Mahabharata: The War Within
 

      The Mahabharata—literally, the story of greater India—is the other twin that has decorated Hinduism, along with the Ramayana, throughout millennia. Whereas in the Ramayana there is the war of righteousness with others, in the Mahabharata, the war of righteousness is with our own people. In the Ramayana, the scene of war is across the ocean, far away from the kingdom of Rama. In the Mahabharata, the scene of war is at Hastinapur, their very own kingdom. In both, the war is between virtue and vice, right and wrong, good and evil. Indeed, the Mahabharata is the story of the war within our own bosom. The Bhagavad Gita, which is the divine message of this grand epic, is the epitome of Hindu spiritual philosophy.

      The Mahabharata is the most fascinating story of this grand legend, narrated by another great Hindu mind, Ved Vyasa, between 400 and 300 BCE. It is the world’s longest epic poem, consisting of one hundred thousand verses. “Vyasa” literally means “arranger.” It may, however, be possible that this is not the name of any one individual; rather, it may denote the position of a compiler. Historians and scholars have established that the Mahabharata was, in fact, written and compiled over many centuries, beginning from the first half of the first millennium BCE and reaching its completion toward the first century CE or even later. This story unfolded over centuries, not only in our scriptures but also in all media, all over the world. In the Ramayana, the story revolves around God, in the form of Lord Rama. In the Mahabharata, it is centered on another God, Lord Krishna. So capacious has been the influence of Krishna on the lives of Hindus that they cannot visualize a world without his holy name. Indeed, Krishna has cast a magical spell beyond any imagination. No wonder, then, that there are Krishna temples all across India, as well as on all other continents.

      The story of the Mahabharata begins with an ancient king of Hastinapur, who had two sons. The elder son, Dhritarastra, was blind, so he was barred from sitting on the throne after his father’s death. The younger son, Pandu, ruled for some time but died prematurely when all his five sons, collectively called Pandavas, were still young. In this situation, the old blind uncle Dhritarastra was asked to become the king temporarily until the Pandavas became eligible. In ancient Hindu scriptures, the language used by the great Rishis is often symbolic. Dhritarastra’s blindness, therefore, was not so much physical as it was mental. He could not discriminate between right and wrong. Once he became the ruler, his greed for power again flared up in his mind. He had one hundred sons, all called Kauravas, the eldest being Duryodhana. In the Mahabharata, the five Pandavas represent the virtues, while the hundred Kauravas represent the vices. We may also have fewer virtues and many vices. We always need to be careful that we do not lose our precious virtues or become engulfed by the vices.

    When the Pandavas grew up, Duryodhana played a foul trick in order to usurp the kingdom. Yudhistra, the eldest of the Pandavas, was a man of unimpeachable truth, but he had a weakness for the game of dice. His absolute commitment to the virtues of truth and righteousness earned him the legendary status of Dharamraj, the prince of religion. Duryodhana, with the help of his cunning maternal uncle Shakuni, defeated Yudhistra by deception. Dhritarastra, the blind father, remained silent and gave his son tacit support for his immoral acts by not intervening; rather, he hoped that his son would become the king. How often a similar drama unfolds in our own lives when we see our own kith and kin do wrong, but we turn a blind Dhritarastra eye!

     When Yudhistra lost everything and his right to the kingdom was gone, he became desperate. He gambled his own five brothers, and later, to his ultimate shame, also lost the common wife of all the Pandavas, Draupadi. After this, Duryodhana became even more wicked. (Often, one evil leads to another.) He ordered that Draupadi be undressed before the full court. Yudhistra and his four brothers watched the horrible scene without speaking, but they hung their heads in shame. Draupadi represents our honor; when she was put in this most difficult situation, she looked around and begged for help from all. When no one came forward, she cried for Lord Krishna, who at once saved her honor by providing unending yards of cloth to keep her covered and intact. Much later, Draupadi would confront Lord Krishna, asking why he had not helped sooner. The Lord replied that as long as she was looking for help in other places, he would not come, but whenever she remembered him in full faith, he would always be there. This is Lord’s promise: our God is the spiritual power within us. When man is banking only on his own physical and material aspects, the Divine energy is subdued. Man, however, may tap into the infinite energy of the Divine whenever he wants, if he only he will turn from the material to the spiritual.

     After the Pandavas lost the game, they were ordered to go to the forest to spend the next twelve years in exile. When they returned, they requested that they be given a small piece of the kingdom where they could live peacefully. The haughty and unjust Duryodhana turned down this request. Lord Krishna, who was their distant cousin, intervened but to no effect. The Pandavas, with the consent of Lord Krishna, declared war with the Kauravas. Once again, as in the case of Ramayana, it became clear that although war is not a good choice, it could not always be avoided. After all peaceful options are exhausted, it is one’s spiritual duty to rise and fight the evil monger, lest he continue to harm society. Both Pandavas and Kauravas approached Sri Krishna for help. The Lord declared that he himself would be available on one side, without any army or armament; on the other side would be all his men and materials, but without him. This is a clear signal for man to choose between God and Mammon. Arjuna, the most proficient warrior prince among the Pandvas, at once opted for the Lord, and, in equal haste, Duryodhana chose the army and other materials. The Pandavas won the war with the guidance and blessings of Lord Krishna.

 
      Before the war started, Arjuna was severely stressed to find that he had to wage a war against his own kith and kin; he was most reluctant to do so. The Mahabharata is a war within oneself—a war that we all have to fight, within our own conscience, between the right and the wrong. Before the war began, both Arjuna and Duryodhana approached Lord Krishna for help. Duryodhana was keen to get the material help in the form of the Lord’s army and other tangible assets. Arjuna, on the other hand, opted for spiritual help in the form of virtuous advice and guidance by the Lord. Arjuna kept his attention totally on God throughout the period of war. This helped the Pandavas to not only win the war but this spiritual instruction became a saga of sacred scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, which would transform the lives of innumerable people, across the millennia and all over the world.

      After the war of the Mahabharata, Kunti, the mother of the five Pandavas, said to the Lord, “Grant me sorrow! For it is in the sorrow that we remember God.” Hindu sages consider sorrow as an incentive to remember and follow the path of God. The scriptures have thus become a beacon of spiritual light for mankind.

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