कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भुर्मा ते संगोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
karmaṇyēvādhikārastē mā phalēṣu kadācana.
mā karmaphalahēturbhūrmā tē saṅgō.stvakarmaṇi৷৷
“Your right is to work only, But never to its fruits;
Let not the fruits of action be your motive, Nor let your attachment be to inaction.”
──Bhagavad Chapter II , Verse 47
“Your right is to work only, But never to its fruits;
Let not the fruits of action be your motive, Nor let your attachment be to inaction.”
──Bhagavad Chapter II , Verse 47
This shloka (verse) from Chapter II Verse 47 of the Bhagavad Gita, that forms one of the 18 chapters of Mahabharata, has guided Indians for millennia. With over 100,000 verses, Mahabharata is hailed as the longest epic in the world. This 1.8-million-word epic was composed by Veda Vyasa and written by Lord Ganesha. It spans over eighteen chapters beginning with Adiparva and Sauti’s narration of the story in the assembly of Rishis and culminating with Yudhishthira’s final test and the return of the Pandavas to the spiritual world in the Swargarohana Parva.
This long and arduous saga is a maze of stories with interlinked plots and sub-plots, and brimming with time-honoured tales of wisdom, courage, integrity, justice, virtuousness and righteousness. Concealed within these stories are layers of knowledge, ready to be revealed to the curious seeker. These stories not only enthral us but also guide us to seek and decipher answers to complex instances of both physical and metaphysical realm. The premise of the universal knowledge that this epic holds is embodied in the shloka:
Penned almost five millennia ago, this versatile text deals with all factors affecting our lives, from modern weaponry to complex human relationships, and the ever shifting equilibrium within which we survive. Hence despite being filled with stories of violence, bloodshed, injustice, greed, lust, deceit and depravity, Mahabharata remains among the foremost spiritual text of Vedantic philosophy. The unapologetic relatability of the stories and the analogies that can be drawn from them have made this text so mysteriously intriguing, inspiring and timeless.
The story of Mahabharata intrinsically needs no introduction as it is a simple story of two warring families, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who were related to each other. The story starts from the ancestors of two brothers, Dhritarashtra and Pandu, and the deeds of these ancestors that consume the succeeding generations slowly and steadily and ultimately leading the sons and grandsons of these two brothers to a face-off in the great battlefield of Kurukshetra.
What makes Mahabharata unique as a religious and philosophical Hindu text is its treatment and balance of extremes. On one hand, it is rife with mythical stories filled with vices and on the other, it contains the celestial verses of Bhagvad Gita where Lord Krishna provides a pathway to exalt oneself of these vices and exonerate the soul to attain Nirvana or the ultimate liberation from the cycle of birth and death and everything that happens in the process. It is this metamorphosis of simplicity and complexity that has intrigued researchers and critics over generations and made it one of the most interpreted texts of world literature.
In India, for generations, children have grown up learning the stories of Mahabharata. These stories are deeply embedded in the Indian culture. They are decadent and rhetorical from their foundation and cannot be pared down to a simple sub-structure for the sake of transmission. The psychological monotony and the profuse symbolism present in the Mahabharata often render its reader to a comatose and uncritical acceptance. It is, therefore, only upon reaching an age of mental maturity that one embarks on the journey to decode Mahabharata. The process involves deciphering and interpreting the text rationally rather than blindly and applying the gathered knowledge to the betterment of mankind. There is no hard and fast rule to interpretations as they are often relative to one’s accumulated knowledge and experiences in life.
As we turn the pages of Mahabharata, it reveals characters with gender fluidity as seen in the story of Ila and Budh, the ancestors from whom the entire Kuru dynasty descended. Budh is androgynous while Ila undergoes cyclic gender transformation due to a past curse. Similarly, in the story Iravan and Mohini, Lord Krishna transforms himself into a woman in order to fulfil Iravan’s final wish to be married before he is sacrificed to appease the Gods in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Amba, is reborn as Shikhandini and undergoes gender transformation to live as Shikhandi, Draupadi’s brother and be able to kill Bheeshma in the battle of Kurukshetra and thus fulfil her vows taken as Amba. These characters, their conditions and their situations are extremely complex for the uninitiated, unread or the simpleminded to decipher.
