The Spirit Of Spirituality: The Magnificent Mahabharatha

Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Magnificent Mahabharatha

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.

The Spirit Of Spirituality

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Many of us from India have been exposed to the wonderful stories from the Mahabharatha. Some of us have enjoyed the Sunday morning serialization of the Mahabharatha. But I am not sure many of us understand the magnificence of the epic. I will try in this article to give glimpses of this epic. This article by no means can cover the grandeur of the epic. But I am hoping that readers will relook and read the epic again with a view to now uncover its richness and appreciate its grandeur.

The Mahabharatha is a multi-generational story climaxing in an internecine battle between cousins of a royal family. It was authored by sage Ved Vyasa. But the epic was so huge that he had to request the elephant God, Lord Ganesha to actually write it for him. Ganesha had only one condition that Vyasa should continually tell the story and should not stop anywhere. Vyasa put a counter condition that Ganesha should fully understand everything before penning it. The climax of the story is when the two sets of cousins, the wicked Kauravas and the righteous Pandavas fight a battle on the battlefield at Kurukshetra, with the Pandavas finally winning under the guidance of Lord Krishna.

The Mahabharatha is undoubtedly the largest epic in the world. It has about 100,000 verses. It is said, that whatever is there in any book in the world in terms of characters or situations will surely be in the Mahabharatha, but what is in this epic will not be found anywhere. It has intense chivalry, bravery, heroism, cunningness, love, villainy, deceit to name a few.

The Mahabharatha in addition to being a superbly entertaining story has gems within it. The most precious gem of all is the Bhagwad Gita. This portion of the epic runs into about 700 verses and condenses the greatest spiritual teachings of the Upanishads in an easy to understand format. The Gita was told by Lord Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield and motivated him to fight and win the battle. The first time I read the epic, I was so bored of these sections of the Gita, that I skipped them. When the serial came on TV, I used to be bored of the several episodes when Gita was being shown. I guess this is the same way that many of the readers would have felt as they read or saw the serial. But the Mahabharatha is like a sugar coating for a seemingly bitter part.

Is the Gita really bitter? It appears so for most of us who are used to the seeming sweetness of the world, the message of the Gita may seem bitter. But just like a bitter medicine is given with a coating of sweetness, the Gita comes with the covering of the story. But just as it is the bitterness that cures the disease and not the sweet part, the Gita is what cures us of our mental illness and unhappiness. But most of us throw the bitter part out and savor the sweet part. So what benefit will we get? We should savor the Gita and as we start on it, its sweetness emerges and we will get the real benefit.

Interestingly the Gita appeals to different people based on their temperaments. For the intellectually oriented, there is the powerful message of what the soul is, what the Truth is and the relationship between the individual soul and the Supreme Truth. For those who are action oriented, it has the powerful message of Action and how to perform action without seeking any selfish benefits. For the emotionally oriented, it has the most vivid description of the form of the Supreme Truth.

Next in importance to the Gita, in the Bhagwad Gita is the Vishnu Sahasranama. This lists out the 1000 names of the Lord. This was told by the warrior Bhishma to the victor of the Kurukshetra war. Bhishma is a storehouse of knowledge and as he nears his last moments on this earth imparts Yudhistira with gems of knowledge. For those of us who are too lazy or claim we are too busy to read the Mahabharatha or the Gita, the Vishnu Sahasranama which runs into about 100 verses is more manageable. Each name of the Lord has several spiritual meanings. Again the names can appeal to the intellectually inclined as also to the emotionally inclined.

Next in terms of importance for me at least is the Yaksha Prashna. The Pandava brothers, once were very thirsty and went one by one to a lake to quench their thirst. They are challenged by the lake’s owner to answer some questions and then drink, else face death. But the first 4 brothers in all arrogance refuse to answer and are dead as they take a sip. Finally the eldest brother Yudhistira arrives and he answers all questions and the lake owner brings life back to others. It will be good to spend time reflecting on each of the questions and answers. The questions and answers in a nutshell cover the entire gamut of spirituality in a very easy to understand question/answer format.

One other very nice content of the epic is the Vidura Neethi. When Yudhistira becomes king, he reaches out to his learned uncle Vidura on how to lead life, how to govern etc. The type of advice that Vidura gives is in dire contrast with what the wicked cousin Duryodhana gets from another uncle. It also gives us a perspective of the moral code. It is something like the 10 commandments. We should do what Vidura says and not do what Duryodhana’s evil uncle says.

I hope my article has enthused readers to have a second look at the Mahabharatha and look at the gems they may have overlooked.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality