Learnings from Mahabharath - 5 : Yudhishtir

Jai Guru Deva,

Dharmaraj Yudhirshtir, the name needs no introduction. For the last 2000+ years, anybody in this country living a pure and principled life is compared with him, such is the glory of that man. Being the eldest son of Pandu raj he has every right to be the king of Hastinapur but Dhritrastra was not going to yield. A visionary like Vidur had anticipated that only Yudhishtir can give a stable and harmonious rule to the people of Hastinapur. However, Duryodhan's greed for power ensured a great war for the crown of Hastinapur.  There will be no famine in the land where he lives and in the land which tastes his blood there will not be so rains for so many years as his drops of blood. I just wonder how principled should he be to alter seasons and dictate nature. Take a bow!

But the biggest mistake of Yudhishtir is the dice game he had participated. I take that as a biggest learning from his life. For some reason I am not addicted to any kind of gambling for the simple reason that I dont enjoy it. I for one dont believe there is anything called "luck" on this planet. I want somebody to own responsibility for every happening; success or failure. In gambling you have to just rely on your luck but not on your ability to achieve any result. Thats the bad part of it and I detest it. Coming back to Yudhishtir, he had spoiled not only his life but also the lives of his whole family. As the head of a family it does not suit him to treat the remaining others as "objects" not humans. It is not befitting to see the great Dharmaraj gambling his brothers and wife at stake. After all, destiny is far powerful any mortal human and everyone has to go through what was written for him and Yudhistir is no exception for that. There is a saying in sanskrit which goes like "Manushyanam buddhi karmanusaarini" meaning the human behaviour is as per their karma. Irrespective of caste, creed, religion, language and gender everybody is answerable to their own karma. Practically there is no way any human can get away with karma by himself. Generally spiritual practices which are very tough by nature are treated as a method to reduce the impact of negative karma upon a human. Finally, an ultimate surrender to the divine is the only way to ensure that all the bad karma is taken care of. When I met the ghastly accident last year, the first thought that came to my mind was not regret or remorse. Really felt glad that a lot of bad karma had been taken away and I surrendered my injuries to the Almighty. Yes, I did underwent a lot of physical pain but I was detached from any sort of mental and emotional pain. 

I particularly want to highlight one conversation where Yudhishtir asks Bhim not to tell anybody that he was poisoned and thrown into the river. He says any happening in a family should remain within the family and Duryodhan is one among them. He always counted 105 brothers not 5 brothers. This ethical superiority is what ensured pandavas win the epic battle with Kauravas. Perhaps, the main purpose of the great story is that ehics and moral are the only way for glory and there is no shortcut. I as an employee of HP takes pride with the expectation of ethics maintained in HP. I had heard more than two instances when people were punished for compromising on their ethical expectations. In this age when indiscipline is romantic not many have higher standards of ethics on professional and personal fronts. I have no right to comment about others as its purely their choice but I always pray God to give me enough strength so that I stick to the morals that I believe in.

As far as the serial is concerned, I am not sure about who is the person who played the role of Yudhishtir but he did really well.

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik