Thread by @Rishi10

So here it is. I've been assigned the topic Mahabharata+ Iliad by @Conaw. I think what prompted him to assign me this was prolly he saw 'epic' written twice in one of my response tweet and thought 'why not'.The thread will sway between the subject itself and the lessons extracted

https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1339819478104895488

though he intuitively has overestimated my reading scope as i am unqualified to comment on Iliad. hence I'll stick with Mahabharata. May be Sometime later this thread may collaborate with someone who has Iliad and 'Mahabharata + IIiad' may come out in a way that @conaw expects.

before we begin let me say this. originally i wanted to do this thread in a way that say for 100 tweets i'll speak about 100 'prasang' from Mahabharata. but that would be too much of a mental exercise. so I'll speak here my context. i'll not refer to wikipedia or anything.

I'll speak what i know or have known from my life, as it is. how i grew up with Mahabharata. this is going to be a person's telling. prolly accurate prolly not.

and as we begin let me pay my deep regards to sage Ved Vyasa and Ganesha who first undertook this task of publishing Mahabharata to human consciousness.their collaboration was epic and the hard work unmatched. today as i am called upon to put my commentary I hope I speak well

Mahabharata is a very fertile ground. a repository. it has come up in a way that whatever you are going through, what you have gone through, and what you'll be going through, in terms of mental states can be referred back to here.

it is true for all humans that have come by, that are coming and that will come until the sun consumes our very earth.

Mahabharata, the seed of it, is laid when Draupadi emits a spontaneous laugh at an embarrassingly fumbled act of Duryodhana, like when you miss a step - something of that sort. Her laughter in the way it happened paves the path for the greatest battle that was fought for 18 days.

- Duryodhana was one of the 100 sons. the sons belonged to Gandhari. Her single embryo was split into 100 and were incubated externally outside of her. She remain blindfolded all her life to align with her husband who was blind. that was the pledge she took and obeyed.

the 100 brothers were called Kauravas.

Pandavas were five brothers. Gandhari, their aunt.
the five brothers exhibited different talents. Arjuna was the great archer and a fav. of Guru Drona. This made Kauravas especially Duryodhana very jealous. the tension never resolved.

the jealousy could never be checked and grew and grew.

Bheem was the strongest.built wise.the legends unspokable to humans of now.he had vowed to break the thighs of Dushasana,one of the 100,and give the blood flowing from the broken thighs to Draupadi.

She had pledged never to tie her hair again until she washes them with blood of Dushasana first.

The Mahabharata is the telling of how human - emotions, systems, psych, governance, politics, can go awry that every effort to recover from them progressively become less effective ultimately culminating in a war. why it is so relatable is because at the core it is very human lik

why we study it because it also forewarns and tell how to overcome being a human.

Mahabharata is home to Bhagavad Gita. It is at the moment of this gruesome war that Arjuna is hit with an intense chronic feeling of unworthiness of it all.what is to be gained by it. what is to be gained by killing all these people who are,at the end of day,my bothers,my teacher

his Guru was fighting for the other side. how could he direct his arrows to him who taught him to hold the 'Gandiva' in the first place.

- It is at this moment Shri Krishn Speaks Gita, which becomes the foundational go to text for the modern men, across the modern worlds, across the activities - of war, of politics or simple household work a housewife like my mother.

and for me in a way that i am writing this thread with no concern for the result of it, that how many will read it or not, but at this moment i've accepted it as my duty.

End phase 1

the 18 days war led to lands across lands filled with bodies, almost impossible to find a square inch of land and waters not laden with blood. war formation like a 'chakravyuh' still remains a mystery.

Abhimanyu, son of Arjun, knew how to penetrate a chakravyuh but didn't knew how to come out of it. he entered.he was killed on the battlefield collectivly by a group of warriors at the core of this formation. In an indian consciousnes his remains one of the most sentimentl deaths

Mahabharata is home not only to Bhagavad Gita but many more Gitas. one such Gita is 'Vyadh Gita'. literally translated as 'a butcher's gita'. where when a butcher looked down with intense disgust on his job by a saint, the butcher speaks about his deep reflections on philosophy.

sending the saint back to 0.
This also reminds me of a series of dialogues between Yudhishthira, the eldest of pandavas, and Kamdev, the deity of lust and love. where Kamdev persists that it is futile to win over him as he is at the source of all energies.

the only thing possible is to acknowledge this and know how to transform this energy. there is no escaping per se.

Bhishm pitamah took a vow of celibacy which came to be known as 'Bhishma Pratigya'. the practice of this vow granted him the power to choose death at will. one of the most iconic and teary sight remains when Arjun perforates bhishma's body with hundreds of arrows...

...and that becomes the bed of arrows. his final resting place. Bhishma waits for the Sun to get into the northern hemisphere and directs his death then after meeting Shri Krishna and his dear Pandavas.