In addition to dwelling upon gender fluidity, Mahabharata also contains stories that depict both polygamous and polyandrous relationships as well as surrogate fatherhood. Draupadi was married to the five Pandava brothers, and prince Arjuna had four wives. Their marriages were socially and culturally acceptable. Ved Vyasa was the surrogate father of Dhritarashtra and Pandu and both the princes were regarded as the legitimate heir to the throne of Hastinapur, whereas Ved Vyas was not. These social nomenclatures reflected a highly advanced and tolerant society. However, the Hindu-izing movement has triggered negative exaggeration while neglecting the symbolism in these anecdotes.
Inter-personal and personal relationships are also cryptically defined in stories of Mahabharata that Indian children hear growing up. The concept of the son bearing the burden of his father and internalising his father’s suffering in the name of filial duty is strongly rooted in Indian culture. It is reflected in the joint-family tradition and acceptance of the eldest surviving male member as both the decision-maker and the decision-taker of the household. The concept of ‘giving face’ is also deeply rooted in Indian culture and glorified through the stories of Mahabharata. For instance, Bheeshma taking the oath of celibacy for his father’s happiness, Eklavya decapitating his thumb as offering it to his Guru Dronacharya, Dhritarashtra swallowing his pride and accepting to be the care-taker king of Hastinapur upon behest of Bheeshma, and Karna sparing the lives of all five Pandava brothers in the great war because of a promise he made to Kunti, are all told with varying degrees of euphemism and glorification from one generation to another.
As in life, so in death, the stories of Mahabharata are revered and followed by Indian globally. The sanctity of the water of the river Ganga is not lost to the Hindus. Ganga is revered as the eradicator of all sins and purifier of souls. This stems from the story of 8 brothers, the Vasus, who stole a cow belonging to Rishi Vashistha. This angered the Rishi who then cursed unbearable pain and torture upon these brothers who would have to now live as humans. Upon pleading forgiveness, the Rishi lessened their pain to their birth. River Goddess Ganga was assigned to be their birth-mother and to release their souls from pain by submerging their bodies in her water. To this day, Hindus carry on the tradition of bathing annually in the river Ganga to cleanse their sins and purify their souls. The water of the river Ganga is an essential component of all religious rituals and upon death, the ashes of the dead are released in the waters of Ganga with the hope that the departed spirit finds salvation.
Mahabharata is the only surviving historical document that enables us to gather information about the scientific legacy of India from 5000 years ago. For instance, in the field of medical science, apart from revealing an organised system of medical practice and the use of herbs and plants to cure ailments, the concept of conceiving children through IVF and parthenogenesis was a remarkable phenomenon. Gandhari’s 101 children were born through a system similar to IVF where her stillborn foetus was divided into 101 pieces and placed in jars and incubated with ghee (clarified butter). Finally, a hundred Kaurava brothers and their only sister were born one by one out of these jars. Similarly, Kunti was blessed by Rishi Durvasa to conceive a child by uttering a unique mantra to invoke any divine being and the child thus born would have the qualities of the invoked divine being. Karna, Kunti’s first son was thus born from invoking Surya, the Sun God. While IVF has been a boon to many, parthenogenesis per se is unheard of in the present day. Rather, it is very common to find photos of Gods plastered to the walls of a pregnant woman’s room with the hope that the qualities and powers of the God are transferred to the new-born. The most popular Gods thus, are Krishna and Rama, who are not only considered very beautiful and virtuous but have no physical mutations like multiple heads or hands.
Another popular cultural phenomenon deeply rooted is – the concept of ‘learning in the womb’. Arjun’s son Abhimanyu learnt the art of infiltrating the complex Chakravyuh formation of the enemy and breaking it while he was still in the womb of his mother Subhadra. Present day mother-to-be listens to verses of Bhagavad Gita with the hope that her offspring would learn the art of righteousness, justice, dignity, honesty and integrity which will then help them navigate their life and guide their decisions.
In the field of astronomy, which is considered the oldest of all natural sciences, the verses of Mahabharata reveal the planetary system with stars, moon, sun and planets circulating in their own defined path in the darkness of the cosmos. The Bhagavad Gita mentions the phenomenon of the Big Bang and the beginning of evolution from nothingness to the cycle of life merging into this ultimate nothingness, in the process of attaining supreme liberation or Nirvana for the soul. This search for Nirvana has guided the Hindus to seek solace in the verses of Bhagavad Gita and given rise to Krishna Consciousness worldwide.
