Mahabharata Part 2

Jokoparishi speaks on Mahabharata series

Mahabharata part-2

Hare Krishna.

           So far in this Mahabharata series, we have come up to the birth of Kauravas and the 5 sons which Pandu had. Now the Mahabharata story is really the story between the Kauravas and Pandavas, the 5 sons of Pandu are called Pandavas. In this 2 or 3 players shaped the story. From the Pandavas’ side, Pandu brought them up to some age, and died. When they came to Hastinapur along with their mother Kunti, it was the start of their new life in the Hastinapur palace. So the real story of Mahabharata is the story of Pandavas and Kauravas, shaped up by Shakuni, Lord Krishna, Bhishma, vidura and Kunti. How we will see, as things progress, because Lord Krishna doesn’t enter the scene here, now.

So the main person on the Kauravas side purely is Shakuni, the Kauravas’ uncle, who was the brother of Gandhari, and brother-in-law of Dhritarashtra, who permanently stayed with the Kauravas, with the ultimate aim of finishing the Pandavas. And he never came directly to play. The other 2 people- Kunti was always on the side of the Pandavas to bring them up with good culture, in spite of the atmosphere not being very good for the Pandavas. But Bhishma Pitamaha and Vidura, the younger brother of King Pandu, they were good people and they were the real moral support for the Pandavas.

           So now we have 2 sides- the Kauravas were brought up in evil, and enmity and jealousy, other side Pandavas were brought up initially by King Pandu and subsequently by Kunti and vidura, they were the good type of 5 brothers. The story revolves around these two groups. What was the trouble? Why the problem between Kauravas and Pandavas? They were all cousins and could have lived together. Anybody will think like that. The reason is Shakuni was putting poison and spoiling the minds of the Kauravas, to fulfill his own untold reasons, and he was creating enmity, which was not there initially, by saying that the Pandavas have come to take a share of their property. They were all very young it’s too far away to think about property and all.

          Shakuni put that idea in the minds of the Kauravas and anybody telling some ideas to win over the opponent is always welcome, and such an uncle is very dear to all of them and Duryodhana n Dushasana, the leading 100 Kauravas, were very happy to adopt all the bad schemings of uncle Shakuni. That was going on. Add to it, the strength of the Pandavas was almost nil except for Bhima. He was a towering personality with tall figure, heavy weight and big strength. But for him, the Kauravas and Shakuni would have crushed Pandavas long back. But he did not allow that to happen. Because of his sheer strength, he was overpowering the Kauravas and he played them out. Some Kauravas would go up the trees, for the purpose of plucking fruits. Bhima from below, with his gigantic strength, would shake the tree, however big it maybe, and all the Kauravas also used to fall along with the fruits. It was entertaining for Bhima, he would laugh out loud and enjoy and make fun of them. This made the Kauravas angrier and angrier with him, but they couldn’t do anything because of his incomparable strength.

          So the enmity grew, grew and grew in such a way there was no control. On the contrary, he got support from uncle Shakuni and he grew stronger in his mind to plan more and more ideas, with uncle Shakuni ready to give them new plans and ideas, all crooked, the days began to be difficult for all the Pandavas, Bhima in particular, about that we will see in the next story.

 Hare Krishna.