Mahabharata 9

We left at the Bheeshma oath and the renaming of Devavrata as Bheeshma last time. The Prince in his blind attachment to his father partook an oath to leave the kingdoms to (good or bad ) destiny, by promising an unknown descendent from a family with a family culture of of known greediness and grabbing nature, to be the rightful heir to the throne in his own place - while he very well knew that he himself had been trained for bearing the responsibilities involved. He enjoyed his newfound respect in the hearts of one and all as the noble and selfless son who sacrificed his own happiness for his father's sake. No one stopped to think to blame him for his selfishness in his decision of  seeing his father happy at the risk of the happiness and peace of the kingdom. Well ... it goes to reassert the fact that monarchies where the rulers word is law are not conducive to the larger good of people.

So now, when Shantanu was informed of all this, he was unhappy about his son's vow, in that his son was foregoing his right for his sake, but even he - in his pledged position of a king who is responsible for the well being of the nation, did not stop to think about the possible future repurcussions of this folly. He was unhappy for his son's rightful position being disturbed, but not worried about the national good. While he did make a token gesture of showing that he was against Devavrata leaving his right, he nonetheless went ahead and married the lovely maiden who had ensnared him in her attractions, and not even opposed her father's insistent  demand for what was clearly a case of greed.

Satyavati went on to bear two sons for Shantanu. They were named Vichitraverya and Chitrangada ( see part 3 of this series for the family tree)


We will continue from here in the next part.

mahabharata7

We left at Shantanu wanting to marry satyavati, and her father demanding that his grandson be named yuvaraja.

Now - what shantanu did not possess - he could not give. The post of yuvaraja had already been allotted to devavrata, and as he was perfectly fit and suitable, there was no reason to take it back from him . But Shantanu  was enamoured towards Satyavati's attractions and he was not at peace. He was depressed and sad.

Meanwhile - Devavrata was a devoted son. He couldnt bear to see his father so dejected. So he tried and found out the cause of his father's greif. When he found the reason - he approached dasaraj with a marriage proposal for his dad - whereby Dasaraj repeated his demand. To this devevrata promised that he would not claim the kingdom and that satyavati's offspring would be the yuvaraja. But the fisherman still persisted. He said, while, you  may not claim, your offspring  may claim to be the rightful heir - then what will happen? To this - Devavrata took a terrible vow -"I will never marry and will remain celibate. Hence I wont have any sons - so there will be no challenges for satyavati's son,  and I will see the image of my father in whoever is the present throned king in this descendency, and protect the kingdom to the best of my ability from attacks"

This was a "Bheeshma" decision - almost impossible for a normal man to fulfill - but Devavrata carried his oath as a dharma throughout his long (and in later stages very sad )life. Thus he came to be termed as bheeshma.

Contd...

Mahabharata 8 - The Bheeshma and his Vow

We saw that Devavrata was termed Bheeshma because of the terrible vow he undertook to see his father happy.

Now - a lot has been said in praises of Bheeshma, and his selfless devotion to his father and the nation. Also, a lot has been said against Dhritrashtra, and how his blind love for his son caused the cruel war of Mahabharata. But - please consider this - while they are different in the sense of being selfless and selfish respectively, Bheeshma is more responsible than Dhritrashtra for the tragedy!!!!  While he was worthy of praise and appreciation for his selfless love for his father, it needs to be remembered that he had been taught dharma by heavenly gurus, and he knew that the good of a person (even if it one's beloved father) should never be placed before the good of the nation! He should have realized before making a blind promise that, the person who is so greedy and demanding as Dasaraj ( - Satyavati's Father)  may very well affect or influence the future generations' thinking, either through genetics or through ill advice!

He also knew that he himself was a good candidate - fit to inherit the kingdom - and he had no right to give away the position as a gift to his unborn half brother - who - at the time was an unknown factor. For all Bheeshma knew, the son of Satyavati might have grown up into a villanous character like Ravana or Kamsa - and he undertook an oath to protect such an unknown character to the best of his abilities -just to fulfill his father's blind sexual desire for Satyavati - who was not even enough in love with Shantanu to oppose her father's unappropriate and greedy demands!!! Being a knowledgeable person, he should have thought of pros and cons before making such a promise. And, having made the first folly - he multiplied it later on by supporting all the wrong doings of Dhritrashtra!!! Hence, the selfless son became the selfish yuvaraja who endangered the nation's well being for his selfish desire to see his own father happy!!.......


.........Contd

mahabharata 6

Well - after Ganga took the baby boy and went to the heavens to bring him up under the best gurus, Shantanu lived a lonely life. He was missing not only his beloved wife, but also his child.

After 16 years, Shantanu came across a divine boy who was shooting arrows so fast into the flowing waters of the Ganges that the flow had stopped! There are many side stories about Devavrata. He was 16 year old when he met his dad, but some sources say that he trained under Parashuram for thousands of years!!

Shantanu was then told by Ganga, who appeared there, that this was is own son whom she had taken away 16 years ago. Then she left the youth in his fathers custody, and returned to her heavenly abode. From time to time, the boy would go to the banks of Ganges and it is believed that his mother would appear in person and talk to him.

The boy grew into a valiant young hero, who was feared all over for his prowess as a "maharathi" and it is believed that no-one - but no-one cold defeat him against his own will!

Some years later, Shantanu met the second great love of his life - Satyavati. She was also called "matsyagandha" (being the adopted daughter of a fisherman - she would smell of fish) ; Kasturi-gandhi (by the blessing of rishi Parashara - she became fragrant like musk) ; Gandhavati (the fragrant one) and Yojanagandha (whose fragrance can be perceived at a distance of about 8-9 miles) Though she was brought up as a commoner, she was actually (believed to be) the daughter of cheti king Vasu. Like Ganga, she too is believed to be a cursed resident of superior planets,  an Apsara - sent down to earth for some punishment !!

Satyavati had previously had a son from Rishi parashar - who had blessed her with keeping her virginity intact, even after having coitus with him and bearing his child. The Rishi left her immediately afterwards, and she gave birth to a baby boy on the same day on an island in river Yamuna. The boy immediately grew up, and promising his mother to be with her whenever she needed him, he went for penance to the forest. He was called Krishna (the dark one) Dwaipayan ( one born on a dweepa - island) , and more commonly as sage  Vyasa - the compiler of the vedas, mahabharata, and bhagwat mahapurana.

Well , Shantanu fell in love with Satyavati, and met her (adoptive) father Dasaraj asking for her hand in marriage. While Dasaraj was not averse to the idea, he had a condition. He had been previosly told by some seer that Satyavati would be married to a great king and her son would be named as the emperor on growing up. As Shantanu had already declared Devavrata as the yuvaraja (next king) he couldnt promise this, and thus there was an impasse ..... Contd....

mahabharata5

• So, Shantanu asked for Ganga to marry him -and she accepted his proposal with a starnge condition - that he would never question her - whatever she chose to do . Ganaga was Ganga, she knew what she was going to do - ther is nothing wrong with her putting a condition like that (more so because she must have been sure that shantanu would never allow her to kill their offspring if he wasn't tied down by his own promise) - but what about a king - who is supposed to be pious and on the path of a king's dharma - accepting to make such a promise? Just to satisfy his own blind love - didn't he himself play a much riskier gamble than his descendent yudhishthira did years later? After all he didn't know anything about Ganga and she could have asked for anything after such a blind promise and marriage - when she would officially be the queen of the empire!!! This also goes to show that while Shantanu was blind in his love - Ganga wasn't ! After all when she promised the Vasus that she would bear them as her children and kill them on birth - she  knew that shantanu would be the father, and he would suffer - and she never thought to ask him or to take his agreement to the sin of being a mute watcher to the killing of his sons (in his eyes - it was definitely a sin - though it wasnt a sin in ganga's eyes - - in normal viewing - you decide - is it not a sin to kill? if you feel she was killing the vasus' withtheir own permission  - then i ask you - do you think suicide is not a sin? Then is mercy killing wrong? Why did the supreme court not allow active  mercy killing of the long suffering Aruna Shanbaug ? while it is right for ganga to kill the vasus on birth because they  wanted it - how is it wrong to kill Hritick Roshan in the movie guzarish??? 

• Well - let us leave the decision making to the individual readers, and proceed with the story... Ganga agreed to Shantanu's marriage proposal - and they were married. Soon Ganga was expecting the first baby - and the whole kingdm was in a celebration mode - waiting for the new yuvaraja - please note two things - It was assumed that the child would be a male  and also that he would be named yuvaraja - the next king without any reference to whether he she would be fit to be a good king!! Here are the first steps - from Bharata's methods - who - despite having own sons - chose a deserving yuvaraja from outside - to the time of shantanu - when - even before birth - the child was assumed to be the next yuvaraja. 
•  Well - finally the wait was over - and Ganga delievered a baby boy - and ther was a wave of joy throughout the capital city. But even before the joy could be celebrated - the population was shocked to know that - the new beautiful queen - the goddess likwe ganga - had taken her own child to the waters of the ganges and  smilingly drowned it!!!! People were bewildered - and there was a wave of disgust at the cruel mother who could do this to a new born child. But the king -  did not question his lovely wife because he was too attached to her to risk losing her in wake of his breaking his promise!!! Now - please remember - he had not promised her  not to ask wuestions - just that if he asked  she would leave him and go . Therefore - if he did question her act - he would not have been guilty of breaking his vachana - just lose her !!!! Would that be such a great loss ?? I mean losing a wife who murders your son is a worse loss than being a silent accessory to further such murders?? 
• 
  
