Krishna in the Mahabharatha

A post by my friend Shreyas, something I found wonderful and thought I should share it with you'll! :) Read on..

“Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam.
Dharma sansthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge.”

For the upliftment of the good and virtuous,
For the destruction of evil,
For the re-establishment of the natural law,
I will come, in every age.

These immortal and oft-quoted lines, rendered by Krishna on the battlefield to Arjuna, sum up the essence of his avatar, and in particular his role in the Mahabharat. And yet, notwithstanding the fact that he was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, Krishna donned a myriad of hats. Cousin to Pandavas and the Kauravas, counselor to Yudishtra, mentor and friend to Arjuna, protector and brother to Draupadi, chief trickster in the Kurukshetra war, and overall the upholder of justice – he assumed different roles for the benefit of different people. Above all, he shared a special relationship with Arjuna, which formed the basis of most of the Kurukshetra war and the Bhagwad Gita. Such was their bond, that he even assisted Arjuna’s elopement with his own sister and then pacified his angry kinsmen.

Contrary to popular perception Krishna’s role in the Mahabharat was not limited to only the war. Nor was he a facilitator of the war. In fact as an emissary of the Pandavas, he tried his best to settle matters amicably. Only when Duryodhana refused to give them even a pint of land, he urged Yudhistira to prepare for war. He was able to counter the gyrations of fate by offering the Pandavas an escape route at every critical juncture. Be it saving Draupadi’s honour when Durshasana mercilessly pulls her garments or filling Sage Durvasa’s stomach when he and his disciples visited the Pandavas in the forest (when they were out of food), his divine hand is hard to miss.

During the war, apart from serving as Arjuna’s charioteer and strategist, he was also the invisible force responsible for the Pandavas’ outwitting every single plan of their foes, by hook or by crook. Some of his innumerable tricks to ensure the victory of the Pandavas were:

• Saving Arjuna from Bhishma’s fury by entering the battle, thereby breaking his own vow, and later providing the Pandavas the way to defeat Bhishma.
• Using his Sudharshan Chakra to hide the sun and providing the Kauravas the false illusion that the day was over, in order to lure Jayadhrata out and facilitate Arjuna killing him.
• Immobilizing Drona with the lie “Ashwathamma is dead”, which the former assumed to be his son but was actually an elephant.
• Saving the Kuru clan by protecting Abhimanyu’s son Parikshit from Ashwathamma’s Brahmastra.
• Protecting Bhima from Dhrithirashtra’s wrath by replacing him by a statue which the old man breaks into pieces.

Krishna often justified his trickery by convincing the Pandavas that the Kauravas had broken Dharma first and in order to restore it, it was imperative that they resort to such tactics. So powerful was his role in the war that even the haughty Duryodhana once accepted, “All of the rishis say Krishna is the Supreme God, maybe they are right” and secretly prayed to Krishna. And of course, the Mahabharat would have been incomplete without his philosophical discourse to Arjuna, to help the latter overcome his moral dilemma about fighting his own family and Guru. This discourse, known to us as the Bhagwad Gita (Song of God), consists of insights intended to reach beyond the scope of religion and to humanity as a whole.

To maintain virtue in a decadent world, and to ensure the victory of good over evil, Krishna was born as the son of Devaki and Vasudeva. Yet, to the careful observer his role in the Mahabhrat is a paradox of sorts. Neutral on the surface but in actuality, the cause of all causes and the kingpin for all happenings. This is evident when he offers the Arjuna and Duryodhana the choice between himself and his entire army for the war, knowing that the avaricious Duryodhana would choose the army, thereby leaving the greater power (himself) with the Pandavas. He exploited the loopholes in the boons granted to every single of his enemies, be it Karna, Duryodhana, Jayadhrata or Bhishm, which lead to their defeat. Perhaps the intention of Vyasa in writing about Krishna’s character in the Mahabharat is demonstrate the essence of action; action that will always ensure the greater good. He exemplifies the dictum "What thou shalt sow, shalt thou reap."

The power of blind faith

There are two aspects of devotion as I had discussed in the previous post. Bhakthi and Jnana. Karma generally isn't considered as devotion, as ignorance also falls under that bracket. But Bhakthi and Jnana are two forms which are often considered as paths to salvation by knowing the ultimate truth. God has brought about many examples, and avataras to suggest this path to the world.

The foremost example of this path are Rama-Lakshmana. Rama was the ultimate Gnana Yogi. Bound by knowledge and the way of living, he lived the life the ideal human being should. Lakshmana was more of a devotee. Or for that matter, so was Bharatha, or Guha. They tirelessly served Rama, in some measure knowing his godly qualities, they loved him with everything they could give for him, sleep, kingdom, years of their active life, and many other things. This is generally the case where Bhakthi and Jnana co-exist in personalities.

One such case was that of Namdev and Gnaneshwar. Both saints of the holy town of Pandharpura, they co-existed and together were responsible in a large way for the holiness of the town. In some sense, they brought out all the other divine people, who were part of Pandharpura in the form of masons, potters, jewellers and other occupations. This pair which revolutionised the Bhakti movement in India was in some sense a Bhakthi-Gnana pair. Gnaneshwar was said to be the epitome of Gnana. His knowledge gave him the insight to look into everything. He could say when the sanctity of the Vittal idol was present and when the sanctity had moved somewhere outside merely by looking at the idol. That was the power of his tapas. Whereas with Namdev, he was a childlike devotee. He cried when the lord refused to listen to him. He was ready to give his life for the lord on multiple occasions. He was in complete love with the lord that other things meant nothing to him when dealing with the lord.

But what was the most beautiful thing of this bhakthi was the co-existence of the two forms of worship, the duality and the non-duality. Jnaneshwar was a preaching Advaitin, while Namdev followed the Dvaita school of philosophy. But what the two great seers held for each other was a huge deal of mutual respect and they commonly held a love for the lord. To the extent that after Jnaneshwar attained Jivanasamadhi, Namdev sang Samadheeche Abhanga, talking about attainment of Samadhi dedicated to Jnaneshwar, one of his very few sets of Abhangas dedicated to someone other than the lord himself. This concept of Bhakthi versus Gnana led to various interesting discussions as part of the Varakari itself. It is very heartening to note that the symbiosis of the two schools of philosophy has existed at some point in history, whereas what we see in recent history and today is total intolerance of each other by these two great schools of philosophy. Of course in south Indian culture there is the third school of special-dualism philosophy, or Vishishta Dwaitam. I'm not making this post to compare any of these philosophies, but the general aim was to contemplate over the fact that it was one very beautiful coexisting scenario, which has taken drastic backward steps today!

The name of the Holy Lord

All the world looks for one idea, all the religions point to one direction, the aim of all civilizations is sole, single, the attainment of salvation, as viewed in the Sanatana Dharma (what we know as Hinduism today), is Moksha. What is this Moksha? Why is it so valued? It takes us to the question of what the objective of life is. The question is a very involved one, so are the thoughts, but the answer is the one word of salvation. Moksha in very simple words is attainment of the feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in complicated terms is the divine union of the Jivatma, with the Paramatma. But why Moksha? Life is a game God plays. Here, he started with a single atma, played around and created many more of them. The absolute purpose of the life cycle is unknown, to even the greatest of seers who existed, it is just the manifestation of the supreme power, but one thing we do know is, the purpose of life is to get freed from the life cycle. I would elaborate on this in a later post. But the idea of the present post is something else. The power of the chant, of the name of the holy Lord.

There are three ways to salvation, the Karma Yoga, performance of duty, the Bhakthi Yoga, the performance of devotion, and the Gnana Yoga, the attainment and transformation of knowledge. If Gnana Yoga was the only way to salvation, none more than Gnanaeshwara, Gnanadeva, a few seers, including Vashishta and the Saptarishis and a few other truly blessed virtuous souls would attain Moksha. But the world is full of counter examples. To start off in the recent past, we had examples aplenty.

PurandaraDasa, the great Kannada saint, was once the greatest miser that once existed. TulasiDasa, the author of the RamaCharithaManas, was so attached to his wife, and his eyes were closed by the maya called kama, that he wouldn't mind almost drowning, almost being bit by a snake, or floating on a dead body just to meet his wife at dead night. Valmiki was a hunter and a tribal who killed for pleasure. Ajamila lived all his life moving away from the clean life of an ascetic, falling for a fisherwomen, living all his life by her side, giving birth to 12 kids.

But, then we all know these people as ones who ended up on the divine feet of the lord, don't we? Why is that? It's simply because God does want us to understand that people do make mistakes, are not perfect, but can always make a turn for the good. PurandaraDasa ended up being the doyen of Carnatic Music in India, and one of the foremost disciples of Lord Panduranga. We all know the story of TulasiDas, and so do we of Valmiki. The mere chanting of a crude form of the lord's name "maRamaRamaRa" granted him great wisdom, a place among seers, and one of the greatest priviliges of all time, writing the original Ramayana. Ajamila, whose life was worse than third rate, called out to his youngest son Narayana when he saw the Yamadhuthas coming to capture him, and take his life away. The mere utterance of the name Narayana had him going to Vaikuntha, as it is said that people call out generally to their loved ones at the time of death, and not the name of the lord, and this guy had been mindful to use the Lord's name then. The ever flowing ocean of mercy, the KarunaMoorthy Narayana, sent his messengers to send the Yamadhuthas away and had him brought to Vaikuntha. As it is said in the famous Marathi Abhang,
"Nama Parathe Sadhana Nahi, Vittala Pai Kandhe Mitti", which says it is impossible to call out the Nama, at the time of death, I might not remember to do the same, but I still want a small place in the mud of Vittal's feet, and hence I call out to your name now itself, keep the name calling in instalments for later purposes.
"Vittala Vittala Jai Jai Vittala"

So, that is the power of the Nama. The Nama is a huge medicine. I have seen people who have been cured from deadly situations by merely calling out the name of Sathya Sai Baba into the ear multiple times. I have also seen the amount of Thejas people acquire when they keep doing Vittal Nama or Om Nama Shivaya japa through out the day. We also know the great Taraka mantra, or for that matter the huge Narayana Mantra which was initiated to Sri Ramanujar was nothing but the Nama of the Lord. The chant of his name reverberating around would make it inevitable for any sort of bad influence enter your thoughts.

Yes, you might be chanting and still suffering, but that's because you are cutting down on the sins you committed in your previous janmas, but once all that goes to a null, once your redundant suffering has been experienced, you move in a direction, in a manner, which is commanding, leading, in the way of the Lord, the way the world ought to move.

P.S: This blog has been started to pen my ideas of Hinduism every now and then. People are free to comment. If you would like me to blog about something specific also I would be glad to oblige.