Mahabharat Breakdown #5: Our fault and the Ones fighting the inner battle

How relevant are the lessons from Mahabharat in today’s time? What can we as a country, society, or an individual learn from the great Epic?

DISCLAIMER: The article aims to highlight only the arguments portrayed in the TV Series. For authentic facts and their disclosure, the original text should be referred to.

Source: Disney+ Hotstar | Krishna and Arjuna

Pranipaat 🙏

In our last few breakdowns of the Mahabharat show, we discussed the faults of the three greatest personalities in the Epic that led to the war. You can read them below:

[embed]Mahabharat Breakdowns Edit descriptionadityadarekar.medium.com

Our main highlight throughout these last few breakdowns has been that:

The world suffers not because of the actions of bad people, but because good people choose to ignore the righteousness in their hearts and turn a blind eye to injustice.

While this ugly truth still stands true, this wouldn’t be a great lens to view the world — by judging others around you to be good or bad. It might almost turn any sane person cynical. So what do we take home from the lessons learned from these personalities like Bhishma, Drona, and Karna? And how are the lessons from Mahabharat relevant in today’s time? More importantly — are they even relevant?

I argue yes. But to understand it completely, we need to take a top-down approach. Let’s begin with addressing the world in its entirety and then move slowly and more peculiarly inwards — towards us as individuals.

World As It Is Today

Look everywhere around. Do you see anything wrong with the World today?

When young Devratt took the vow of celibacy, he had only one objective: happy and to ensure there was no fight among family members for inheritance. So great was this selflessly taken vow that he came to be known as Bhishma Pitamah by everyone for taking such a Bhishma Pratigya (Fierce Pledge).

Source: Disney+ Hotstar | Bhishma Pitamah

What he did throughout his life was for the welfare of his family lineage. One by one, every activity he performed was devoted towards a certain objective which was also his only ultimate objective. Whether good things happened or bad, Bhishma did not proactively participate in them and wove every incident into his narrative of the fierce pledge he had taken.

When Duryodhan poisoned Bheem — Bhishma watched.

When Kauravas tried to burn the Pandavas and their mother Kunti — Bhishma didn’t punish them.

When Draupadi got disrobed in the court by Dussashan — Bhishma stayed quiet.

Even with all the great knowledge he had acquired and the leadership skills he possessed, he became nothing but a pawn in the hands of the king sitting on the Throne of Hastinapur. And this is what happens to those who are driven by fear and insecurity, only trying to protect a particular sect, race, or community of people.

They often forget that a world exists outside the community they live in. There is nothing wrong with being proud of your culture or having nationalistic sentiments. However, it is necessary to remember that those loving outside your nation are also mere mortals like you and me. Cats and dogs roaming on the streets of your neighboring countries are animals worth protecting too. The earth beneath your feet and the sky above your eyes extend above those living across the sea too.

Then why not protect all of it?

Source: Disney+ Hotstar | Krishna intervening to fight Bhishma

Krishna argues with Bhishma about his vow and points out a similar mistake: Had Bhishma taken a vow for the welfare of all humanity instead of just his family and clan, he wouldn’t be so compelled to protect just them at the cost of the rest of the world.

And somewhere there, we miss out on this golden advice from Krishna too. While trying to prove our allegiance to a particular community, we forget to think about those in other communities. If Nature does not differentiate between creatures living across the globe then who are you and me to do so?

Society As It Is Today

Look around. Do you see anything wrong with the Society today?

Though we have the world’s welfare in mind, we cannot forget the society that we live in every day. No matter how many great personalities you watch, hear, or read about at the end of the day, the status quo quote goes like :

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

-Jim Rohn

And those five people are going to have a huge impact on your everyday life too so let’s not forget the society we live in and become like Dronacharya.

Dronacharya in his pursuit to win the little rat race he was having in his mind of belittling King Draupad and acquiring wealth, ended up being the wrong influence on his son. His son, Ashwatthama, grew up with similar ideals of wealth and incorrect moral values and eventually also became the reason for Drona fitting in the war, against the Pandavas.

Source: Disney+ Hotstar | Guru Drona

While everyone’s personal life experiences do shape their personalities, we don’t consider all these personalities to be good, right? Look around. Most of the personalities who are so well known for their contribution to society are so because of the sacrifices they made for its welfare. Those who think about others before themselves — others need before their needs.

Photo by Jesus Monroy Lazcano on Unsplash

The least we can do is to not normalize any bad practices happening around us. Let not one bad thing roll into the other until we have a huge rock tumbling down the hill devastating everything and everyone in its path. Let’s learn to differentiate between love and infatuation that we might develop for someone or something and not be swayed by them at critical moments.

