Veda Vyasa's Mahabharatha is the biggest epic in the world. The story speaks of the five Pandavas who fought with their Kaurava cousins, headed by Duryodhana, for the throne of Hastinapur. The two sides hated each other enough to fight an 18 day war which nearly annihilated the entire warrior class which existed in those times. One character who is definitely interesting in the entire scheme of things is Karna also known as Radheya, who was the best friend of Duryodhana, the eldest Kaurava. The reason Karna is such an interesting character is that all his life he was always denied one thing - that he could have been the eldest Pandava....
An accomplished Kshatriya princess who falls in love with and dares to choose the sutaputra over Arjun, Uruvi must come to terms with the social implications of her marriage and learn to use her love and intelligence to be accepted by Karna and his family. Though she becomes his mainstay, counselling and guiding him, his blind allegiance to Duryodhana is beyond her power to change. The story of Uruvi and Karna unfolds against the backdrop of the struggle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. As events build up leading to the great war of the Mahabharata, Uruvi is a witness to the twists and turns of Karna's fate; and how it is inextricably linked to divine design.
I knew there was nothing poetic about death. I knew not that the most horrific battles are fought off the battlefield. Arjun: The idealist in a non-ideal world; the warrior whose deadliest opponent was his conscience. History forgot his voice, but misquoted his silence. My self-esteem originates from me and ends in me. Why does your honor depend on me? Find your own. Draupadi: The untamed tigress, the fragrant flame, the unbridled spirit. Power does not justify sin. Power is not virtue. Virtue is that which lasts in spite of power. Krishn: The enigma whose unique ideology churned the battlefield into a quest for Truth. The Missile …The Trajectory … The Vision. The trio that makes for the core of The Mahabharata (Indian Epic). This is their saga. Insightful, visceral and candid. Find ‘other’ famous Arjuns; compare Arjun vis-a-vis Achilles and Alexander; Explore Myths of Mahabharata. All this and much more in ‘Arjun: Without A Doubt’. First published in 2015 by Leadstart Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Genre: Epic/ Indian Mythology/ History/ Fiction Website: http://sweetyshinde.wordpress.com
Then, the exquisitely handsome body of Karna of generous acts, who should have been worthy of perpetual happiness, let go of that refulgent head with the kind of extreme reluctance evinced by a wealthy person in leaving his own prosperous home, or by a saintly one in forsaking virtuous company. [The Mahabharata, Karna-Parva; 91.53-54] In these lines of evocative pathos, the Mahabharata pays its ultimate tribute to Karna, who has hardly a rival in world literature to match his credentials as a uniquely nuanced heroes' hero – towering above Hector in righteous valour, above Arjuna in generosity, and above all else in conscientious attachment to the principles of noblesse oblige. This is the intriguing story of a hero who, despite being born to royalty was, like the Biblical Moses, cast away by his mother. Brought up lovingly by a lowly charioteer and his wife, his whole life was one great struggle against cruel destiny, and against all the odds placed in his way by the inequities of his time. In the process, he blazed a new trail of glory, emerging as the adorable exemplar of purushakaara (manly effort), with tremendous achievements both as a man and also as a warrior. Yet society never gave him his due, despite being as upright as Yudhishthira, as strong as Bhima, as skilful as Arjuna, as handsome as Nakula and as intelligent as Sahadeva. Rebuffed and insulted by society at every step, he developed some flaws engendered by a defiant spirit and nurtured by association with the evil designs of Duryodhana, his benefactor prince. But those very contrarieties seem to enhance and enliven the dramatic appeal of his character as one of the brightest stars of the Mahabharata's star cast. Written in an engagingly flowing style and with an imaginative transcreation of the epic storyline, Karna: the Unsung Hero of the Mahabharata should strike a responsive chord in the minds, specifically of today's Mahabharata aficionados and generally of all lovers of exalted human drama.
Irawati Karve studies the humanity of the Mahabharata`s great figures, with all their virtues and their equally numerous faults. Sought out by an inquirer like her, whose view of life is secular, scientific, anthropological in the widest sense, yet appreciative of literary values, social problems of the past and present alike, and human needs and responses in her own time and in antiquity as she identifies them... Seen through her eyes the Mahabharata is more than a work which Hindus look upon as divinely inspired, and venerate. It becomes a record of complex humanity and a mirror to all the faces which we ourselves wear.