• And - this went on - for the next children too - till the last child - Devavrata - was born. After so many incidences did Shantanu come out of his blind attachment - and questioned Ganga - just as she was about to drown the baby. She then told him the whole sad story - and then left him. Doesn't it go to show the depth of her love to him? While she was not cursed to live a fully human life on earth - as sahantanu was - she had the rememberance of her actual self - while he did not - but - if she had truly loved him - would she have taken advantage of the escape clause to leave him and return to heaven - where they both belonged - leaving him to suffer the life alone?
• But, while Ganga went - she did not leave the baby with shantanu - she took him with her - to be trained by divine gurus , so that he would be capable and fit  to take over the dynasty of the great Bharata. Remember - she was a goddess - and knew what was the tradition of the family - that birth alone should not guarantee on to be entitled to be the yuvaraja - one had to prove one's worth too!! And she also had at least an inkling of what the future held - for her husband and their son....
• 
  
• Till next time - cheers ....

MahaBharata 4

When The time came for Bharata to announce the Yuvaraja , i.e the person who would be throned as the king when he himself would either step down or be no longer around, Bharata found none of his own sons suitable. He decided to adopt a deserving candidate as the future king, saying that, all citizens are the sons of the king and if the king's biological son is unsuitable, then it is his duty to give a good king to the kingdom even at the cost of his personal emotions. Now , if his descendent Dhritrashtra had seen and understood this, a lot of trouble could and would have been avoided.

Now we jump a long period of time and reach the stage when king Shantanu was the ruler at Hastinapur.

He was a great king, and his subjects loved him. At this time, it is said, the whole story of the mahabharata had been written to the end by Saint Vedavyasa (the son of saint Parashar and Satyavati, who later went on to become the wife of shantanu himself) The actual happenings occured later, but the book had been written in advance




One day, while Shantanu was at the banks of the ganges, he saw a divine beauty rising from the waters. He fell in love with her, and asked for her hand in marriage. The lady introduced herself as Ganga, and accepted the proposal with a condition, that shantanu would never question her acts, whatever she did. Shantanu, blinded by his attraction, accepted the condition ... thus sowing the seeds of the tragedy which came generations later. Now, I ask you friends, while it may be ok for a normal person to make such reckless promises, is it acceptable for a king, who is responsible for all the decisions of the wmpire, to make such a promise to fulfill his personal desire for a beautiful woman? Did he not realize the possibilities that the promise circumvened? Remember, he was from the bharata vamsha, and had great example of the great bharata to guide him........................Nevertheless, what happened - happened, and they got married. Fortunately Ganga was Ganga, but remember - it could have been any type of a woman for all shantanu knew at that time......

Now , it so happened that eight vasus - the immortal sons of the manu, had been cursed to a life as mortals on earth. They  had a friend Jitavati, and to give her a long life, they had stolen sage vashishtha's cow (the same nandini - the cause of the friction between vishwamitra nad vashishtha) believing that by drinking her milk, her life would be extended. but the vasus were caught steeling, and they were condemned to themselves be born as mortals. Now, they approached Ganga to become their mother and kill them immediately after birth - to save them the trouble of living a human life. Ganga , who was herself supposed to spend a part of her lifetime on earth to atone for her sin, which she and shantanu were supposed to have committed by falling for each other in the higher planets. So She agreed to bear them as her sons, and immediately drown them in her own waters to save them the apin of suffering  a whole lifetime on earth...

