Disclaimer: A venerable epic cannot be tainted by a perspective of a mere mortal. What follows is a useless musing, just a different perspective. If you are fiercely opinionated, do not read further!
A respite during the lockdown has been the screening of the evergreen epic series, "Mahabharat" (B.R.Chopra) on Doordarshan. Although a certain generation has seen it once before, it recreates the same excitement! As days passed, watching the series became a family ritual, with all our tasks scheduled around the screening.
My quirky yet sensible mother had a series of questions to ask...
• Why was Duryodhan not offered the throne, if he was the eldest son of the elder son?
• Why did Yudhistra not leave the dice game?
• As a friend, Karna could have persuaded Duryodhan towards what's right, not support his wrongdoings. That's a friend's duty, right?
• Why did Draupadi not apologize to Duryodhan, after insulting him?
• Why did Bhishma not order, instead of advising, Dhritarashtra to give Indraprastha to Pandavas?
• Was everyone partial to the Pandavas?
To the hundreds of questions that are created while listening to the story of each character in Mahabharat, there are debatable answers.
But one aspect that answers the trickiest of questions is "life choices".
Life gives us several opportunities to change its course. Like the flip of a coin, we have at least 50% chance to build our life. Despite destiny, we have free will too. Despite life events, we have the capacity to choose our response to the event. Every choice, every action or even inaction will lead us in a certain direction.
Mahabharata is a strong depiction of all of that - a story depicting the process of making a choice, the thoughts, the vulnerabilities, the questions, conflicts and complexity of a simple action or inaction. And a reminder that regardless of how tough a decision can be, it has the capacity to change your lives and the lives of others around you.
Destiny, therefore, is largely the cumulative effect of all our life choices.
No comments:
Post a Comment