Episode 43

Lord Siva’s blessings – Arjuna attaining Pāśupatāstra [i]

The ballad of Kirātārjunīyaṃ is very famous and popular in all parts of India. Poets like Bhāravi further popularized this story. The theme revolves around Arjuna propitiating the Lord Siva and obtaining Pāśupatāstra. The story talks of the importance of yoga and tapas for a determined human being in attaining the heights of success.

The story demonstrates that Arjuna has reached his pinnacle of perfection in yoga which made him receptable to the powerful manta PRATISMRUTI and later the invincible Pāśupatāstra. We also see in this story the description of various powerful astras and the four prominent things– mantra, dhyāna, japam and homam which are required for a warrior to make use of them with dexterity.

The story has a passing reference for the preservation of ecological balance, environmental sensitivity and the need of sustainable development.

The Story

In the last episode we have seen the clash of ideas among Dharmaraja, Bhima and Draupadi over the issue of immediate aggression against Kauravas. We have also seen how Dharmaraja convinced both with his arguments.

Dharmaraja had a nagging fear to face great warriors like Bhishma, Drona, Aswarthama, Karna and other warriors who were all in the camp of Duryodhana and arrayed against Pandavas. Veda Vyasa understood the worries of Yudhishtira and reached Pandavas in Dwaita vanam. He took Yudhishtira aside and told, ‘My dear Yudhishtir! I can understand your genuine worries. To obviate your worries, I propose to bless with you a powerful mantra – ‘PRATISMRUTI’ which is imbedded with supernatural powers’.

‘Your brother Arjuna is none other than Nara Maharshi in his previous birth and did penance with Narayana for thousands of years. The power of the penance has made him an invincible warrior in this birth. By attaining PRATISMRUTI, he will have the blessings of all gods and he can subdue the Kauravas in the battlefield’. Saying thus, Vyasa initiated the mantra in the ears of Yudhishtira. Then he advised Yudhishtira to leave Dwaita vanam immediately to any other place. ‘If you stay in this forest for too long, you may be unknowingly disturbing the rishis dwelling in this forest and disturbing the eco system of the forest’. Then Vyasa disappeared.

Pandavas took the advice of Vyasa and left for Kamyaka vanam once again. One day he called Arjuna to a secluded place and told, ‘My dear Arjun! As you know the entire Dhanurveda is in the hands of Bhishma, Drona, Kripa, Karna and Aswarthama. Without the blessings of gods, it may be difficult for us to face them in the battlefield. Veda Vyasa was kind enough to bless a secret mantra and I propose to initiate it to you. By imbibing it with steadfastness and by chanting it with devotion, you can able to reach the gods with ease’.

Then Yudhishtir initiated the mantra with full command on the mind, senses and talk to Arjuna who was already prepared for consecration’ (दीक्षितं विधिनानेन धृतवाक्कायमानसम्)[ii]. ‘Let all good happen to you. Let your desires be fulfilled’ proclaimed all siddhas and the invisible celestial beings in one voice. Draupadi saw her husband with all affection and told, ‘let all gods be with you. I always remember the humiliation meted out to us after the game of dice. Now everyone of us are reposing faith in your steadfastness and strength. I wish you attain all divine weapons and save all of us from adversities. I pray for your safe return’. 

Arjuna’s journey towards Himalayas

Arjuna took leave from his brothers, saluted the purohit, Dhaumya and set out to reach the Himalayas.

तस्य मार्गादपाक्रामन् सर्व भूतानि गच्छतः |

युक्तस्त्यैन्द्रेण योगेन पराक्रान्तस्य शुष्मिणः ||[iii] –- meaning- since the yogic PRATISMUTI was guiding his destiny, he was in yogic mode and all living and non-living beings were giving him the way.

Due to the supernatural powers, he reached Himalayas in a single day and moved towards Indrakeeladri mountain. There he saw a Brahmin with resplendent aura sitting in a cave. The Brahmin called aloud, ‘Dear son, why are you roaming here with all arms and armory? This is a place for sages. You drop down your weapons’. But Arjuna did not relent and did not throw the arrows aside. The Brahmin disappeared and Indra was standing before him. Arjuna was very happy and prostrated before Indra and asked him to bless weapons. Indra smiled and told, ‘Having reached this place, why do you require weapons? I can bless you the heaven and higher abodes. But Arjuna insisted of new astra (missiles) in his armory’. Then Indra suggested that Arjuna should do penance for Siva to attain his desire.

Arjuna’s penance – Siva’s appearance

With the blessings of Lord Indra, Arjuna entered a dense forest and started a great tapas. Initially he was taking only fruits and slowly he started discarding fruits, switched to the dry leaves and after third month lived on air (vāyu bhakṣaṇa). All rishis of the place were amazed at the firm determination of Arjuna and approached Lord Siva. They requested him to bless Arjuna.

Lord Siva wanted to test the determination and the might of Arjuna. He adorned the attire of a kirāta (a hunter) and accompanied by his wife in the same attire reached the spot where Arjuna was doing penance.

There Arjuna saw a demon (asura) by name Muka fast approaching towards him in the guise of a pig. His intention was to kill Arjuna. Arjuna immediately took out a sharp arrow and shot at the pig. Surprisingly at the same time the kirāta also shot at the pig. The demon instantaneously died. With a smiling face Arjuna asked the kirāta why he was wandering in the dense forest without any fear with a lady. He further asked, ‘I aimed this demon first then why did you shot at it? Do you want to insult me? In that case I will not leave you. You have not followed the dharma ordained for hunting’.

Then there was a war of words between Arjuna and kirāta that the demon died by the respective individual arrows. The war of words escalated to war of arrows. Both fought and fought and Arjuna was surprised why his arrows could not do any harm to kirāta. In no time he found his armory become empty. He jumped at Siva and started beading with the bow. Then he started beating Siva with huge stones and plucked trees. But the kirāta stood to the ground and Arjuna swooned for a while. Soon he recovered, looked at the kirāta and started thinking who this kirāta was.

Then Arjuna sat on the ground and molded a Siva Linga with the mud around and performed puja with a flower garland. Soon the garland disappeared and adorned the neck of kirāta. Arjuna realized that he was none other than Siva and immediately fell on the feet of Siva.

‘‘समं तेजश्च वीर्यञ्च ममाद्य तव चानघ [iv]- (In strength and resplendence both of us are equal). ‘I bless the divine vision by which you can now see the gods and see the glory of your previous birth. I am pleased to present a divine astra – पाशुपतास्त्र (pāśupatāstra) and with this anyone upon earth can be killed. It can be shot with mind, looks, talk or by the bow. This cannot be used for killing inferior warriors’ Then Siva initiated the mantra for shooting as well as withdrawing the astra and embraced Arjuna. Arjuna was delighted by the divine touch and felt that he was an accomplished person.

Once Siva left, all other gods including Indra, Varuna, Kubera and Yama appeared before Arjuna and blessed him with divine weapons. They advised him to lighten the burden of the earth by destroying adharmic and cruel persons. Arjuna accepted all the celestial astras with utmost humility and bowed to the gods.

Understanding the story

PRATISMRUTI mantra was initiated to Arjuna by Dharmaraja. How was it given? With full command over manasā vācā karmaṇā (धृतवाक्कायमानसम्) – what you think, what you preach and what you practice should be on same wavelength.  It is also called ‘samatvam’. In this story Veda Vyasa is seen imparting the mantra to Dharmaraja and it means that Dharmaraja was always on the samatva mode. He, in turn, prepared Arjuna to yogic mode to become eligible to receive the mantra.

