The Difficulty of Being Good- A summary and a few Questions

The Difficulty of being Good; a wonderful book by Shri Gurucharan Das, ex CEO Proctor & Gamble raised many questions on how to live. The attempt here is to summarise the book & find answers

Almost all of us go through a stage where we ask “What is the meaning of life”, “Is life worth living?”, “What should one aspire to in life to make it worth living?”

The author of this book wondered if acts of goodness are one of the very few things of genuine worth in this world, and can being good give meaning to life! Based on these thoughts he selected Mahabharata; the epic to find an answer.  The Mahabharata was selected to find the answers because the characters of Mahabharata are more human and fallible than the characters of other Hindu epic Ramayana. Also the Mahabharata   talks of “Dharma”.  Dharma  refers to ‘balance’ i.e. alignment of moral balance and cosmic balance. So, Dharma is what exactly we should do when we are trying to be good in the world.

In Mahabharata each major hero embodies a striking virtue & also a failing- and the hero’s story is an attempt to clarify this which is significant from dharma’s perspective; it is about crisis of conscience of some of its characters. The author tries to understand how the idea relates to our daily lives- personal as well as at societal level.

Duryodhana’s envy: Mahabharata is the story of rivalry between cousins, Kauravas and Pandavas. Kauravas are the hundred sons of elder brother Dhritarashtra who is blind from birth and Pandavas are the five sons of a sickly Pandu. Dhritarashtra has been passed over for the throne because of his blindness and Pandu assumes power. The conflict begins from here. Pandu was cursed to die if he had sex and so to get children he turns to ‘Niyoga’- employing a surrogate to obtain an heir. This way he has five sons Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakul and Sahdeva from two wives. The first three are from Kunti and the latter two from Madri. After a few years of rule Pandu renounces the throne & takes sanyasa.  Duryodhana, the eldest among hundred sons of King Dhritarashtra of Hastinapur believes that he has the first claim on the throne but as per the custom it was of the eldest son of Kuru vansha, Yudhishthira, who is a Pandava. This ambiguity on caim to the throne starts the rivalry among the cousins and due to Duryodhana’s constant threats Pandavas flee Hastinapur. During the exile Arjuna wins Draupadi in a swayamvar. When he brings her home & tells the Pandava mother Kunti of having won a prize, Kunti not aware of the prize being a bride, tells the Pandava sons to share the prize. Thus Draupadi becomes wife of all five Pandava brothers. During exile Pandavas also meet Krishna their cousin and they become close to each other.

Dhritarashtra, in order to find peace, divides the kingdom and gives the barren half to Pandavas. Pandavas work hard and turn that barren half in to a prosperous country. They build a grand capital, Indraprastha. To commemorate his rise to imperial power Yudhishthira conducts Rajsuya yagna where many kings attend the ceremony. Duryodhana also attends the ceremony and seeing the wealth, respect & progress of Pandavas he is filled with envy. In the beautiful palace of Pandavas while walking Duryodhana falls into a water tank when he is not able to differentiate between water and floor. Pandavas are amused and laugh at this but Duryodhana sulks. On the way back to Hastinapur, he along with his maternal uncle Shakuni hatches a plan to call Yudhishthira for a game of dice and defeat him to avenge his insult. Duryodhana tells King Dhritarashtra about his idea of inviting Yudhishthira to a game of dice. The King father tries to reason with him & asks him to be satisfied with whatever he has and not to be envious of his brothers. But Duryodhana burning with envy retorts ‘Having seen the all surpassing wealth of Pandavas I find no peace in my burning heart.’ Duryodhana reminds his father that Dharma of the warrior is to put down his enemies before they become dangerous, and to win at any cost.  Duryodhana tries to make virtue out of his envy. He further asserts “If one watches in his foolishness the rise of his enemy, the enemy will cut his root….As long as I fail to recover the power from the Pandavas, I shall be in danger.” At last he is able to persuade his father to agree. The King sends the invite to Yudhishthira through his half brother Vidura. As per Vedic rituals, game of dice is part of ritual after Rajsuya Yagya. Having received the invite Yudhishthira is troubled but agrees saying: “Though it sounds like most dangerous play but I will not be able to refuse as a son cannot refuse father’s command”. Pandavas go to Hastinapur for the dice game where Duryodhana declares that from Kaurava’s side Shakuni, their maternal uncle and a known dice expert will play. Shakuni is known to cheat but nobody can catch him. The game starts and the stakes are upped. Yudhishthira loses heavily game after game. Seeing the high stakes, Vidura, half brother of King Dhritarashtra pleads the king to stop the game for the greater good of the kingdom. He advises “To save the family, abandon an individual. To save the village, abandon a family; to save the country, abandon a village. To save the soul, abandon the earth.” Vidura talks about what should be the policy for greater good. But no one listens to him.

Question(1): Do we really follow Vidura’s advice in real life? The King is so delighted to see his beloved son winning that he ignores the advice. Yudhishthira keeps losing and loses his wealth, kingdom & his four brothers as well. Finally he loses himself and becomes a slave of Duryodhana. Shakuni prods him to stake his beautiful queen as the last stake and try to win back the entire losses. Yudhishthira stakes the queen Draupadi and loses yet again.

