties and act without thinking about the results or outcome of those actions. Here is the famous verse, every Sanatani must know:

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भुर्मा ते संगोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥

Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshou Kada Chana
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani

Meaning in English:

You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.

It is amazing to imagine that about 2500–3000 years ago the Indians could compose such a rich philosophical, social, complex political work, which was full of the principles, those are very appropriate even today. The development of India in the fields of Mathematics, astronomy, physics, politics, economics etc. during the next (after Mahabharata creation era) 1000-1500 years (Arya Bhatta, Bhaskaracharya, Koutilya, Chanakya and many more) had the basis on the principles stated in the Mahabharata by Shree Krishna, Grandpa Vishma, Yudhistir and many others.

Those were the golden days of India with so much of logic in every sphere of life. Everything came to a nightmare when the enemies from the Northwest came to conquer our land by unjust tricks. I would just cite one incident, which shows how we failed with the just principles. We all know that Prithwiraj Chouhan defeated Mohammed Ghori the first time the later attacked India and when the captive Ghori was brought to Prithwiraj for punishment, Prithwiraj pardoned him, kept him alive and let him go with the promise from Ghori not to be back again to India. However, Ghori came back with a stronger army sometimes later and coming to know that the Indians do not fight at night (which was the principle Indians followed in Mahabharata and Ramayana times), he attacked the Prithwiraj army at night. The result was the inception of dark age to continue 500-700 years with devastating consequences for Sanatanis to the extent of being discriminated in every sphere of their lives. With temples destroyed, Nalanda University burnt, India did not have a scientist like Vaskarachaya for next 6 centuries. Now India knows all about the foreign unjust tricks to conquer our land and is prepared for any situation. The moral is again in BhagvatGita. Pritwiraj did not stick to his duty to protect the motherland by allowing Ghori to be alive and go back.

The lessons we get from Mahabharata based on the behaviours and actions of the main characters of the epic are illustrated by various sources, references to which I gave below (ref. 3, 6, 7). That means the significance of the great epic in our everyday life even today.

The lessons from Bhagvat-Gita are the pearls of the philosophy. Apart from the duty - action relation stated above, the other most important thing is the indestructibility of Soul. It says:

‘For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal , ever existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain’. Detailed quotes on Soul are in the reference 9, 10. This is the verse 20 in Chapter 2 as below:

Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, Verse 20

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचि
नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूय: |
अजो नित्य: शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे || 20||

na jāyate mriyate vā kadāchin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śhāśhvato ’yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śharīre

The lessons of Bhagvat-Gita about all the aspects of life with the prime aim to create a real and worthy human being is summarised in the references 10,11. The reference 10 is a link to a very easily understandable version of Bhagvat-Gita edited by Swami Mukundananda. By reading it one can grasp the essence of the philosophy of our theology.

I do not want to make this essay any longer. However, I want to go back to what I started with. The quotes of the Grandpa Vishma about the patriotism was not observed in 1947 when our motherland was divided in 2 and later in 3 parts. The situation became worse due to anti-sanatani actions and propaganda from the extremely right wing movements in different parts of the sub-continent. The very existence of Sanatani ideals of this land is at stake. We will find the answer in Mahabharata and Bhagvat-Gita. We need schools to teach our young generation the ideals of this unparallel pearl of Human civilization. Being an optimistic I hope to see this positivity in the new generations to come.

References:

Mahabharat, Vagvad-Gita and we

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