MAHABHARAT AND SYMBOLISM

   Now a days we all consider ourselves as intellectual. In past we did not question everything, as there was some faith and some trust  and sometimes we were told that 'that is the way it is'. So I often get questions about the characters in Mahabharat. I have written about it in past and many have written about it too. Everyone has his own thought process and some explanation. Recently I saw some videos on social medias trying to explain the major characters, and so I thought of writing this blog.

   The story is very interesting and it starts with King Shantanu marrying Ganga. She had made him promise that he would never question as to what she does to her children , Then she drowns the first 7 and then 6th one is BHISHMA and when Shantanu questions her as to her behavior , she leaves him taking Bhisham with her. The king does get back  Bhishma, but then he falls in love with MASYAGANDHA -smell of fish - a fisherman's daughter and later known as SATYVATI. She gives birth to VYAS and then Vyas impregnates AMIKA AND AMBALIKA and then DRITHRASHTRA AND PANDU are born .The DRITHRASHTRA is blind  and PANDU is WHITE Drithrashtra is married to Gandhari and has 100 children known as KAURAWAS and Pandu with help of 6 different DEVAS has 6 Kids . The first one Karna is serrated and is brought up by charioteer. The rest of his kids are known as PANDAWAS. Their mother Kunti tells Arjuna to 'share ' his winning prize with his brothers and so then Draupadi becomes wife of all five brothers. 

   The problem is with many parts of the story . Bhisma kidnapping 2 young girls from their wedding, then asking Vyas to impregnate them to have kids. the Pandawas sharing Draupadi who now has 5 husbands and many other .  

  There are many ways to interpret these seemingly abnormal behavior. e.g. one lady marrying 5 brothers , Having sons from different deities etc.

  So, I will try to explain some of the characters in Mahabharat.Leyt me start with Dronachary. He was the teacher of both Pandawas and Kaurawas. He was named as DRONA as he was born out of DRONA which is bowl made of dry leaves of a tree. In India people used that and the plate made out of same leaves called PATRAWALI. He became Guru or the teacher and so the Drona changed to DRONACHARY .Rishi BHARADWAJ went a river to take a bath and saw a beautiful APSARA named KRINJI or GHRITANJI  and had spontaneous ejaculation . He stored that in a pot or Drona nd the child born is DRONA. He was married to KRIPI who was sister of KRIPACHARY .The had a son named ASHWASTHMA, who is CHIRANJIV or will never die. 

 The symbolism of Dronachary is that it represents last life SUNSKARAS or impressions. Every action we take has impression and that is stored till it is fructified Since we have many lives and so we have ton of - unending Karmas or actions, we never can exhaust the impressions . That is why Drona's son is immortal or CHIRANJIV. We have bad karmas and good karmas and so we have bad impressions and desires and lust and we have good karmas and desires . So these impressions guide us or make us do things in present life . So Dronachary as teacher was teaching KAURAWAS - WHO WERE BAD  and PANDAWS who were righteous or good. 

  We talk on other characters in next blog..