LEARNING FROM MAHABHARATA

Vyasa & Ganesha

Mahabharata is the great epic ascribed to Vyasa. It was mentioned that it was Lord Ganesha who wrote down the text to Vyasa’s dictation.

It was a story of a dynastic struggle for the throne of Hastinapura. The struggle is between two branches of family ‘Pandavas’ and ‘Kauravas’.

Vysya is not only author of the epic but also a character of the epic. He is grandfather of kauravas and pandavas. He makes occasional appearances in the story as a spiritual guide. He is also author of 18 Puranas and Splitter of Vedas.

Mahabharata starts from marriage of Ganga and Santanu and ends with the fall of Yadavas. It was divided into 18 parts called ‘Parvas’. The great philosophical text ‘bhagavad Gita’ forms part of Mahabharata.

Mahabharata has great relevance even today. The techniques used in this epic are true today. Some issues are discussed below:-

Scientific relevance:

      (1)    It was mentioned that Kauravas were born in 100 pots. This is similar to what we see as ‘Test Tube’ babies today.

      (2)    Sanjaya, the chauffer of Dhrutarashtra, father of Kauravas narrates the happenings in the war field while staying at capital city. This is similar to the present ‘live Relay’.

Relevance in the field of Management:

      (1)    The great scholar and management guru of the world, Shri Krishna is the character of Mahabharata. He is the advisor of Pandavas and was responsible for” Dhustha sikshana and sistha rakshana” (i.e. punishing the bad and protecting the good). He was the recitor of the greatest philosophical text ‘Bhagavad Gita’.

Yaksha-Yudistira

      (2)    Vidura, the minister of Pandu and dhritarashthra is a very scholarly person who has great management skills. One can know about his skills through a book named ‘Vidura Neethi’.

      (3)    Mahabharata has ‘Bhisma Parva’, ‘Drona Parva’, ‘Karna Parva’ and ‘Salya Parva’ which describes about the war strategies, manner of conduct of war and ethics of war.

The episode of ‘Q&A between Yaksha-Yudishitira’ shows the wisdom of Yudistira. One can learn about the duties and how important to perform their duties. It has a great philosophical relevance.

Another great Philosophical masterpiece of Mahabharata is ‘Srimad bhagavad gita’ recited by lord Krishna himself to Arjuna, one of the Pandavas to clear the moral dilemma of Arjuna. Krishna explains t he duties of a warrior and elaborates on different Yogic and vedantic philosophies, with examples and analogies.

We can also learn the consequence of a bad habit. Yudistira, the elder of Pandavas is known for his wisdom but was fond of dice game which led to lose their wealth and made their lives miserable and even led them to go to forests for 14 years.

Krishna preaching the Gita

One can learn about the impact of negative attitude. Duryodhana, the elder of Kauravas has a negative attitude of cheating their brothers and enjoying entire kingdom. At last, it led to the fall of kauravas and death of all his brothers and well-wishers.

There is also a concept ‘Theory of Human Behaviour’. In which one learns that ‘A person starts learning even when he is in mother’s womb’. This is true in the case of Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna. Abhimanyu learns how to enter Padmavyuha, one of the toughest war strategies when he was in his mother’s womb itself.

Every character in this great epic teaches something to the readers. Its worth reading ‘The Mahabharata’ which is called as the fifth veda.