What is Dharma?

I'm trying to continue the ideas discussed in a series of previous blogs. Each article is independent, but you may want to start at the beginning for greater clarity: 

1. http://mexpostfact.blogspot.mx/2018/01/indias-greatest-epic.html 2. http://mexpostfact.blogspot.mx/2018/01/meaning-in-mahabharata-part-ii.html

Today we're looking at the question of dharma, specifically as it is seen in the ancient wisdom tradition of India as exemplified in the Mahabharata and the different yoga systems.

How is Dharma defined?

यतो धर्मस्ततो जयः' yato dharmas tato jayaḥ is a line often repeated in the Mahābharata. "Wherever there is dharma there is victory". It is the motto of the Supreme Court of India, the nation of Bhārata. The story of the epic Mahābhārata is the story of the triumph of dharma.

But what is dharma? We have often heard the word folded into discussion in the yoga class. dharma comes from the Sanskrit dhṛt, meaning “that which sustains, that which holds.” Dharma then is ”that which holds something together, its essential nature.” 

It is the dharma of sugar, for example, to be sweet. A white granular powder won't do. It might be salt. If it isn't sweet it isn't sugar. The dharma of a thing is its very essence. If karma  may be defined as "what you do," dharma  is what you are.  Since you are not that body, but eternal spirit, the proper dharma of spirit should be to be "spiritual."

Dharma  by itself is not action, but it implies right action. On an ethical level, dharma, means acting in character with one's spiritual self-interest. Acting against one's own self-interest would be adharmic. The dharma of the soul is sat, chit, and ānanda, eternal existence, divine knowledge, and perfect happiness. So to act against your eternal self-interest is to be out of synch with dharma, to be  adharmic. Spiritual happiness is the language of the soul. To speak another language is foreign to the soul. The atma is "self"illuminated--enlightened with knowledge. To act in ignorance, then is adharmic--against nature. 

Spiritual practice, however, tends to take on "practical" aspects. In real life, what was once "spiritual" becomes religion. And religion is a formal aspect of our practical life. Love, for example, becomes expresses as sexual attachment, formalized through religious practice as marriage. Religion legitimizes a sexual relationship and consecrates it. Something as base as crude sexual desire is transformed into holy matrimony with the help of religion and societies blessings. Religion may also give its blessings to war, blessing the troops as they march to protect the homeland. There is a certain dichotomy then between the concept of dharma as eternal spiritual self-interest and the mundane practice of dharma as duty to God, country, and religion. 

Dharma, then is sometimes taken as the ethical system that holds society together through religious practice. When we speak of the so-called Judaeo-Christian "ethic," we are trying to understand the dharma  of Western civilization.  So as we divorce the idea of dharma from its inner meaning as "spiritual self-interest," we find that dharma expresses itself as our ethical moral duty within society.

This leads to a split between social duty and spiritual duty. There is social dharma and divine dharma; society consciousness and God consciousness. One leads to  worldly joys and the other lead to supreme happiness. But these are often in clash. This clash between social dharma  and spiritual or divine dharma  is the essential conflict at the core of the Mahābhārata. The sons of Dhritarasthra are interested in their duty to society. Karna is always charitable to brahmanas, for example. As  ruler of Hastinapura during the exile of the Pandavas, Duryodhana enforces social justice. Dhritarasthra is blind to his spiritual self-interest; his blindness is seen in his partiality to his family and the rule of his son. The Pandavas on the other hand seem to fight unfairly. It is often pointed out that they fail to observe correct kshatriya dharma--that is, they avoid scrupulously following the code of warriors. But Arjuna has discovered in his conversation with Krishna recorded in the Bhagavad-Gita that there is more to life than social duty. The Pandavas follow the path of spiritual dharma--dedication to the Personal Godhead, represented in Mahābhārata as Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In following this higher path they may sometimes neglect their duty to family and society. But they act on the basis of spiritual self-interest in surrender to God under the direction of Krishna Himself.

This, then, is the central conflict of the Mahābhārata around which the battle of Kurukshetra is fought. On the one hand there is the so-called path of righteousness, living life according to the code of conduct and social duty described in the scriptures and accepted as moral law. Austerity, purity, compassion, and truthfulness are important dharmic principles for human life found in the ancient Laws of Manu and upheld throughout the Vedas.

