I re-rewatched Gurcharan Das's talk on his book The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma, he covers everything that was going wrong in India of the early 2000s. But Mahabharta has timeless lessons from which one could easily draw parallels to the current events in the US.
These stories pose questions without giving answers (no simple answers, no ten commandments, no free ticket to heaven nor forgiveness inside a cozy booth). They teach about complexity and complex systems - it's a life long learning process to live in complexity. Even the doors of heaven wouldn't open if you don't treat all creatures equally.
The story unfolds as it did because a generation(s) ago, forefathers abused a puppy and that curse unleashes into 18 books of Mahabhartha and ends only when Yudistra refuses to enter heaven without his dog, Svana.
My grandmother's bedtime stories had planted the seeds for understanding the difficulty of being good and Mr. Das has taught me more nuanced lessons. Thank you, sir.
- Black lives matter (caste system which affected Karna)
- Arjun (go-getter CEO but flawed)
- Karna (The quintessential Adam Smith's man of virtue and wisdom and refuses everything under the sun for doing the right thing)
- Yudistira (the greatest king but flawed with a gambling problem)
- All characters including God, Krishna (who manipulated Karna to win the war) are flawed
- The hollowness in Pandvas lives even after winning the "just" war since it killed most people (the unbelievable ideology of markets and the made-up importance of economic growth with no respect nor regard for lives now)
- Uncle Sakuni (fake news, fox news, manipulating media)
- and finally around @25 minutes, Bhisma who is a great-grandfather figure of multiple generations sitting silently while they strip Draupadi is exactly what all respected senior GOP senators are doing while this psychopath at White House is ruining the civilization and basic sense of decency.
These stories pose questions without giving answers (no simple answers, no ten commandments, no free ticket to heaven nor forgiveness inside a cozy booth). They teach about complexity and complex systems - it's a life long learning process to live in complexity. Even the doors of heaven wouldn't open if you don't treat all creatures equally.
The story unfolds as it did because a generation(s) ago, forefathers abused a puppy and that curse unleashes into 18 books of Mahabhartha and ends only when Yudistra refuses to enter heaven without his dog, Svana.
My grandmother's bedtime stories had planted the seeds for understanding the difficulty of being good and Mr. Das has taught me more nuanced lessons. Thank you, sir.
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