Yoga has different meanings. In common parlance it means coming together of two things. Dhana yogam signifies attaining wealth. Vidyā yogam signifies becoming intelligent with education. It is attaining something by someone. In his magnum opus Aṣṭāṃga yoga, Patanjali defines yoga as yogaḥ citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ (योगः चित्त वृत्ति निरोधः) which means controlling the wavering thoughts of the mind is yoga. It can mean ekāgrata (एकाग्रता)- steadfastness on single object. Gita defines yoga in two ways- samatvam yoga mucyate (समत्वं योगमुच्यते) – samatvam is yoga; and yogaḥ karmasu kauśalaṃ (योगः कर्मसु कौशलं) – dexterity in action is yoga.  

Taking all the definitions, yoga is something represented as triangle with three sides represented by control over the mind, equanimity of thoughts, and dexterity in action. When the initiator and the initiated are in this yoga mode, the imparting of mantra is possible. The story demonstrates that Arjuna has reached his pinnacle of perfection in yoga which made him receptable to the powerful manta PRATISMRUTI. The story also demonstrates the unwavering determination of Arjuna when he refused higher abodes of heavens and persuaded the gods including Indra and Siva to bestow powerful weapons only. When Indra, in the guise of Brahmin, asked him to drop down the weapons, Arjuna just smiled and did not drop the bow and arrows.

The message of the story is that if we want to achieve something great in life, what is required is yoga in terms of control over the mind, equanimity of thoughts, and dexterity in action.

The second important aspect of the story is the importance of tapas (penance) with control over the mind. Indra advises Arjuna to get the blessings of Siva with tapas and yoga. In Ramayana we come across the episode of Parvati’s marriage with Siva. There we see Siva just ignoring the beauty of Parvati. Parvati realized her lapse and resorted to tapas and Siva was won over by her. Valmiki describes this as तपो द्रव्येण क्रीतः (tapo dravyeṇa krītaḥ) which means Siva was purchased by the wealth of tapas. The current story emphatically says that one can attain god by yoga and tapas. Here we need to understand the eight limbs of yoga described by Patanjali

a. Yama – five self-restraints like non-violence, truth, honesty, continence and non-possession.

b. Niyama – five things that should be done like cleanliness, contentment, study of vedas, tapas and ultimate surrender to Supreme Reality

c. āsana – means performing yogic postures

c. Prāṇāyāma – Prāṇā denotes vital force and Yama denotes restraint or control. Control of vital force through breathing is Prāṇāyāma

d. Pratyāhāra – withdrawal of senses from external environment.

e. Dhyāna – meditation

f. Dhāraṇa - extreme concentration on a single object and

g. Samādhi - It is a state wherein the subject, object and the process become one.

Arjuna in this story is expected to be on this kind of yogic mode and perform tapas and that is what he did. It is no wonder that he was blessed by Siva with pāśupatāstra.

The third aspect of the story is about astras. Siva blesses pāśupatāstra; Varuna blesses Vāruṇāstra and Kubera blesses kuberāstra and different other gods bless different other weapons. It is written in many places of Maha Bharata that hurling any of these arrows will produce lot of energy accompanied by heat, light, innumerable arrows and fire. These are akin to modern nuclear and biological weapons. Modern rationalists may dismiss these weapons as figment of imagination but there is no doubt that the imagination is worth understanding. For hurling these astras four things are prominent – mantra, dhyāna, japam and homam. The hurling also involves saṃdhānaṃ (aiming with perfection), mokṣaṇaṃ (dexterity) and upa saṃhāraṃ (withdrawing the weapon when required). Again, for all this mind should be in yogic mode (control of mind, senses etc).

In summary, we can see the importance given to yoga and tapas in Maha Bharata for attaining greater objectives.

Lastly, we see Ved Vyasa advising Pandavas not to stay in one place continuously so as not to disturb the rishis and the eco system. This is worth taken note by the readers since our ancestors gave prominence to ecology and environment and always supported sustainable development.