But while Vyāsa upholds these basic principles of human life and social balance throughout the entire work, he always maintains has a higher conception of dharma in the background. This tension--God Consciousness vs. society consciousness, is makes the  Mahābhārata as alive today as when it was first written. The tension Vyāsa maintains between the different concepts of dharma and their multiple levels of interpretation animates the work from beginning to end. It is the stuff of daily debate. For the story of Mahābhārata opens a discussion about how we should act in concert with societal ethics as well as should we act in harmony with our internal spiritual self-interest. Both of these are dharma. Insofar as humans are rational animals in search of truth and meaning, this is the basis for our exploration of truth as it relates to action. 

Spirituality does not take place in a void. We are earth-bound. We are surrounded by influences of good and evil and everything else between. How should we act? And how can we act ethically, in accordance with our true self-interest both as human members of a society and as spiritual beings answerable only to our maker? This is the essential dilemma explored on every page of the Mahābhārata. This is why the wisdom of the Mahābhārata is as current today as when it was written. In the end, Mahābhārata is not simply a fascinating collection of motley tales about the ancient tribes of India. It is an essential work of human experience that invites us to ask, "What is dharma?"

External and Internal Ethics of Dharma

The Kauravas led by Duryodhana maintain the external principles of dharma so well that in the end of the book we are told that they all go to heaven. The Pandavas, while nominally the noble heroes of the work, go to hell. This is because on the external level, the Kauravas maintain the code. Duryodhana scrupulously avoids any hint of impropriety. But this outer propriety is belied by his inner corruption. One of the difficulties of dharma imposed as a code is that it becomes legalistic. As long is one is following the outward law there is no sin. Ethical dharma becomes a kind of hair-splitting.

Duryodhana is charitable to Karna when it serves his political interests to create a rival against his enemies. But over the course of the epic we see him as envious, arrogant, malignant, hateful and cruel.

Dharma: Pandavas vs. Kurus. Society Consciousness vs. God Consciousness

The Pandavas, on the other hand may be impetuous and reckless. But at heart they are just, modest, and generous. They may not follow the letter of the law; they seem to constantly fall on the wrong side of dharma as applied by the envious Duryodhan and the cunning Shakuni. While the Kurus are always plotting to increase their kingdom and destroy the Pandavas, Arjuna and his brothers live simply in the forest and accept the life of sages.

In their inner life, the Pandavas are sincere truth-seekers, where the inner life of the Kurus is filled with lust for power. The outward life of the Pandavas shows a tendency to be dharmic which is sometimes defeated by their own human foibles. The Kurus are dharmic to a fault externally; their outer life is sanctimonious. And yet their inner life is filled with hate and poisoned by envy. The Pandavas do their best to love their enemies and go to war in spite of themselves. The Pandavas are honest; they ask their enemies directly for what they want. The Kurus speak sweetly and meet their guests with all the Vedica hospitality, but plot behind their backs, using poison, arson, palace intrigue, lies and hypocrisy to achieve their aims.

Modern character of Mahabharata: the Antihero

The Pandavas, then, have much in common with the modern antiheroes, where the Kurus are hypocritical villains, like Richard III in Shakespeare’s history. There’s a scene where, after killing his nephews Richard III walks the parapets reading a bible so that people can see how pious he is. He knows that detachment is a religious value and tries to manipulate the public so that they will elect him King. So is Duryodhana, a great follower of religious doctrine, but a despicable tyrant. Like Shylock trying to collect his pound of flesh based on the law, he strips Draupadi in public to collect on a gambling debt. All is legal. Duryodhana appeals to the council. The Kurus are so expert at interpreting the laws of duty that even Bhishma is perplexed when Draupadi asked “Where is the dharma here?”

Inner vs. Outer dharma revisited

For all the rambling of the great epic, Vyāsa revisits the problem of dharma again and again, asking us to contemplate “duty” in all its different aspects and forcing us to eventually develop the ability to interpret the inner meaning of duty at different levels.

In this sense, the Mahābhārata is not a dogmatic book of rules and rigid morality. Many attempts have been made to impose a rigid morality on the Mahābhārata, indeed on the entire Indian culture. But the text itself resists. On every page we are faced with the same dilemma. On one hand there are the Pandavas who sometimes resort to unworthy methods to achieve their righteous goals; on the other hand there are the outwardly pious Kurus who ruthlessly plot to destroy them. Whose side are you on?

