The question in the schreenshot post is often the question asked by many whose knowledge of Mahabharata is derived from popular productions or abridged retellings.

In Short, 1-5 was all Dharma. 6 was done by Kauravas out of desperation.

Let us come point by point.

1. Killing of Bhishma 'using Shikhandi'

Surprise surprise! Shikhandi wasn't as useful in killing of Bhishma as one feels. Bhishma did tell Pandavas that he would cease to fight if Shikhandi' were to come to his fore. The knowledge was common to Pandavas and Kauravas.

Hence Duryodhana deployed everything within his power to keep Shikhandi' from reaching Bhishma on day 10. Arjuna had this formidable task of keeping the whole Kaurava host from harming Shikhandi', an amazing feat he performed and finally managed to get Shikhandi before Bhishma.

Lo! The old man was not an idiot to simply drop his arms because a prince of questionable gender stood before him. He avoided Shikhandi but continued to find with more vigour, killing other Pandava soldiers. One can speculate he expected the five brothers to relax after bringing Shikhandi, but Arjuna was agile though taken by surprise. He fought Bhishma matching his vigour. In a fair and square duel of arrows, Arjuna disarmed Bhishma, inthe process, wounding him with so many arrows that the latter could not touch the ground when he fell.

Conclusion - Shikhandi (might have been a ploy to catch the Pandavas off guard) though a decent warrior, was not as useful as people think he was. 1/n 2. Killing Karna when "unarmed".

Here is the nuanced detail which again the non readers of unabridged Mahabharata miss out.

Before facing Karna in battle, Arjuna has a stand off with Yudhishthira, after which the brothers reconcile. But Yudhishthira warns Arjuna that he would kill himself if Arjuna fails to kill Karna by sunset. Arjuna faced an equal pressure to kill Karna that day as he had faced on day 14 while killing Jayadrata.

Karna and Arjuna face off. Karna uses Brahmastra thrice before he could not use it any more (contrary to the understanding that his memory failed him). Then his chariot wheel sinks in the mud. Now a stationary chariot is akin to a sitting rabbit in an archery duel. For reasons best left to speculation, Duryodhana does not send a spare chariot to rescue Karna like the countless ones he had sent to protect Drona before. (May be they were all depleted).

So Karna tries to rescue the wheel but is also fighting simultaneously. Arjuna who was in the heat of the upped duel was about to invoke a higher combination Astra, but seeing Karna in that state, he actually lowers his game and sends Agneya/Aindra(possibly hoping that Karna would recover and the battle would reach a crescendo before he could kill Karna. Yes, Arjuna preferred a style, finesse and rhythm to a battle) at Karna.

Karna wards off the lower astras. Than Krishna warns Arjuna not to let Karna revert back. Arjuna is now caught between Krishna's counsel, his inherent sense of fairness to let Karna up and the overarching aim to kill him before sunset. He chooses to gamble the power of his austerities here. Arjuna synthesizes a Divyastra using his own Brahmacharya (A householder who copulates with wife only to bear a child and not for his pleasure is considered equal to a Brahmachari) as the spiritual capital and sends it upon Karna saying if this was a right act, his Dharma would ensure that his enemy is killed.

The Arjuna-made weapon downs Karna. It was Dharma killing an Adharmi for Dharma. 2/n

Happy #navaratri2024
Will share a Devistotram every day that I have a personal connection with and has helped me
#Navaratri Day 1
Arjuna Krita Durga Stotram

अर्जुन उवाच ।
नमस्ते सिद्धसेनानि आर्ये मन्दरवासिनि ।
कुमारि कालि कापालि कपिले कृष्णपिङ्गले ॥ 1 ॥

भद्रकालि नमस्तुभ्यं महाकालि नमोऽस्तु ते ।
चण्डि चण्डे नमस्तुभ्यं तारिणि वरवर्णिनि ॥ 2 ॥

कात्यायनि महाभागे करालि विजये जये ।
शिखिपिञ्छध्वजधरे नानाभरणभूषिते ॥ 3 ॥

अट्टशूलप्रहरणे खड्गखेटकधारिणि ।
गोपेन्द्रस्यानुजे ज्येष्ठे नन्दगोपकुलोद्भवे ॥ 4 ॥

महिषासृक्प्रिये नित्यं कौशिकि पीतवासिनि ।
अट्टहासे कोकमुखे नमस्तेऽस्तु रणप्रिये ॥ 5 ॥

उमे शाकम्भरि श्वेते कृष्णे कैटभनाशिनि ।
हिरण्याक्षि विरूपाक्षि सुधूम्राक्षि नमोऽस्तु ते ॥ 6 ॥

