Link to Part 1: http://bolharrybol.blogspot.com/2020/12/character-conduct-lessons-from.html
Link to Part 2: http://bolharrybol.blogspot.com/2020/12/character-conduct-lessons-from_12.html
Character Lesson 9: Never Lose Sight Of The Larger Picture
Krishna never loses sight of his purpose. His birth is to establish dharma and to ensure the right party wins, even if that means employing methods that are seen as 'unethical' and against the 'rules' of the game. For him, the war is not about the spoils going to the victor. He is clear who needs to win - it is the Pandavas. He spares no one who comes in the way, including the Pandavas' relatives.
Krishna stops Bhima's grandson Barbarik from participating in the war as he vows to fight for the weaker side, not just with the just one. The invincible Barbarik could have won the war single handedly for the Pandavas, but he had promised his Guru that he would side with the weaker side in the war, not the stronger one. So once the Kauravas got weakened, he would have switched sides and attacked the Pandavas and so on and so forth. So in the end who would be left? A lonely Barbarik. So Krishna asks Brabarik to chop his head off as his Guru Dakshina, as Krishna after all is his first Guru.
Krishna uses various tactics to ensure the right people are on the right side of the war. He stops Draupadi from allowing Karna to participate in her swayamvar. If Draupadi had married Karna, she would have ended up in the unrighteous Kaurava camp.
During the war, he plots the killing of the great warriors amongst the Kauravas. Be it Jaidrat, Karna, Bhishma, Dronacharya or Duryodhan, he is not consumed by their personalities. He just knows that they are on the wrong side of the moral code and deserve to die.
Sample the various acts of Krishna in the middle of the war. Arjuna is livid with Jaidrat that he plotted the killing of Abhimanyu, and so vows to kill him before sunset, otherwise commits to immolate himself in the fire. As the battle gets really tough and Arjuna sees Jaidrat getting out of hand, Krishna creates an illusion of sunset. Delighted, Jaidrat and the Kauravas start celebrating. The Sun however 'rises' again and Arjuna easily kills an unarmed and unready Jaidrat.
Bhishma sets the code for the war and also lets the Pandavas know that he will not attack a woman during war. So Krishna asks Shikandi to come in front of Bhishma, exposing him to the arrows of Arjuna. Shikandi is half man, half woman, and Amba in the previous birth. Bhishma recognises him as Amba and puts his arms aside. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to defeat Bhishma.
Krishna asks Arjuna to kill Karna as he descends from his chariot to fix its stuck wheels. Krishna has no sympathy for those who never followed any rules. Karna ruthlessly participated in the killing of a hapless Abhimanyu. Dronacharya and Duryodhan were also party to killing Abhimanyu unjustly and against the war code. Krishna has no remorse in killing these people through trickery.
He asks Yudhishthir to tell Dronacharya that Ashwathama is dead. The one dead is actually Ashwathama the Elephant. But Dronacharya gets demoralised on hearing this from the ever-truthful Yudhishthir. He knows Yudhishthir can never lie. Dronacharya gives up and is killed by Drishtadhyum.
Krishna asks Bhima to attack Duryodhan with his mace on his thighs. The blind-folded Gandhari had opened her eyes just once and with divine rays made Duryodhan's body as strong as iron. She had asked him to take bath and come completely naked, but Krishna tricked Duryodhan from going completely naked in front of his mother. His thighs therefore remained vulnerable, which he asked Bhima to exploit.
Krishna in the Mahabharata speaks the truth and lives the truth. He is God. He can do anything. But he does not interfere with human karma. He acts as their mentor, and that too only to those who are ready to listen to him. He vows not to raise arms in the war. He becomes Arjuna's charioteer in the war. If Krishna had decided to fight the war, it would have got over within minutes. But that was not the purpose of his human birth. He was here to guide and educate.
As the war is about to begin, Krishna deals with Arjuna's despondency. Arjuna is not ready to fight the war against his own people. He feels it is worthless to kill one's own brothers, elders and mentors and win the throne. Krishna educates Arjuna through the Bhagavad Gita and gets him to fight the war. The Bhagavad Gita is Krishna's greatest legacy.
Character Lesson 10: Leaders Leave A Legacy
Leading up to Kurukshetra, Krishna is against the war. He even admonishes the Pandavas for their eagerness to fight the war to reclaim their just rights. He even goes as a peace messenger and asks Dridharashtra to give the Pandavas only five villages and not half the kingdom. Indraprastha was theirs but taken away through the second dice game. As a result, they were exiled for thirteen years. Yet, to avoid war, he asks for just five villages.
But a greedy and arrogant Duryodhan refuses to part with even an inch of land and his father is emotionally incapable of going against his son's wishes. He fears Duryodhan will kill himself. Yet again, Dridharashtra puts his son before the good of his people.
Thousands of ordinary soldiers would lose their lives in the war and many families would be bereaved just for the sake of a dispute between two warring families. This is unacceptable to Krishna, but acceptable to Dridharashtra. He is not just blind, he is also blinded by the attachment to his son. His wife's Gandhari's warnings and sane advises fall on deaf ears. This happens in modern day wars too?
Gandhari, in a way, perhaps is responsible for her own predicament. Perhaps, there could have been other ways to demonstrate her partnership with her blind husband. However, she chooses to blindfold herself to show she is an equal partner. This is one more instance of a vow in the Mahabharata that is impractical and self-defeating.