Points to ponder

1. What is yoga and what is tapas? How are they important in attaining spiritual and temporal glory?
2. Discuss the eight limbs of Astanga Yoga discussed by Patanjali.
3. When can a mantra can be initiated? When can a disciple becomes receptible for mantra?
4. Do you think that our ancient rishis were concerned with ecological balance and sustainability? Justify.

Footnotes

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[i] This story is taken from Vana Parva of Maha Bharata written by sage Ved Vyasa.

[ii] dīkṣitaṃ vidhinānena dhṛtavākkāyamānasam  - Vana Parva 37.17

[iii] tasya mārgādapākrāman sarva bhūtāni gacchataḥ |

yuktastyaindreṇa yogena parākrāntasya śuṣmiṇaḥ ||  -Vana Parva 37.38

[iv] samaṃ tejaśca vīryañca mamādya tava cānagha - Vana Parva 39.69

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Episode 42

Dharma or Karma? Argumentative Draupadi and Ethical Stoicism of Dharmaraja[i]

This is one of the beautiful episodes of Maha Bharata discussing the subtle issues of dharma and karma yoga. It discusses the importance of dharma based on Truth vis-à-vis svadharma of Kshatriyas based on aggression. The story demonstrates the tradition of public debate, democratic dissent and intellectual pluralism of Indian society since immemorial.

The story also discusses the issues relating to ‘karma yoga’, ‘karma samnyasa yoga’ and grihasta dharma. The purpose of these types of stories in Vana Parva is intended to make the minds of Pandavas pure and attain perfection in the midst of adversities.

The Story

In the last episode we saw the Pandavas moving further west and reaching Dwaita Vanam. It was their thirteenth month of exile and the arduous itenary had sapped their energy and mental vitality. Though surrounded by rishis and sages, internally their minds were agitating. Unexpectedly they saw Markadeya Maharshi approaching the forest. Pandavas received him with all courtesy. Dharrmaraja asked, ‘Oh sage! We are honored by your gracious visit to our place. But I found you happily smiling though we are in distress. Can I know the reason?’

Markandeya’s Advice

Markandeya again smiled and told, ‘Hi, Yudhishtir! I am neither happy nor unhappy. On seeing you I just recollected Lord Rama who was wandering in the forests like you for the sake of dharma. Though a powerful person, he displayed extraordinary equipoise and gave preference to dharma. Oh! Yudhishtir, when adversities stare at us, we tend to deviate dharmic path. I advise one thing to you – just because you are powerful, you should not tread on unrighteous path (नेशे बलस्येति चरेदधर्मम्)[ii] You get back your wealth and kingdom after this arduous vanavasa (dwelling in forests) and ajnatavasa (dwelling incognito) periods by following dharma’. Then Markandeya left the place.

Bakadbala’s opinion on the power of the Brahmins

Dwaita Vanam was the abode of sages and Rishis. There one could hear the eternal chanting of Vedas and its reverberations. One day a great sage Bakadbala came to see Dharmaraja and other Pandavas. He was advising Dharmaraja, ‘Hi Yudhishtir! When Kshatriyas mingle with Brahmins, it will prove to be a deadly alliance capable enough to destroy any power on earth. A king should have a dharmic and delusion-free Brahmin (विनीत धर्मार्थमपेत मोहं) [iii] on his side to destroy his enemies. The very kingdom prostrates before a Kshatriya who has on his side a Brahmin with Brahma Jnana. You cultivate proximity with such person for your own prospects’. Dharmaraja nodded his head with great veneration and thereafter wards the sage left the place.

Agony of Draupadi and her arguments

Pandavas got accustomed to the life of forest dwelling. Internally the mental agony was destroying the peace of mind. The great kingdom which was built with fret and sweat was snatched away by the inferior cousins. Draupadi could not tolerate the agony. One day she approached Dharmaraja when he was sitting with his brothers. ‘Oh King! The Kauravas have humiliated us to the core and exiled us to the forests. The glory that we enjoyed has faded into history and we are made to wear torn cloths and eat the roots and fruits’.