The Question(2) is- why did Yudhishthira a morally upright person, knowing well that it is dangerous to play with Shakuni continued to play? The answer probably is Yudhishthira although not a good player of dice but had a gambling streak & so agreed to keep playing. Rig Veda says a gambler is not able to resist the temptation to gamble & depicts a gambler as “When I swear I will not play with them, I am left behind by my friends as they depart. But when the brown dice raise their voice as they are thrown down, I run at once to rendezvous with them, like a woman to her lover.” Indian thinkers also believe that ‘people do, in fact, act against their moral convictions and this is an unhappy fact about us.’

 So is it that through this game of dice the epic is trying to tell us about life? As defeat for Yudhishthira is certain in the game yet he keeps playing without thinking similarly though we all know at the end we all are going to die yet we keep living without thinking, without any purpose?

Duryodhana suffers from many vices, pride, greed, anger, hatred, an excess of ego etc. but envy is his biggest defect. He is envious of Pandavas success &wealth but is smart enough to know that his envy relates to Pandava’s ability to acquire the possession. The human tendency to evaluate one’s well being by comparing it with that of another is the cause of Duryodhana’s distress. Duryodhana decides that he cannot be happy unless he can wreck the Pandava’s happiness. Envious people have the characteristic that they cannot bear the sight of someone they think is happy.

While Duryodhana is openly envious Dhritrashtra’s envy is hidden. His envy is so secretive that even the King himself is unaware of its existence. Even as he pretends to be virtuous, secretly he wants to see his son act out his own deepest desires. He has found clever ways of dealing with his envy so that the world will have better opinion of him and he about himself.

 Qn(3): Our opinion about ourselves matters more than other’s opinion about us?

Qn(4): Is hidden envy more harmful than open envy?

Duryodhana sees ‘Dharma’ is a clever way of advancing the interests of the powerful. Duryodhana is proud of his envy as his philosophy is “Discontent is the root of success. Only the person who reaches for the heights becomes the ultimate lord.” But he doesn’t compete to win but bring down his opponent & that is the sad part of envy. Envy is an eternal sickness or does it bring in healthy competition too? Mahabharata thinks healthy competition to be a marginal aspect of envy. As per the epic “The man who envies other people for their conduct, beauty, courage, family lineage, happiness, success and favour has an eternal sickness”.

In modern world also we have seen disasters due to envy. Hitler’s envy of Jews who controlled the business and government offices in spite of being a very small minority of 3%  led to the upheaval against the Jews.  In India we have the example of the two Ambani brothers. Anil envious of Mukesh made many rash decisions and today is in deep financial crisis. Envy is thus a leveler, and it levels downwards. Instead of motivating one to better performance, envy prefers other person to fall. The envious person is willing to see both sides lose.

In a well-ordered society, one cannot merely dismiss envy as a human frailty. One ought to design institutions that help to diminish it or face consequences. For this if the advantages of the better haves are a source for improvement of the have-nots then there will be fewer reasons to feel envious. e.g. levying higher taxes for the rich or when the company is making higher profits then higher bonus to the workers will not bring  envy, it is win win for everyone.

While Capitalism brings in inequality because of its competitiveness, Socialism is supposed to bring equality. But in reality is it so?

Qn(5): Is Socialism better than Capitalism due to supposedly bringing in more equality ? The answer is not easy because among equals even tiny items become point of envy. We tend to envy people who are only slightly more fortunate than we are. Envy is felt more strongly between near equals than those widely separated in fortune. For example: does a common person feel envious when he/she comes to know Mukesh Ambani became 13^th richest man in the world? No. But if the neighbour becomes richer, the same common person feels envious. The reason may be because of the feeling that “I also could have got that!! Or I am as good as him” So from the point of view of envy it is difficult to chose Socialism over Capitalism.

If Duryodhana did not have envy, Mahabharata may not have happened.

Draupadi’s Courage: The moment Yudhishthira loses Draupadi in the game of dice, Duryodhana asks his brother Dushshasana to bring Draupadi to the court. Draupadi is dragged in to the court. The assembly comprising of elders like Bhishma, Dhritarashtra and others is shocked to see the queen being dragged in such a way but no one speaks only Vidura gets up and quotes sage Kashyapa about immorality of remaining silent when there is evil afoot. Still no one speaks. When honest persons fail in their duty to speak up, they wound ‘Dharma’ and commit adharma. Thus the leader of the conspiracy earns half the penalty; immediate culprit a quarter and the witnesses who do not speak up are also guilty by a quarter.

Draupadi, in the meanwhile asks Yudhishthira a pertinent question “Whom did you lose first, yourself or me?” If Yudhishthira has lost himself first then he does not have a right to stake Draupadi who no longer belongs to him after his losing self! The assembly has no answer! Bhishma tries to answer “Yes Yudhishthira doesn’t have the right to stake her after losing self but on the other hand as a wife Draupadi has to act upon a husband’s orders, which means that even if he is not free, she is legally his and he is allowed to stake her”. Bhishma in great distress tells Draupadi that ‘Dharma is subtle and I cannot resolve the question in proper way’. Draupadi is not satisfied with Bhishma’s answer and she tells Bhishma that he is wrong. All elders remain silent but Vikarna, Duryodhana’s young brother gets up and challenges the assembly “We have to answer her question or we shall all go to hell” still no one answers.  Then Draupadi asks a second question “What is the Dharma of the King?” This unsettles the assembly as it is not a legal question like the first one but a moral question, a question of  right and wrong. Draupadi does not think that what is lawful is necessarily right, dharma must mean something more than what is legal & customary.

