Did Mahabharat really happen?

Many times I see people arguing about whether some events from some epic books really happened or not, especially from scriptures like Mahabharat, Ramayan, Bible, etc. Normally these arguments are really passionate and heated because many people are really emotional about these things, with both sides trying to make their points furiously very often without any reliable evidence. I find this a totally unnecessary ordeal, a total waste of time unless its whole purpose is to do a time pass. I often wonder why people waste their time arguing about whether stories or incidents mentioned in these books really happened or not? Why does it matter to them? What will they gain or achieve if they prove or disprove that these incidents really happened? I read many of the stories mentioned in these books but I read them like any other book. It's not at all important whether these stories or incidents are real or not. If they teach me something useful they are relevant to me, I am totally fine even if it's a work of fiction. If they don't teach me anything useful or relevant then I just read them for the sake of entertainment, whether they really happened or not is not at all relevant to me. 

History is documented for many reasons, one of them is to have it stored for future generations so that they can get some clue from past incidents and learn relevant lessons which will help them not to repeat the same mistakes again. But many of these scriptures are not history but they are classified under mythology or theology and that's why I think it's a waste of time to discuss whether they are fiction or non-fiction, whether they really happened or not. I like many characters from these epics. I relate to many of them, for me it's really insignificant whether they really lived in flesh and blood on this planet or not, even if they didn't then also it doesn't reduce my attachment or affection for them even a little bit. The message that the authors of these books wanted to deliver is the most important thing for me. I take whatever is relevant for me and leave the rest, I don't get into unnecessary technical details like how humans flew without airplanes, how the bird or snake spoke, and how a person became alive again after being killed. These all are semi-fiction stories written long back over a long period, the main purpose was to educate and entertain people at the same time. Some of them are so old that it's very difficult even to find out who wrote them, but they all have something useful in them that's why people still read them. But when people try to enforce these books as a rule book for everyone, there is a problem, there is a conflict and unnecessary tension. I am against this practice. Many of these books no matter how good, were written thousands of years ago and many things mentioned in them are no longer relevant, some of the things are outdated. Even many scientific papers published in journals many years back are no longer relevant anymore, some of them are even proven to be wrong. These books are the same, they can be used as literature but they are not rule books or science journals so to follow them or to expect others to follow them blindly is absurd, wrong, and unreasonable.

So let's not worry or argue about the technical details of these books. Read them as ancient literature. There might be many technical glitches in them but that should not be a deterrent for anyone to read them. These books are treasures from the past, they actually don't belong to any particular religion or sects but belong to all humanity. Linking them to any particular religion or sect limits their use and is a gross injustice to their potential. The story of Mahabharat is one of my all-time favorite stories, all the characters in this are so human that anyone can relate to them that's the reason I like it more than any other story. Stories and characters from these books have inspired me during various stages of my life and they still continue to do so. I love Mahabharat stories, some biblical stories, and some concepts from the Quran. Let's not worry about the technical details of these stories, let's try to catch the real essence of them, this will be a great tribute to all those authors and the real use of all these books.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. 5000 year old Viamana craft was found in Afghanistan
2. Were Our Ancient Ancestors Scientifically Advanced?

गीता अर्जुन को ही क्यों बताई गयी?

कुरुक्षेत्र मे मौजूद तमाम लोगों के बिच श्रीकृष्ण ने गिता बताने के लिए अर्जुन ही क्यों चुना? वहां पर कई वीर और विद्वान मौजूद थे तो अर्जुन ही क्यों?...

You tube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZIpEs4RXdE&feature=plcp

Bhishma - The grand old man of Mahabharat

As I mentioned many times in my posts, Mahabharat is a very interesting story and I love all of its characters because I can relate to them very easily at various stages of my own life. Bhishma is one of the powerful and very important characters of this epic. I think he is the one who is present for most of the story of Kaurav and Pandav. His physical presence is the longest in the epic and he is considered as the grand old man of the family. But for me, his life looks like a big tragedy, full of contradictions and useless sacrifices. He made great sacrifices for his father, step-brothers, grandkids, and his family in general but most of them created many problems for him and his family. Even though the intentions behind all his actions were noble and honest most of them created tough situations and complicated his life even more.

