Introduction
The Mahabharata covers the concerns faced in everyday living and provides solutions to them. It clarifies the definitions of happiness, health, pleasure, wealth, and truths. It relates one’s mentality and daily deeds to one’s future as well as defines freedom, captivity, wisdom and foolishness, death, governance, and their foundations. The Mahabharata deals with just about everything that affects people in life (Dharma 54).
The Mahabharata challenges the obvious view of violence. It advocates for non-violence towards the others and to oneself. The highest dharma is non-violence, and the greatest gift is freedom. The Mahabharata shows that everything in life is interconnected and interrelated. Every aspect of man’s life is relational. A person has one enemy, ignorance of which is worsened by the existence of cruelty in him and the others.
The Mahabharata traces the roots of violence and shows its impact on an individual and society in general. It also gives remedy to situations and sentiments, such as anger, revenge, enmity that may otherwise lead to violence. Below is an illustration of how the Mahabharata approaches the topic of non-violence.
Benefits of non-violence
Revealing one’s love can save the life of the others. One should be kind to the people as another person is a replica of oneself. Death is a disaster. Death is a fearful tragedy to every living being, thus one should strive to avoid causing death to anyone as the other person is his/her own reflection (Mahabharata-parva 116.8,17). The intelligent man should advocate for non-violence as it is a show of one’s value for one’s life and seeing that life in the life of the others (Dharma 24).
Anger is justified when it is to restore justice
The goodness or badness of the deed is dependent on the place and timing of such an action. This is to mean that a good deed may be considered bad with a slight variation of the circumstances the deed occurred. Force and forgiveness are two conflicting truths which are enshrined in all sought of human relationships, both personal and societal. Force can be used only for self-defense and justice, whereas forgiveness liberates oneself from the power of hatred and vengeance. In Adi parva of the Mahabharata, three stories of Aurva enable us to acknowledges that anger is justified in certain situations of life. Revenge is the ultimate justice to causing such anger.
The Mahabharata explores the morality of revenge by using the persona of Ashvasthama who is Guru Drona’s grieving son. Ashvasthama’s anger is a result of the war where he and two other kaurava survived. At the end of this story, the Mahabharata shows that the world can be easily destroyed with help of anger and revenge. These two great powers exceed the impact of physical weapons even if they seem to be irrelevant and small. Just like firing a gun, using the weapons of anger and revenge can only be managed by persons with self-control, with a heart of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Lord Krishna depicts forgiveness and reconciliation as the greatest pilgrimages. Forgiveness is the surest way of showing compassion and the one element that units the world. However, constant forgiveness may be a sign of weakness and defects, according to Draupadi. Forgiveness may be the source of contempt to one who is seen to always forgive.
The case against war and enmity
According to Yudhister, there is no victorious side of a war. The winner feels just as bad as the loser. Even with a victory, the winning armies suffer great losses and experience the same feeling of loss and grieve as the defeated party. The destruction of prosperity for both the sides is alike. The obstruction of peace resonates to war. In the family set up, once the enmity starts, the memory of such a feeling is in the family history forever. The enmity does not stop even if the member who was its initiator dies; in fact, it can last without obvious reasons for quite a long time.
Violence in words
We use language to express affection, friendship, and love. The Mahabharata asks those who wish to cultivate appropriate speech ought to speak the truth avoiding violence and condemnation of others. The words are likened to arrows that can burn the life of a victim hurt by the word down. Those who are wise enough should avoid using hurtful words because the tree pierced by arrows can still grow, but one’s wounds caused by hurtful words can never heal. Whereas the head of the spear can be removed from the flesh, the spear of hurtful words cannot be pulled off from the heart. A wise man should not use harsh words that demean or agitate another individual. Hurtful words create enmity. Speech that is untrue is deemed a hurtful speech.
Women, wealth, natural conflicts, previous offences and speech are the five causes of enmity. Of all five, speech comprises all. The characteristics of good speech, however, include silence, truth, pleasant speaking and one that is founded on dharma (Dharma, 56).
