Mahabharata: Beyond the reality

Dhritrashtra and Pandu were brothers born in the royal Kuru family. Dhritrashtra, the elder of the two, was blind and hence Pandu was crowned the king of the Kuru dinasty. Pandu had five sons known as the Pandavs – Yudhishthir, Bhim, Arjun, Nakul and Sahadev. The Pandavs were honest and virtuous. Dhritrashtra had a hundred sons knowns as the Kauravs.

Duryodhan, the eldest, was most dear to him. Duryodhan nurtured jealousy and hatred towards the Pandavs rights from his chilhood. After Pandu’s sudden death, Dhritrashtra had to take upon himself the duties of the king. When the princes- the Pandavs and Kauravs – came of age, a dispute arose as to who should be the next ruler, Yudhishthir or Duryodhan. The Elders, including Bhishm, the grandfather of the Kauravs and the Pandavs, were all of the opinion that Yudhishthir being the eldest of the princes should ascend the throne. But, Duryodhan claimed the right to be the king on the ground that he was the eldest son of the elder of the two brothers, Dhritrashtra and Pandu. The dispute could not be resolved and the kingdom was divided into two. It was then that the seeds of the ‘Mahabharata’ were sown.

With the grace of Lord Krishna, who was a cousin of the Kauravs and the Pandavs became very prosperous. This upset Duryodhan who hated his cousins. He hatched several plots to kill the Pandavs, but met with failure each time. Then, at last, through sheer deceit he defeated Yudhishthir in a game of dice and the Pandavs lost their kingdom, which had been at stake. The Pandavs were also compelled to go into exile, as this had been one of the pre-conditions of the game. Duryodhan promised that he would return the kingdom of the Pandavs to them once the stipulated period of exile was over but later he refused to give up even an inch of land. Lord Krishna tried several times to bring about an amicable settlement but all his efforts failed.

Thus, a war which came to be known as the Mahabharata became inevitable. Before the Mahabharata was faught, both Duryodhan and Arjun went to seek the help of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna offered them the choice of his entire army on one hand and just He on the other. Krishna also said that He would not wield any weapon or fight in the battle. Duryodhan took Lord Krishna’s army, while Arjun was happy to opt for Lord Krishna as his charioteer. Thus, the backdrop to the wisdom of Bhagavad Gita was set.

Just as the righteous battle of the Mahabharata was about to start, sage Vyas made an attempt to stop it. He visited  Dhritrashtra and advised him to stop the battle because it was destined to destroy the entire family of the king. Dhritrashtra, however, expressed his helplness and prayed to the sage to do something to enable him to know about the goings-on in the battlefield. Vyas blessed Sanjay, an aide of Dhritrashtra, with divine vision with the help of which Sanjay, even when seated in the palace, could instantly see and hear all that was happening in the battlefield and narrate it to Dhritrashtra, including Lord Krishna’s message of the Bhagavad Gita.