READING "UDYOGA PARVA" of SARALA MAHABHARATA

(A summary of the main ideas. Written in the form of notes. Written for the purpose of discussion of this extremely important parva (chapter) at a Sarala Mahabharata Group Meeting.  The points for discussion are highlighted. Unedited)

 

Broadly speaking, this Parva is about the pre-War negotiations and preparations for the Great War at Kurukshetra. This is also about Krishna’s / Narayana’s mahima (greatness and glory) and about the many ways of being connected with the Supreme god Narayana and many shades of bhakti.

 

These cursory notes might give one a feel of how Sarala Mahabharata is creatively different from Vyasa Mahabharata – how Sarala Das, the poet, keeping the basic story unaltered, introduces innovations into the narrative to express his poetic vision and philosophical insights.

 

Initial negotiations

 

From King Virata’s kingdom, the Pandavas come to Indraprastha. The Kula guru, Dhaumya, come to Yudhisthira at Duryodhana’s behest to tell them that for the interest of the Kuru Kula (comprising the Kauravas and the Pandavas both), he should not ask for the Pandavas’ share of the kingdom. Yudhisthira sends him to Duryodhana with the message that he should consider the Pandavas’ needs. When Dhaumya says this to Duryodhana, he disagrees.

Then Vidura comes to Yudhisthira and asks him not to demand the Pandavas’ share of the kingdom. The same argument:  the Kula should be protected. For that the Pandavas should make a sacrifice. Yudhisthira disagrees. All he wants are five padas (villages). They had undergone great suffering during their vana vasa (forest dwelling) and ajnanta vasa (living incognito). Vidura asks him how he would face the mighty Kauravas in the battlefield. Yudhisthira tells him that military might does not win wars. Dharma does; it is the greatest power.

To go back to Virata’s palace. Arjuna brings Krishna from Dwarika at Yudhisthira’s behest. At Virata’s place, his queen Sudeshna tells them all what would happen in the war. Draupadi and Arjuna were devastated: Draupadi because she would lose all her children and Arjuna, his son, Abhimanyu. But they were pacified with explanations of these happenings from the cosmic perspective.

Yudhisthira requests Krishna to go to Hastinapura and plead with Duryodhana to give the Pandavas just five villages. If not that, then just one. If he rejects even that request, then there would remain no alternative to war. He genuinely wanted avoidance of the war. But Krishna did not have peace in mind. He was going there to ensure that war takes place. No one knew his mind, except Sahadeva. Krishna’s betrayal of Yudhisthira, but the Avatara had a cosmic objective.

Krishna met the other four Pandavas separately. His purpose was to find out how strongly they wanted war and what their level of self-confidence was in case there would be war.

Bhima – even he! - and Arjuna were inclined towards avoidance of the fratricidal war, if they get a village each. They were confident that Duryodhana would oblige since each of them had done him good. Krishna had to work on Bhima’s mind for war. He succeeded.  Bhima talked war. Arjuna had decided that if Duryodhana does not give him a village, he would fight. Nakula wanted two villages: one for him and the other for Sahadeva. Sahadeva did not aske fo anything: he knew Krishna’s mind. He assisted him by telling him that he should ask for those villages which Duryodhana would never give.  That would ensure that war would take place. He also told him that he would earn disrepute for not adhering to the dharma of an emissary.

Then Krishna met Draupadi and she desperately wanted war. Those who had humiliated her must perish. She must have her revenge. Later, in Hastinapura, when Krishna met Kuniti at Vidura’s place, she told him most emphatically that she wanted the war to take place and that he should ensure that.

Remarks:

Kula raksha (protection of the kula) should be the most important concern of the members of the kula. If sacrifice has to be made for that, then the wiser members should do that. Of the Pandavas and the Kauravas, who were on the side of dharma and who were not, was not the question. Although it is not explicitly mentioned that saving the kula is dharma, but it is absolutely clear from the exchanges that this is so. Contrast Srimad Bhagavad Gita’s stand in this respect.

The Pandavas did not disagree. But they too were the members of the kula. They had suffered a great deal and in consideration of that, those who are in a position to help them (their Kaurava cousins), should come forward to help.

The Pandavas wanted dignified living, which for the four Pandavas (barring Sahadeva) translated into five villages. Then they would not have to live on the doles from Duryodhana or beg, for instance. For Draupadi and Kunti, dignified living meant in effect the destruction of the Kauravas.