Till next time then ... cheers

The mahabharata3

Kuru Family Tree

Kuru --- Shantanu ---- Ganga ------- Devavrata (Bheeshma)

              |
              |____ Satyavathi   3 sons ---- 1. Veda Vyasa (from Parashara muni
                       |                                      before marriage to Shantanu)
                       |
                       |_________  2.  Vichitraveerya  (from shantanu)-----------(A)
                                            3.  Chitrangada (from shantanu)
              
  (A) Vichitraveerya ---Ambika ---- Dhritrashtra + Gandhari - Duryodhana,
                   |          (Veda Vyasa)                             Dushala (girl)99 sons                                        
                   |
                   |_____Ambalika --- Paandu + Kunti - Yudhishthira, bheema, arjuna
                              (Veda Vyasa)              + Madri - Nakul, Sahadeva          |
                                                                                                                     |
                                                                                                                     |
                                                                             (With Subhadra) Abhimanyu
                                                                                                            |
                                                                                                            |
                                                                             (With Uttara) Parikhshit
                                                                                                       |
                                                                                                       |
                                                                                                   Janamaejaya
                          

Well , we discussed the historical linkage between the great sages of Ramayana and the Bharatavamsha of Mahabharata. Now, we reach the Bharatavamsha itself.

Shakuntala and Dushyanta's son, Bharata, went on to become a great king. Some say that it is from him that our country got its name "Bharata" Others say it was anther great king Bharata who lent his name to the country , he was a great king who renounced his kingdom in old age and went vanaprastha during old age. there, he got attached to a deer and when he died, he remembered the deer and was reborn as a deer. But that is another story altogether. Right now, we are talking of Bharata, the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, and the grandson of Sage Vishwamitra and Apsara Menaka, the forefather of the Bharatavamsha which is the birth ground of Mahabharata.

King Bharata ruled for a great many years. He had sons, but did not find any of them suitable to be handed over the responsibility of the kingdom. So king Bharata, even against the advice of his mother Shakuntala, appointed a third person as the king. Such were the standards of the family into which Dhritrashtra was born - that being the son  of the king does not entitle one to be throned, he has to have proper qualifications, which Dhritrashtra clearly did not have. But Dhritrashtra was too mentally blind to see his own and his son Duryodhana's unfitness.

Many generations later, came the great king Shantanu. The downfall of the Bharatavamsha dynasty takes roots during his period. His two great loves, and his son's blind attachment to father are major contributing factors to the seeds of destruction of the empire.

Once Shantanu was on the riverside, when he observed an extremely beautiful woman emerging from the waters. He fell in love instantly with the beauty. Now, I ask our self appointed guardians of indian culture, all through mythology, you find people falling in love with each other. Then why do they run after youngsters who are in love and victimize them? Why dont they dare to call the great love stories in the epics as sins??? You see, Raama fell in love with Seeta on first sight, Rukmini wrote a letter inviting Krishna to take her away, Arjuna eloped with Subhadra with the blessings of her brother Krishna, Bheema's Demoness wife proposed the marriage to the prospective mother in law Kunti Maharani without even Bheema's support........ The thekedar's  of indian culture need to first learn indian traditions and culture before judging people and passing their own laws for dealing with "wrongdoers"

But, I am digressing here. We were with Shantanu. On seeing the lady, he fell in love with her and proposed marriage. The lady was Goddess Ganga, the diety of the holy river Ganga. She accepted his proposal on the condition that he would never question her - whatever she did.

Now - in my personal view, any responsible king should never have accepted such a condition. A normal citizen is different, if he makes a wrong promise only he himself will suffer the consequences if the decision happens to be wrong. But when a king undertakes such a blind promise, he is dooming the whole country , which actually happened in case of Shantanu. And it is to be remembered that shantanu was very well versed with the definition of neetis - dharmas - adn he knew the consequences of King Dashratha's similar blind promise to Kaikeyi ... he should have been more careful. But being blinded by his attachment to Ganga's beauty, he consented to her condition for marriage. They got marrried and we will see what partook in the next post in this series.....

Till then, cheers, be happy......
.

the mahabharata 2

So, we talked about Vishwamitra and Vashishtha and their tug of war over the holy cow Nandini in the previous post. Well, Both of them have important roles in the story of Mahabharata. 

Vashishtha sired Shakti muni, 

      who in turn fathered Parashara muni,

         who was the father of Ved Vyasa born to Satyavati.

