Something to ponder over

 This incident happened when I was rewatching BR Chopra’s Mahabharata and the incident happens between a Brahmin and his eldest daughter. The scenario is in Ekacbakranagari where Bakasura has to be fed and the turn is of the Brahman family.

The story goes, he has 2 kids with eldest being the daughter and son too young to go to the demon. The father decides to go but stopped by the daughter who volunteers herself and the reason the Brahman gives for not sending his daughter is what baffling me.

The man says, daughter is “some one else’s property” she has to marry some day and go with her husband, fair point for patriarchal system then and to this he adds “you are the earth on which new life needs to grow”, I am assuming here he is talking about the progeny and the sperm being the seed and so on.

For the ancient Indian science and the renowned sages/scientists didn’t we know the kid has both mom and dad aspects in it and women is not playing the role of earth alone by providing nourishment but also altering the genetic code of the baby by adding her own to the mix, which if I understand science right earth never does.

Maybe I am overthinking this as always or maybe the dialogues said more and I only remember this.

Anyways, just another post.

Ps: there is a bit of background to the story for I overheard someone saying, if not for this mom I would have been born to someone else with the same dad and that made me think, then you won’t be you, you would be someone else😊

Mahabharata TV series update

I finally completed watching all the 94 episodes of Mahabharata and it was a wonderful journey. I wish I had taken time to my complete the journey but the temptation to finish was too irresistible. In conclusion, hats off to the actors for having done such a wonderful job. I think the weakest link is the guy who played Yudhistira’s role, rest all have done amazingly well and hats off to the directors and producers. Its worth every penny.

Now, coming to the actual story itself. There are a few questions and observations that arose in me after completing the series,

• Why does Krishna reveal to Karna that he is born to Kunti right before the war, was it his last effort to drag Karna to the side of Dharma?
• At the beginning of the war, Duryodhana calls Yuyutsu as his step brother, is he right in calling him like that?
• Dronacharya and Kripacharya were the only 2 acharyas (teachers) participating in the war, what was their justification?, Kripacharya was the spiritual advisor to the king, no other king in the war asked his spiritual advisor to participate in the war. If we talk about being indebted, Dronacharya had paid his debts to the kingdom by teaching the princes and their sons. The reason Dronacharya gives is that his guru Parushurama also wielded weapon, but we all know why Parushurama did what he did?
• Watch the episodes carefully, Dronacharya gives a better and more plausible explanation on why he asked for Ekalavya’s thumb?
• The way Dronacharya was killed is it according to the law of Dharma?
• I had similar question for Bhishma’s death but this website seemed to satisfy me to an extent
• Bhishma through out the series chastises Karna and in fact tells the king to separate Karna, Dushyasana and Shakuni from Duryodhana’s life for they are the ones who are feeding ill to Duryodhana,  But on the 10th day of the battle, out of the blue he claims he knew Karna was the son of Kunti.
• If this was revealed on the 10th day of the battle how come Sanjaya did not even mention a bit of it to the King and Duryodhana did not know till the end?
• Bhishma is laid to rest on bed of arrows pierced through his body on the 10th day, didn’t gravity have any effect those days, he seems to be at the same height above the ground on the last day as he was on the 10th day.
• With the number of arrows piercing his body, wouldn’t Bhishma had died of excessive blood loss in a couple of hours? and how can so many arrows miss all the vital organs to keep the guy alive?
• I don’t get why Karna insists on King of Madra to be his charioteer for his day and half war, while people like Bhishma and Dronacharya had fought longer and better with run of the mill charioteers
• When Karna’s chariot gets stuck in the mud, why does he get down to lift the chariot up?, he was only fighting with Arjuna and the chariots can just remain where they are and they could continue the fight.
• Another point about Karna’s chariot, why didn’t he get another chariot when his got stuck in the ground. If you see the episodes, you will see that Dronacharya changes quite a few chariots in one of the episodes.
• The incident when Ashvathama kills the sons of Draupadi thinking they are the Pandavas, was he so blind that he couldn’t differentiate between 13-14 year old boys and mature adults.
• Duryodhana is probably the only one I know of who died of a thigh bone fracture, may be he died of excessive blood loss.
• In the very first episode king Bharata announces that all his sons are worthless to be his successors and nominates an external person to be the king, but through out the rest of the episodes, every body keep talking as though seniority at birth is the only criterion to ascend the throne.
• Being naive and goody goody, was Yudhistira really following dharma?
• The answer to the question of was Yudhistira right in putting his kingdom, his brothers and his wife to bet is answered by Krishna in one of the episodes (answer he was wrong and that’s the reason they all are forced on a 12 year life in the forest).
• The episode on the death of Abhimanyu is very well done, the story is very nicely narrated
• After watching the episodes I am now convinced that Bhagavadgita is an extremely powerful weapon and has the vast potential of becoming a weapon of mass destruction if used in the wrong way.
• I am also amazed at one last thing, Gandhari curses Krishna that whole of his clan (Yadavas) will be destroyed through in fighting and still retains enough power in her to change the body composition of Duryodhana the very next instant.      

The deaths of Bhishma and Dronacharya can only makes sense, if I assume Krishna is the guiding force behind Pandavas and he is using Pandavas as weapons to establish dharma in the land and pandavas were the only people capable of building a society based on Dharma for the future.

The final episodes where Krishna confronts his brother Balaram and the episode of Bhishma giving practical wisdom to Yudhistira are worth watching.

Mahabharata – TV series

Off late I have been watching Mahabharata, yes the TV version that was telecasted back in the 1980’s. The episodes are all on Youtube. At the time they telecasted, my knowledge of Hindi was pretty limited, I couldn’t completely understand, let alone appreciate the work. Now that I am seeing for the second time, I quite like the way it is done. They had put in a lot of efforts to make it this good. The dialogues are well written and the concept is well developed.

For those who are more interested in looking at the story from a different point of view, it is fun to watch the ego play of Duryodhana and his friends including mama Shakuni and Karna and how the ego of the family (father and son) destroyed the whole kingdom. It is interesting to watch how Bhishma in the guise of his oath runs away from Dharma and the price he pays in the end by lying on a bed of arrows pierced through the body. The other one that cracks me up is the way Dharmaraya believes that being goody goody all the time towards everybody is Dharma (you will find a ton of examples for this in the serial). In the end I realized the only person who followed dharma till the end was Vidhura and nobody else. The Bhagavadgita part is also very well done.       

I think it is worth a watch, considering its free and legally available. It has a few strong messages that are apt even today. On  a lighter note, most songs in the episodes have the same tune.

ps: since there is no 1 version of Mahabharata, there are some interpretations that does not match the “actual Vyasa Bharata”, here is a link if you are patient enough to read through.