Violence to oneself
Samnyasa means the state of upholding the foundations of dharma or simply developing and possessing a self-control. This does not mean that a person should deny of the joys of life but rather gain the knowledge of the right places of doing anything. Pain and denial of one’s bodily passions are not the necessities of finding out the true nature of oneself. Greed, anger, insincerity, falsehood, vanity, and pride are innate personal traits that injure one before the impact is felt by those around us. There is a relationship between the mind and one’s body. Thus, the mind is the root of all the violence.
Liberty from fear
Liberty from fear is a gift to life. It is said that kindness liberates a person from fear in as much as one liberates another from the same kind of fear. People with compassion towards the others or those who are open in their relationship with the world are establishing inner unity with dharma. Unhappiness can only be cured if one stops thinking about the past and focuses on other things in the present. the Mahabharata concludes that for enjoying the material prosperity, there must be peace and freedom from death (Dharma 2006 p 340)
The insights and the lessons learnt from the Subtle Art of Dharma
Important insights can be derived from the Subtle Art of Dharma and adopted by all people in their daily life, especially nowadays when the financial crisis has hit everyone in the globe. The book written by one of the leading management experts Gurcharan Das offers important lessons that are founded on dharma. Dharma, which means virtue or law that guides one while deciding what is morally and ethically right, sets order to every human being. The art guides people through the current economic crisis as it describes a real situation opposed to an ideal one. Dharma appreciates the fact that true happiness is the result of maintaining a certain balance of life and morality.
The balance is achieved when one lives within a certain structure of beliefs that protects the person from acting wrong and gives solutions to the issues of our mind and body (Das par.2). It is, therefore, a practical reference to seek lessons of life and public policy formulation in the case of governance. The story of Draupadi best illustrates the true essence of dharma. Draupadi is queen and wife to Yudhishthira. She questions need to be good in the world where there exists the possibility of seeking wealth at the expense of fairness and goodness. She ponders over why the good is reduced to those on the streets and not given to them as the price of their good deeds. Her husband responds to these questions claiming that it is their responsibility to be good.
His response is based on dharma. According to the king, karma is the produce of good deeds. These deeds restore the balance of dharma in the world in the end. Failure to honor commitments would lead to the collapse of the social order and the governing law (Dharma, 234).
In the face of the recent economic crisis
Dharma laws have been inherently ignored because all the individuals involved made the choice of rationality. In the United States, everyone got the opportunity to get a mortgage at the low interest’s rates. Irrespective of the fact that house prices were at the time rising, it could be a great chance for all the participants to gather lots of return, thus in the event of the collapse of the estate market, all participants are to be blamed. A fine boundary is drawn between self-interest and selfishness in dharma. The economic crisis was caused by people who were not credit worthy receiving loans for which they did not have an ability to pay.
Shareholders were exposed to losses as the financial institutions bought the shaky products (Das par. 7). The financial regulators came into effect too late and upon public persuasion. All parties involved in this crisis were seen pushing for their self-interests. Guided by rationale, the leaders sought to punish the extortionists through taxation of the bonus. Guided by dharma, the authorities would have requested a voluntary return of the bonuses.
The sin of capitalism is greed; therefore, as capitalism grows in a society, it weakens it having a negative influence on it. A society of savers is replaced by one of spendthrifts (Das par. 9). Completion results from the free market. While this kind of competition may be destructive, it is beneficial in stimulating economic growth and human welfare as well in some way. Dharma calls for a needed balance between destructive and constructive competition.
Policy makers should not merely concentrate on the capitalism or communism but put their attention on creating a balanced mix of regulations. Dharma does not advocate for ideal situations but give guidelines for doing only good. It recognizes that man has self-interest to enrich himself, thus dharma gives a coherent guide to these desires in the discipline of ordered existence (Das par. 10).
In conclusion, dharma teaches that man should live with the imperfections of daily living but seek for regulation that identifies the bad ones and rewards those who adhere to dharma by practicing nobility. The book shows the reasons why the Mahabharata is all time classic and considered.