Bhishma was the son of Ganga and Shantanu. Ganga takes a unique promise from Shantanu before marrying him that he won't oppose any of her actions even if he finds them wrong or unethical and the day he will question her she will leave him. She drowned their first seven kids into the river and Shantanu didn't say anything, but he couldn't stop himself at the time when Ganga was about to drown the eighth one and tried to stop her. He saved the kid and that was Bhishma or Devavrat but lost his wife. Ganga left Shantanu with Devavrat. He returned to his father as a well-trained young boy expert in martial arts, weapons, and politics. Devavrat's life takes a unique turn when his father falls in love with a fisherwoman (Satyavati) and desperately wants to marry her. That woman's father didn't agree to marriage and to solve this problem Devavrat stepped in. The major concern of Satyavati's father was that his grandkids (Satyavati's sons) wouldn't get to become king because Devavrat was the eldest son of Shantanu. To clear this confusion, Devavrat forfeited his claim to the throne. However, Satyavati's father was also concerned that Devavrat's kids might fight with his grandsons for the kingdom and to eliminate this possibility Devavrat took a vow of lifelong celibacy. To reward him for this great sacrifice his father gave him the boon of 'swechha mrityu' (that is control over his own death, he can choose the time of his death). From here his problems begin, he vowed not to have his own family but vowed to take care of his father's family and this kept him engaged throughout his life. His father died, and his brothers died but he remained there, to fulfill his vows. He became the slave of his own vows because of them many problems were created in his life and he suffered a lot.

Bishma's life was filled with many twists and turns, he didn't get married himself but had to bring brides for his step-brothers and their kids in that process even got cursed by Amba which ultimately became the reason for his death. He tried his best to stop the Kurukshetra war and didn't give up even after the war started. For the first ten days of the war, almost nothing special happened as long as Bhishma was commander-in-chief of the Kuru army. He thought that Duryodhan would realize his mistake and stop the war but his all attempts failed and the war continued against his wish. He had to watch the destruction of his own family and kingdom in front of his own eyes. He couldn't stop Draupadi's insult despite being the eldest member of the family. Many of his decisions which he thought were in the best interest of his family (most of which he took hastily or in a rage of emotions) like his vow of celibacy caused troubles for him and his future generations.

From the beginning Bhishma's life was marred by troubles and uncertainties, his mother wanted to kill him immediately after his birth but his father saved his life and since then his life has been a roller coaster ride. Bhishma's life and character are a unique example of a person who with all his talent and capabilities failed to create any positive impact. He didn't even die without pain, he was on a bed of arrows for several days before his death, one can imagine how painful that would have been. Even the boon of swechha mrityu proved to be a curse for him. What he achieved by taking his vows and fulfilling them is also a big question. He is a unique person who even with all his powers and talent felt helpless in most of the situations, but one of the good qualities in him was he never gave up. It's not easy to carry on with our duties and efforts when every time our actions backfire on us and result in something else than what we expected. Bhishma's actions and sacrifices didn't produce the desired result but still, he didn't lose hope. We all feel something like this at some point in our lives and his character teaches us never to give up. Bhishma never gave up his duties and tasks no matter what difficulties he faced. I think we all can learn this lesson from him.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)  

How Authentic Are the Scriptures?

Many people ask this question, and there are various theories and opinions about this topic. All scriptures are very old books, some going back thousands of years; we don't even know when they were compiled for the first time. I think it's a waste of time to argue about their authenticity; we don't have enough data about it. I think whatever scriptures we have are very useful and are full of knowledge and lessons about life (the Bible, Qur'an, Guru Granth Sahib, the Gita, the Upanishads, and many more). They cover almost every aspect of life, and discussions in them cover topics about most of the problems we face in day-to-day life, and also offer possible solutions. Most of the time, the messages in these scriptures are delivered through many stories with a lot of interesting characters and themes. It's very easy to deliver a complicated message via an interesting story; people understand it in a much better way and also remember the message because of that story. Our ancestors realized it, and that's why most of these books contain a lot of interesting stories. We still use this technique of storytelling to teach our kids; we tell them a lot of bedtime stories that have some lesson embedded in them, the same way these scriptures try to convey their message to us.

People debate whether the incidents mentioned in the scriptures really happened or not. Is this debate going to make their content better or worse? These books are the source of knowledge, and if we don’t want to take any lessons from them, then it's better to just ignore them. These things (scriptures from all religions) are gifts to us from our ancestors, and we must value them. One can definitely raise questions and argue about the theories and philosophies mentioned in them. It's necessary to validate and test any information we receive; we should not believe anything blindly. This process of analysis will surely help us to realize how wonderful these texts are; they teach us so much, but only if we are willing to learn. Mostly, these scriptures are concerned with spiritual knowledge; some of them do talk about many scientific things but mostly they are about spirituality and the meaning or aim of human life. If someone is not interested in things discussed in these books, they are useless for them, and it's a simple fact to understand for both those who believe in them as well as those who don't believe. It’s as if you are not interested in movies or engineering or chemistry, then anything related to that subject will not appeal to you, or rather will sound very boring and complicated, and it’s quite natural to feel like this, nothing wrong in it.

All these books have been there for centuries, and there are also different versions of them. As these books are very old, there are some doubts about the authenticity of their contents, and many of these questions are reasonable. There are also many theories about who wrote these books, whether the original contents were modified or not, and if modified, then to what extent. I think all these questions are interesting from a historical perspective and archeological research; there is a lot of research done in this area. The results of that research are very interesting and are published in various journals and books. Naturally, not all devotees agree with these findings, as it hurts their feelings, and also many think that, as these books are sacred, they should not be criticized or analyzed. I personally think they should not be disturbed by these findings because they do not reduce the importance or significance of these books. We should study them, and if possible, also (many people did that in the past, but for some reason, this process was discontinued). Because of the sacred status of these books, it's almost impossible to challenge anything written in them or edit anything (even if it's outdated or wrong). All these books were written in certain eras, and many things written in them were according to that era and socioeconomic conditions. When people or devotees insist on following everything in these books as it is, it creates problems, as some of the things are not relevant in today's world. If people who claim these books as their property (by associating them with a particular religion or sect) want to preserve the good messages and teachings mentioned in these books, then they need to show some flexibility and broad-mindedness. Knowledge is not stationary; it's always evolving, and every day new information is generated; it's a continuous process.

Many people also argue about whether Ramayan, Mahabharat, or people like Ram, Krishna really happened.  Devotees who believe in God reject these doubts altogether and want to stick to their beliefs. This is expected from devotees. In this process of argument, both sides miss the actual benefit that one can get from these books. One side considers these characters and books as sacred and worships them blindly without trying to understand the true meaning of their messages, and the other side rejects them just because of some technical gaps. Arguments like whether Jesus was God or not, or whether Krishna was real or not, are endless; it’s not these people who are important, but their teachings are. If you don’t agree with their teachings, then they don’t exist for you; it’s as simple as that. For me personally, the question of their authenticity doesn't matter; I don't worry about it. I consider these books and these people as sources of knowledge and useful information. I read all these books like many other books I read. I don't associate any of these books with any particular religion; for me, they are all the same. I take from them whatever I feel is relevant to my situation or whatever appeals to me and leave the rest. If I find anything in them that sounds somewhat wrong, I don't hesitate to raise a question about it or even criticize it. I share my beliefs and whatever I understand from these books, and people who hear or read them are free to agree or disagree with them. I have my opinions and beliefs (and they can change over time), and people can have theirs; there is nothing wrong with it. The problem is not with anyone's beliefs but when they become really aggressive about their beliefs (almost dictatorial) and start projecting them as 'facts' and are not willing to listen other side of the story. I think that our society has evolved enough to understand that there can be more than one truth, more than one way to reach the same destination, and also realize that many religions and beliefs can coexist peacefully.

