Mahabharatham : ( 08/06/2013. )

FIFTEEN years passed under king Yudhishthira's reign, when old Dhritarashtra found himself utterly unable any longer to bear the burden of grief. Hurt by Bhima's occasional reproaches, he found no heart to accept the courtesies and comforts provided under king Yudhishthira's orders. Unknown to the Pandavas, he secretly fasted and underwent hard penances. Gandhari too observed manifests and inflicted privation on her. And one day Dhritarashtra sent for Dharmaputra and spoke to him thus: "Son, blessings on you. I have spent fifteen happy years under your roof. You have tended me most lovingly. I have made gifts and offerings to ancestors and fulfilled all my desires in that respect. Bereaved Gandhari, laying aside her own grief, has ministered to my physical wants all these years. My cruel sons, who committed unforgivable wrong to Draupadi and deprived you of your lawful inheritance, perished on account of their sins. But they fou

MAN pursues madly the object of his desire until it is got. When it is in his possession, he is soon satisfied, but he becomes the slave of ever-fresh longings and fresh griefs and finds no peace. Although to fight and to kill his enemies is a Kshatriyas dharma, what joy can one gets out of power and position and wealth acquired by slaughter and grief inflicted on brothers and near relations? It was this that Arjuna pointed out in his powerful plea before Krishna when the battle commenced. Krishna in answer, explained the principles of man's activities and the proper discharge of one's duties. But, what Arjuna felt and argued had also a great deal of force and there was more truth in it than appeared on the surface. The Pandavas defeated the Kauravas and became the unquestioned sovereigns of the land. They took up their duties and discharged them according to dharma. But, they found not in victory, the joy that they had expected. "When t

WHEN Yudhishthira was crowned and installed as king after the Kurukshetra battle, he performed an aswamedha yajna. As was the custom on occasions of this great horse sacrifice, all the princes of the land gathered on invitation and the yajna was completed in great splendor. The brahmanas and the poor and the destitute people, who had come in great numbers from all parts of the country, received bounteous gifts. Everything was done in magnificent style and in conformity With the injunctions relating to the sacrifice. From somewhere unseen, a weasel suddenly appeared right in the middle of the assembled guests and priests in the great pavilion and, after rolling on the ground laughed a loud human laugh as if in derision. The priests were alarmed at this strange and unnatural occurrence and wondered whether it was some evil spirit that had come to pollute and disturb the sacred rites. The weasel's body was on one side all shining gold. This remark

WHEN the battle was over, Krishna bade farewell to the Pandavas and went to Dwaraka. While on his way, he met his old brahmana friend Utanga. Krishna stopped and descending from his chariot saluted the brahmana. Utanga returned the greeting and proceeded to make the usual inquiries about the health and welfare of relatives. "Madhava, do your cousins the Pandavas and the Kauravas love one another as brothers should? Are they well and flourishing?" he asked. The innocent recluse had not heard about the great battle that had been fought. Krishna was astounded at the question of his brahmana friend. For a while, he stood silent not knowing what to say in reply. Then he softly disclosed what had happened. "Sir, a terrible battle had been fought by the Pandavas and the Kauravas, I tried hard and applied every means to prevent the fight and make peace between them. But they would not listen. Almost all of them have perished on the field o

AFTER the libation ceremony for Bhishma was over, Vyasa narrated to grief-stricken Yudhishthira an episode in Brihaspati's life. The wisest of men are sometimes affected by envy and suffer thereby. Brihaspati, teacher to the gods themselves, was master of all knowledge. He was learned in all the Vedas and all the sciences, yet he was once the victim of this debasing emotion and suffered disgrace. Brihaspati had a younger brother, Samvarta, who was also a person of great learning and a very good man. Brihaspati was, for this reason, stricken with envy of his brother. In this world men become envious of others, just because the others are good, while they themselves are not so good, and they cannot bear this. It is strange indeed that men should not suffer even virtue in others. Brihaspati harassed Samvarta in many ways. When he could not stand it any more, poor Samvarta put on the appearance of an eccentric and wandered from place to place, and spent his days in that way t

YUDHISHTHIRA'S pain of mind increased everyday as he thought of all the kinsmen that had been killed. He was stricken with intense remorse and decided he must give up the world go to the forest and do penance to expiate his sin. "I see no joy or good," he said to his brothers, in taking up the office of king or in worldly enjoyment. Do rule the land yourselves leaving me free to go to the forest." Arjuna talked of the nobility of family life and the entire good one may do without taking sanyasa. Bhimasena also spoke and harshly. "You talk, alas"' he said, "like a dullwitted person who has committed to memory the texts of the sastras without understanding their sense. Sanyasa is not the dharma of kshatriyas. The duty of a kshatriya, is to live an active life and perform his proper task, not to go to the forest renouncing activity." Nakula also contested the propriety of Dharmaputra's proposal and insi

THE Pandavas performed the til and water ceremonies for the peace of the souls of the dead warriors and camped on the bank of the Ganga for a month. One day, Narada appeared before Yudhishthira. "Son, through Krishna's grace, the valor of Arjuna and the power of your dharma, you were victorious and you are the sovereign lord of the land. Are you happy?" he asked. Yudhishthira replied: "Bhagavan, it is true the kingdom has come into my possession. But my kinsmen are all gone. We have lost sons that were dear. This victory appears to me but a great defeat. O Narada, we took our own brother for an enemy and killed him, even Karna who stood rooted like a rock in his honor and at whose valor the world wondered. This terrible act of slaying our own brothers was the result of our sinful attachment to our possessions. Karna, on the other hand, kept the promise he gave to our mother and abstained from killing us. Oh! I am a sinner, a low fell