The war could've been averted if only Duryodhana had given a mere five villages out of the gargantuan kingdom. Krishna had proposed this agreement. Duryodhana denied. he remembered that laugh. it was not about land anymore. it was about something more and deeply wretched. his ego

that is how wars come. not because of anything you think of. but because of deeply intertwined abysmal depth of an individualistic wretched ego.

In a game of 'chausad', a form of gamble, between the pandavas and Kauravas, the uncle of Kauravas - brother of Gandhari, tempers with the dices and pandavas keep on losing. when left with nothing, Yudhisthira gambles his wife, Draupadi. he loses 'that' too.

Draupadi completely unaware of the game, relaxing in her menstrual chambers,was dragged by her hair Dushasana to the courtroom. in presence of the blind king,his blindfolded queen gandhari and all the elders. everyone's head turned downwards. can't see it but can't stop it as wel

all hell breaks loose. it gets darker. Dushasana begins to disrobe Draupadi in the middle of courtroom and in front of her five husbands who are also the most powerful of the worlds. but none can go against the rules of the game. Draupadi sees the futility.

the ever first voice of feminism takes shape. who gave you the right to gamble me away. just because i am your wife, how come a thought came that you own me. husbands are ashamed. bheema pledges to break the thighs of Duryodhana.

it hits bottom. while being disrobed and completely helpless she remembers and calls, for help, for the only and the only one, Krishna. Krishna makes sure she is never disrobed. dushasana keeps pulling the robe but the robe never ends. at last he gives up.

end of phase 2

while studying Mahabharata it is important to not miss observing the symbolism. the king Dhritarashtra was blind. the queen, his wife, decided to keep a blindfold all her life to match with her husband. and both, 100%, were blind to the acts of their son Duryodhana.

they remained confused, indecisive and helpless to the outright deplorable acts of their children. in that sense they suffered a greater blindness than that of just a pair of eyes.

secrets kept by women, even if out of goodwill, most of the time prove hazardous. the mother of Pandavas, Kunti, had a son before her marriage. she didn't tell. like never. at the end of it all, Yudhishthira came to know Karna was their Eldest. Karna was killed by Arjun.

Yudhisthira curses the women kind that they'll never be able to keep a secret.

talent above everything. Karna was given to the flow of a river by kunti at his birth. he was found by a charioteer and raised. Karna grew up to be a great archer and a warrior. but was never acknowledged by the 'Gurukuls' as he belonged to a charioteer.

this changed the game altogether. Duryodhana exhibited only one act of intelligence in his rather long life. that he identified Karna's unmatched talent, grabbed him, and made him a king of one of his provinces. Karna pledges his loyalty and life long allegiance to Duryodhana.

importance of दान (charity), Karna was born with Kavach-Kundal attached to his body naturally. these radiated like gold. and gave him unparalleled beauty and protection. he had a practice...

...that during the early morning hours when he was done with his Surya-Pooja if anybody asks for anything he would give. Indra, the deity father of Arjun knew that karna would remain undefeatable with his naturally occuring armours.

one such morning he assumes the form of a humble brahmin and approaches karna. and asks. and asks what. for his gold like Kavach-Kundal. basically his own second skin. karna didn't think twice.

takes a sword. cut the kavach-kundal away from his body and bleeds and bleeds and cuts and cuts until the brahmin gets what he has asked for.

ignorance can give rise to incredible stupidity. Everyone wanted Krishna on their side of war. He gives a fair chance to Duryodhana. what do you want Duryodhana, me or my army. i cannot give you both.

and in the most unexpectedly surprising event for the universe, Duryodhana chooses to go with his army. the guy couldn't see. like his parents. blinding ignorance. Krishna gives away his army to Duryodhana and himself becomes a non armed charioteer to Arjuna.

design of focus. while conducting a test of focus amongst his students Guru Drona asks the pandavas to aim for a bird perched on a tree at a distance. he asks each of his students what they see.

Yudhishthira says he sees this whole sky, the landscape, the tree and the bird. and so on it goes. nobody gets the permission to shoot. Arjun takes the spot for his turn. Drona asks. what do you see? Arjuna says, I see just the eye of the bird. nothing else. he shoots.

It is worthy trying to know, identify and acknowledge what/who is driving us. across the war of mahabharata arjun was driven, in both mental and physical movements, by shri Krishna. after the war he acquired a sense of victory - a sense of high level worthiness.

in some time from here,while pasing through a simple village,the pandavas were attacked by a simpl band of robbers.those didn't knew who they were attacking.and to an unpleasant surprise arjun found it exceedingly difficult to tackle these unskiled robbers and safguard his grp

this sends him on a reflection trip where he realizes who/what actually had won the war. He remembers how, right at the end of war, when they deboarded from the ratha, it just came bustling down like a house of cards.

you never know what is keeping 'it' or what has kept 'it' binded and powered. try to find it. this practise will make you humble.

this attempt at @Conaw thread of #threadapalooza ends here.