---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Radhakrishnan Nerur Ramanathan Date: Sun, Nov 20, 2016 at 11:30 AM Subject: Re: Positives & negatives of mahabharata characters- a Must Read!
On Sun, Nov 20, 2016 at 9:41 AM, Krishnan.N wrote: > > > > > CULTURAL QA 09-2016-1 > > > > Q What are the 10 things one can learn from all Mahabharata characters? > > Yudhisthira: Even the wisest and best men can have gambling addiction. > Leaders especially have to guard against addiction as it is historically > the biggest cause for their fall. Your addiction not only ruins you, but > also everyone you love. It rips apart families and brings you to > unspeakable humiliation. > > > > Duryodhana: If you want to be an epic villain the #1 quality you need is > jealousy. This quality alone can destroy everything you have. In every > epic, the jealous guys always go through humiliating deaths. Take it easy, > boss. > > > > Karna: Your good deeds will never help you if you choose to keep a bad > company and fail to raise your voice against their injustice. Sidekicks > always die first. Grow some spine, dude. If you see something, say > something. > > > > Draupadi: When you are really awesome, you have be extra cautious against > hubris. Even a moment of arrogance can cost your honour. In the same way, > your good deeds also will come to help you at the right time. Show some > respect, miss. > > > > My note- I have read elsewhere when the Kouravas came to visit the newly > built Indraprastham palace of Pandavas, Droupadi was in charge of showing > Duryodhana the palace. He could not distinguish water and shining floor > areas. When Duryodhana started to be cautious it is water not to skid - it > will be floor. When Duryodhana simply walk thinking floor, it was pond > area. He slipped and fell. Droupadi laughed commenting- BLIND MAN’S SON IS > ALSO BLIND. > > > > Dushasana: When you prey on the weak and the meek, look to humiliate, your > days are numbered. Someone is waiting with vengeance. > > > > Dhritarashtra: The exhibit #1 for bad parenting. He was blind to his > children's faults & follies. He took no effort to correct them and way too > biased towards his own children vs the duty he had. For such a bad parent, > the just desserts was in seeing his dear ones go. > > > > Kunti: The exhibit #2 for bad parenting. You cannot just toss your > unwanted baby and pretend that nothing ever happened. Her Karma and Karna > caught up so was her sin and son. Some day your sins will catch up with > you. Karma is a bitch, ma'am. > > > > Arjuna: Battlefield is not the place for family melodrama. You had a duty > to your people and the society. You cannot give up all those > responsibilities just because you had to fight your uncles and cousins. You > are lucky that you made a great friend in Krishna, in sharp contrast to the > bad company that Karna got. Having good friends can save your life. > > > > Bhimasena: Anger kept you from getting what you deserve. Your elder > brother got all the kingdom and your younger brother got all the girls and > wisdom. What did you get? You could have been nearly killed by > Dhritarashtra after the war. Cool down, bro. > > > > Sahadeva: You are the smartest, wisest, perfect genius who could foresee > everything, but still had to put up with a dumb world that chooses to > commit its mistakes. You are sheer awesomeness, but the world still praises > your brother's big arms. Life is not fair, man. > > There are also some excellent characters like Yuyutsu, Dronacharya, > Kripacharya, Vidura and Bhishma Pitamaha. Some commented that I have > painted only the negative quality of these people. That is only because > they have so many positives. Some positives. > > > > Duryodhana: Value for friendship. Helping a person in need can go a long > way. > > > > Karna: Value for loyalty. Even if is to fight your own brothers and > promised the empire, you don’t give up your friend. And help those in need. > > > > Yudhisthira: Value for humility. He might be the chakravarthi, but he > would still listen to the junior members. > > > > Arjuna: Listening skills. Great people sometimes get tempted to close > their ears. Arjuna was always open to wisdom. > > > > Draupadi: Patience. She was a famed princess and later an empress. > However, she didn’t shirk from serving her spouses in poverty. She never > looked to return back to her father’s prosperity that she could have done > any time. > > > > Kunti: Shrewdness. She lost her husband and raised all the kids of both > herself and her husband’s second wife Madri without fault. She never saw > any difference in them. She raised these 5 boys to society’s excellence. > > > > Sahadeva. Be super awesome. Never give up your integrity even if God asks > you so. He was a perfect karma yogi - never was touched by the pressures to > win. > > > > Bhimasena. Staying off jealousy. Bhima’s brothers were often better > treated than he was. Yudhisthira and Arjuna were way more respected than he > was [the perils of being a middle child], but he showed no indications of > jealousy. That is a massive quality. > > > > Bhishma. Always stay true to your vows. Don’t promise something you cannot > keep up. The pitamaha was a master of vows and word. > > > > Yuyutsu. The elder son of Dhritarashtra was ill-treated his whole life > [for being born to a low caste woman] by the Kauravas. He was a scholar and > found respect in Yudhisthira. Like Vibhishana in Ramayana, Yuyutsu mutinied > and joined the other side. At the end of his term, Yudhisthira passed on > his empire to Yuyutsu [who later passed on to Arjuna’s grandson - Parikshit > Maharaja]. As Yuyutsu’s story shows, there is some justice after all - if > you stand up against injustice. And, at last to please everyone let me add > the Paramatma too. > > > > Krishna: Hack your way out of trouble. Victories don’t come merely by > linear and simplistic thinking. Like a startup founder, Krishna worked > around the rules. Let me give you an example. > > > > Duryodhana asked the counsel of Sahadeva to decide the DAY OF SACRIFICE > BEFORE THE WAR. Deciding that day will provide a strategic advantage in the > war. Sahadeva was so known for integrity and scholarship that even opposite > side came to him for this critical advice. Krishan asked Sahadeva to either > decline or provide wrong advice, but Sahadeva decline to mess with his > professional integrity and chose the day of new moon [Amavasya]. > > > > As a hacker, Krishna simply worked around this. He went to the nearby > river the day before new moon and started doing the tharpanam [sacrifice]. > Seeing Krishna Himself do this activity normally done on the new-moon day, > everyone else assumed that they wrongly calculated that date and everyone > [including Duryodhana] advanced their new-moon date by 1 day. Making > Duryodhana do the sacrifice on the wrong day provided a key strategic > advantage to Krishna. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