 Dharma is subtle, because it does not deal with matters of fact but it deals with opinion about how we ought to behave considering similar circumstances. Draupadi’s insistent question raises the issue about who is the authority to decide on dharma? It is interesting to note that no one in Hastinapur assembly that day appealed to God to decide who is right and who is wrong. This is because God is not expected to be an authority on Dharma among Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. Manu has cited plural authorities for Dharma two thousand years ago. It says “The root of Dharma is entire Veda, the tradition and customs of those who know the Vedas, the conduct of virtuous people, and what is satisfactory to oneself”. But Mahabharata doesn’t agree to this definition as with multiple authorities there may be contradictory views, so it zeroes on “Satisfaction of mind is the only authority in case of conflicting alternatives”. Thus in Mahabharata the idea of Dharma is based on one’s reason. Individuals have to decide how to best order their lives. Given the plurality of authorities one has to depend on oneself. No wonder Dharma is subtle.

Draupadi’s arguments are not enough to overturn the call to strip her. Dushshasana starts to disrobe her but then a miracle happens. When her garment was being stripped off, another similar garment continued to appear. At last tired and humiliated Dushshasana desisted and sat down.

Qn(6): How did a garment kept appearing every time she was being tried to be disrobed?  One answer is Krishna, he is God and he keeps producing those garments to save Draupadi, it is an answer of the Bhakti scholars. Another answer is without Krishna. The appearance of garments implies that cosmic justice automatically or “magically” prevented the chaste Draupadi from being stripped in public. It is Draupadi’s character, her own Dharma which is responsible for the miracle rather than God’s intervention. It vindicates her courage as she stands up to the political and social order.

Neither Duryodhana nor his father counted on Draupadi’s ability to change the agenda from power to dharma. Her question of Dharma of the King appealed to the assembly as the just king has to follow Raj dhrama. The most powerful ruler or his ministers cannot place themselves above dharma.

Seeing the miracle of generation of unlimited garments Dhritarashtra considers it as bad omen and turns to make amends. He tells Draupadi to ask for a boon. She asks for freedom of Pandavas, the father king agrees for their release and he also restores their kingdom and all they had lost.

Yudhishthira’s Duty: As though once were not enough, after some time Yudhishthira goes on to play a second game of dice with Kauravas and loses again. As per the terms, Pandavas have to go to exile for twelve years and in the thirteenth year they have to be in disguise without being discovered. Pandavas set off to jungle with Draupadi.

One day distressed Draupadi asks Yudhishthira “Dharma is supposed to protect the good king but here you are suffering” in effect she is asking why bad things happen to good people. She tells her husband to give up this forest living, raise an army & fight Kauravas to get back their rightful kingdom.

Yudhishthira responds that he has given his word and keeping commitment is dharma. He tells her that patience is superior to anger. He further says “I do not act for the fruits of Dharma, I act because I must”. In effec Yudhishthira is saying that Dharma or what he has to do is a standard of conduct and the society needs standards to maintain order. Without standards there will be chaos in society. Also acting as per Dharma is in itself a reward.

When moral worth is at issue, what counts is not those actions which one sees but those inner principles of action that lead to those actions. Human motives are important. An example: In Goa a group of students were enjoying at the beach and suddenly they found a child drowning in the sea. A student jumped in to the sea and saved the child. When asked why he jumped risking his life, he answered that he wanted to impress a girl of the group. So the motive was to impress the girl not to save the child. The consequence was the child was saved but had that girl not been there, possibly the child would not have been saved! Yudhishthira implies in his answer that consequences or ends do not justify the means.

Sensing that Draupadi is not satisfied with the reply, Yudhishthira talks of laws of karma, that every action will have a consequence.

The Qn(7): Should an action be considered good or bad based on its consequences or the intentions/motives? An example is Dhirubhai Ambani who started Reliance to produce polyester during the license raj. He used influence and may be money to get the license which others could not do. His success could give employment to thousands and also helped country with precious foreign exchange. The results are very good to society and country but if one looks at the means, they are not fair. Draupadi also has same complaint that Yudhishthira is neglecting the social consequences of his actions by neglecting the kshatriya dharma. Bhima joins the debate and tells his elder brother that life has three aims, Artha, Kama and Dharma. And by staying in forest Yudhishthira though is following dharma but not fulfilling the other two aims, the artha and kama; of life and thereby he may be failing to fulfill life’s purpose. But Bhima agrees that when these different purposes of life are at conflict, it is Dharma which has to be given priority. Hence through Bhima the epic answers to Draupadi’s question “Being good connects with character and fulfilling the purpose of human life. A good and flourishing life demands that a human being observe Dharma”. One interesting point is that only three purposes of life are enumerated, Artha, Kama and Dharma the fourth one Moksha is not mentioned, so may be moksha was added later in the Hindu scriptures.