Thanks for reading, and your comments are always welcome.

Reference:

1. Interesting read for some information about the Bhagavad Gita and historical facts about it, http://www.vvshirvaikar.de/Dnyaneshwari/PROLOGUE.html 

2. http://www.biblica.com/bibles/faq/3/

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Quran

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Why did Krishna delivered Bhagavad Gita to Arjun not to someone else?

Why Arjun? Why not Yudhisthir or Bhim or Karna or anyone else, there were so many brilliant characters in Mahabharat so why Krishna chose Arjun for delivering one of the most important religious scriptures in human history. I used to get this question in my mind many times while reading about Bhagavad Gita. People believe that because Arjun was like his discipline and he favored or liked him among all Pandavas that’s why Krishna delivered Gita to him. I think both of them were very good friends with mutual respect and admiration for each other and it’s not because of their relationship but the particular situation during that battle that resulted in the delivery of Gita to Arjun. The significance of this message is great largely due to that situation.

The first thing we should understand is that Arjun was a very celebrated warrior at that stage, neither war nor killing his enemies was a new event for him, he had done that on numerous occasions before. After seeing all his loved ones as opponents on the battlefield he became weak and got confused. He got into a real dilemma on the day of battle and started thinking why is he fighting? Is it worth killing his own relatives for a piece of land? What is he going to achieve after all this? Even if they win the war is that victory worth after so many deaths and destruction? These were all very genuine and relevant questions. Arjun was a warrior and his duty was to fight because of his confusion so many doubts and concerns originated in his mind and he started deviating from his true nature. That’s why I think Gita is delivered for people who are searching for answers and Arjun was such a person on that day. We all are like Arjun at some stage of our life. Gita is not for people who are not looking for the answers or who already have their answers. Other characters of Mahabharat standing on that battlefield have already decided their stand. They had their reasons for being there and were very well convinced why and for whom they were fighting that war, so there was no point in giving them any advice because they didn’t need it and were already on their selected path. Krishna’s advice to them would have fallen on deaf ears. They were pretty convinced about their path and principles that’s why he didn’t try to advise them like he did to Arjun.

We all face similar situations like Arjun in our life, it presents us with situations where it’s tough to choose, where it’s difficult to understand which way to go? What is right and what is wrong (it's called dharmasankat)? That’s why it’s been delivered to Arjun and no one else and I think he was the only person who had the capability to understand it and grasp it because his doubts were genuine and his questions were honest. As I said before it's not for people who already have their answers, and believe me there are many people like that, on Kurukshetra battlefield itself except for Arjun everybody had their answers with them.

If Gita was supposed to be the guide to teach how to live life then Krishna would have delivered it to Arjun or to the whole society well before the battle so that Arjun wouldn’t be in any confusion during the battle, why did he wait till that day to deliver it? According to me, Gita makes more sense to you if you are looking for some answers, unless you have any questions Gita won’t appeal to you and would sound like some heavy dose of preaching or any other book. Its significance increases drastically if you are in a dilemma and facing a very difficult situation at any stage of life like Arjun. Arjun is not just a person here it’s a stage of mind; it’s a symbol of a person who is really confused at a very important juncture of his life, in a serious dilemma. It can be me, you, or anyone else; we all are Arjun if we are in that stage.

Mahabharat is an amazing story that you can read at any stage of your life and will find something new every time you read it (depending on what stage of life you are reading), but Gita is not like that you have to be seeking answers to understand it that’s why I think normally it’s studied or read separately. We need to find our Krishna to get our Gita and it can come in any form like any book, person, or any source from where you get your Gita delivered to you. All these religious scriptures (For example Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Quran, and many others) were delivered for people who are seeking answers, and who need some guidelines, you can find answers for many or all of your questions in them. Arjun can be a single person or the entire society and if you have not found your answers yet then keep on searching your Gita may come in any form so be prepared to recognize it, grasp it, and use it as your inspiration and guide.

Thanks for reading and please share your comments.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)