An epic that guides in all matters relating to politics, morality and public policy
The comparison of Simone Weil’s reading of the Iliad in the Iliad or the poem of force.
In her essay, Simone Weil examine the recklessness of a conqueror that has no respect for all the things and people who are at his mercy. She talks of despair in a soldier that leads him to destruction. She writes of the helpless state of the slaves and conquered person. All these elements in her work are combined to create a picture of horror where force is the only main character. Force, according to Simone Weil, means not only physical power or its scientific calculation but the thing that turns somebody who is subjected to force into someone worthwhile. Force is the entity capable of reflective but negative implications on the lives of those it touches.
Heroes resort to force when their rational sensibility is replaced with the need to kill their enemies. This type of force is referred to the one that kills. Weil’s view of the hero who has slain a person as an inevitable consequence of a force has been generated by war. Weils uses Homer’s description of death to juxtapose these with the serenity of a home. Weil alludes that Homer prefers peace to war. This is illustrated in her text at the point she alludes to force as a gross way of inflicting death on someone.
The Iliad is marred with bloodshed where a two hundred and twenty Trojans and Achaeans are killed. A dozen others are divided between the two sides and injured. Homer describes the killings by either giving a detailed description of a killing or approaches this by giving the lists of persons who died as a result of the war. Weil uses the descriptions provided by Homer of the killing taking place in the battlefield to describe her own situations of love as shown in the Iliad.
She concludes that pure love does not exist. Yet it is in those moments of love when the souls are united. She states that that all forms of love, for beloved ones, parents, friends and even the dead, live in the hearts of men. Her view is that the Iliad does not have moments of grace but that lack is sufficient to make the reader regret the killings that are the result of violence.
Homer’s use of grotesque illustrations of decapitation along tender deeds of care is an indicator of his assertion that the illustrations provide a checklist showing the way in which man can be reduced to objects that can be destroyed. Weil’s view on these inductions is that they are based on animal instincts (Dharma 249).
Weil also talks of the peculiar lack in presence. She asserts that anyone, who is not presently in the vicinity, cannot exercise any sought of power over one. This is because people possess a presence that demands to be treated according to a type of living. This is indicative of the human need to be recognized by those around us. The situation between Priam and Achilles calls her to make this conclusion. Hector prefers to be dead instead of witnessing the enslavement of his son and wife. Death would be a better option as opposed to slavery. Weil agrees with Hector’s sentiments that death would be more meaningful than a life as a shell (Dharma 340).
The associations Draupadi in Mahasweta’s story with Draupadi in The Mahabharata?
Draupadi in the Mahabharata is a prominent Hindu woman who displays her character by the deeds in the epic. Draupadi, in this epic, is portrayed showing her individuality, determination for justice, and strength. The woman’s character has become a source of empowerment and a renowned role model of the Hindu woman as a wife and religious woman. She is a prominent heroine in the Mahabharata. She has a magnetic beauty that made her irresistible.
As such, she is glorified by her five husbands, and these lead them to seek vengeance on the Kauravas on her behalf for the embarrassment she faced in their hands. She has human feelings of love, hatred, anger, grief, and happiness though she is viewed as the mother goddess of fire. The completion of her vengeance conforms of her divine nature, thus, transforming her into the goddess of fire worth worshiping by all those who wish to emulate her virtues (Dharma 240).
Draupadi in the Mahasweta is not romanticized. Draupadi, in this story unlike in the Mahabharata, is a palimpsest and a living contradiction. She suffers in the arms of the army officer who degrades her. She is not presented as a historical figure but just like in the Mahabharata, she loves her husband and possesses political faith, which is her way of showing her faithfulness to him.
Works Cited
Das, Gurcharan. “The Dharma of Capitalism: Timely lessons from Indian philosophy.” The Wall Street Journal. 1999. Web.
Dharma, Krishna. Mahabharata:The greatest spiritual epic of all time. New York: Torchlight Publishing 2006, print.