After being in exile for thirteen years Pandavas come back and ask Duryodhana for their kingdom but Duryodhana refuses. Krishna in order to avoid a conflict, tries to negotiate for 5 villages for Pandavas instead of their whole kingdom but he is turned away by Duryodhana. War is imminent. Yudhishthira still believes that war in any form is bad but in the last thirteen years of exile Yudhishthira has evolved; he understands the limitations of those who have to rule a state that they cannot have absolute moral standards. He agrees that “No law can be found against killing enemies who are plotting to kill us”.

Qn(8): Is it good to be idealistic or realistic?  Mahabharata says one should be realistic and pursue only that is attainable. Unnecessarily demanding ideals are easily discredited. Yudhishthira’s new position is reciprocal altruism: adopt a friendly face to the world but do not allow yourself to be exploited. We need to remember always that Being good is ones’ duty & it is fulfilling the purpose of human life. Social order will collapse if people did not keep to their commitment. Dharma is supposed to uphold a certain cosmic balance and it is expected to help us balance the plural ends of life- Desire, Material well being and righteousness. Dharma sets limits on pursuits of pleasure and wealth. So in practice being good means one maximizes ones pleasure as long as it does not diminish another’s.

Arjuna’s Despair: The war is to start. The two armies gather and face each other in Kurukshetra for the war, the war which is termed as Dharma Yudha. The blind King Dhritarashtra is given a live commentary by Sanjay, his charioteer. Sanjay had received a special boon of distant vision. (Something like today’s Satellite telecast.) Arjuna, whose charioteer is Krishna himself, surveys the field full of his kinsmen.  Seeing so many on the enemy side for whom he has affection, Arjuna gets emotional and is in distress. He announces to Krishna that he will not fight. Krishna is dumbfounded. Arjuna is refusing to fight because he can see the future effect of war; he had grasped the inner meaning of war- unlimited violence. He suggests to Krishna that giving up the claim to kingdom is lesser evil than killing one’s own loved & respected ones. Krishna gives him updesha, known as The Gita; Krishna tells Arjuna to fight.  One reason Arjuna should fight is because it is his duty as a Khatriya to fight. Just like Yudhishthira had said to Draupadi in jungle, ‘I act because I must’. But there is a difference here, Arjuna has to fight because he is a kshatriya & for a Kshatriya it is sva dharma to fight. But for Yudhishthira to act was due to his conscience, it was sadharan dharma and sadharan dharma is the same for everyone. Arjuna is dejected because his sva dharma and sadharan dharma are in contradiction to each other. Seeing that the principle of duty is not able to change  Arjuna’s decision, Krishna brings in the heaven in to picture and tells Arjuna that if killed he will go to heaven and if he wins he will be a hero on earth, this also does not move Arjuna so Krishna tells him that soul doesn’t die, only the body dies. In killing his enemies Arjuna will be destroying only the transient bodies of his enemies, not the atman, which would continue to exist. But Arjuna is still unmoved.  Krishna now tells him about ‘Nishkama Karma’, an action which is done for the sake of duty rather than for personal reward- such an action is superior and it does not accumulate karma. He famously says” Be intent on action, not on the fruits of action”. Krishna is telling Arjuna that his duty is to fight the evil forces, he is asking for action while Arjuna is thinking of the consequences of the war – the many deaths it will bring about. Difference is that one is thinking of Motive while the other is thinking of consequence. Question(9): What way is better while deciding on any action- look at the motive/means or look at the consequences of that action? The story of Dhirubhai  Ambani  again comes to mind, he used his influence and may be even money to get the license which others could not get, basically wrong means but the consequence of his action was good for many people and the country. Gandhiji on the other hand stressed on the means and got us the freedom and so we are still a thriving democracy.

When Arjuna still seemed to be in some doubt Krishna showed him his ‘Virat roop’- the awe inspiring form of God. And Krishna tells Arjuna “I am time grown old, creating world destruction set in motion to annihilate the worlds; even without you, all these warriors arrayed in hostile ranks will cease to exist.” Here Krishna is telling about a cosmic design for the warriors.

Arjuna realizes that his not wanting to kill his relatives is based on worldly, human desire. His true duty lies in making his actions and his dharma conform to a cosmic dharma.

Then Krishna tells Arjuna “Now that you have learned the truth, act as you choose”.  God gives choices, decision is ours, this is our relationship with God. It is interesting here that while God is giving choices to man but Krishna is also telling Arjuna that even without you the annihilation will happen, so is it that while we have option of choice yet the final outcome is already decided and our worth is actually recognized only from our choices and actions?

Arjuna decides to fight. The Mahabharata war was fought for eighteen days. On the twelfth day Duryodhana strategizes to divert Arjuna at other end of the war front while isolating Yudhishthira. Seeing Yudhishthira being isolated, Arjuna’s young son Abhimanyu comes to his aid. Kauravas had formed a Chakravyuha. Abhimanyu is able to enter it and cause enormous damage to the enemy but Abhimanyu didn’t know how to get out of the Chakravyuh. In the process after fighting valiantly he gets killed by Jaydratha. Yudhishthira and his camp is dejected. The whole Pandava army looks at the righteous Yudhishthira for inspiration. Seeing them so struck down Yudhishthira consoles them by telling “Abhimanyu, the hero is bound for heaven. He was one that would die rather than run.”

 Question(10): Does the good life consists in dying young in battle and going to heaven or should one pursue a less violent way of living?

