Reading Notes: Pattanaik's Jaya, Part F

Reading Notes: Pattanaik's Jaya, Part F

(Krishna and Arjuna blowing the conch to start the war)

Story Source: Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattanaik (2010).

Gathering: Negotiations

• Pandavas return to Indraprastha 
• Sages thought Duryodhana's stand was against dharma
• Dhritarashtra confirmed Arjuna and Krishna were Nara and Narayana, and that Krishna was Vishnu
• Kuru household was about to be humbled
• Krishna went to talk to Duryodhana
• Krishna said: "A word is a word."
• Duryodhana refused peace by not giving the Pandavas any property, destroying the foundation of dharma
• Krishna revealed his celestial form: thousand heads breathing fire, grinding world between his teeth, larger than the world
• Dhritarashtra "saw God" the first thing he has ever seen and asked to be blind again
• Story idea: Dharma having a conversation narrating karmic consequences on Earth

A Fierce Mother and a Loyal Friend

• Kunti told Krishna to tell Pandavas the story of Vidula
• Krishna visited Karna: loyalty to a man who had gone back on his word would only breed adharma (219)
• Krishna revealed that Karna is Kunti's child, and that Draupadi was actually his wife too
• Karna was mistreated by Kuru elders and Bhishma
• Bhishma told Karna he wasn't as good as Arjuna
• Duryodhana told Karna not to fight

Changing Sides

• Shalya sided with Karna to throw him off, first sign of psychological warfare
• Struggle between family and righteousness 

One or the Other Side

• Arjuna wanted Krishna for his strategy, Duryodhana wanted Krishna's Narayani army to fight
• "One Krishna was more than all the armies of the Pandavas and Kauravas put together" (223)
• Note: difference between 'me and mine' that Krishna posed is seeking soul vs. being satisfied with matter. (224)

On Neither Side

• Balarma to Bhima and Duryodhana: "Fools. Vengeance will never take away sorrow. It will breed more anger." (225)
• Balarma went on a pilgrimage instead of fighting for either side.
• Rukmi, Krishna's brother-in-law, was rejected by both sides.   

The Gathering of Forces

• Pandavas stood facing East for gold sun lighting
• many rules
• Yudhishthira went up and hugged Bhishma and Drona, apologizing for the situation making them enemies
• Bhishma and Drona were sad and hugged him

Perspective: Song of God (Bhagavad Gita)

• Arjuna struggled because it was conflicting dharma to fight family
• Krishna said it was Arjuna's duty as a Kshatriya
• Krishna sang this in song
• death of flesh, soul never dies
• soul exists to direct the soul
• the world is temporary
• humans blessed with intelligence, most blessed
• "The world you perceive is actually a delusion (maya) based on your chosen measuring scale."
• Arjuna if enlightened would have fought without anger and killed without hate, like Yudhishthira 
• Life becomes pursuit of comfort
• External world fluctuates between inertia, agitation, and harmony
• Krishna: "Changes in the material world are not random. They are essentially reactions of past actions. No event is spontaneous; it is the result of many past events. This is karma. The events in your life are the result of your past deeds, performed in this lifetime or the ones before. You alone are responsible for it. Such is the law of karma. Unless you experience the reactions past actions, you will continue to be reborn." (235)
• actions not driven by ego do not generate karma
• fighting with anger leads to samsara, fighting with empathy and wisdom leads to moksha
• Duryodhana acts out of fear. He acts like a beast guarding his territory
• Krishna revealed celestial form to Arjuna
• "Arjuna saw all that was, is and will be" sounds like a line from the Bible (238)
• Arjuna felt like a grain of sand on a vast endless beach
• enlightened are at peace even in war
• Note: Bhagavad Gita is God speaking to man
• Rationalists wonder how this long discourse took place while the armies were waiting, but the argument is that God is outside of time and space

War: Bloodbath

• details of battle

Sacrifice for Victory

• more details of battle
• Arjuna's son with Naga princess Ulupi, Iravan offered himself as a sacrifice to Kali, the goddess of the battlefield
• Iravan wanted a wife so he wouldn't die a virgin, but no woman wanted him, so Krishna took the female form of Mohini 

A Woman on the Battlefield

• Krishna got Arjuna to get Bhishma to lower his weapon by using a woman
• Shikhandi, Draupadi's brother, was a woman turned man
• "is gender defined by the truth of birth or by the truth of this moment?" (250)
• Arjuna shot Bhishma

Drona's Onslaught

• Arjuna still struggling with Krishna's advice

Death of Abhimanyu

• Abhimanyu dies