Satyavati went on to become the wife of bheeshma's father Shantanu (and it was for enabling their marriage, after seeing his father lovesick for her, that shantanu's son devavrata took the oath to never become a king and forever remain a bacheler - thereby terming him as bheeshma)

        Later Satyavati's first son from parashar muni, Sri Vedavyasa fathered dhritrashtra, pandu, and vidura, because her sons from king shantanu could not extend the family and bheeshma refused to give up his pratignya and get married. Therefore, both the parties fighting the mahabharata are the descendents of Vashishtha. (Vedvyasa is also the father of Shuka deva, who recited the Bhagawatam to Parikshit who was Abhimanu's and Uttara's son and Arjuna's and Subhadra's grandson... Subhadra was the sister of Krishna, and Arjuna's cousin. Thus we see that marriage among cousins was also well accepted in our history, and is very prevalant in karnataka where I am staying today, where it is more or less a norm for first cousins (that is the children of brother and sister) to get married.  Here, the title for mom and dad in law is  Atte - Mama - that is , bua and mama in hindi.

On the other hand, Vishwamitra started tapasya, and underwent severe penance. The king of the devas, Indra felt afraid that Vishwamitra would take over his kingdom by the power of his tapasya.Thereby, fearing for his simhasana, and sent Menaka to disturb Vishwamitra's tapasya. Vishwamtra became attached to her and married her, and she gave birth to Shakuntala . 

After her birth, Indra summoned Menaka back to swarga, and Vishwamitra, learning of the deception, got infuriated and gave up the daughter. Shakuntala was brought up bu rishi Kanva, and later she fell in love with Dushyanta, The Paurava king. They secretly got married.... After he returned to his kingdom, she missed him terribly and forgot to cater to rishi Durvasa who cursed her that her lover would forget her. On her friends' behest, he said he would remember her if she could show him some gift given buy him to her. Later Shakuntala realised that she was pregnant, and was sent to her husband, who did not recognise her due to the curse. She was unable to return to her father's ashrama in her condition, and she went on to the forest where she gave birth to Bharata, who was later seen by his father playing with tiger cubs in the jungle.

As the curse broke (on seeing a ring he had gifted her) dushyanta recognised shakuntala and took back both mother and child to his palace. This boy Bharata was the forefather of the Bharata vamsha, to which Kauravas and Pandavas belong.

Thus, ther is a deep linkage between both the great sages Vashishtha and Vishwamitra, and the bharatvamsha dynasty. We also see a historical linkage between the ramayana and the mahabharata epics.

PS : Hi - it is difficult to maintain caps and small letters and proper punctuations during the flow of writing. Please bear with me......

Have a nice day friends. Cheers. Keep visiting, and please post your comments to the posts.......  

The Mahabharata 1- Background

The Mahabharata - Background


I am very happy to start this series on Mahabharata today. As I have already started writing under the label of the great Geeta, I feel it is necessary to talk about the Mahabharata too. I know that plenty of literature is already available on this great epic, but i feel a need to write what i feel is important for my readers to know about the backdrop of the rendering of the Geeta to Arjuna by Sri krishna in the battlefield.

For a starting point, i would like to ask my readers one question. Everyone knows that the mahabharata happened after a long long long time after Sri Rama's time -- (or do people know this??) But - do you know this - the starting of the Bharat Vamsha - in which pandavas and kauravas were born - are traceable back to the great sage Vishwamitra - who took Sri Raama to Sri Seeta Mataji's swayamvara ?? i feel most people do not know this. But it is true. and we will start our story with sage Vishwamitra - who was NOT a Brahmin by birth (do we know this ??) - he was a warrior king - a Kshatriya. In the next post in this series, we will talk about sri Vishwamitra's relationship with the bharat vamsha dynasty - in which we will be meeting our well versed characters of the mahabharata - bheeshma and others ..... Today we will talk about who he was and how he became a sage....


Actually Sri Vishwamitra was a great sage, as most of us know. But earlier he was a king - who got lost in the jungle and reached Maharshi Vashishtha's Aashrama (remember - Sri Rama's guru Vashishtha?) where he was catered to very lovingly. He observed that Vashishtha had a divine cow which would give everything asked of it and could feed his army without any ado. While returning back , he wanted the cow for himself, but Vashishtha would not allow this because he said the cow was divine and had been granted to him to take care of the ashram nivasis' needs. Upon this, Vishwamitra attacked the ashrama, but was summarily defeated because of sage Vashishtha's spiritual powers. Seething under the insult of the humiliating defeat, Vishwamitra renounced his kingdom and started doing tapa. After a great many years of severe austerities, he himself became a great sage, and lost the anger which had initially started him on the path of tapasya. He reached a stage of spirituality, and we have already seen his peaceful part in the Ramayana, where he called upon Dashratha to lend him Raama to drive away the demons disturbing his sacrifices, not willing to fight them himself, because he had realised that it is the duty of the king to protect the tapovanas of sages. We will discuss about his link to the Bharat vamsha in the next post under this label.