THE FLOW OF THE ETERNALScience is yet to arrive at a final definition of life. It still divides everything into the living and the dead. But poets of lore treated it as a continuous flow from the life of the universe to the life of the tiniest sub-atomic particle and back. They experienced it and gave expression to the experience. The Vedas and the Upanishads are collections of these expressions.The art of yoga is the way to the experience, the essence of which is the process and the product of integration of one's life with the life of the universe.Fusion is the key word. Fusion of light with darkness, hate with love, knowledge with ignorance and so on. It is highly rewarding. Art and literature are means to it.In the oriental tradition of aesthetics, beauty is the state of an appreciable standard of integration. The greater it is, the more beautiful. The most beautiful is the perfectly integrated. It is the goal of life and the unmanifest persuasion behind all variations and explorations. So poetry like any other human endeavour should aspire to achieve it.Dr. Balakrishnan's poems do exactly that. His training and experience makes him amply qualified. He is a physician, he has seen various specimens of integration or the lack of it in terms of body parts and emotional inputs. He has apparently had his holy bath in texts of yore, the essence of the teachings going into him much deeper than skin. He knows, not just by theory but by practice too.THE FLOW OF THE ETERNALWell, what is the eternal? None else than the only factor that continues unchanged and unchangeable in us all through our lives and beyond. There is proof for the existence of such a factor. It can be discerned by four simple questions and the common-sense answers to them. Q.1: Is it or is it not right to suppose that there is an underlying force behind this vast and complicated universe? None can say it is not there. Q.2: Where can that force be residing - in a corner of the universe or everywhere in it simultaneously? Everywhere is the natural answer. Q.3: Should that force not be in us too as we too are in the universe? Of course, it should. Q.4: In that case, everything else in us being ephemeral, is it not the real us? The answer is the mahavakya 'Tat Twam Asi'.The problem is it is beyond words so all verbal effort to grasp it will come to nothing. But words can take us to its door step. This is what Dr. Balakrishnan's poetry does. And he does it beautifully. Mystic poets and Zen story tellers did the same in their own style. This poet does it in the style of our time.
Queen Kunti, a tragic and heroic figure, emerges from an explosive era in the history of ancient India. Her teachings are simple and illuminating outpourings revealing the deepest transcendental emotions of the heart and the deepest philosophical and theological penetrations of the intellect. At the conclusion of the devastating Kurukshetra war, Queen Kunti approaches Lord Krishna as He prepares to depart the scene of the battle. Kunti's words are words of glorification impelled by a divine love steeped in wisdom. Kunti's spontaneous glorification of Lord Krishna and her description of the spiritual path are immortalized in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana (Srimad-Bhagavatam), and they have been recited, chanted, and sung by sages and philosophers for thousands of years. As they appear in the First Canto of the Bhagavatam, Queen Kunti's celebrated prayers consist of only twenty-six couplets (verses 18 through 43 of the Eighth Chapter), yet they are considered a philosophical, theological, and literary masterpiece. Let her heartfelt words of wisdom bring solace to your soul.
Arjuna is the immortal tale of one of IndiaÕs greatest heroes. These pages retell in riveting detail the story of the Pandava Warrior-Prince who has captured the imagination of millions across centuries. This is the intense and human story of his loves, friendship, ambitions, weaknesses and follies, as well as his untimely death and revival, his stint as a eunuch, and the innermost reaches of his thoughts.Told in a refreshingly modern and humourous style and set against the staggering backdrop of the Mahabharata. ArjunaÕs story appeals equally to the average, discerning reader and the scholar. It spans the epic journey from before his birth, when omens foretold his greatness, across the fabled, wondrous landscape that was his life.
The world saw him as the son of a lowly charioteer, but Karna had the bearing of a prince. With his skill as a warrior, he could have re-written the tale of the Mahabharata. Fate, however, had other plans. This haunting tale of passion and loyalty presents the other side of the war, and a hero as shining as the sun.
Pritha, also known as Kunti, a protagonist of the epic Mahabharata, who is unfairly judged, ridiculed, and rejected talks about her journey through the epic. Suffering silently, an epitome of poise, integrity and stoicism, she tells you what the Mahabharata never told us. Isn’t there an element of Kunti in all the women out there? Journeying through her story, feminism takes a beautiful meaning and her true spirit unfolds a positivity of hope and beauty.
