Thursday, May 7, 2009

Mahabharata unraveled

When Arjuna lay down his bow and arrows and asked Krishna, ' How can I fight them? They are my family, they are my teachers. How can I kill them?' , he was quite right, wasn't he? He was being compassionate, not ambitious.

Then why did Krishna make him fight?

Why did Krishna make Arjuna commit violent acts?

I don't think I can relate to this aspect of Krishna. In fact, I think after he left Vrindavan, I kind of feel disconnected with the King. He was so cute as a baby. He was such a wonderful lover. He played the flute, he was always up to mischief, he ate butter. Why did all that have to end? Why did he have to leave the Gopi's, who ran after his carraige as he left them for the city. In fact, I have heard that Radha got jaundice and died. And Krishna never even remembered her. He killed his uncle and became the King himself. He never ever came back to Vrindavan. Afterwords he got into gory politics, he engineered an entire war.

Whoever wrote the later part of Mahabharata wrote bull xxxx. Most probably the Vyasa who wrote about Krishna in Vrindavan wasn't the same who wrote the Mahabharata.

These were my thoughts till I saw this video. It's titled 'Deeper insights into the Mahabharata'. Swami Nithyananda clears all the above doubts and more.

The entire Mahabharata is a war fought for Arjuna's (and therefore ours), enlightenment. The Gita was just the initiation. The eleven crores of enemies in front of Arjuna are the negative thoughts which have to be fought with the good thoughts, which are lesser, only eight crores.

And yes, even our parents, teachers, all our social conditioning has to be overcome for us to be free.

Why are Drona, and Bhishma as dangerous as Duryodhana and Dushasana? Why are they on the same side? And why does the handsome and kind Karna also have to die? These are deep questions that haunts most seekers. Especially when we have to give up an old technique which worked for us once.

In the end, both thoughts, the good and the bad, have to die. The purpose of Krishna's incarnation on earth is to reduce the number of thoughts, the weight on our heads. :) .

And the king of Dwarka, he comes to hold the reins of Arjuna's chariot, to drive him around! Thank you, Swamiji, I was missing Krishna after he left the gopis.

This video is the first part, if you like it, watch the second and then the third.

2 comments:

Avi said...

As to why the earlier Krishna is different from the later Krishna, the most honest explanation was that many of the stories of the earlier Krishna was frankly made up. The bare outlines of the story are true - the one with him defeating Kamsa, being Devaki's son, being hidden away by Yashoda but the ones with the teasing, the gopis are perhaps made up by budding story writers. That explains the discrepancy between the earlier and the later Krishnas but this is just one interpretation of the discrepancy.

Also remember that in the Mahabharata, Krishna talks to Abhimanyu's son (?) and advocates ahimsa much later because circumstances have changed.
Krishna is also punished by Gandhari for knowing about the war and not stopping it with the destruction of his clan, the Yadavs and his very own death. Even God is not immune from the effects of Karma and Krishna accepted this calmly, saying that he always knew that would happen.

Strider said...

Who told you if Mahabharat happened at all?
Any proofs??
Not a single man in this world can give that proof. Not me, not you, not anyone else on this earth. How can we pass any judgements on a story that we don't know about. But we won't stop thinking right... So read 'Bhagwad Gita' my friend.. read it for yourself.. Let it not be Krishna and Arjuna who were the real characters.. let it be someone else... the words, philosophy, reasoning and 'beyond obvious' will still be the same..

PS. Hrz my blog www.absoluteprofit.wordpress.com