Society Consciousness vs. God Consciousness

Vyāsa succeeds in examining two different tiers of morality, of duty, of dharma. But if anything is left unclear, we have the spiritual teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita, the heart of the book. When Arjuna has misgivings about the true duty of a warrior, Krishna finally instructs him to put aside all external concepts of dharma. sarva dharma parityajya, mam ekam sharanam vraja.

Surrender to God is a higher form of dharma. It is impossible to understand the meaning of the Mahābhārata without coming to terms with the theism posed there. In the end, Mahābhārata is theistic: it poses Krishna as the Supreme Deity. God Himself then is challenging Arjuna to give up all secondary concepts of dharma--especially dharma as duty to society. In Vyāsa’s system of dharma, social duty, while extremely valuable as a kind of glue to sustain society is subsidiary to divine duty--the need for the soul to discover his eternal constitutional position as a servant of God. Throughout the Mahābhārata then, Vyāsa balances mundane social dharma dharma artha kama moksha at the ethical level against God consciousness at the metaphysical level.

Mundane and supramandane ethics

But leave aside Vyāsa’s metaphysics for a moment. Bhishma is the hero of the mundane ethical world. His greatness of character is manifest whenever he makes his appearance, from surviving murder at the hands of his mother to renouncing the right of marriage and family for his father’s happiness. Having renounced the joys of family and the right to rule he serves not only his own half-brothers, but even the sons and grandsons of his brother Vyāsa. Normal self-interest dictates that we do everything for our own self-preservation first and then take care of others. Bhishma’s exemplary life is just the opposite. His high ideal, his almost divine sense of duty, drives him to a life of self-sacrifice and service.

And Bhishma is not afraid to speak truth to power. As head of the Kurus, he is a fearless and outspoken counselor whose words fulfill the purport of truth and justice. But when war comes, he does his duty as a soldier, leading his forces into battle. He fights nobly, like a true son of the gods.

The path of dharma as laid out by Bhishma is almost an impossibly high ideal. But even so, it may lead into the trap set by the Kurus.

The Kurus are experts in external dharma. Dhritatrashtra, Gandhari, and Shakuni know how to follow the norms.

And yet, Duryodhana for all his supposed piety is nothing less than an incarnation of the age of Kali. He is only outwardly pious, but inwardly duplicitous. If Yudhisthira represents dharma, Duryodhana is his nemesis, the arch-fiend, evil incarnate. In fact, he represents the asuras, the demonic forces of the Daityas and Dānavas. When despondent after being defeated by the Gandharvas, Duryodhana wants to kill himself. The armies of demons dissuade him: vinaṣṭe tvayi cāsmākaṁ pakśo hīyeta kaurava (3.240.23 cd) Duryodhana is their only shelter, for the Pāṇḍavas are godly. tvam asmākam gatir nityaṁ devatānām ca pāṇḍāvaḥ. They tell Duryodhana to take heart: that he will have help from the demonic armies. Demons and Rākṣasa cannibals are being born among the warriors who will fight alongside Duryodhana. The darkest forces of evil will ally themselves with Duryodhana as their leader.

The Struggle of Good vs. Evil

The idea that the battle of Kurukśetra is a genuine struggle between the forces of good and evil is not brought into the book later as some kind of interpolation: it is a running theme that Vyāsa will revisit time and again throughout the entire work.

At the beginning of the book, the Adi Parva there’s a whole chapter working out the idea of the good and evil types who populate the Mahābhārata: the cast of characters is explained there in great detail. The Blind King, Dhritarashtra, for example is supposed to have been an incarnation of Haṁsa, a son of Ariṣṭa. Since the Sanskrit word ariṣṭa refers to evil and bad luck, the sons of Ariṣṭa are born to bring on the age of Kali.

Duḥśāsana and the other brothers of Duryodhana are supposed to be the Pulastya demons. We may remember that Pulastya was the father of Viśravas and the grandfather of Rāvana; the entire race of man-eating Rākṣasa cannibals were his offspring. Many of the allies of Duryodhana, including Jarasandha, Śalva, and Dhṛśtaketu had similar demonic backgrounds. There is no need to elaborate on all the characters.

Levels of dharma

But before considering how dharma works out in the mundane, ethical sphere, Vyāsa has already informed us that many of the characters in his drama are representatives of evil.

And just as the Kurus are evil incarnate, it is impossible to proceed any further without taking up the character of Kṛṣṇa. While he participates in the heroic action of the Mahābhārata, we must take care in analyzing his character, for his is also identified, not only as an avatar of the divine, but as Bhāgavan, God Himself. In fact, there is no passage in the entire epic poem which does not presuppose, or which contradicts his character as an incarnation of the Supreme Being, who is generally refered to in the Sanskirt of the Mahābhārata as Viṣṇu or Narayana.

Beyond Good and Evil

The epic is not merely concerned with the kind of ethical problems faced by Bhishma. Our story is much more than a simple playing out of colorful stories against the mundane morality of the Laws of Manu. This is not a simple problem of good versus evil in a worldly battle. The idea that God Himself is participating in this struggle raises the epic to a cosmic level. This metaphysical aspect of the Mahābhārata forces us to consider a higher layer of meaning. Nietzsche’s analysis of Good and Evil is parochial compared to that of Vyāsa.

Christian and Vedic views of Good and Evil

Where normal Christian morality sees the world as a struggle between good and evil ending in heaven or hell, the Vedic view is distinct. This life is not the only chance we have; we will undergo birth and death repeated times, playing out our karma until we achieve enlightenment. Krishna’s appearance in the story is key. The climax of the entire work is reached with Krishna’s teachings in the Bhāgavad-Gita.

When Arjuna demurs on the basis of empathy with his family members, Krishna introduces a higher value; the idea of eternal life, repeated in a multitude of physical incarnations. As long as we fail to realize the soul’s true self-interest we are trapped by maya in a shadow play here in this mundane world, repeatedly performing our karma. We may take the path of dharma and develop good karma--we may even achieve heaven. But heaven itself is temporary, just another stop on the wheel of birth and death. True enlightenment may only be achieved through a higher communion with God. This highest yoga is called bhakti, or Divine love. Only true dedication to God Himself is sufficient to lead us through the forest of ignorance to the light of knowledge.

Higher dharmic proposition: dedication above exploitation and renunciation

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Vyāsa gives a hint of the kind of higher dharmic proposition that he will later work out in detail in his masterwork, the Bhāgavat Purāna.

Since this higher, metaphysical understanding of dharma is difficult for Westerners to reconcile with their own religious views, they have largely tried to avoid it. But their avoidance of Krishna’s divinity creates only distorted views of the Mahābhārata. As a consequence, they fail to grasp the inner meaning of the work.

Bhakti as transcendental dharma

Bhakti, or the personal experience of divine love with Krishna as personal deity, is at the core of the Mahābhārata. Only when Arjuna discovers bhakti as a guiding principle is he inspired to act, to fight and defeat the forces of evil that confront him. The bhakti experience is the primordial essence of the book--it permeates and transcends the other ideas of dharma that Vyāsa has worked so hard to promote.

If Duryodhana is evil incarnate, Yudhisthira is Dharma incarnate. The purport of the Mahābhārata is that even dharma must surrender in bhakti to Krishna. It is not sufficient merely to pray to God for self-aggrandizement. Duryodhana discovers this just before the battle. When Duryodhana and Arjuna arrive at Krishna’s house and find him sleeping, Duryodhana sits at his head, while Arjuna sits at his feet, waiting for him to awaken. When Krishna awakens, he sees Arjuna at his feet first. Arjuna is awakened in Krishna Consciousness, where Duryodhana is attentive only to his own view of society consciousness. When given a chance to choose, Arjuna wants only Krishna where Duryodhana chooses the armies of the Vrishnis and Yadus. Duryodhana chooses material advantage. Arjuna chooses the friendship of Godhead. Duryodhana advances his social dharma through the armies of God, where Arjuna chooses spiritual self-interest--a personal relationship with divinity.

The Krishna conception

Krishna explains that he is impartial. He will help both equally. To one he will give his armies to the other he will give himself. Duryodhana chooses the powerful army of Krishna. Arjuna chooses Krishna himself. Arjuna is not interested in armies, but the love and esteem of Bhagavān Śrī Krishna Himself who will bring him not only victory, fame and glory, but even liberation from the misery of this material world. Arjuna had no interest in an armies, divorced from Krishna himself.

The Kurukshetra war is not a story about tribal warfare in ancient India. It is a war over dharma. And not merely a simple battle between good and evil, but a war of conscience. It is a war that we all must fight daily; the battle between external dharma--a false religion that may take one to heaven only to return one to hell--and internal dharma, the sincerity of divine love of God, whatever the price. 

This is the most powerful struggle that anyone can face: Accept the demands of country, religion, society, and family--even at the cost of your soul--and gain heaven, as does the envious Duryodhana--or be true to your self, even at the cost of heaven. 

Dharma as Divine Love

Indeed, at the end of the work, Arjuna and his brothers see the envious Duryodhana in heaven. They understand that heaven itself is a temporary reward for piety, where the reward for bhakti or divine love is the ultimate abode of the Lord. The war, then is not over some fine points of honor in kshatriya dharma, but a struggle between the forces of ordinary ethical dharma and Vyāsa’s higher metaphysical understanding: dharma as divine love.

Of course, no dilemma that needs 100,000 Sanskrit shlokas to work out can be explained so simply. So we'll continue looking at the conflict between ethical and divine dharma in our next blog.
Until then, dear readers.

Meaning in the Mahabharata Part II

IN this series of articles, I'm working on outlining the "meaning of mahabharata"

Dear Readers: Thanks for your patience. As some of you may know I'm involved on a project to create materials for understanding India's great epic, the Mahabharata. I like to work on ideas and present them on the blog sometimes. It's like a writer's journal for me that helps me organize themes. I write to learn. So as I write more and more on this theme, I begin to see what it is I'm looking for.  Here's some ideas on the Mahabharata. This is part of a series.

India under the spell of Mahabharata

India today is under the spell of the Mahabharata. The strands of the saga are woven into the very thread of the civilization. So many traditions in literature may be traced back to this monumental book of divine inspiration. The poem is beyond time. No one can discover its origin or the date. Neither does it have a date of expiration. It has been invoked throughout Indian antiquity up until the present day. What then is the magic hold that this book has had on generations? What is its miracle? To Sanskrit scholars and Western literary critics it is a mystery. And yet, for the common man or woman in today’s India there is no mystery at all. They know that the Mahabharata is a divine work. That it sprang from the mind of Vyasa to the ivory pen of Ganesh. It recounts the warlike needs of their ancestors, the godlike heroes of a past age. They all know the story: on the one hand are the Kauravas-- outwardly pious, but inwardly envious. On the other are the Pandavas, inwardly righteous and sworn to serve Krishna. The righteous sons of Pandu are always helped by their friend Lord Krishna. They fight a holy war to put an end to injustice. It is the end of the Golden age when gods would walk with men, a good time when people were happier and more honest.

Divine questions, divine answers

There is something in the poem far nobler than a romantic story about a lost paradise and golden age--kshatriya princes fighting for a forgotten kingdom--a simple tale of ancient love and war. The meaning may seem mysterious to critics and poets; but for the common man of the Indian subcontinent, there is no mystery to the Mahabharata. It is the very soul of dharma.  While it plays out as a long answer to the question posed by King Janamejaya, the book leads us on a journey to the very soul. That great king asks the Sage at the snake sacrifice: “O Vaishampayana how arose the quarrel among those men of unblemished deeds? What was the cause of that great war which destroyed so many lives?” His answer enthralls the King for many days. But his answer always revolves around the question of truth, dharma, and the ultimate goal of life.

India’s great epic

It might seem strange that the answer to such an easy question might run into an epic work of 100,000 Sanskrit verses. And yet, how much ink has been spilled about the causes and effects of the second world war? One may argue that there is no need for any digression in the work of this kind. The 100,000 couplets of the Mahabharata are eight times longer than the Iliad and Odyssey combined, 3 1/2 times longer than the entire Christian Bible of old and New Testament. But the length of the work owes to the fact that the skeleton of the Mahabharata supports thousands of other tales as well as a massive didactic material meant to educate one on all aspects of Dharma.

A labyrinth of treatises

The story of the Pandavas and the Kurus winds its way through a Byzantine labyrinth of elaborate treatises on everything from religious sacrifice to moral law and ethics; from philosophy and metaphysics to the geography and cosmography of the ancient world, as well as digressions into a myriad of legends, mythological tales, and Hindu doctrine. And yet, the author never loses sight of his goal. In spite of his many digressions, he moves the drama forward, always keeping the goal in mind.