‘All your brothers are warriors par excellence, but they are destined to waste their vitalities in the woods. They are waiting for your orders to see the end of our enemies. But you keep silent, you don’t have an iota of anger and still forgiving the enemies. I was born in the family of Drupada, became daughter-in-law of the great Pandu Maharaj, brought up as sister of powerful Drishtadyumna, and now a vira patni (lady with valiant husbands). I am in these forests. Still you are forgiving enemies’.

न निर्मन्युः क्षत्रियोsस्ति लोके निर्वचनं स्मृतम्- [iv]- In this world there is no Kshatriya who is anger-free. The person who subdues enemies is Kshatriya. But you are the only Kshatriya who has become an exception. Oh king! If you do not show valor, people shall rate you an inferior person. I shall tell you a story of Prahlada and his grand son Bali’.

Prahlada – Bali saṃvādaṃ

Once upon a time the illustrious grand son of Prahlada, king Bali approached his grandfather and asked which among the two is helpful to humanity– aggressive valor (parākrama) or absolute forgiving (kṣamā).

‘Oh my dear grand-son, listen. If a person exhibits too much patience and ever forgiving, even his servants insult him. Enemies do not care him. The servants make use of his chair, bed, ornaments and other items. Neighbors try to covet his wife and his wife also behaves licentiously. It is akin to sin of omission. Then a man of aggressive valor exhibits anger and many times isolates his own friends. Good people hate him. A person of anger is hated at and loses his wealth and friends desert him’.

Prahlada continued, ‘Hi, Bali! So, one should not absolutely abandon anger as well as forgiveness. The art of ruling the kingdom is to use both. You should have patience and forgiveness and yet the anger and punishing behind the façade of forgiveness. I shall tell you when you should not lose patience. A person who did well earlier should be forgiven for his current mistake (Vana Parva 28.26). If a person does mistake out of ignorance should be forgiven. But you should not forgive a person who does mistake intentionally and later tries to disown it.

Drupadi continued, ‘Hi! Maharaj, Kauravas have tried to kill us many times and they deserve to be punished immediately. I feel this is the time we should defeat them and win over our kingdom’. 

Yudhishtira praises Forgiveness and blames the Anger

Yudhishitira did not like the ideas and reasoning of Draupadi. ‘Hi, Draupadi! How can I be angry with Kauravas? Anger is the root cause for the downfall of a man. A man of anger does not hesitate to kill his own teacher or does not hesitate to insult the elders.

तस्माद्बलवता चैव दुर्बलेन च नित्यदा |

क्षन्तव्यम् पुरुषेणाहु: आपत्स्यपि विजानता || [v] – a wise man whether weak or strong has to exhibit patience even in difficulties.

The man who controls the anger that is sprouted from the mind is defined as ‘tejasvi’ by the intelligent people. Only fools equate anger with virtue but never by the wise. The man of anger believes in blood for blood; and hence will not allow peace to get established in the world.

क्षमा धर्मः क्षमा यज्ञः क्षमा वेदा: क्षमा श्रुतम् |

य एतदेवं जानाति स सर्वं क्षन्तुमर्हति || [vi]

It means- Patience is dharma; patience is yagna; patience is Veda; patience is śāstraṃ and the one who knows this can forgive anything and anybody.

Draupadi’s counter argument and reply by Yudhishtir

Draupadi was quite agitative. ‘Oh king! A big salutation to you and your dharma. In this world no one gains wealth by dharma, patience or by soft nature[vii]. For the sake of dharma, you are prepared to forgo all of us. You have been performing all dharmic activities even in these forests. But what use? People tell - if we protect dharma, it will protect us (धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः - dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ). But, look at the Kauravas. They are rolling in luxury despite being unrighteous. We are adhering to dharma and are rolling in penury and suffering.  The fate is ordained to be cruel for us and benevolent for Kauravas. The god is to be blamed’. At this stage she started weeping.