वेदश्रुतिमहापुण्ये ब्रह्मण्ये जातवेदसि ।
जम्बूकटकचैत्येषु नित्यं सन्निहितालये ॥ 7 ॥

त्वं ब्रह्मविद्या विद्यानां महानिद्रा च देहिनाम् ।
स्कन्दमातर्भगवति दुर्गे कान्तारवासिनि ॥ 8 ॥

स्वाहाकारः स्वधा चैव कला काष्ठा सरस्वती ।
सावित्री वेदमाता च तथा वेदान्त उच्यते ॥ 9 ॥

स्तुतासि त्वं महादेवि विशुद्धेनान्तरात्मना ।
जयो भवतु मे नित्यं त्वत्प्रसादाद्रणाजिरे ॥ 10 ॥

कान्तारभयदुर्गेषु भक्तानां चालयेषु च ।
नित्यं वससि पाताले युद्धे जयसि दानवान् ॥ 11 ॥

त्वं जम्भनी मोहिनी च माया ह्रीः श्रीस्तथैव च ।
सन्ध्या प्रभावती चैव सावित्री जननी तथा ॥ 12 ॥

तुष्टिः पुष्टिर्धृतिर्दीप्तिश्चन्द्रादित्यविवर्धिनी ।
भूतिर्भूतिमतां सङ्ख्ये वीक्ष्यसे सिद्धचारणैः ॥ 13 ॥

इति श्रीमन्महाभारते भीष्मपर्वणि त्रयोविंशोऽध्याये अर्जुन कृत श्री दुर्गा स्तोत्रम् । In Telugu script #Navaratri

అర్జున కృత శ్రీ దుర్గా స్తోత్రం

అర్జున ఉవాచ ।
నమస్తే సిద్ధసేనాని ఆర్యే మందరవాసిని ।
కుమారి కాళి కాపాలి కపిలే కృష్ణపింగళే ॥ 1 ॥

భద్రకాళి నమస్తుభ్యం మహాకాళి నమోఽస్తు తే ।
చండి చండే నమస్తుభ్యం తారిణి వరవర్ణిని ॥ 2 ॥

కాత్యాయని మహాభాగే కరాళి విజయే జయే ।
శిఖిపింఛధ్వజధరే నానాభరణభూషితే ॥ 3 ॥

అట్టశూలప్రహరణే ఖడ్గఖేటకధారిణి ।
గోపేంద్రస్యానుజే జ్యేష్ఠే నందగోపకులోద్భవే ॥ 4 ॥

మహిషాసృక్ప్రియే నిత్యం కౌశికి పీతవాసిని ।
అట్టహాసే కోకముఖే నమస్తేఽస్తు రణప్రియే ॥ 5 ॥

ఉమే శాకంభరి శ్వేతే కృష్ణే కైటభనాశిని ।
హిరణ్యాక్షి విరూపాక్షి సుధూమ్రాక్షి నమోఽస్తు తే ॥ 6 ॥

వేదశ్రుతిమహాపుణ్యే బ్రహ్మణ్యే జాతవేదసి ।
జంబూకటకచైత్యేషు నిత్యం సన్నిహితాలయే ॥ 7 ॥

త్వం బ్రహ్మవిద్యా విద్యానాం మహానిద్రా చ దేహినామ్ ।
స్కందమాతర్భగవతి దుర్గే కాంతారవాసిని ॥ 8 ॥

స్వాహాకారః స్వధా చైవ కలా కాష్ఠా సరస్వతీ ।
సావిత్రీ వేదమాతా చ తథా వేదాంత ఉచ్యతే ॥ 9 ॥

స్తుతాసి త్వం మహాదేవి విశుద్ధేనాంతరాత్మనా ।
జయో భవతు మే నిత్యం త్వత్ప్రసాదాద్రణాజిరే ॥ 10 ॥

కాంతారభయదుర్గేషు భక్తానాం చాలయేషు చ ।
నిత్యం వససి పాతాళే యుద్ధే జయసి దానవాన్ ॥ 11 ॥

త్వం జంభనీ మోహినీ చ మాయా హ్రీః శ్రీస్తథైవ చ ।
సంధ్యా ప్రభావతీ చైవ సావిత్రీ జననీ తథా ॥ 12 ॥

తుష్టిః పుష్టిర్ధృతిర్దీప్తిశ్చంద్రాదిత్యవివర్ధినీ ।
భూతిర్భూతిమతాం సంఖ్యే వీక్ష్యసే సిద్ధచారణైః ॥ 13 ॥

ఇతి శ్రీమన్మహాభారతే భీష్మపర్వణి త్రయోవింశోఽధ్యాయే అర్జున కృత శ్రీ దుర్గా స్తోత్రమ్ ।

Saw a video about a child dancing for a school programme dressed in a costume that's apallingly off the mark for any educational institution.