The story may be interpreted on multiple levels. On the mundane or worldly level it is a story of rivals; of palace intrigue, of death-defying heroes, seductive heroines and damsels in distress. The good guys are antiheroes; they might have come straight out of the film world of Star Wars or a graphic novel in the Marvel universe.

Dharma at the center of the work

There is a phrase in Sanskrit  यतो धर्मस्ततो जयः' yato dharmas tato Jayaḥ "Where is dharma, there is victory". It is the motto of India’s Supreme Court and the leit motif of the Mahābhārata. The idea of dharma illuminates the entire work from beginning to end. To take the Mahābhārata as a mundane story is to miss its core teaching.  

Dharma is taught everywhere throughout the book, implicitly in the lives and examples of the characters, and explicitly through the morals to its stories and the teachings of the saints and sages found in the work. We must leave aside a mundane reading of the work and try to understand its spiritual component. But even this is problematic. Even if we read on the level of dharma, there are still multiple layers of interpretation.

For dharma itself may be seen as both ethical and divine. That is, there is social or moral-ethical dharma insofar as how we act, how we live, how we treat others. "How do we live in society?" is a question for ethical or social dharma. But in the end, Krishna tells us to reject the ordinary ethical values of social dharma for a higher spiritual truth. How do we keep these in balance? This is, in essence, the central moral question of the Mahabharata, one that Vyasa will revisit again and again in his telling of the story.

Limiting ourselves for a moment to the purely ethical level, the best representative of ordinary or social dharma dharma is Bhishma as the Perfect Man, the perfect hero.

He is placed by birth and circumstances in the station of a warrior and a king. He sacrifices his kingdom for his father’s happiness. He rules only as regent, so that his younger brothers may become king. And yet he is the emblem of a perfect warrior, an example of chivalry. As a warrior he follows the code. He is capable of ruthless force, but only in the service of Dharma.

And he does his duty in a spirit of detachment free from personal interest, uncontaminated by ego, lust, and anger. Bhishma acts selflessly. as a knight in shining armor, his example illuminates the path for his descendents: King Arthur, the Knights of the round table, Lancelot, Galahad, and Percival and even the matchless Don Quixote the unexcelled champion of Miguel de Cervantes and classical Spanish literature.

Greatness of character

Bhishma shows the greatness of character that we expect from the Samurais of Bushido, From the Celts and Vikings, and even modern heroes like the Jedi Knights of Star Wars or the superheroes of the Marvel universe.

Bhishma disagrees with the war; it is not his fight. He bears the Pandavas no enmity and in fact sees their call for justice as righteous.

But, when war comes against his advice, he is duty bound as a soldier to help his monarch. With duty as his standard, he becomes general of the Kurus. Since he has pledged to fight for Duryodhana he carries out his pledge and fights nobly. His death is remarkable. The surviving warriors on both sides put away their weapons and armor, and leaving aside their hatred, approached him to hear his final teachings.

Bhishma greeted them all with his blessings. Tortured by his wounds, impaled on a thousand arrows, and burning with fever, he taught his students. An emblem of self-control and yoga, he had been blessed with the boon that death would never come to him as long as he desired to live. Bhishma had conquered his ego, he had conquered sexual desire and gave out his wisdom until his dying breath. Bhishma’s life and example teach us that of the different aims of life, duty, dharma is supreme: yato dharma tato jayaḥ.

Bhishma’s heroic sense of duty disdains name and fame. He has no interest in love or money. He exalts duty above all else. And yet, his duty is to the mundane world of noble kings. He sees them as God’s representatives on earth. For Bhishma, service to the monarch is service to God.

But in the end, this is not the highest conception. In fact, it is only a beginning.

What confuses so many about the inner meaning of the Mahābharata is that Vyāsa’s concept of dharma functions on different levels at the same time. He returns to the idea of dharma again and again, firmly establishing dharma as the most important value. But what is dharma?

Next up: What is dharma?

India's Greatest Epic

History of the Mahābhārata

by Michael Dolan, B.V. Mahāyogi

Long before the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, long before the ancient Greeks, a war was fought on the plains of Northern India: the Kurukṣetra War. This war and its antecedents form the story of Mahābharata, the story of Greater India and the rise and fall of the Aryans. 