 Coming to know of the killing of his son, Arjuna is deeply disturbed and vows to kill Jaydratha by next day evening, failing which he would kill himself. Knowing about this vow Duryodhana puts his major warriors around Jaydratha so that Jayadratha can be saved and Arjuna to kill himself after evening as per his vow. Arjuna damages the enemy forces heavily but because of the immense protection of Jaydratha he is not able to kill him. The evening was approaching fast and Krishna senses trouble. He plays a trick & by employing Yoga covers the sun. Only Jayadratha the king of Sindhu sees the sun set and lets down his guard, at this moment Arjuna kills him with an arrow. The actual sunset happens soon afterwards.

Bhishma’s selflessness: On the tenth day of the war Bhishma, the grandfather falls in the war. Bhishma was the son of  Shantanu, the Bharat King. Shantanu falls in love with Satyavati, daughter of a fisherman. Fisherman father puts a condition on Shantanu for marriage that only Satyavati’s off spring should be the heir to the throne. Knowing it Bhishma renounces his claim to the throne & takes a vow of celibacy to avoid any claim on throne in future. Satyavati had two sons and they marry but both the sons die young . Satyavati first asks Bhishma to impregnate the widowed daughters- in- laws to continue the succession but bounded by his vow of celibacy Bhishma declines so Satyavati orders Vyasa her illegitimate son to do it for the family. Dhritrashtra is born from the elder one and Pandu from the younger one. One more son, Vidura is born from the maid. Bhishma manages the kingdom in the name of the sons till they come of age. As Dhritarashtra is blind, Pandu becomes the King and had five children while Dhritarashtra had hundred. Pandu’s eldest son Yudhishthira is born just before Dhritarashtra’s eldest Duryodhana. After a short tenure Pandu renounces the kingdom and goes to jungle & Dhritarashtra takes over the reins. With this Duryodhana is practically at the helm & Bhishma goes to semi retirement. But when the war is declared he takes up the responsibility of leading the Kaurava army. When till ninth day Pandavas were not progressing because of Bhishma’s leadership of Kaurava army, Krishna and Pandavas visit Bhishma in the evening and ask him for means of his own death. Bhishma tells them that he will not attack a woman or one who was ever a woman. He also tells them about Shikhandi in Pandavas camp who was a woman earlier and if he is brought in front of him in the war, Bhishma will not attack and that time Arjuna can kill him, otherwise it is not possible to kill him. Next day Pandava utilize the same strategy and Bhishma falls. Bhishma, who devoted all his life in Nishkama Karma, what does his life teach us? His act of remaining celibate created huge problems of succession which later led to Mahabharata.

So is it that Question (11) Selflessness has its limitations? Here Mahabharata is giving us a hint that like goodness, selflessness also should be up to a limit.

Another question (12) is, will not the Nishkama Karma reduce the motivation of the doer? Society, Nations and individuals have grown and prospered based on self interest. The opposite of selflessness should not be considered selfishness. Aristotle makes a distinction between rational self interest and selfishness. As per Mahabharata the moral perspective is arrived at when one is able to think beyond oneself, beyond one’s family and friends and put oneself in the shoes of another. Mahabharata says “Let no man do to another that which is repugnant to himself”. In a way it is putting a moral standard for the society.

Karna’s Status Anxiety: Karna was the son of Surya, the sun god and Kunti, the Pandava queen. When Kunti was young she had looked after Rishi Durvasa who had given her a mantra by which she could invoke any god and have a child by him. Long before marriage accidentally she had invoked Surya and saw that the boon works. She had Karna as her first child born wearing a protective armour & earrings of immortality. Being ashamed of having a baby without marriage she set the infant afloat on the river, praying for his safety. The baby was picked up by a charioteer Adhiratha and taken care of by him and his wife Radha. Karna acquires extraordinary martial skills and aspires to be a warrior. In the meantime Kunti gets married to Pandu and discovering that he cannot have children, uses the boon to obtain Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna from gods Dharma, Vayu and Indra respectively.

One day King Dhritarashtra holds a tournament to display the martial skills of his children in which Arjuna performs magically. At that time Karna enters and tells that he can do better than Arjuna in whatever Arjuna did. And he does show his skills. Then he challenges Arjuna to a competition but Kripa the achrya  & refree announces that  rules require the competitors to identify themselves. On hearing this Karna’s face fades. Kunti is able to recognize her son & so doesn’t want a competition between her two sons but Duryodhana sees an opportunity here. Ever envious of Pandavas he immediately announces Karna as the King of Anga. But just before the competition is to begin, Karna’s foster father the Charioteer enters the arena and by this everyone comes to know that Karna is the son of a charioteer. In the meantime the sun sets and the tournament is closed. Karna like most of us wants recognition and when the people praised him for his skills he was happy & started boasting. The attention of other people matters because human beings are uncertain of their worth. In the feudal society people are worried less about their social position because there is practically no movement in status from birth but in democracy where social mobility is possible, the status is of importance. People everywhere want to feel superior to others; hence status anxiety is a universal problem. In INDIA caste system separated the social classes and so status was by birth and not changeable, this led to less of status anxiety but with democracy the social status does not depend on birth but on the achievements and this has increased status anxiety. But now that reverse discrimination has started by the way of reservation it is adding to this status anxiety.

