jabdakhata

Krishna did not want the Mahabharata war. Yet he knew that Mahabharata war was inevitable. He knew the consequences and he knew his larger duty as a friend of Pandavas and as an incarnation to set the wheel of dharma running for ages to come. He knew that given the attitude of the Kauravas towards the Pandavas, given their greed and hatred, a peace treaty was not possible. Duryadhana was sure of his superiority. He had Bhisma, Drona and above everybody else Karna to fight for him. Yet one thing he did not have, dharma, on his side. His mother told him before the beginning of the war - yatah dharma tatah jaya, but he did not listen. He was sure that Pandavas with their limited resources esp. after spending 13 years in the forest and in exile would not be able to muster enough manpower to wage a war. Even if they dared to do so, he had his full army, support of many kings whom he had won over a period of time through either good behavior, bribe or treachery, warriors like Bhisma, Drona...

The conquest of Jarsandha had to be done in a way that would not get attention from his allies. They would not have time to react against the Pandavas and Krishna. They would be awestruck by the policy and the swiftness. Also it had to be a just battle so that it did not cause any censureship on Yudhisthira who was conducting his Rajasuya. Jarasandha was notorious for another reason. He was planning to conduct a great nara medha yagna or sacrifice of human beings to become invincible by begetting divine power. He captured eighty four kings and small chieftains and was waiting to capture sixteen more whom he would have sacrificed to Mahadeva to get a boon of invincibility. So he had to be stopped for saving the lives of his hapless victims through his foolishness and fundamentalism. There was no other person who was capable of fighting him, other than Bhima. Bhima was young and powerful. Moreover he had Krishna on his side and Arjuna to back him up. So the three went to Magadha disgui...

By killing Jarasandha with the help of Bhima who was equal to him in strength, Krishna secured the safe execution of the Rajasuya for Yudhisthira. There was no further obstacle as most of the other kings were either friendly or indifferent to Pandavas performing Rajasuya. They were also afraid of the strength and power of the Pandavas, esp. of Bhima and Arjuna. So far so good. But then Shishupala played the spoilsport. That cousin of Sri Krishna had a major hatred against Krishna and he never lost on opportunity to display that. There are some myths regarding his birth, that he had extra organs which came off once Krishna took him in his lap and the oracle revealed that he would die in the hands of Krishna. So his mother extracted a promise that Krishna would forgive his sins. Krishna agreed to forgive his ninety nine omissions. However fantastic this tale is, there is probably one shade of truth, that Shishupala knew that Krishna was going to be his nemesis, like that of Kamsa. Ther...

What's the purpose of advent of a great incarnation or a person who can significantly steer the course of history and civilization? In Gospel Sri Ramakrishna says that only the power vested and its manifestation is the difference between an incarnation and an ordinary person, and also across different incarnations. They had been vested with varying degrees of power depending on the purpose, the situation and the historical need. In Gita Sri Krishna says that an avatara, or a special incarnation, a divine being who has more power than anybody else appears when dharma or the discriminating faculty (between right and wrong, moral and immoral and the mode of action needed) falls steeply among the larger masses esp. among the leading section (kings, politicians, statesmen, intellectual, leadership) and adharma or the ignorance, or lack of discrimination and associated vices, rises. More the degeneration, more powerful is the incarnation. What is the impact? The power helps in restorin...

One key takeaway from Mahabharata is the message of strength. We find this display of strength everywhere except for the brief moments when mighty characters were deluded by weakness which led birth to great spiritual truths like Bhagavat Gita. This strength is reflected even in the greatest women characters. In Mahabharata man has become greater than Gods in many respects. Indra taking help of Arjuna to tame the Nivatkavachas, Arjuna fighting a dual with Lord Shiva, Karna giving away his Kavacha and Kundala to Indra, Arjuna’s great restraint in the face of temptation by Urvashi, Bheema’s wonderous feats for the sake of his brothers and for Draupadi, Salwa’s decision to fight against his nephews, Abhimanyu’s heroism and great courage in the face of imminent death, Bhishma’s adherence to celibacy in the face of gravest provocations and temptations, even the evil king Duryadhana’s courage to fight till his death, all make humans much greater than the so called gods, who repeatedly fai...

More I read about the character Yudhisthira in Mahabharata, more I am amazed. Perhaps everybody should read the entire Mahabharata atleast once in life just to know intimately about these characters and gain something from them. Its true that Yudhisthira had his weaknesses. He was probably  not a great warrior, was a bit addicted to gambling, although to be fair to him he was merely performing the dharma of a kshatriya by responding to the challenges of Shakuni. Also in Mahabharata war he was a late bloomer. He was defeated and disgraced by Karna who let him go thinking of his promise to mother Kunti, and he vented his frustration on Arjuna. By the grace of Sri Krishna Yudhisthira survived Arjuna's foolhardiness. That was the only instance in the entire Mahabharata where we saw him losing his cool. That was also the only situation where he expressed candidly his fear regarding the outcome of war, esp. the many sleepless nights he spent thinking about how to defeat Karna. However ...

This is a discourse between Vidura and Dhritarastra in Stree Parva, when the latter was much afflicted by hearing the sad news of the killings of all his sons and grandsons. Taken from Mahabharata of Krishna Dwiapyana Vyasa, translated by Kishari Mohan Ganguli, volume 7 - Stree Parva. A certain brahmana, living in the great world, found himself on one occasion in a large inaccessible forest teeming with beasts of prey. It abounded on every side with lions and other animals looking like elephants, all of which were engaged in roaring aloud. Such was the aspect of that forest that Yama himself would take fright at it. Beholding the forest, the heart of the brahmana became exceedingly agitated. His hair stood on end, and other signs of fear manifested themselves, O scorcher of foes! Entering it, he began to run hither and thither, casting his eyes on every  point of the compass for finding out somebody whose shelter he might seek.  Wishing to avoid those  terrible creatu...