Also contained within the verses of Mahabharata are textual imagery of armaments and ammunition used in a war that are analogous to present day weapons of mass destruction. For instance, the Brahmastra that causes complete destruction has been equated to the nuclear weapon, Brahmashirsha Astra to a thermonuclear bomb and Narayana Astra to guided missiles. For a benevolent scientific mind, these serve as a treasure trove of historical knowledge and information, but in the hands of an opportunist, it can be lethal. Scientists, both in India and beyond have been studying the text and applying their learning to build sophisticated tactile weapons and weapons of mass destruction.
Mahabharata also serves as an exemplar for political diplomacy. It establishes the novel concepts of immunity and amnesty and outlines the rules and techniques required to implement them during a political crisis. At the same time, it does not refrain from recommending different approaches of using treachery and deceitful strategies for political gain or in situations of a political impasse. Mahabharata has therefore been adopted by political players and aspirants to further their cause. The outcome is heavily debated as it has caused sufficient good and harm depending upon both the purpose and nature of techniques applied and the intentions of those applying them.
Somewhere between the scope of political commentary and factual reporting, lies the phenomenon of Sanjaya, the charioteer and minister who narrated the details of the entire 18-day battle of Kurukshetra to the blind king Dhritarashtra, without ever stepping into the battle-field himself. This visionary minister is regarded as the symbol of divine insight and has served as an excellent case study to those pursuing the skill of interpretation and presenting texts and events without prejudice and judgement. An extension of Sanjaya’s ability to relay the events of the battlefield remotely is considered as the precursor to the modern-day telecommunication and broadcasting.
This also brings up a series of interesting concepts that Indian children are introduced at a young age through the stories of Mahabharata – the concept of time travel and power of yoga. King Kakudmi’s travel, along with his daughter, to the realm of Brahma in search of a bridegroom and getting stuck there for nearly 116 million years and finally returning to earth and marrying her to Balrama, the brother of Lord Krishna during the era of Mahabharata is possibly the earliest recorded stories of time travel. Similarly, Duryodhana’s practice of Jalastambhana Vidya or water-resistance yoga helped him build the skill to hold his breath for long periods of time underwater. While time travel is still a topic of great scientific enquiry globally, the water-resistance technique is taught to present day aspiring swimmers to expand their lung capacity.
With so much happening within the verses of Mahabharata and the myriad characters with their complex mental, emotional and social constructions who float through the pages justifying everything from sibling rivalry to war and destruction in the name of Dharma, it is, therefore, no wonder that the book of Mahabharata is not kept in its entirety in an Indian household. In addition to the fact that it contains stories filled with debauchery, deceit, dishonour and moral decay, the characters that exhibit these vices are undesirable to a peaceful household and considered best kept away from influencing young minds and their actions. It is a strong belief that if kept in a domicile, the spirits of the characters from Mahabharata can consume the people in the household, leading the family to a war and ultimately ending in their collapse and ruin. Having said so, one cannot deny the mysticism, fantasy and exotic charm that Mahabharata holds. While the stories of Mahabharata are part of Indian folklore, Mahabharata itself is no fable.
It is a treatise on the realisation of our own divinity (Aham Brahman Asmi – I am Divine), and living all five stages of life to the fullest – from living with parents as a child (Balyavastha) to living with a guru (Bramhacharya), living with society (Grihasta Ashrama), living with nature (Vanaprastha) and finally living with self (Vairagi) until the soul attains Nirvana. Mahabharata not only embodies all knowledge (cosmic, medicine, mathematics, economics, philosophy, management, sociology and more) but also lays out the principles of Dharma to be followed for lasting peace and happiness. They are not laid out as commandments but rather as beliefs and practices that can be challenged, decoded, questioned and adapted as humanity evolves and grows. Mahabharata, thus, serves as a guide for every individual soul that endeavours to rediscover and establish its prime identity. It is this versatility of Mahabharata that has given it a place among main religious texts and its verses have influenced, inspired, guided and shaped Indian culture and society over millennia.