Otherwise, we might not be far from the day when we fight another war… from the wrong side.

Mind As It Is Today

Look inside. Do you see anything wrong with your Mind today?

Mind? Who is going to infiltrate that?

If you asked that question, you have also answered your question. Our minds today, are where most of the battles are fought — should I eat this high-calorie cupcake or do a workout? should I stop using my social media now or after ten more minutes? should I raise my voice against this crime or stay quiet?

All are interesting mini-battles being fought inside our heads by different voices (almost like a master ventriloquist). Somedays, you take the advice of the right voice and do the right thing and end up feeling like you have won that day. On other days, you take the bad advice, miss your streak, and lose that day.

Source: Disney+ Hotstar | Karna

These voices remind me of Karna. The one man who could flip the entire epic’s scenario if he had listened to the voice in his head giving good advice. Yet the discrimination he faced in society left a gaping hole in his personality that Duryodhan poisoned and filled with honor and ambitions. Both of which were used to manipulate him against his ideals of righteousness.

Had Karna fought with himself, he would have come to reason as to who was right and wrong the whole time. Instead, he put his ideals inside a safe vault and locked it up, giving up his allegiance to Duryodhan completely. This rendered all his skills and knowledge usable only to the Kauravas who had no intention about the welfare of the society or the world.

Source: Disney+ Hotstar | Karna insulting Draupadi in the court

Our minds are the greatest yet the most sensitive of all the tools we have. It can store any amount of knowledge necessary. Good or bad — it leaves that for further analysis and those with overthinking capabilities. Unless we learn to train our minds, there is very little we can achieve because everything great requires some amount or kind of sacrifice. The question is: Who and What are we sacrificing for?

Who are we fighting?

We are fighting Duryodhan. We are fighting Dushashan. We are fighting Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Dhritharashtra, and many more. In our minds. Everyday.

The truth is we have reached that age and time, where a war like Mahabharat is not going to happen on a battlefield. Instead, It is going to and is happening in our minds constantly. The fight between choosing good vs bad for ourselves and those around us. In such times, we need a charioteer like Krishna, for our mind, who can drive the chariot in the right direction so that we come face-to-face with evil and learn to fight it.

Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash

It is not going to be easy. It was never easy for the Pandavas and Draupadi either. Facing so much humiliation and torture, they still endured together and stayed put under Krishna’s direction. They changed a lot too throughout their life — from the time the Pandavas were young adults learning under Drona to fighting Drona in Kurukshetra, all those experiences helped them get ready for the war that was to come.

When I say, we are fighting against the evil in our minds, I mean this:

1. Train your mind to think about the greater good i.e. welfare of everyone and not someone in particular.
2. Train your mind to give up on infatuations that may arise for someone or something over time and react/respond in an unbiased way.
3. Train your mind to understand the motives of others when they reach out to you with a smile and a hand of friendship.

Learning from the fault of Bhishma, Drona, and Karna let’s move ahead and not make the same mistakes or even dire ones like that of Duryodhan and the Kauravas.

Source: Disney+ Hotstar | Yudhishthira during the dice game

Even for those already hoarding good ideals: let your mind not camouflage your good virtues and ideals with your ego just the way it had led Yudhishthira to believe he could put himself, his brothers, and his wife at stake during the dice game. Surrender your mind to the greater good completely so there is no scope for negative emotions like insecurity, infatuation, or greed to infiltrate. Ever.

Conclusion

“Tough times don’t last, tough people do. ”

-Robert Schuller

So there we are. The true essence of Mahabharat lies in the lessons we learn from each character’s life. In some way, we represent one or many of these personalities from this great epic. A medley of voices is driving our decisions and actions. The major takeaway is that no matter who you represent, whether it’s Bhishma, Dhritharashtra, or even Duryodhan, let’s make a conscious effort to become like Arjun so we can be guided by Krishna Himself. Remember, the real battle is happening in your mind and only you can decide which side you want to fight for or against.

Source: Disney+ Hotstar | Krishna guiding Arjun

With this, we come to the end of the five-part breakdown series of Mahabharat. We started off talking about the theme of the show and then went on to discuss three prominent characters in the show, highlighting their major faults despite having great personalities, and finally ended with this last story with the relevance of the Epic in today’s time.

I had a great time writing this series and I hope you enjoyed it too. I would love to know what my readers thought about these breakdowns and the show in general so do consider leaving a comment below.

For one last time…

Pranipaat 🙏

-Aditya