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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com)

 

Mahabharata's stress on need to uphold virtue

 

CHENNAI, OCT. 16. A remarkable feature of our sacred texts is the

prediction given about the shape of events to take place at even

very distant years. By virtue of the extraordinary powers gained

through intense austerities, sages and saints have forewarned

succeeding generations of the country's future. Their statements

describe the moral degradation in the ``Kali'' era (in which we

now live) and how chaos and evil will prevail over virtue. An

illustration about the inexplicable change in the attitude of men

between the previous and present aeons is provided in the

Mahabharata. A man sold a piece of his land and the purchaser,

while ploughing, dug out a treasure trove and promptly returned

it to the former, who however, refused to take it since the

transaction was over and the land was not his now and so the

latter alone was entitled to take it. The purchaser's contention

was that the gold coins all along remained in the seller's land

and so he alone should take it. Each one was firm that the pot

was the other's. Even as the issue remained unsettled, the very

next day, the stand taken by both completely changed, now each

saying ``the property is mine''. This sudden volte face surprised

many but the reason was that over night, the new era, ``Kali'',

had been born. After its birth, the Pandavas crowned their

grandson and renouncing everything, left for forest.

 

The concluding verses of the epic pinpoint the need for everyone

to uphold virtue. Over the years thousands had appeared and left

this world and in times to come, many will be born and will die.

Happiness and grief, good and bad will remain but people should

not mistake worldly pleasures to be genuine. Only the ignorant

will get involved in them and suffer while those who have gained

wisdom through spiritual knowledge will never be misguided.

Wealth and worldly activities should be rooted in ``Dharma''.

None should swerve from this path which alone is permanent. These

verses spell out the main moral of the epic, said Sri K. P.

Arivanandam in his final lecture. Another important message is

focussed in the epic when Yudhishtira, the embodiment of virtue,

was shocked to find Duryodhana, the personification of evil, in

paradise while his own brothers, who symbolised all that was

good, were in hell. ``A man whose sins are greater than his good

actions reaches heaven first. After the fruits of his pious deeds

get exhausted, he will go to hell. A man who has committed a few

sins will spend a short time in hell and then stay in paradise

was the law of the heaven,'' the explanation said.

 

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