The other name of Dharmaraja is Yudhishtira which means one who remains steadfast in battlefield. Dharmaraja was steadfast even in the battle of ‘war of words and ideas’ He started telling, ‘My dear Draupadi! You have spoken intelligently but listen to me. I have been doing grihasta dharma (actions related and intended to household person) as that is required to be done by a grihasta. I am not bothered by the fruits of action.

धर्म वाणिज्य को हीनः जघन्यो धर्म वादिनाम् [viii] – If anyone does dharmic acts anticipating the results out of those acts, he is doing business with dharma.

Blaming the god just because results are not in our favor amounts foolishness. The results that we get out of good deeds are the divine secret and people blame god by seeing the immediate results. Let your doubts vanish into thin air. You believe me and listen to me’.

Draupadi’s counter arguments – Encouragement for aggression

Draupadi listened to the arguments of Yudhishtir and then started telling. ‘Maharaj! I am not denigrating dharma; or karmas (activities) ordained by dharma. But I can tell you that one should indulge in karma to enhance and protect one’s own wealth. A person who relies on the belief that what is ordained by god is sure to become a fool. A man is praised when he is owning the karma (activity). One should not purely rely on god and one should do one’s own efforts to attain the heights of glory.

Draupadi continued, ‘Maharaj, please listen to the niti which I had heard long back from a sage sitting in the lap of my father. A man of action should use his wit, wisdom and strength and depending on the circumstances use aggression to gain his wealth. One should always pray for a trouble to befall on the enemy; and when the enemy is weak one should strike him’.

Arguments of Bhimasena

Bhima was patiently listening to the arguments. He came forwarded and started blaming Yudhishitar for all the maladies. ‘Why should we suffer for the sake of dharma forgetting the fruits emanated out of kama and dharma? Our wealth has been snatched stealthily by Kauravas. Let us do the karma ordained for Kshatriyas (swa-dharma) and defeat the enemies by aggression; and there is no sin when we follow svadharma. There is no use chanting the word ‘dharma’ and live a life of a eunuch. 

Hi, Yudhishtir, by force of circumstances you had agreed for thirteen years of exile by which time we lose our energy and vitality and we will be approaching nearer and nearer to death. You have been forgiving those who are cruel and deceptive. You are talking as if you are not born in Kshatriya race and chanting dharma like a Brahmin. Further we have completed thirteen months of exile so far. परिमाणेन तान् पश्य तावतः परिवत्सरान्- [ix] a month represents a year (यो मासः स संवत्सरः -as per Veda) and so thirteen months can be counted as thirteen years. So, you decide and embark upon the course of aggression.

Yudhishtira’s steadfastness

The arguments of Draupadi and Bhima hurt the tender mind of Dharmaraja. ‘Dear brother, I don’t blame you for your reasoning. It is true that you are all suffering because of me. But one thing you understand- when the second game of dice was about to start, Duryodhana stipulated the condition of vanavasa (exile to forests) and agnata vasa (exile incognito) and I said yes. We lost the bet and thus we lost our wealth. Why did you not prevent the game before I gave my consent to the conditions of the game? When we have taken a pledge and accepted vanavasa, it is incumbent upon us to adhere to the words. We cannot deviate the path of Truth for the sake of wealth. We need to wait for the good days to come just as a farmer waits for the harvest after sowing the seeds.  I firmly believe that I have more interest in eternal dharma than in Moksha (Vana Parva 34.22).

Understanding the Episode

This is exactly not a story, but it has lot of arguments and counter arguments on the nature of karma yoga and it also discusses the importance of dharma based on Truth vis-à-vis svadharma of Kshatriyas based on aggression.

There is subtle difference between ‘swa-dharma’ and ‘eternal dharma’. Swa-dharma connotes actions according to one’s own nature or according to one’s own setting in the social hierarchy of varnasrama dharma. For example, a true Brahmin’s swa-dharma is adhyayana (reading of vedas) and adhyāpana (teaching) among many other things. A Kshatriya is supposed to protect the weak and punish the cruel people. But the swa-dharma is tempered by eternal dharma which stands for truth, honesty, trust worthiness, non-violence and the like.

