Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14 - Lesson 5 of 7: Where Do We Go From Here?

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA?

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Mahābhārat, literally meaning the great Bhārata, is a grand narration about the nation and civilization, which is now known as India. It was then a nation ruled by king Bhārata and his descendants.

Look into your life! Your whole life is nothing but the Mahābhārat War. The Mahābharāt should be read again and again to understand the intricacies of life, the complications of life, and the ability to handle life. The true story of this perfectly recorded epic is about two warring clans, Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas, closely related to one another. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the blind king of Hastināpur and father of the 100 Kaurava brothers was the brother of Pāṇḍu, whose children were the five Pāṇḍava princes. It is a tale of strife between cousins and ultimately between dhārmic and adhārmic, righteous and unrighteous civilizations.

WHAT HAPPENED

DURING THE MAHABHARATA?

Since Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind, Pāṇḍu
was made the king of Hastināpura.
Pāṇḍu was cursed by a sage that he
would die if he ever entered into a
physical relationship with his wives.

He therefore had no children.
Vyāsa says that all the five Pāṇḍava
children were born to their mothers
Kuntī and Mādrī through the
blessing of divine beings. Pāṇḍu
handed over the kingdom and his
children to his blind brother.

Illustration of Kuntī standing against a peacock feather backdrop

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA?

Kuntī, who is the embodiment of tapas,
spiritual penance, had received a boon
when she was still a young unmarried
adolescent, that she could summon any
divine power at will to father a child.
Before she married, she tested her boon.
The Sun god, Sūrya appeared before her.

Karṇa was born to her as a result. In fear of social reprisals, she cast the newborn away in a river. Yudhiṣṭra, Bhīma and Arjuna were born to Kuntī after her marriage by invocation of her powers, and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva were born to Mādri, the second wife of Pāṇḍu.

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA?

Yudhiṣṭra was born to Kuntī as a result of her being blessed by Yama, the god of death, dharma and justice, Bhīma by Vāyu, the god of wind, and Arjuna by Indra, god of all the divine beings. Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngest Pāṇḍava twins, were born to Mādri, through the Divine Aśvini twins.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra had a hundred sons through his wife Gāndhārī. The eldest of these Kaurava princes was Duryodhana. Duryodhana felt no love for his five Pāṇḍava cousins. He made many unsuccessful attempts, along with his brother Duśśāsana, to kill the Pāṇḍava brothers. Kuntī's eldest son Karṇa, whom she had cast away at birth, was found and brought up by a chariot driver in the palace, and by a strange twist of fate, joined hands with Duryodhana.

WHAT HAPPENED

DURING THE MAHABHARATA?

Dhṛtarāṣṭra gave Yudhiṣṭra one
half of the Kuru kingdom on his
coming of age, since the Pāṇḍava
prince was the rightful heir to the
throne that his father Pāṇḍu had
vacated.

Yudhiṣṭra ruled from his new
capital Indraprastha, along with
his brothers Bhīma, Arjuna,
Nakula and Sahadeva.

Arjuna won the hand of princess
Draupadī, daughter of the king of
Pāñcāla, in a svayaṃvara, a marital
contest in which princes fought
for the hand of a fair damsel.

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA?

In fulfillment of their mother Kuntī’s desire that the brothers share everything equally, Draupadī became the wife of all five Pāṇḍava brothers. Duryodhana persuaded Yudhiṣṭra to join a gambling session, where his cunning uncle Śakunī defeated the Pāṇḍava king.

Yudhiṣṭra lost all that he owned—his kingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself, to Duryodhana. Duśśāsana shamed Draupadī in public by trying to disrobe her. The Pāṇḍava brothers and Draupadī were forced to go into exile for fourteen years, with the condition that in the last year they should live incognito or ajyāta vāsa.

A young man adorned in traditional ornaments sits on a throne, with dice in the foreground.

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA?

At the end of the fourteen
years, the Pāṇḍava
brothers tried to reclaim
their kingdom. In this
effort they were helped by
Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the king of the
Yādava clan, who is the
eighth divine incarnation
of Bhagavān Viṣṇu.

However, Duryodhana
refused to yield even a
needlepoint of land, and
as a result, the Great War,
the War of Mahābhārat
ensued. In this war,
various rulers of the entire
nation that is modern
India aligned with one or
the other of these two
clans, the Kauravas or the
Pāṇḍavas.

Kṛṣṇa offered to join with either of
the two clans. He says, ‘One of you
may have Me unarmed. I will not
take any part in the battle. The
other may have my entire Yādava
army.’

When the offer was first made to
Duryodhana, he predictably chose
the large and well-armed Yādava
army, Nārāyaṇī Senā, in preference
to the unarmed Kṛṣṇa.

Arjuna joyfully and gratefully chose
his dearest friend, his life mentor
and his Guru, Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa, to
be his unarmed charioteer!