Ashwathama is dead

-

After Bhishma was sent to his death bed by Arjuna, Drona took charge of the Kaurava army. What a great warrior he was! He was a great teacher too. He taught both Kauravas and Pandavas and knew the strengths and weaknesses of everyone involved. He was almost invincible with his knowledge of war schemes and weaponry. Sri Krishna understanding the frustration of Pandavas devised a plan to remove Drona from the war. Per his scheme, Yudhishtira will announce the death of Ashwathama. And the Pandava army would kill an elephant on their side named Ashwathama. Since Yudhishthira would not tell a lie, he was suggested to break the announcement in two parts – “Ashwathama is dead, though it could be human or the animal”. All the warriors were instructed to blow trumpets and conches to celebrate the victory as soon as Yudhisthira says the first part. Drona heard the news but couldn’t hear the second part. Filled with grief, he gave up fighting. Dhristhdyumna – son of his arch rival – Drupada, then beheaded Drona.

This is a very well-known and talked about story from Mahabharata. However, the lessons learnt from the story have been lost long before.

All heard stories or sentences have different meaning depending upon the mental state of the person hearing those. Filtering of information or selective dissipation of information can cause completely varying results. Similar information dissipation is also termed as “rumors”. We all have seen the havoc created through rumors all the time. Be smart – Don’t fall the way Drona did. Always examine, cross-examine what you hear before believing. Once the belief is made, your behavior and finally actions are defined.

Doesn’t the same applies to many a news articles being shown in various media? Often the news headlines make no sense to the article they are attached to. Or even the article does not conveys the complete information. It is very selective in the information displayed to suit the viewer’s mindset. This is a catch-22 situation. We see what we want. We are shown what we want. Ultimately, we start liking what we are shown. Who’s at fault?

Listen carefully. Think, examine, cross-examine.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flags and their meanings in Mahabharata

-
Image
Last night I was telling the bedside story to the younger love of my life, when she asked – “How do you identify the leader of the troop in a war – particularly in a warzone where a lot of people are fighting against each other”? While I explained to her how the modern warfare works and how the generals lead the army today, I also imagined the warcraft of yesterday and started to describe the vivid imagination fueled by the magnanimity of the movies like Bahubali, Bajirao Mastani and Padmaavat. The job was simple as we both had watched the movies together. And she understood all that I told her. Yet a question from her made me fumble – Do all the warriors have a flag on their chariot, and what do they mean? In my research for the answer, I stumbled upon the information that I would like to share with you too. In the Viraat Parva of Mahabharata, Arjuna under the disguise of Brihannala plays the role of the charioteer for Prince Uttara of Virata kingdom. Under the condition...
Read more

Ganesha - Reviving the series - 10

-
Image
The series cannot be completed without mentioning the reach of Lord Ganesha to cultures outside of India. In this last post for this year’s series, I shall try to present some more lesser known facts about the spread of the Lord Ganesha’s influence in Indian and non Indian cultures. During the early medieval period, both Jains and Buddhists incorporated Ganesh into their pantheon. The Ganesha cult thus travelled with the Mahayana Buddhism to distant lands, including Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia and Japan. Ganesha’s worship spread in all the regions rapidly. Manjangan ( Ganesha ) temple in  Bali ,  Indonesia Ganesha in Ta Prohm, Angkor For the Jains, Ganesha appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. The earliest reference to Ganesha in Jainism is in the Abhidhanacintamani of Hemachandra. It refers to several appelations of Lord Ganesha such as Herama, Ganavgnesa and Vinayaka and visualizes him as elephant headed, po...
Read more

Karwa Chauth - Why does moon rise so late?

-
I have often wondered as to why the moon rises late on the Karwa Chauth night. It’s probably because our hungry stomachs rebel and start cursing the moon instead of praying, that slows it down! Actually on a full moon day, the moon rises exactly at the time of sunset. The moon takes 27.3 days to travel once around the earth. This is also the next full moon day. To travel 360 degrees in 27.3 days, the moon moves approx. 13 degrees towards the east every day. Thus the moon rise increases by approx. 48 min per day in relation to the sunset. On the Karva Chauth day – 4 days after the full moon day, the moon rises 48*4 = 192 min (3 hrs and 12 min) after the sunset. Now please do notice the moon rise timings everyday and see the pattern!
Read more