Gods and Goddesses in Bhagwat Gita Analysis

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Table of Contents

The Background
The Kauravas and Adharma
The Pandavas and Dharma
Work Cited

Dharma, in its simplest sense, means righteousness in the performance of one’s duties. To define what is right or wrong is a difficult task because what is right in one religion or culture may not be acceptable in another. The sense of righteousness is also subject to change with time, and the way humans evolve. What is right in a particular era may be considered as wrong in another era. Bhagwat Gita, the holy book of the Hindu religion, deals with dharma and what can be considered right and what is perceived to be wrong. This paper is an analysis of the adharma or lack of righteousness on the part of Kauravas, and the dharma or righteousness of the Pandavas. The Bhagwat Gita is presented in the 18^th chapter of Mahabharata, one of the two great epics of India, and recognized as such by the rest of the world. It is also considered as the longest literary work in the world containing approximately 100,000 verses.

The Background

What is told in the Mahabharata is basically a simple story, the rivalry between two groups within a single family. The two groups are the Pandavas who number five and the Kauravas who number one hundred. But the underlying message of the story and the teachings of the Bhagwat Gita is, in fact, a lesson for all men and women who are conscious of the concept of dharma. Even though none of the main characters in the story are painted as black or white, each of them does have traces of grey. It is the Kauravas who appear to be almost black and the Pandavas nearly white. In other words, the Kauravas represent anti-dharma or adharma through the metaphor of black and the Pandavas are shown to be the followers of dharma.

The Kauravas and Adharma

The Kauravas and their leader and eldest brother, Duryodhana, is shown to have a lot of anti-dharmic qualities. His negative traits manifest themselves even during their younger years. The Pandavas and the Kauravas, after completing their education under the great sage Drona, are asked to give an exhibition of their prowess for the benefit of their king Dhritarashtra, the blind king. Arjuna gives a scintillating display with the bow and arrow and Duryodhana feels jealous; thus demonstrating the first signs of hatred for Arjuna and the Pandavas. From there, this intolerance begins to take a deeper root, and engulfs the family. Once when the Pandavas were tricked by Duryodhana to visit a temple festival, in a distant town called Varanavata, his plan was to build a palace there made out of inflammable materials to lodge Pandavas. Duryodhana asked its builders to construct it in such a way that it appeared to be made of all the normal building materials. Because of his virtue, Yudhishtira, the eldest of the Pandavas, was warned by Vidura about Duryodhana’s plan. With the help a friend of Vidura, a secret tunnel was built for Pandava’s escape. The house was set afire during one night, but the Pandavas with their mother escaped. It was Duryodhana’s anti-dharmic qualities that made him plan to kill his own cousins even at such a young age.

Duryodhana continued with his hostility towards the prosperity and popularity of the Pandavas. Advised by his uncle Sakuni, he invites the Pandava’s to play a game of dice with the intention to cheat them. Yudhishtira who has a weakness for gambling and playing dice accepts the invitation. Through trickery, Duryodhana manages to rob Yudhishtira of all his possessions including his own brothers, wife and ultimately himself. Dusshasana, acting on his elder brother Duryodhana’s orders, drags Panchali, wife of the Pandavas by her hair into the gambling hall and tries to disrobe her. Jealousy, arrogance and lust are the emotions displayed here by Kauravas.

In Hindu philosophy, it is the dharma of a king to be fearless; but despite harboring such hatred towards the Pandavas, the Kauravas were actually afraid to face them in a straight battle. This is cowardice and hence an adharma, not befitting kings, shown by the Kauravas. Therefore, they resorted to trickery and sent the Pandavas for a period of 12 years life in the woods, plus a year of undetected living as consequence of losing the game of dice. There are many such instances where Duryodhana and his brethren show anti-dharmic qualities.

The Pandavas and Dharma

After the defeat at the game of dice, when the Pandavas start for the forest a great many of their subjects also plan to go with them. It is because of the love, respect and affection for the Pandavas that the people undertake to live with them in the forest. The sense of dharma and concern, even at that difficult time, is displayed by how Yudhishtira worries about providing food for such a large number of people inside the forest. The Pandavas show great strength of character when they agree to rescue Duryodhana, Karna, Dusshasana and some others who were captured by the Gandharvas. This happened at the time they were living in the forest. Even though it was the Kauravas who were responsible for their predicament, the Pandavas readily agreed to, and in fact rescues their captured cousins by defeating the Gandharvas. In the Svarga-arohanika parva, Yudhishtira’s virtues have been described when he refuses to enter a place in heaven reserved for him by the gods. He takes the stand that heaven is where by brothers and family live. He expresses his willingness to live in hell if he can live with his brothers and his wife there. Thus his love and sense of dharma become apparent.

The purpose of the Kurukshetra war was not just to reclaim a kingdom. It represents the prevalence of dharma over adharma or good over evil. A casual reader of the Mahabharata may doubt whether it is an act of dharma to kill one’s own kith and kin. Even Arjuna, with all the sense of dharma in him, harbors the same doubts when he went out to inspect the enemy lines at the beginning of the battle. Krishna, through the Bhagwat Gita, explains to him that it is one’s dharma to destroy evil even when it stems from his near and dear. Krishna states: “The Kauravas may be your cousins, but they are evil and hence deserve to be destroyed.” He even goes to the extent of saying that it is not the means that are important, but the end, which is elimination of adharma. Thus, it is an acute sense of dharma that Arjuna discerns from Krishna’s preaching, which prompts him to take on his Gurus and cousins in a bloody war. There are many instances where such an attitude is seen from the Pandavas during the Kurukshetra war.

Krishna, in order to get rid of Drona, the Guru, and a valiant fighter, orders the killing of an elephant that he names Aswathama, and then informs Drona, the warrior’s father, that his son is killed. Drona verifies the genuineness of this claim from Yudhishtira, who, albeit being guilty conscious, confirms it to be true. His spirits dampened by emotions about the loss of his son, Drona loses the will to fight and is killed by Drishtadyumna. Karna is killed by Arjuna while pulling of the wheel of his chariot which got stuck in the dirt. Duryodhana is defeated by the unacceptable hitting below the belt, which is considered as foul in a dual, by Bhima. Duryodhana, after he has fallen asks Krishna questions about why they resorted to unfair means to win the war. The Pandavas, naturally, become demoralized by this. But Krishna consoles them by saying that all those individuals were so powerful that they cannot be killed by skill alone. Strategy needs to be used and that is how the Pandavas could overcome them. Further, he stated that their end objective was for the prevalence of good over evil. Krishna’s words of comfort to the Pandavas were, “You should not mind the fact that your enemy has been killed deceitfully. When one is outnumbered by his enemies then destruction should be brought about by stratagem. The gods themselves, in killing asuras, have followed the same methods.” (Narasimhan, 175).

This might be unacceptable to many readers. But Bhisma himself, when asked about Dharma, has said that dharma is only an instrument of enlightenment and advancement. Anyone or anything that is a hindrance to a good cause should be removed or destroyed, no matter what the manner in which it is done, and such an act is dharmic.

Work Cited

Narasimhan, Chakravarti V. The Mahabharata. LXXIV, Salya Parva, P. 175.

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Gods and Goddesses in Bhagwat Gita Analysis

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