Antiquity of Mahābhārata

The Aryan civilization found its denouement in the Kurukṣetra war, the internecine battle between the sons and grandsons of the great warrior Bhiṣma, arguably the bloodiest battle in the ancient history of the world. The exact age of the war is unknown, however the Sanskrit Mahābharata was known to Aristotle, the teacher of Alexander the Great.  Having conquered a part of the region west of the Indus River somewhere around 500 BC, Alexander sent the spoils of his conquest to his library in Alexandria.

Among the treasures of Alexander’s Eastern conquest were books in Sanskrit, including the grammar of Panini, the Upaniṣadic texts, the original Vedas in Sanskrit, and the Mahābharata. The traditions of the poet Vyāsa, nominal composer of the work, were celebrated in ballads, song, and theatrical works long before the time of Alexander. Scholars tend to date the work from the time of Alexander since the work was brought home to Greece at that time. But while it is difficult to assign a date to the Mahabharata, they must have been written at least hundreds of years before their discovery by the Greeks.

Dates and Conservative Estimates

Since the events celebrated in epics often take place long before they are recorded in literature, a conservative estimate of the age of Mahābharata takes us back to at least 1000 years before the modern Christian Era (CE). According to some traditions, the work is far older. Some historians give the date as early as 3109 B.C. Many researchers cite the lack of certifiable artifacts dating from this time as evidence that the antiquity of these stories is exaggerated, however the ancient text itself demonstrates an incredible wealth of detail about the civilizations that once occupied the Indus River valley extending to the region of the Ganges Delta – so claims that indicate origins in ancient antiquity cannot be easily dismissed.

The great Kurukṣetra war ended in the total destruction of the dynasty of the Aryans who populated the region. While different theories exist as to the racial characteristics of the Aryan peoples so many thousands of years ago, it is hard to imagine today exactly what happened. We may rely only on the text itself and the traditions of India for clues. Our story takes place on the  plains of Kurukṣetra in Punjab, Northwest of present day Delhi.

Time travel

We must cast our vision back into time, back thousands of years far before the time of Shakespeare, before the time of King Arthur, before the Aztecs sacrificed their virgins and warriors to the sun god, before the dark ages. The heros of Mahabharata fought their battles and made their offerings to the gods centuries before the fall of the Roman Empire, even centuries before Jesus Christ taught in Galilee.

To apply our imagination to the stories of the Mahabharata, we must return  to a time before Alexander the Great sat at the feet of Socrates to learn Algebra and the philosophy and etiquette of kings. We must travel back into the past before the Egyptian Pyramids of Giza dominated the valleys  of the Nile river basin.

And now that we have journeyed into the past, we must then turn our vision farther east, beyond the Pyramids of the Nile. Past the Hindu Kush. We must travel to the other side of the world, the Orient, all the way to the wild, mystical foothills of the Himalayas, to a time in ancient history sometime after human beings crawled out of the ice age and began organizing themselves into agricultural communities.

The Mohenjo-Daro civilization

Farming took place with the domestication of oxen, horse, and elephant. The domestication of the cow, the cultivation of rice, bananas, and wheat were achieved by the Mohenjo-Daro civilization that grew near the now-extinct basin of the Saraswati River.  (http://www.mohenjodaro.net/

A civilization was born from agricultural cultivation. Gradually towns and cities arose. How South Asia came to be populated with citizens and their kings is an enigma shrouded in mystery.

 But how the ancient kings of the Aryan civilization ruled, did battle, and celebrated peace, how they thrived and were finally ruined are the subjects of our story. Their lives have been recorded in the meters of Vyasadeva’s poetry as Mahabharata.

Kings of Hastinapura: Pandu and Dhritarasthra

Paṇḍu and his blind brother Dhṛtaraṣṭra were the respective kings of Hastinapura, the place of the elephants. Modern archeologists have placed the ruined walls of the palaces of Hastinapura nearby the original city of New Delhi. At the time of our story,  Hastinapura was the seat of the ancient rulers of India. When King Paṇḍu died, before his time, his brother Dhṛtaraṣṭra reluctantly became regent-king ruling until the next generation was fit to inherit the kingdom. A rivalry grew between  his nephews, the sons of Paṇḍu, along with his own hundred sons headed by the eldest; Duryodhana.