The negotiations were really about avoiding the war, not peace between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. These two are obviously not the same.

The negotiations were bound to fail. Krishna, Yudhisthira’s emissary had war in mind and Yudhisthira or anyone else barring Sahadeva, had absolutely no idea about that. Krishna had a cosmic purpose. Sahadeva knew it and assisted him in this.

He also said that at the laukika level, Krishna’s doings would be unethical.

This is the problem of the Avataras (two Avataras): they have a cosmic task to perform and they sometimes have to violate the human moral code to achieve that objective. The two Avataras are Krishna and Vamana. They both resort to deceit. In this Parva, the Vamana Avatara is brought into the ambit of discussion. It is natural.

One would see a little later that the issue here is giving, as it was in the case of King Bali and Vamana. Here Duryodhana was to “give” villages to the Pandavas. Sakuni transforms it into giving “Narayana”. Giving to the Pandavas was, for him, giving to Narayana. Both Duryodhana and Bhishma say on different occasions the Narayana should not return empty-handed, etc.

 

Krishna in the Kaurava court

The narrative is about the so-called negotiations and more importantly about the “mahima” of Narayana, seen as undifferentiated from Krishna. In the process the mahima of Shiva is also described, although somewhat peripherally. Shiva’s doings are seen as a contrast to Narayana’s doings, with respect to giving and receiving, etc. There is the view that Shiva is very easy to please, whereas Narayana can never be content (he is a-trupati) with bhakti, daana, etc. So, tells Sakuni to Duryodhana, “do not give him anything. One can never satisfy him by giving.”  This perspective provides the backdrop to the discussion about the Pandavas’ demand from Duryodhana.

Krishna reaches the Kaurava court when the court is in session. At Sakuni’s instance, Duryodhana does not invite Krishna to come to the court. He is kept standing, waiting to be offered a seat.

Sakuni says Krishna being a sinner, who had committed serious crimes like killing a woman (Putana) and killing a bull (the demon Arishtasura, in the form of a bull), could not be invited to the august assembly.  Besides, he was of low birth. In fact, King Jarasandha had not invited to his court on that account and both Balarama and Krishna had returned humiliated.

Sakuni in this Parva, uses the strategy of not telling the whole story and telling only that part which suited him (By the way, could one say by suppressing information, he was lying? Committing an unethical act? What he said was correct but what he left unsaid about the event was also correct). Bhishma said that he hadn’t told what happened next. At Krishna’s behest, Garuda flapped his wings and in the mighty wind, the courtiers became very unstable and the court dissolved.

Similarly, later when Sakuni told the court that King Bali perished because he gave daana (ritual gift) to Narayana, Bhishma said that was not the whole story. Narayana compensated him amply. What he received was a great deal more than what he had given. By the way, Bali knew that the dwarf asking for daana was Narayana himself.

When Sakuni could not counter Bhishma, he abused him to silence him. He told him that he was issueless and such persons bring ill-luck. Bhishma kept quiet. When Drona spoke about the mahima of Krishna, he too silenced him, resorting to abuse. He charged him of being responsible for his wife’s death.

Finally listening to Vidura, Duryodhana invited him to his court and offered him a seat. (He told Krishna that since he had forgiven so many persons, he must forgive him too. He thinks it is his right to be forgiven. This is the bhakta’s (devotee’s) right. There indeed are many shades of bhakti!) Krishna told him that his dispensation would meet the same end as did the kingdom, called Babarapuri. On being requested by Bhishma to tell them about this kingdom about which he had not hear before, Krishna told the court about it. Babarapuri is a depiction of a dystopia. The prosperous Babarapuri was destroyed not because of an external enemy but because of reasons internal to it – a society that practised adhama (sin) had to collapse on its own. The same would happen to the Kaurava dispensation, he told Duryodhana.

On being asked by Duryodhana why he had come, he said he was Yudhisthira’s emissary. He told him that all the eldest Pandava wanted was five villages. He told him that it was his moral duty to take care of his brothers.

Duryodhana said they did not belong to the Kuru family and as such he had no special duty for them. None of them was Pandu’s son; so they were outsiders to the family. It’s not the mother but the father who matters in determining who belongs to the family and who does not. Krishna told him tthat his ancestry was no different, a matter he explicated in great detail. He told him that he was the son of a widow.

