The Mahabharata
and the Ramayana are our national epics. The characters depicted therein have
become an inseparable part of our lives. Since time immemorial, life in India
has remained under the spell of the characters like Rama, Sita, Dharmaraj,
Draupadi, Bhishma, Hanuman etc. The characters in other epics of the world have
not become one with the lives of the people in this way. The Mahabharata and
the Ramayana are thus undoubtedly unique and wonderful works. The Ramayana is
an endearing and enchanting ethical poem, while the Mahabharata is a
comprehensive treatise on the working of society. In the Mahabharata Vyasa has,
in one hundred thousand verses, sketched the lives, personalities and
characters of innumerable individuals with consummate skill. The Mahabharata
vividly brings out the fact that none but God is completely faultless and good,
and also that none can be said to be evil personified. For instance, it points
out faults even of moral giants like Bhishma and Dharmaraj, and virtues in the
characters like Karna and Duryodhana, who had strayed from the path of
righteousness. The Mahabharata tells us that human life is like a fabric woven
with black and white threads—threads of good and evil. With perfect detachment
Vyasa, the great sage, graphically depicts before us the complex reality of the
vast web of worldly life. Because of Vyasa’s great literary skill in depicting
life with detachment and high moral purpose the Mahabharata has become a
veritable gold-mine. Everybody is free to explore it and take freely as much as
he wants.
Vyasa wrote such
a great epic, but did he have something of his own to tell ? Has he told his
special message somewhere? Which is the place in the epic where we find him in
a state of samadhi?
1. One comes
across in the Mahabharata a vast number of dense thickets of philosophies and
preachings, but has Vyasa given anywhere the essence of all those and presented
the central message of the whole epic? Yes, he has. Vyasa has presented it in
the form of the Gita. The Gita is his principal message and the repository of
his wisdom. It is because of the Gita that the Lord has extolled him as the
sage among the sages, as His own manifestation among the sages.
2. The Gita has
been accorded the status of an Upanishad since ancient times. It is, in fact,
the supreme Upanishad. Lord Krishna has as if distilled the essence of all the
Upanishads and offered it in the form of the Gita to the whole world. Arjuna's
despondency provided only an occasion. Almost every idea and thought necessary
for the blossoming of life can be found in the Gita. That is why the wise have
rightly called it the encyclopedia of dharma.
3. The Gita,
although small in size, is the principal text of Hinduism.
It is well-known
that the Gita was told by Lord Krishna. Arjuna, the devotee who listened to
this great teaching, became one with it, so much so that he too came to be
called ‘Krishna’. Vyasa's empathy while narrating it earned him too the epithet
‘Krishna’. Total identity was thus established between Krishna the teacher,
Krishna the listener and Krishna the narrator. One who wants to go deep into
the Gita should also have concentration of this kind and degree.