The sons of Paṇḍu  were called the Paṇḍavas . Of the five Paṇḍavas, Yudhiṣthira also the eldest, was a man of righteousness and truth. Bhīma was a powerful warrior, mighty and stong, with a warriors appetite.

Arjuna was to become  the greatest archer who ever lived. Their two younger brothers were the twins: Nakula and Sahadeva: both handsome, elegant, masters of poetry, lovers of women and noble warriors.

Summary of the Story

Our story begins as Vyasa, visits the ruins of the battlefield. Bhishma begins to tell his own story about the succession to the throne of Hastinapura. The story of the Mahabharata may be summarized as follows:

Before the pious rule of Bharata and his descendants, the ksatriyas or warrior class had committed many abuses. Before the golden age of Bhishmadeva, these ruthless dictators persecuted brahmaṇas, raped the land, destroyed rivers and forests, plundered and killed the innocent. They demanded tribute in the form of gold and silver. They raped virgins and violated the principles of religion. The earth was soaked in blood and the rivers ran red.

The story goes that the earth had been overburdened with the weight of militaristic kings. The earth was exhausted with wars. So it was that once upon a time, Bhumidevi, the earth in the form of a cow, came to pray to Vishnu and beg for help against these injustices. In those days, the earth was exhausted from exploitation. It was Kṛṣṇa who decided to alleviate the suffering of the earth. He set into motion a sequence of events that would culminate in the Kurukṣetra War, the First Great War of Kings.  

Our story begins with the end of the great Kurukṣetra war. Amid the ruins of the killing fields huddle a single handful of battle-scarred warriors. Their shields are bent, their quivers exhausted, their faces bloody. They are covered in sweat and blood, and the dust of the war-grounds. 

Their limbs are scarred, their bodies torn with arrows. These are the five Paṇḍavas, victorious in the battle, the new lords of Hastinapura. They are among the only survivors of the devastating war. They have defeated the envious Kauravas, but at what cost? This is the story of Mahabharata.

 The Mahābhārata tells the story of the rule of the kings of India in the line of Bharata in ancient times. Within its pages we see the clash of heroes, the seduction of saints, fiery heroines, and the teachings of mystics. With dark mysteries and deep wisdom teachings, this saga of heroes has held readers spellbound for generations. What is the secret meaning at the heart of Mahabharata?

India's Greatest Epic

Compared with the Ramāyana, "The Mahabharata" is considered to be the more recent of India's two great epics. It is by far the longer. First composed by the Vyasa in verse, it has come down the centuries in the timeless oral tradition of guru and sishya, profoundly influencing the history, culture, and art of not only the Indian subcontinent but most of south-east Asia. At 100,000 couplets, it is seven times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined: far and away the greatest recorded epic known to man. "The Mahabharata" is the very Book of Life: in its variety, majesty and, also, in its violence and tragedy. It has been said that nothing exists that cannot be found within the pages of this awesome legend. The epic describes a great war of some 5000 years ago, and the events that led to it. The war on Kurukshetra sees ten million warriors slain, brings the age of godly kings to an end, and ushers in a new and sinister age: this present kali yuga.

 What is Kali-yuga?

Sometime around 3102 B.C. the planets entered the age of iron. Known in the ancient Vedas as Kali-yuga, this would be a dark night of the soul. The march of time would see the rise and fall of civilizations and a final descent into barbarism. Will we see fulfilment of the prophecies of Vyasa for Kali-yuga? Only a close reading of the epic will reveal its inner truths.

The Bhāgavad-Gītā

The inner mystery of India's Great Epic is found in the Bhagavad Gita, the Song of God. Between two armies, Krishna expounds the eternal dharma to his warrior of light, Arjuna. At one level, all the restless action of the Mahabharata is a quest for the Gita and its sacred stillness. After the carnage, it is the Gita that survives, immortal lotus floating upon the dark waters of desolation: the final secret! With its magnificent cast of characters, human, demonic, and divine, and its riveting narrative, the Mahabharata continues to enchant readers and scholars the world over. This new rendering brings the epic to the contemporary reader in sparkling modern prose. It brings alive all the excitement, magic, and grandeur of the original - for our times.