Question (12): Is it morally correct to punish today’s upper caste youth for the wrongs of their forefathers? And how can the suppressed lower caste people can compete with the upper caste people who have a head start in life? How to make it a level playing field? May be economic support to the poor lower caste is a better/reasonable solution.

In Mahabharata Krishna realizes that if Karna joins Pandavas, their victory is guaranteed, so he approaches Karna and tells him about the secret of his royal birth and he being the eldest Pandava , he will be king if he joins them. Knowing Karna’s weakness for Draupadi, Krishna also tells him that in time Draupadi will be waiting for him. But Karna refuses to change side. He tells Krishna that his loyalty is to Duryodhana who was there for him when he needed him most. Later Kunti approaches him as his mother but Karna refuses her also saying that while Kunti had abandoned him, his foster parents had brought him up with love and care. Now they are his actual parents, he cannot betray them. He says true dharma consists in respecting the bonds with those who care and nurture you than bonds of birth. Accepting the charioteer couple as his parents Karna was rejecting the claim that status arises from birth. It also shows Karna’s character where his principles won over his status anxiety.

During the war as Karna was one of the main warrior of the Kauravas and he has be silenced if Pandavas have to win. But Karna can not be killed till he has his armour and earrings with him. So one day Arjuna’s father Indra comes to Karna in the disguise of a Brahmin and begs for his armour and earrings. Karna even though knowing well that it was not a Brahmin but was Indra & has come with the purpose of making Arjuna victorious, gives away his breast plate and earrings and also tells Indra that without these he is sure to die in the war. And the next day during the war, Karna’s chariot wheel gets stuck up in the mud, he asks Arjuna to wait till he gets the wheel out of the mud. He gets down to take the wheel out. At that time Krishna asks Arjuna to attack Karna. Arjuna hesitates but Krishna insists and Arjuna attacks Karna. Without his armour and ear rings Karna is handicapped and Arjuna strikes the final blow with his arrow.

The Question (13) is: Knowing well that donating the breast plate and earrings he is inviting death on the war front, why did Karna give it to Indra? The possible answer is commitment to his vow of donating any possible thing to Brahmin and if the vow is not kept the loss of stature in society! By keeping the commitment he will be a revered! The anxiety of losing status is more powerful than the anxiety of losing life. In real life we saw Café Coffee Day owner Siddhartha committing suicide with this anxiety.

None of us can tolerate being neglected in society, Example of Pramod   Mahajan being killed by his brother Praveen Mahajan comes to memory. When Police asked Praveen why he shot his brother, the reply was that Pramod was neglecting him and on that fateful day when Pramod was shot dead, he had feigned to not notice to Praveen when Praveen entered Pramod’s house. This neglect Praveen could not tolerate and he shot his brother dead.

Qn (14): Would Karna be living happily if he had followed the normal society rule and had become a charioteer instead of a warrior? Would he be satisfied? My guess is not. Ambition drives a person to do something remarkable and if the ambition is not fulfilled the dissatisfaction remains.

Krishna’s Guile:  Krishna’s role in Mahabharata is of a strategist, a guide to the Pandavas for leading them to victory. In the process Krishna made Pandavas use deceit as a strategy. Dronacharya, was killed by first killing an elephant named Aswatthama, the name of Drona’s son and then announcing loudly that Ashwatthama is dead. When Drona asks Yudhishthira, the only one who would never speak a lie, Yudhishthira does say Ashwatthama is dead but adds in a low voice ‘the elephant’. Drona does not hear the words spoken in low voice & is so dejected he throws his weapons and at that time he is killed. Similarly Duryodhana was killed by telling Bhima to strike on the thighs of Duryodhana. So, Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Duryodhana all the prominent warriors of Kaurav camp were killed by deceit and Krishna was involved in all of them. But to Krishna’s defence, he firmly believes that once the fateful decision of going to war is made then one must win the war at any cost. He also believes Pandavas cause is just. Krishna tells Yudhishthira that a lie is permissible when it is for a greater good. Krishna also believes that the only way to defeat evil is by evil. All of the above defence is good if one considers Krishna a human but if Krishna is considered a God then we know that in the epic the Mahabharata war was needed because during that period the demons had begun to oppress the world. The earth had appealed to Brahma for help and in turn Brahma had asked other Gods for help so Krishna was born in human form to clean the earth of demons. Also in Gita Krishna tells Arjuna ‘I am Time , and as Time, I destroy the world’. Krishna also says” Know that Kali Yuga has arrived and in order to preserve dhrama in this imperfect world of Kali Yuga, he had to commit ‘smaller wrongs’ for the sake of a ‘bigger right’.

There may have been good reasons why Krishna had to do what he did to win but the epic is clearly uncomfortable with Krishna’s conduct during the war. It does not believe that the ends justify the means. There seems to be an unforgiving streak of dharma running through the epic. If good persons are not allowed to win by fair means and if they have to use unjust they must be prepared for the punishment. As Pandavas failed in their dharma, accordingly Pandavas were never allowed to live happily ever after.

Krishna suggests that all of life is subject to the law of Karma. A person is free to act, but once the deed is done, no one can stop its relentless consequences. One’s Karma decides if one will experience pleasure or pain. God does not want to come in the way of this cosmic justice. This way we can understand that the problem of evil is problem of ignorance of this rule! If there is a free will evil will also be there.