Greatly upset, Duryodhana asked his brothers to attack him. What he had done was not expected of an emissary. As Duryodhana’s brothers attacked him with weapons, he transformed himself as a great fish, then a tortoise and then a boar and then a dwarf. When the Kauravas still attacked him, their attitude unchanged, he was wondering if they knew anything. He then assumed the form of Nrisingha and everybody ran away in fear.

That evening when the venerable sages who were present met at Vidura’s place, where Krishna was to have his food, they were wondering what punya (good deeds) the Kauravas had done to see the five Avataras of Narayana, which no one had seen before. The Kauravas thought that it was just Krishna’s magic performance. Later Duryodhana told (his father) that Krishna’s conduct in the court was disgraceful. He assumed different forms just as actors in an opera change their dress and appear differently each time they change their dress.  

What could be of interest is why the sages and the Kauravas understood what they had seen so very differently. Two different understandings. If understanding is the result of knowledge, then how does knowledge arise in the mind?  The age-old question of how do we know what we know. Ancient Indian thinkers were concerned with this question, as were the ancient Greeks.

Krishna and the sages were entertained by Vidura that night.

 

 

That night Bhishma, Drona, Karna and the other great warriors met Duryodhana and Bhishma told him that he should not displease Narayana. The consequences would be disastrous. He advised him to have bhakti towards Narayana and have a cordial relationship with the Pandavas (sodare hua priti), who were his brothers. This would turn out to be blissful for him, he said. In between he had said that half the kingdom was the Pandavas’ right. (This is the only mention of the Pandavas’ right to the kingdom, I think, in this Parva at least. The Pandavas had not asked for their right, if they thought they had a right, based on law. Krishna did not raise the question of the Pandavas’ right. In this Parva, the issue was Duryodhana’s duty towards his brothers, who were part of the Kuru kula.). Duryodhana did not say a word in response and left the place. Then he went to meet his father. Dhritarashtra asked him why he had got angry with Krishna in the court. Duryodhana told him how Krishna had berated him in the presence of kings of many kingdoms. Unable to bear the insult, he had asked his brothers to kill him. Then he said how Krishna changed appearances and assumed different forms as do the actors in operas. Dhritarashtra advised him not to be hostile towards the Pandavas, perhaps not so much because they were his cousins but because Krishna was with them. This angered Duryodhana and he left the place. His wife, the virtuous Bhanumati, advised him not to be inimical towards Krishna. If he wanted to save his vansa (family), she said, he must have devotion towards Narayana. If he would not do that, the Kauravas would perish. Duryodhana got very angry. He told her that he would have killed her if she were not a woman.  

In the morning, Bhanumati pleaded with her spouse to give Narayana two villages and take shelter under him. She had seen a very inauspicious dream, in which she saw her husband dying and she was very scared. Sakuni told Duryodhana not to get scared of the magician who had assumed different appearances. He told him not to opt for peace for fear of him. Krishna was alone in the court and he could be dealt with appropriately (i.e., be killed).

The court started. Krishna asked King Duryodhana if he would accept Yudhisthira’s request for five villages (This was not what Yudhisthira had wanted from Duryodhana.) Duryodhana told him that the Pandavas were not his enemies. But that was not a consideration for him. Because of fear for him he would give them villages. He asked him to express his wish and he promised to give them what he wanted (Recall Bali’s oath to Vamana. One can see how the narrative of the Kuru kula was being transformed into the narrative of the doings of Narayana.) Krishna said the Kuru elders, the kings of different kingdoms and the sages were his witness that Duryodhana had promised to give him what he wanted.  He was expressing his wish because Duryodhana had promised him that he would fulfil his wish.

He then named Indraprastha, Yama prastha, Hastina, Jayanta and Barunai. If Duryodhana gave him these, he would have nothing left for himself (This precisely became King Bali’s situation.) Sakuni laughed loudly, telling everyone that this was what he had anticipated and had warned Duryodhana about. (Sakuni here is the equivalent of guru Sukracharya in the Bali-Vamana narrative. This comparison is suggested although not explicitly stated.) No one said anything.

Duryodhana asked his brothers to attack Krishna and kill him. Bhishma, Drona and Bhurishrava rushed to protect Krishna. Krishna invoked Koumudi, his / Narayana’s mace and Sudarshana, his / Narayana’s discuss. He assumed his Virata rupa (Supremely Majestic form. I think a distinction should be made between his Virata rupa here and his Vishwa Rupa (Universal Form) in Srimad Bhagavad Gita.). The Kauravas ran away in fear. Bhishma offered his head to Krishna, as did some other virtuous warriors. They wanted moksa. Krishna assumed his normal form. The Kuru elders and other venerable persons then told Duryodhana that he had done many wrongs and that he must now make peace with the Pandavas. He would save the kula by doing so.