Let me share an incident that's happened to us. Last year, my daughter's class too was taught a dance to perform on their annual day++ ++The song was a typical 90s bollywood medley. The lyrics had nothing objectionable though I was slightly uncomfortable with the near romantic theme. But till the d day, we had no clue of the costume till the children appeared on the stage.
Husband & I were shocked at the sight++

Saw quite a few tweets on job crisis in the mid leadership zone.

Lets define mid Leadership zone (next to AVP, Principal, Chief Architect, etc where your salary is 25 LPA and upwards).

Crisis : Job is endangered at the first case of faltering from deliverables

No sufficient++ ++openings in the zone as there are for entry level.

Family responsibilities make it harder and not so fit mind and body adds to the ordeal

A few thoughts and unsolicited advice to those who haven't yet reached this stage.

1. Watch your lifestyle from your early career++

Watched Kalki 2898

Production and conception both are top notch. Full appreciation to @nagashwin7 and team.
Managing three superstars is no mean achievement.

Finer and detailed review to follow.

(Yes Karna Arjuna thing still is incorrect). 1. Dystopian/Post Apocalyptic Kashi - Sends a shiver down the spine...

When we watch western post apocalyptic films, we dont care seeing a desertified New York or London. I wouldn't have cared much about a Bengaluru or a Delhi too.
But seeing a desertified Kashi with Ganga++

Never expected my >4 year old thread to go viral.

This thread is for the enthusiasts who
1) Found the below thread interesting or intriguing
2)Are saying it is false
3)Alleging it is from local sources

Read the thread and make your conclusions

The source for my research was++

https://twitter.com/Sai_swaroopa/status/1254389261387747328

++ The Unabridged Critical Edition of The Mahabharata by BORI, translated by Dr. @bibekdebroy sir.

The volumes 5,6,7 and a part of 8 of this set deal with the War and aftermath.

My methodology :
1)Read through and record every confrontation on an excel sheet++

Haven't watched the movie Kalki 2898 yet. Hearing the feedback that it's a nice one save for the Kaurava glorification.

One thing Karna fan club refuses to recognise is that he himself would detest the whiny weepy bleeding heart they made him out to be 😂😂

To be fair to him+

https://twitter.com/Sai_swaroopa/status/1254389261387747328

++ his trajectory might have peaked about half a decade before the war.

His ego did not let him fight the war for the first 10 days. (Mostly no show on day 11 and partial show on day 13, gathering momentum only from day 14 onward).

Disappointing fact about him is that++

An incident which started as a joke but revealed itself as a tragic example upon retrospection.

When my parents in law wanted to celebrate by FIL's Shashthi poorthi at Tirukkadaiyur, we went a couple of months ahead to see how it is done, fix the poojari, etc.

That evening++

https://twitter.com/Sai_swaroopa/status/1795050805667467331

++we visited the Amritaghateshwara temple to watch how the ceremony is being conducted to the couples that day. Each community has its own practices. All communities celebrate there. We were searching for a Tamil brahmin group that was celebrating.
The local guide said++

No Harsh No.

This "A suffered more because they were raped axed.... B did not suffer much because hey, max their poonals were cut open, girls were targeted, community demonised in social and popular art forms, but see they are still alive" nuance does nothing than hurt more++

https://twitter.com/harshmadhusudan/status/1794729478330921230

++
Being forced to flee ancestral lands, put up with poverty in new places, struggle one's way into totally new places like Mumbai, face persecution even there before locals warmed up, breaking away from larger knit community, see children and grand children grow up without++

Topic Karna explodes on my feed again 😊.

After these years of talking on the topic, I realised the issue of Karna simping is not about awareness of the Mahabharata but of Attachment.

Attachment to one's own mediocrity and entitlement to faulty personalities. ++ The question boils down to "What to take from Vyasa Mahabharata and how to interpret it."

Is it analysing isolated events and keeping Karna Arjuna scoreboards? Sure, I have done that. But the other side also takes out some remote incident like Arjuna losing to robbers at 90+
++

Have been closely following this amazing attempt by @deepakmrd27 @MyMBJourney @MySutradhar to unravel the Karna myth in the last weekend.

Things that I observed from the other side : Shock, denial, defence

Only a miniscule of them engaged textually.
One of the retorts was++ ++ about Rajaji's heavily abridged version being the more authentic source than any of the unabridged recensions themselves!

I remember being under a similar attack when I had first published the quantitative study results of Kurukshetra war, two years ago. Twitter opposition++

There is a Chaatu padyam by Srinatha Kavi which translates like :

"It is appropriate when the Lord of Sri marries 16000 women but why does a beggar need two wives? Paramesha, be content with Parvati and let Ganga go."

