Mahabharata, Retold by William Buck

Part 1: In the beginning

• Ganesha (god of thieves and writing) got his elephant head because, on the day he was born, he was asked by his mother Devi to guard the door, and to not let anyone enter. Then his father, Shiva, came. He demanded to be let in, but Ganesha didn’t recognize him and refused. Shiva cut off his son’s head. Devi got upset with Shiva, so Shiva picked up an elephants head and placed it in lieu of Ganesha’s original head.
• “The very day I was born I made my first mistake, and by that path I have sought wisdom ever since.” - Ganesha
• “Dhritarashtra lost his sorrow in Gandhari’s love, as a river is lost in the sea.”
• “He kept no guard against the five flower-tipped arrows of Karna the love god, who holds the most powerful bow in the world, though it is made but of sugarcane and strung with only a line of bees as a bowstring.”
  • Lust
• “They are blind and cannot see where he is rich; and their children take after them because they know no better.”
• “Brahmanas are forgiving. Their hearts are made of butter, not of stone, and their happy memories are long.”
• When Drona is training the Kuru princes, he asks them to take aim at a bird target’s neck. He asks the princes what they see, and they all fail to give the right answer (they say the bird, their arm, Drona himself). It is only Arjuna who answers correctly, that he can only see the neck, and can see no bird. Arjuna became a master bowman.
• “At sunrise I face the east and sit quietly until there is no shadow behind me and my back is warmed by the sun; and so I have learned many things without your approval.” - Karna (the greatest warrior on Earth) to Bhima (a Pandava, one of the Kuru brothers)
• “All sharp weapons are not made of steel. But what dries the dew will not disturb the wild dogs, whose homes have many secret doors underground. The blind one sees not his way; the blind has no knowledge where he goes. By wandering, one may know paths; by the stars he may know direction; by taking care, none shall oppress him.”
  • First part: The light of truth does not disturb wild dogs, who hide in deception. Deception is one of those weapons not made of steel. Those who deceive see not where they go, they are blind; underground.
  • Second part: wandering takes courage; looking toward the stars is to follow the enlightened; to take care is to be mindful and aware.
• “Well, I shall now tell you something more. With even a thousand (explanations), one that has a bad understanding succeeds not in acquiring knowledge. One, however, that is endued with intelligence succeeds in attaining happiness, through only a fourth share (of explanations).” - Brahma
• “Arjuna said, ‘I asked Kuntj if I had ever seen [Krishna] before, as a child. He is familiar—but a stranger. She said we never met.’
• “‘That’s a strange feeling,’ answered Yudhishthira. ‘I feel that way about Karna.’”
• Arjuna’s first wife (Draupadi) upon seeing him bring his second (Subhadra, Krishna’s sister): “Go somewhere away with her, for the second tie round a bundle always loosens the first!”
• “You are like the tiny bird that picks meat from the lion’s mouth, and tells other: do not gamble!”
• “I am the King; My wealth and my treasure Are too great to be counted. Yet I have nothing. If all my city burns to ashes, Nothing of mine will be harmed.”

Part 2: In the middle

• “I arranged the Veda in my spare time, and it says the deceitful may be slain by deceit, and the slayer’s honor is not blackened.” - Vyasa
  • Tricky. Leaning towards disagree. Fighting deception with more deception just perpetuates deception. I understand that if one loses something to deceit, you may seemingly doom yourself to being exploited if you don’t fight fire with fire. But lying yields instability, for it destabilizes the common bonds that unite relationships. It’s difficult to have unity if people think they can righteously lie.
• “As Lord Brahma sleeps, he hears something lost mentioned in his dream life, and he remembers, and it appears again here among us as it was long ago.”
  • Like the avataras concept, where a god reincarnates as a human yet forgets who he is. We all flow through life, and gradually remember the whole—the god, so to speak—that gave rise to us. And we remember our part in it, we raise children as we were raised. A re-remembering.
• “I must walk, lest comfort destroy all men.” - Vibhandaka, when offered a ride back to his home far away
• “A monkey chases everything, but never catches it because he is instantly distracted by another thing. Always the joy of running and leaping, and never the awful clutter of possessions no longer desired.” - Hanuman
  • Good and bad. The chase implies a clinging that causes suffering. But the endless pursuit of things that can’t be captured, well, that’s the infinite game. It depends what you chase. If your chasing things that bring about clutter, you’re chasing the wrong things.
• “All the things you have are overlooked by the birds and dismissed by the animals,” said Bhima. “I came for some flowers of fragrance.” - Bhima to Vaishravana, the God of (earthly) Treasure
  • Animals care not for material wealth. Why should we? Or do they… I suppose birds are attracted to vibrant plumage, which is a genetic form of a conspicuous good.

• “I have no real friends in all the Worlds.” - Vaishravana (God of material wealth)

  • Material wealth attracts fake friends
• “The [autumn] air was as clear as the new necklace of rolls and rivers worn by the mountain, and white birds flew past day after day on their way to the brimful lakes of the south.”
• When Virata, the king of Matsya, asks one of the disguised Pandava brothers, who is disguised as a cow herdsman, whether he can talk to his cattle, he replies “Majesty, they say nothing of interest. But someone who understands them ought to be with them to put the right ideas into their minds, so that they may know when they are happy.”
  • Brilliant. The role of religion to the passive majority.
• “‘Kindness, profit, and desire are each hostile to the others. How may they be brought together?’ ‘When a wife is kind, then all three are in one.’”
• “‘What is heavier than earth?’ ‘A mother.’ ‘What is higher than heaven?’ ‘A father.’”
• “‘Who then is the friend given by the gods?’ ‘It is the wife who is that friend and safe refuge.’”
• “‘Who is the guest that all life is host to?’ ‘Fire.’”
• “‘What makes one wealthy if it is cast away?’ ‘Greed.’ ‘And what is greed?’ ‘It is poison.’”
• “‘What is honesty?’ ‘That is to look, and to see every living creature as yourself, bearing your own will to live, and your own fear of death.’”
• “‘Who is truly happy?’ ‘The man without any debts.’”
• “‘What is true wealth?’ ‘Love and kindness are better than gold; honor is more valuable than rooms full of jewels.’”
• “Like a wild deer driven into a village, a liar mistrusts everyone, thinking that they are all like himself.”
• When asked whether they’d rather unarmed Krishna or ten thousand soldiers, Arjuna chooses Krishna and Duryodhana is happy with the soldiers. Arjuna mentions he chose Krishna because he could still drive his chariot.
  • Quality, not quantity. The truth, the vitality of life and consciousness, is of much more value and everlasting than an unconscious mob that fights for the wrong reasons
• “No man has ever defeated Duryodhana,” says his father Dhrit. Krishna replies, “A clay pot cannot be twice broken. You have the strength to make peace, but not the will, so I am helpless.”
  • Dhrit will not stop his son, despite knowing that his son’s pride will lead to their destruction. He is a formidably strong man, despite being blind, but he lacks the moral strength to reprimand his first born.
• “The man who will speak to [Kali, the goddess of Time, Death, and Destruction] at dawn can have no enemies; and snakes and all animals that have fangs and teeth, from them he has no fear, as also from kings. If bound, he is freed. Victory and wealth are certain for him. He is sure to overcome all difficulties. With health and strength he lives for one hundred years.”
  • Those who accept death, the finitude of their time, or who embrace destruction (or difficulty) at dawn (early in life) are bound to prosper without fear.
• “Then Night, the mother of the world, gently covered her child with darkness, as before, when she had not yet been first born.”

Part 3: In the end

• It is harder by ten million times to call back a weapon once released.
• “Stop your sadness, kill revenge himself. Find that cunning ugly man who holds you tight as iron chains, aim true at him where he is hidden.”
• A man holds a burning coal in his robes, and it bursts into flames against his skin, burning him. When asked how it happened, he replies “I fanned it to put it out.” His name was Grief.
• Vyasa tells King Dhrit a story about a brahmana who is stuck in a jungle, endlessly pursued by tigers and leopards. The edge of the jungle is enclosed by venomous snakes. The Brahmana ends up falling into a pit covered by vines, his heel being caught on the edge. Inside the pit is a serpent, walking around it is a huge elephant with six heads and twelve feet. A tree leaned above him that housed a bee hive that dripped honey into his mouth. No matter how much he swallowed, it was never enough and he could free himself.
  • The world is a jungle. We all inhabit our own inaccessible parts (pits) of the inescapable jungle of life, driven by fear of death. The pursuit never ends (tigers), it cannot be escaped (snakes at edge). We swallow the nectar of life (honey); when death approaches we still want more life. The honey could be a metaphor for hedonic indulgences as well. What does the elephant represent…?
• “We take leave of our senses and deceive each other. And watching this all is the witness, one’s own self, so that he becomes our enemy who might be our best friend. This monotonous deceit wearies our soul. Without that, we would not have to rest so often.”
• “You are all Pandavas. While creation lasts, again and again you shall live in the world of men.”
  • The pandavas live in each of us.
• “There is truth where [Krishna is]; and there is victory where truth is.”
• “You are the sheath of the Universe; And you hold it with love in your hands…”
  • Bhishma to Krishna before Bhishma’s death
• “This victory seems to me like a great defeat! There is only one for and not another, and he is ignorance.” - Yudhishthira after the Pandavas win the war
• “Holding dear what you do not have.”
• “Those who are not common do not save up the wrongs done against them, but remember only the benefits they receive.”
• “There are three concerns above all—injure no creature; tell the truth as much as it may be told; be free from anger when you are not in danger.” Dhrit to Yudhishthira
• “By the lamp of history is the whole mansion of nature’s womb illumined.”
• ‘Sauti said, “By Narayana’s widespreading tree whose leaves are songs, on the grass plateau high on the sacred and eternal breast of Kailasa [mountain where Shiva lives], the Players met under the colored shadows and asked: “What shall we play next?”’
  • Infinite game. Players.
• “Time is the root and the seed, it gives and it takes away. I bow to God, who lives in this world within us; whoever calls Him by any name, by that name does He come.”