Duryodhana told Krishna that he would not give anything at all to the Pandavas. Let them fight, he said.

As he was leaving the court, Krishna told Karna that he should fight with the Pandavas, who, he, that is, Karna, knew, were his brothers. In Sarala Mahabharata Karna knew, right from their childhood, that the Pandavas were his brothers. But Karna did not listen to him. Instead, he told him that he would kill both Arjuna and him in the battlefield.

As he was on his way to Vidura’s place, he saw Lakshmana Kumara, Duryodhana’s son, running towards him from behind. With great humility, Lakshmana Kumar prayed to Krishna and Krishna told him that he wanted him to ask him for a boon. Lakshmana Kumara told him that all he wanted was that he severe his head with Sudarshana chakra. Krishna told him that he wanted him to live for the continuance of the Kaurava side of the vansha. Lakshmana Kumara said he did not seek anything else from him. He wanted him to severe his head with Sudarshana chakra. He wanted moksa. He knew Krishna could give him moksa.

Here ends the part of Udyoga Parva that deals with negotiations to avoid the war. In the remaining part of the Parva, we get to know about the preparations for the war

Remarks:

These couplets (involving Krishna and Lakshmana Kumara) are simply sublime. There is just one more narrative in Sarala Mahabharata that is sublime.

So many most honestly and most sincerely wanted moksa from Krishna (as Narayana) but none of them got it. The one who gets moksa in Sarala Mahabharata is Belalasena. I do not think he had asked him for moksa. So one gets moksa who he chooses to give moksa. It is not something one gets through his own efforts.

It is worth noting that all who wanted moksa were from the Kaurava side. No Pandava or no Pandava woman wanted moksa from Krishna. They wanted his protection, victory in the war, etc.

If Vyasa Mahabharata is about dharma, Sarala Mahabharata is about moksa.

 

Preparations for the war

Very briefly for the present. The following are important:

(a) Yudhisthira’s declaration of war. When he learns that Krishna was humiliated, he wanted to avenge Krishna’s humiliation. The idea of villages was not in his mind. The war had to be fought on the issue of Krishna’s having been insulted.

He was advised to restrain himself. He was told that the sins of a war accrues to the one who starts the war.

(b) Sakuni met Yudhisthira and told him that he should return to the forest with his brothers and leave the kingdom to Duryodhana. He told him that being a virtuous person, he should do that. Duryodhana was an ignoramus. He would suffer in his next birth whereas Yudhisthira would enjoy the consequences of his good deeds in this birth. Yudhisthira rejected his advice with disdain. He considered Sakuni a vicious person and his advice to him, insincere.

( c) Krishna and Sakuni met alone one night. Krishna asked him whether the war should take place. Sakuni told him that he is his servitor and he do whatever he wanted him to do. If Krishna did not want war, he (i.e., Sakuni) would make Pandavas and the Kauravas go for peace. He would ensure that this would happen. Krishna just had to ask him to do this. But before he asked him to work for peace, he should remember his avataric purpose – why he had taken avatara.

For him, commitment to Krishna transcends everything. He was oath-bound to his father to avenge his and brothers and relatives’ killing by Duryodhana, who used the vilest treachery for the purpose. His father had committed him to the task of ensuring the complete destruction of the Kauravas. But he was going to betray his oath to his father for the sake of Krishna.  His words to Krishna were not insincere, uttered just to please him. He was his devotee and Krishna knew that.

( e) The Pandavas and the Kauravas met to work out a war code. There is no parallel to this in the puranic literature, incidentally. It was a war between brothers, so it must not degrade into barbaric violence. The politics of it is interesting. But about that in another piece - for the next discussion. It was Duryodhana who said that both sides must observe the war code. It was worked out in the presence of Narayana and he would be the witness in the war. (This echoes the concept of Narayana as sakshi). For that reason, it would be dharma yuddha. It is to be noted that Yudhisthira does not use this term in this sense, neither in Sarala Mahabharata here nor in Vyasa Mahabharata. Duryodhana said that Narayana’s presence in the battlefield would make the entire battlefield a profoundly sacred space.

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