Character Lesson 11: Overcommitting is worse than undercommiting
Gandhari otherwise is a reasonable woman. She does not discriminate between her and Kunti's children. She despises her own brother Shakuni and is never afraid to point out the mistakes of her King husband. But even she gets carried away during the war. She is unable to bear the loss of her hundred sons and holds Krishna responsible. So she curses Krishna that just as the Kuru clan has been destroyed, so would the Yadava clan be.
Yet, she was the one who stopped Draupadi from cursing during that fateful day when she was dishonoured. Draupadi was completely entitled to curse those who watched her dishonour in silence. It was Krishna who rescued her from utter dishonour. But Draupadi, in a way, also invited the wrath of Duryodhan when she insulted him during his visit to Indraprasth by saying "a blind man's son is also blind" as he fell into pool of water which he mistook to be land.
Character Lesson 12: Never insult anyone with sour words
Draupadi is a powerful woman born out of fire. Though she repents her words for Duryodhan, her action unintentionally becomes a key reason for the Mahabharata war. Egotistic people like Duryodhan easily forget their misdeeds, but never forget any wrong done to them.
Draupadi is unforgiving of her husbands, and rightly so, for failing to protect her honour. To remind them of their folly, she resolves to not tie her hair till she gets to wash them with blood taken from Dushashan's heart. Bhima promises to do the needful for her. As promised, he kills Dushashan who dragged her and tried to disrobe her on that fateful day.
Through the thirteen years of exile, she never lets her husbands forget why her hair is kept untied. Her desire for revenge keeps the flame of war burning constantly. Without the war, neither she nor Bhima can fulfill their resolve. Krishna reminds them that peace is more important than the fulfillment of their resolve. But the desire for revenge blinds them to the cruel fallout of the war - unprecedented death and destruction.
When Abhimanyu is killed, Draupadi realises the futility of war. She realises, in the end, there are only losers.
When nations go to war, it is the duty-bound soldiers who die en masse. They neither have any ideological affiliation nor are they consulted on anything. It was the same when the Kurukshetra war happened and it is the same even now.
Krishna knew the war would happen, but tried his best to avoid it. Yet, when Gandhari tells him he could have avoided the war, he says yes, but it was essential. Maybe, humanity for ages had to learn the lessons from such a macabre affair. He perhaps also saw it as an inevitability towards the fulfillment of his birth amongst humans as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
Character Lesson 13: No one wins in a war, not even the 'winner'
Four women play a key role in the Mahabharata - Kunti, Gandhari, Draupadi and Amba. The role of Amba in the form of Shikhandi in a new birth is critical to Bhishma's death. Krishna smartly gets Bhishma to confess to the Pandavas in the middle of the war that he will lay down his arms if a woman comes in front of him in the battlefield. Krishna knows it is critical to get Bhishma out of the way if the Pandavas have to win.
Amba is reborn as the half man-half woman Shikandi in this birth with the sole aim of vanquishing Bhishma. So the moment Shikandi comes in front of him, Bhisma exposes himself to the brutal arrows of Arjuna. Krishna prevails again with his tactics. Yet, for Bhishma, getting hit by Arjuna's arrows is both a privilege and an honour. A gravely injured Bhishma lies on a bed of arrows, majorly denting the Kauravas' campaign. He still holds on to dear breath as he has vowed not to die till he is assured the throne of Hastinapur is in safe hands.
When Yudhishthir comes to know that Karna was the eldest Pandava and Kunti had hidden it from them, he holds his mother responsible for the war. As Kunti sits crying besides Karna's dead body, the Pandavas are perplexed at their mother's behaviour. If only the Pandavas had known about Karna, they would have simply handed him the throne and averted the war. Kunti however keeps this as a closely guarded secret, even from Karna, as he was born to Kunti before her marriage. Kunti, unable to disclose this to the world, abandons Karna, who is picked up by a charioteer and along with his wife brings him up. How much have society's norms changed even now, one wonders!
This one non-disclosure deprives Karna of his princely rights and he harbours ill-will against the Pandavas, his own brothers. Arjuna is his sworn enemy. He believes he is no less than Arjuna in bravery and archery. But Arjuna is Dronacharya's favourite. However, Karna is denied training by Dronacharya as he is not a prince. Even Draupadi refuses to marry him as he is a mere charioteer's son. Duryodhana 'buys' his loyalty by making him a King and 'using' him against the Pandavas.
Draupadi's denial of Karna, demeaning words for Duryodhana and burning desire for revenge contribute to the lead-up to the horrendous war, in which even the victors don't feel any joy. Draupadi, who brayed for the blood of the Kauravas to avenge her insult, cries inconsolably at the side of Abhimanyu's dead body, lamenting a war that benefits no one. Draupadi could not make peace with herself for the misdeeds of the Kauravas and the meek surrender of her husbands. She keeps her hair untied till she receives the blood of Dushasan to bathe with. Draupadi's untied hair acts as a poignant reminder to her husbands that they are duty bound to avenge her insult.
Gandhari's is a sane voice in the unholy corridors of the Hastinapur regime, led by Dridharashtra, her 'selfish and short sighted' husband. She constantly urges him to rein in Duryodhana and give the Pandavas their due rights. Yet, when she loses all her sons in the war, she blames Krishna for the war and even curses him. When her sorrow becomes bigger than the calamity, she loses perspective.
TO BE CONTINUED. PART 4 IS CONCLUDING PART.
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