Me: *thinking aloud* You know, whenever I see or read the story of Mahabharata, I feel like I’ll go into depression.

A: *Interested* Why?

Me: *Slightly aggressive* Look at how disturbing the story is! The whole kingdom has a bloodbath because of a power struggle between two cousins, an attempt to publicly humiliate a daughter-in-law is done only for spite, a young boy like Abhimanyu is deceptively killed by the elders of his family, and don’t even get me started on Karna!

A: *Flatly* You and your obsession with Karna! Why do you like him so much!?

Me: *Trying to convince* See, as a warrior he might be as good as Arjun, not more, but he was such an amazing human being! He was ridiculed and insulted his entire life for being a soot putra. He maintained his friendship with Duryodhan till the end. He knew he would be killed, yet he gave away his kavach kundal since he was a danveer. He was killed by being attacked on his back. He was everyone’s favourite punching bag.

A: *Cutting me short* Ok, I get you. Anyway, it’s a story. You cannot take it to heart. It is supposed to show the face of Kalyug, where the lust for power, money and victory will overpower religion, reason and relationships.

Me: *Passionately* Correct. But if the same things happen in today’s world, we will condone them! It will be all over social media and the press will have a field time writing about it. If Mahabharata was written a long time ago, it should’ve had some more God-like elements.

A: *Very interested* Like what? Wasn’t there enough magic and God-like intervention already? Bheeshma’s past with Amba, Karna born out of wedlock to Kunti was Sun God’s son, Krishna coming to Draupadi’s rescue during her vastraharan, the famous Geeta Saar by Krishna before the war, and…do you want more?

Me: *Irritated* Ya ya…I know all that. I wasn’t talking about that! Good you brought up Krishna. Krishna was an avatar of Lord Vishnu, right? He could’ve easily avoided the war if he wanted to, but he never raised a weapon. He became Arjun’s saarthi instead. Thousands of soldiers got killed in Kurukshetra and apart from a chosen few the entire family of Kauravas and Pandavas got washed out. Was this necessary? What point was to be proved here?

A: *Choosing the right words* Varsh, Krishna was and is God, but he was a human then. Everything that happened was vidhi likhit. His job on earth was to teach human beings the importance of detachment from worldly pleasures. You know the Geeta Saar, right? We come empty-handed and will go empty-handed. Nothing belongs to us. Yet, we ruin our lives fighting for something that will eventually be left behind anyway. Don’t we?

Me: *Resignedly* I guess you are right. But what kind of imagination must’ve gone in making Draupadi the wife of five Pandavas? That’s like putting a legal stamp on infidelity!

A: *Now bored* Well, you can ask that personally to Vyasji if you ever catch up with him, ok!?

Matter closed.

© This site A Vibrant Palette is the property of Varsha Bagadia. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Varsha Bagadia and A Vibrant Palette with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.