Qn(15): DO we really need this free will? – The evil is because of this free will but then there is also love, goodness & human joy because of the free will. So Free Will is worth the risk.

Ashwatthama’s revenge: Hearing about the killing of his father by deceit, Ashwatthama is enraged. By this time Pandavas are victorious and from Kauravas side only three, Ashwatthama, Kripa and Kritavarma remain. They run to the jungle. Ashwatthama is disturbed & he has to avenge his father’s killing. He prays to Lord Shiva and offers himself as sacrifice. Shiva is moved by his act. He gives Ashwatthama a sword and enters his body. Ashwatthama advances towards enemy camp with Kripa and Kritavarma waiting outside. He enters the tent of his father’s killers and kills them. After avenging his father’s death on Draupadi’s brother Dhrishtyadyumna , he slays the sleeping victorious army  including the five children of Draupadi. Meanwhile Kripa and Kritavarma set the camp on fire. Except for the five Pandava brothers& Draupadi who were with Krishna, everyone perishes.

If a good person suffers, then the bad person should suffer even more; this is the human psyche. The lust of vengeance and the thirst of revenge are so powerful that they rival all human needs. Retribution is useful because it brings a ‘profound sense of moral equilibrium impelling us to demand that people pay for the harm they have done to others’. Punishment is thus the revenge of society on the culprit. But the punishment should be in proportion to the crime.

When Pandavas come to know about Ashwatthama’s gruesome act, they go after him. Cornered, Ashwatthama makes a grass arrow and charges it with Bramhashiras, and hurls it at Pandavas. Arjuna releases an equally powerful weapon. Together these two weapons would have destroyed the world, like nuclear weapons, so Arjuna withdraws his weapon but Ashwatthama cannot. He diverts it to the womb of Pandava  women, making them barren. This would have ended Pandava dynasty but Krishna managed to revive foetus of Uttara, Abhimanyu’s widowed wife  who bore Parikshita. Later Parikshita went on to rule Kuru for 60 years.

Krishna then turns to Ashwatthama and punishes him with a life of three thousand years alone and incommunicado. This punishment for a revenge which was out of proportion to his loss.

Qn (16) : In real life many times we are not able to manage the real proportion of punishment, should we look at forgiveness? There is example of South Africa & Argentina. In Argentina after the 1975-79 war the new government chose to prosecute and punish senior state officials who were guilty of human rights violation. The trials polarized the society and weakened institutions. They led to the illusion that only a small group was guilty. While in South Africa it was reconciliation that was adopted. Desmond Tutu, Chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation commission says’ There is no future without forgiveness’. Truth telling is more important than trials in healing and restoring political community. The different approaches have shown different results with South Africa on the path of progress while Argentina still under violence.

Yudhishthira’s Remorse: The war is over. The women of Hastinapur reach the field of battle to find their sons, brothers, husbands who were killed being eaten by jungle crows, jackals…. Gandhari sees Uttara holding Abhimanyu’s body and talking to it  imagining that her husband is sleeping. Yudhishthira’s heart is full of guilt and shame. He tells Arjuna:’ The heroes are dead. The evil is done. Our kingdom has been laid waste. Having killed them our rage is gone. Now this grief holds me in check.’ To Krishna he says ‘Victory and defeat, O Krishna, are the same to one who is killed. Defeat is not much better than death but; he whose side gains victory also suffers losses.

Yudhishthira is remorseful. Remorse is different from regret. Remorse is a more intense emotion than regret. When a child is accidentally hit by a car, an onlooker may feel regret but the driver of the car feels remorse even if it was not his fault. A remorseful person cares for the other person who has been wronged.

 Yudhishthira is so remorseful that he wants to abdicate the throne and go away. His is a tragic dilemma of a good man who has to engage in violence in performance of duty. Other Pandavas console Yudhishthira. Bhishma, who is on his deathbed, preaches Yudhishthira that kingship and dharma are not contradictory. The King has to wield the power of punishment but it has to be done judiciously under the constraints of law. The King exists for dharma, not for doing what gives him pleasure. The king is protector of the world. World depends on people, people depend on dharma and dharma depends on the king. Bhisma’s instructions made Yudhishthira realize that renouncing the throne is an escape, not a solution. He understood that he must learn to live in the world and become a principled king who will have to employ violence when necessary. Thus the epic affirms a middle path, a narrow spectrum of moral possibilities that human beings have to learn to live within in order to function in the imperfect Kali Yuga.

Question (17): In our lives have we made choices and tried to become a person that we wanted to become or have we just allowed ourselves to be swept along in the direction others decided? For the rest of life we will have to reap the consequences of those actions/decisions.

Mahabharata’s Dharma: After ruling justly for thirty six years, in which period Pandavas had a lingering sadness in having to live without their loved ones. In the meantime Kunti, Dhritarashtra and Gandhari had gone to forest where they die in a forest fire. Krishna died an unnatural death when a hunter killed him with an arrow mistaking him to be a wild animal. After this long period of rule, Pandavas decide to leave the world. The rein of the kingdom is handed over to Parikshit, Abhimanyu’s son. On the way Draupadi and the four Pandava brothers fall one by one. A stray dog keeps accompanying Yudhishthira. On the gate of the heaven Indra welcomes him to the heaven. Yudhishthira thanks him but asks the stray dog also to be taken in. Indra refuses telling him dogs are not allowed in the heaven. Yudhishthira persists saying abandoning someone devoted to you is a bottomless evil. The god Dharma, also father of Yudhishthira who was testing Yudhishthira in the form of the stray dog, transforms himself and tells Yudhishthira that he has won the highest goal of going to heaven with his own body.