Needless to say if such a poem were to be composed today++

https://twitter.com/SaamaanyaJ/status/1676788944933978112

++ the hordes of aesthetically barren self proclaimed guardians of civilization would descend upon it with all sorts of virtual abuse.

But it is also worth pondering that the poem was by Srinatha Kavi Saarvabhouma who wrote exalted works like Haravilasam, Kashikhandam whose++

When we criticize a cinematic adaptation based on Veda-Itihasa-Purana corpus, I can think of six dimensions to examine.

1) Characterization
2) Visual Aesthetics
3) Event sequence
4) Writing
5) Delivery
6) Music Let us take examples

Mayaabazaar
Characterisation: The film scores high in getting the characters right on. (Except Revati who was compromised to suit the storyline) .

Krishna's omniscience.
Abhimanyu's thoughtless but endearing courage
Ghatotkacha 's towering personality.

Remember that tweet about metro life not enabling savings for freshers?

It had me thinking

Had a series of chats with freshers and young working professionals around (< 5 years of work ex).

Here are the list of avoidable expenses they incur (in my view) ++ 1) Petrol/Auto/Uber - The urge to take out the vehicle or hire a cab/auto even for short walkable distances or destinations covered by public transport.

Make a habit to walk if the distance is any less than 2 KM. It gives a fitter body and happier mind.

Reg Eco system and Hinduism

Sometime back, I invigilated a Hindi examination where a kid was struggling. He showed me a question
"मीरा के अनुसार मन् किस का दर्शन का प्यासा है?"
My jaw dropped at him not knowing the answer. It was evident he sleot through or skipped the class++ ++ But if one needs a curricular Hindi lesson to know about Meerabai, there is something heavily wrong in the system and world around us.

It is another easy way to blame the parents. But the spectrum of knowledge in Hinduism is mind numbingly wide! How is a modern parent even++

Beginning to find these obituaries to ACK a bit annoying.
Yes they had good books at one point of time but regarding them as some custodian institution of Hinduism is a huge disservice to our parents, grandparents, Ramakrishna, Chinmaya missions, etc.

Emotions are our undoing Even I had a good childhood with their issues, especially The Mahabharata.
But we are missing a key fact.

ACK did not popularise civilisational content.

*It earned popularity *because* it published civilisational content.*

It is a business, not an institution++

Rental cant be helped but

* Using Public Transport
* Cooking own food /Eating subsidised lunch at work.
* Choosing to go 'unbranded'
* Aggressive saving/investing

Harsh as it sounds, if one cant do these in 20s, life is going to become unbearable in 30s and a horror in 40s.

https://twitter.com/Sai_swaroopa/status/1652327585945362438

Link your self worth not to the brand of clothing you wear but the bank balance you know you are building.

Inner resilience is the result of what looks like a lifestyle compromise. If you compromise resilience for lifestyle, future is gloomy.

Are we teaching so to our youth?

So I taught my students ChatGPT.
And showed them where it inserts BS skillfully to give an illusion of completion.

Told them the AI is great with structure of communicating. So take that structure and build the content yourselves.

A student said, mam our University is so++ ++cool. The faculty is also so cool. Her point was that instead of banning AI, we are encouraging how to use it and not lose the human quotient.

Later for the assign ment, a student submitted two versions. Mam, this is shat Chatgpt generated. Thrn I worked out my version as++

Namaskarams. Decline in reading habits- This is actually a large scale problem which needs to be dealt by all stakeholders here.
Starting with
1)Parents - One cannot expect your kids to have the reading habit if parents dont have the reading habit themselves. If serious about++

https://twitter.com/anveSaka_/status/1637787103978192897

++inculcating reading habits in your kid. You and your spouse read regularly and discuss the topics on your dinner table. Dont pontificate and turn them off further but let the kids learn by example.

2) School boards - Make reading a credit based course starting from class 6 ++

When the Gods choose to bless you.....

I wasnt much of a temple goer except for ocassions.

Then this Lady and the Gentleman in the pic below decided that they will make me go everyday.

How??

Read on++ Travelling to work place needs me to go from my place to Hebbala and catch the University shuttle there.

I take the public transport till Hebbala. Usually, there is a 20-30 min wait there. The Uni bus is usually cayght in a jam. I cant risk starting late because++

Could not meet many kind folks of Varanasi who messaged me. It was a short and power packed trip. Forgive me this time 🙏🏽.

Hoping that Baba Vishwanath ji calls me there again 🙂🙏🏽.

https://twitter.com/Sai_swaroopa/status/1589182435329478657

Loved bonding with @priyankadeo over motherhood, writing and so many topics that were dear to me!
Hoping to meet you again soon Priyanka 🙂🤗