THE MAHAA-BHAARATHAA – An Executive Summary
Inspired by and adapted from C. Rajagopalachari’s version
Bheeshma, the son of Ganga and the Crown Prince, in an act which astonishes even the celestials, abdicates his rights to the throne of Hastinapura when his widower father Santanu wants to marry again; abdication and celibacy being imposed on Bheeshma by his soon to be stepmother’s father. Santanu has two more sons through his second wife.
Both of these sons having died issueless, their old mother Satyavati then asks her oldest son – the great sage Veda Vyaasa and the issue from a premarital relationship with the sage Paraasara – to participate in the continuation of the royal line, through her daughters-in-law. To the three royal widow queens are born three sons – Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura. Since his elder brother is blind, Pandu, ascends the throne, but then commits a serious offence against a sage and in penitent remorse lives in the forest for many years before dying there.
In the forest, to Pandu and his two wives Kunti and Madri, are born five celestial sons – Dharmaja, Bheema, Arjuna [Kunti] and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva [Madri]. Together they are called the Pandavas. The sages, in the forest, school them in their early years and when they reach adolescence, entrust them to the care of the patriarch Bheeshma.
In the capital Hastinapura, the blind king Dhritarashtra had a hundred sons . Having been born in the Kuru clan they’re called the Kauravas. Even as adolescent youth the Kauravas become extremely jealous of the Pandavas, due to the latter’s accomplishments in education and the arts of the ruling class among other things; and try to injure them in various ways.
While in hiding after one of these nefarious attempts, the Pandavas meet up with their lifelong friend-mentor Sri Krishna, at the marriage ceremony of their beloved and fraternally-shared wife Draupadi. Subsequently, Bheeshma resolves the conflict between the two cousin-groups by splitting the kingdom into two. The jealousy however continues.
Dharmaja is beguiled into a game of dice where he not only loses his half of the kingdom; but in addition all the Pandavas [including Draupadi] have to spend 13 years in exile, the last one incognito. However before the Pandavas are despatched into exile, the Kauravas led by their first-born Duryodhana, publicly and abominably humiliate Queen Draupadi in the royal court. Even though the powerful but enslaved Pandavas are unable to intervene, their cousin-friend Sri Krishna miraculously rescues the completely surrendering Draupadi; in one of the defining moments of the epic.
Later, at the end of the thirteenth year in exile, the Pandavas, through their friend Sri Krishna – now acting as their ambassador – peacefully demand their parental heritage back. However Duryodhana, emboldened by the incitements of his great warrior Radheya-Karna, refuses to give back the kingdom; falsely claiming that the Pandavas had been recognised before the incognito year was up and so demands another 13 years in exile.
A Great War ensues.
Arjuna(a.k.a Partha)’s charioteer during this epochal War is Sri Krishna(a.k.a.Partha-saarathy). At the beginning of this battle, the World-Teacher Sri Krishna delivers the Immortal Gita, exhorting Arjuna to selfless righteous action; based on Divine Love of the Eternal Truth that he [Partha] was not the mere body-mind complex that he believed himself to be in a deluded fashion, but was verily the Infinite Spirit in human form.
Arjuna fights enthusiastically. Eighteen extraordinarily bloody days later, the Pandavas emerge victorious and, with Sri Krishna crowning Dharmaja, ruled the empire gloriously for 36 years from Indraprastha [modern Delhi].
This is the core of the epic. The concluding postscript is that, upon hearing of the final exit of Sri Krishna, the Pandavas with Draupadi, immediately transfer the crown to Arjuna’s grandson Parikshit – the only surviving scion of the Pandavas – and walk till they give up their bodies in anguish at their separation from their beloved Sri Krishna.
The Mahaabhaarathaa & the Applied Perennial Philosophy
What we shall outline below are a number of reasons, in random order, that makes the MahaaBhaarathaa uniquely qualified to be the central epic for all students of the Applied Perennial Philosophy:
- Along with the main story outlined, the MB has scores of side stories and fascinating anecdotes – that together outline the bewildering variety of responses to the ‘human condition’. It’s widely believed among its aficionados that what’s not to be found in the MB, is unlikely to be found elsewhere.
- The MB is simultaneously history, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy fiction, mythology, an anthology of allegories, fables and parables and above all great literature. In its depth and pathos it easily matches the width and variety of the greatest Greek and Shakespearean tragedies – all inside of one document.
- Like the Jataka tales it’s a multi-generational interweaving web and is the one epic that is most capable of summarising the bewildering complexity of the ‘glass bead game’. If there’s a single document that mankind could offer to a visiting intelligent alien as a comprehensive introduction to the human condition, it’ll be difficult to find another to compete with the MB.
- The philosophical core of the MB is obviously that Divine Dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna on the Kurukshetra battlefield; prior to the Great War, for which it is named. This dialogue has inspired scores of very different commentaries across the millennia ; and together they capture an extraordinary variety of philosophical perspectives.
- Among the various insights that are common across this variety, is the one that asserts that the realm of political economy is a battlefield – both ‘politics’ and ‘economics’ are inevitably competitive/contestable spaces in 21st century language. Another equally common insight is that; the true student of the Perennial Philosophy is the one who searches for the Moral Pathway to Truth by continuing to engage with this battlefield; with alternative approaches to the battle and even temporary withdrawals being approved, but not the abandonment of the field.