However this was not Yudhishthira’s first trial. His father God Dharma reminds him that during the twelve year exile in the Dvaita Forest, Pandavas were in search of a deer that had run off with the fire sticks of a Brahmin performing sacrificial rites. But the deer was non traceable and the brothers were very thirsty. In search of water, Nakula finds a pond but there is a voice, a Yaksha, the tree spirit which cautions him to first answer his questions before drinking water and if he answers correctly then only he can get water otherwise he will die, but Nakula does not heed and drinks water which results in his immediate death. The other brothers also had the same fate when they went to drink water. At last Yudhishthira comes and he obeys Yaksha for answering his questions before drinking water. Yaksha’s questions are about meaning of life but in the form of puzzles.  First question is , what is happiness? Yudhishthira answers: “ A person who cooks vegetables in his own home, who has no debt and who is not in exile is truly happy”. This lockdown due to Corona virus has proved it to be right for all of us!!The second question: What is extraordinary? Yudhishthira answers: One sees people dying every day and one thinks that one will live forever, it is extraordinary”. The third question: What is the highest dharma in the world? And Yudhishthira answers” Compassion is the highest dharma”.  Yaksha is happily satisfied with the answers and rewards him to resurrect any one of the four dead brothers. Yudhishthira chooses Nakula. Yaksha is surprised because Nakula and Sahdeva are from the other mother, Madri while Arjuna and Bhima are from the same mother Kunti as is Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira’s logic is Kunti’s one son, Yudhishthira himself is surviving so one son from Madri also should be resurrected to lessen her sorrow. Yaksha is happy and he resurrects all the brothers. Dharma tells Yudhishthira that the virtue he showed in resurrecting Nakula is same as his compassion to the stray dog.

Yudhishthira is then led to the heaven. In heaven he doesn’t find his brothers & wife Draupadi. On asking he is told that they are in hell. Yudhishthira says what use is the heaven to me if I don’t have my brothers here? He asks to be taken to the hell. As he utters the words the hellish vision disappears. Indra explains “All kings have to see hell. There are two piles, one of good and another of evil. He who first enjoys the good deeds must afterwards go to hell. And he who experiences hell must go to heaven. You had to see a vision of hell because you deceived Drona on the battlefield about his son’s death. Come now and let this fire in your mind disappear”.

At this the Pandava heroes and Kaurava anti heroes lose their human condition & are transformed in to divine state from which they had emerged. Thus the Mahabharata ends.

Conclusion:  Mahabharata is about the way we deceive ourselves, how we are false to others and how we are morally unjust in our day to day behavior. But is this moral blindness an intractable human condition or can we change it? The book tries to find answer to this. Indeed, the pursuit of competitive success and status seems to be hard wired in human genes but there is a fine line between healthy competition and selfish greed.

The book tries to find where does true honour lie: in dying young and going to heaven or in living a long peaceful and probably unremarkable dharmic life of non-violence and compassion? It clearly comes out when Yudhishthira says after the war “This victory seems like defeat”. Mahabharata reminds us Who has in his heart always well being of others& who is given in acts, thoughts and speech to the good of others alone knows what dharma is. So the answer is without hurting others one should succeed then it is true honour. But our excessive pride comes in the way of our engagement with the world and if we know this then we can try to control it and can engage better with the world.

When Yudhishthira rejects the kshatriya sva dharma of fighting and insists on fulfilling his commitment of being in exile for thirteen years, he is questioning the society’s values rather than living an unquestioning life.

Mahabharata also lays emphasis on action. God gives us choices and we have to select one and be ready for the consequences. It is not easy to be virtuous; it requires a leap from thought to action.

The epic shows the importance of compassion when Yudhishthira chooses to revive Nakula instead of his own brothers and also the compassion and altruism when he decides to take the stray dog to heaven.

Mahabharata is pragmatic and recommends a middle path which is grounded in enlightened self interest. Self interest is not selfishness and it requires moral uprightness but not moral perfection. It asks to show a friendly face to the world but do not allow yourself to be exploited. This can be seen in Yudhishthira after thirteen years of exile when he decided to fight for his right.

After the war when Yudhishthira is on the verge of renouncing the throne Bhishma preaches him about ethic of responsibility to fulfill the worldly goals of life. To try to escape from the world of action means one loses something valuable. Yudhishthira understands that societies are held together by ‘laws, customs and moral habit’ & it is these that make up dharma, whose rules are meant for the citizens to collaborate rather than to fight.

The characters in Mahabharata tell us that it is difficult to slot them in to good or bad. Everyone has some goodness and some evil, there is no one absolute good or absolute bad. That is why there has to be a just way of administering the state and society has to follow the rules.

At last the author concludes that morality is natural to the way human beings have evolved as social, intelligent and enduring mammals. One may be skeptical about existence of God but one can still believe in being good and live a deeply moral life.