In the story, both Bhima and Draupadi are seen advocating swa-dharma of Kshatriyas and they have goaded Dharmaraja to take the path of aggression. For Dharmaraja, the eternal dharma is more important than swa-dharma. He has taken a pledge in the court of Duryodhana that he would go for thirteen years of exile upon losing the game; and he does not want to transgress his own words and violate the principles of ‘satyam vada and dharmam cara’.

One more aspect of the story is that the entire arguments (saṃvādaṃ) illustrates the tradition of public debate, democratic dissent and intellectual pluralism of Indian society. The fact that Draupadi effectively argues with Yudhishtir speaks volumes of the status women enjoyed in those days. Women empowerment which is the buzz word of today was being respected literally in ancient India as we see Draupadi arguing with her husband and put forth her thoughts without any fear.

Another important aspect was that Draupadi had learnt the theory of Karma Yoga and Raj niti sitting in the lap of her father. It shows the liberal attitude of the society of those days in imparting education to girls.

The argumentative nature of Indian mind has been further illustrated by the arguments of Bhima invoking ‘sruthi’ literature. He advocated aggression equating thirteen months of exile with thirteen years of exile. The entire narrative of the episode was to establish the truth through discourse. Ideas are sought to be fought with better ideas. The battle lies not in confronting but in convincing and suggesting a practicable alternative. The tradition of discourse of Maha Bharata has been pervading over centuries on this land of Bharata.

What is the importance of Markandeya’s visit to Pandavas? He advised Yudhishtir on the path of dharma without bothering the fruits of actions. Dharmaraja adhered to the principle throughout his life. In one of the places Dharmaraja was telling that the results of dharmic deeds are divine secrets; and blaming gods for individual agonies is foolish. The idea is that one should not use aggression just because one has might. Perhaps the entry of Dharmaraja to heaven and the denial of entry to other Pandavas at the end of Maha Bharata was due to the divine secrets with regard to dharma that were not understood by other Pandavas.

The story also discusses the issues relating to ‘karma yoga’, ‘karma samnyasa yoga’ and grihasta dharma. The purpose of these types of stories in Vana Parva is intended to make the minds of Pandavas pure and attain perfection in the midst of adversities. 

Points to ponder

1. What is the swa dharma prescribed for four varnas in Hindu philosophy of thought?
2. Which is superior- swa-dharma or parama-dharma? Why?
3. Amrtyasen, the Noble Laurate contends that the tradition of argument is imbedded in Indian society (see his book, Argumentative Indian). Discuss.
4. When Bakadbala extols the importance of a Brahmin minister, does he referring to ‘Brahmin by birth’ or ‘Brahmin by virtue’ (guna)?

Footnotes

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[i] This story is taken from Vana Parva of Maha Bharata written by sage Ved Vyasa.

[ii] neśe balasyeti caredadharmam - Vana Parva 25.11

[iii] vinīta dharmārthamapeta mohaṃ - Vana Parva 26.11

[iv] na nirmanyuḥ kṣatriyossti loke  nirvacanaṃ smṛtam - Vana Parva 27.36

[v] tasmādbalavatā caiva durbalena ca nityadā |

kṣantavyam puruṣeṇāhu: āpatsyapi vijānatā - Vana Parva 29.13

[vi] kṣamā dharmaḥ kṣamā yajñaḥ kṣamā vedā: kṣamā śrutam |

ya etadevaṃ jānāti sa sarvaṃ kṣantumarhati ||- Vana Parva 29.36

[vii] Vana Parva 30- 2,3

[viii] dharma vāṇijya ko hīnaḥ jaghanyo dharma vādinām - Vana Parva 31.5

[ix] parimāṇena tān paśya tāvataḥ parivatsarān- Vana Parva 36.32

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