Mahabharata - Lessons from Krishna - Season 1

These quotes are all from Star Plus Mahabharat series. I've followed many versions of Mahabharata, and really loved this progressive interpretation with high quality production values and dialogue. Would recommend you all to watch it. It is available on hotstar in multiple languages. Mahabharata is a very complex web of characters open to diverse interpretations. Krishna's perspective and insights interweaved in this version really stand out. I've collected them here as I feel they contain valuable life lessons.

1) When desires shatter, knowledge is born: Desires make most people run around akin to the mirages of an oasis that make animals chase them. Their desires never truly perish. However, in the very womb of these desires, lies the light of knowledge. When desires go unfulfilled and shatter, rays of knowledge enter the human heart in that precise moment. This knowledge teaches about the meaning of life, the duties of a human being, and the deeds which can make you rise and shine like a lotus from filth.

Reference - Season 1 Episode 1:- On Satyavati's desire - Full dialogue below:

// Desires, hopes, expectations, ambitions - these are the driving forces of human society. Are they not? If someone asks you about who you are, what would your answer be? Meditate about it. 

You will discover that your desires are what ultimately define your life. The success on achieving something, and the failure on not achieving something - these define you. Most people lead a life marked by the lethal desire to achieve many things but their desires never truly perish (or end). Desires make them run around akin to the mirages of an oasis that make animals chase them. However, in the very womb of these desires, lies the light of knowledge. How? 

When desires go unfulfilled and shatter, rays of knowledge enter the human heart in that precise moment. 

No. This is not a tale of the battle of desires. It's not a tale of any horrific battle born out of ambitions. This tale is about the knowledge which arises from the womb of desires. I, Vasudev Krishna, invite all of you to make this journey which will teach you the meaning of life. It will teach you the duties of a human being. It will teach you the deeds to rise and shine like a lotus from filth. The name of this journey is Mahabharat. //

2) How can parents help their children: Happiness and security are attained by human karma, and cannot be planned by parents for their children. Enhance your children's character instead of worrying about their future. Ideals and learning develop one's character. Instil good values and lessons - this is what creates their karma ultimately.

Reference - Season 1, Episode 2:- On Satyavati's concern to secure her children's future - Full dialogue below:

// To try and fill the lives of their children with happiness - this is the foremost duty of all parents. The ones you bring into this world - their acts would earn you an identity in this world - what else could be more valuable than planning for their future? But, aren't happiness and security - attained by human karma? 

The good or bad values instilled by the parents, the adequate and inadequate lessons taught by them - are these not the basic value of all the karma? Ideals and learning develop one's character. This means, the way the parents develop their child's character is what determines the child's future. Yet, most parents, in the process of securing their children's future, forget to enhance their character. Thus, the parents who worry about the future of their children - their children never benefit from anything. But the parents who aren't worried about their future, but are more concerned about developing their character - the whole world praises such children. You should think about it. //

3) Life doesn't go as per plan: One incident, one challenge, one impediment, one distress cannot become the epicentre of life. Future doesn't go as per our plans. A person climbing a mountain can never change the mountain, but can adapt to the mountain. At every step, new obstacles are to be met with, old plans need to be changed, decisions on next moves are to be taken. Instead of trying to change life, adapting yourself to changing situations is the only path to success and happiness.

Reference - Season 1, Episode 4:- On Amba's marriage plans being disrupted - Full dialogue below:

// Sometimes, an incident disrupts all the plans of a human being, and that person considers the distress to be the epicentre of hir life. But is the future determined on the basis of the plans of human beings? 

No. Just as the first person to climb atop a tall mountain would have made plans when at the foot of the mountain.. But, do these plans actually get hir to the peak? No. In reality, as the person climbs up the mountain, they come across new obstacles, impediments and difficulties. At every step, the person decides what is to be done next. The person needs to change plans at every step of the way. A previous plan might just make the person fall down a chasm. The person is never able to change the mountain according to will. The person can only adapt to the mountain. 

Is this not the case with life as well? When a person considers one challenge, one impediment as the epicentre of one's life and puts an end to everything else in the course of life, then that person can never succeed in life, and neither can that person achieve happiness and peace. In other words, instead of trying to change life, adapting yourself to changing situations is the only path to success and happiness. Think about it. //

4) Living in the present: Life lies neither in the future nor in the past. Life is the present moment. Living in the present moment is the true essence of living. We can neither foresee the future nor shape it - All we can do is embrace the future with patience and courage, and welcome it with open arms.

Reference - Season 1, Episode 6:- On Amba's desire to seek revenge - Full dialogue below:

// The other name of future is struggle. If today's desire of the heart goes unfulfilled, then the heart plans for the future. It keeps imagining the fulfilment of the desire in the future. But life... Life lies neither in the future nor in the past. Life is the present moment. In other words, living in the present moment is the true essence of living. But despite knowing this, we are unable to understand this truth. We are absorbed in pondering about the past or we keep planning for the future. And life... Life just goes by. 

If we accept the cardinal rule that we can neither foresee the future nor shape it - All we can do is embrace the future with patience and courage, and if we welcome it with open arms, won't each moment in life be filled with 'life'? Think about it. //

5) Preconceived notions, biases and hate we pass to our children: The wishes, hopes and ambitions of ancestors, and also their anger, enmity and revenge - become the legacy of future generations. Parents try their best to give their children all the happiness of the world, but end up giving them their own agony as wealth. They give them the light of love as well as the darkness of hate. Did we not impart to our children the preconceived notions of good and bad, or pass on hate? These notions lead to the conflict between people, societies and nations, and give rise to murder, death, and bloodshed. Wherever darkness resides, the result is only fear.

Reference - Season 1, Episode 7:- On Panchala king celebrating birth of Shikandini to destroy Bhishma - Full dialogue below:

// The wishes, hopes and ambitions of ancestors, and also their anger, enmity and revenge - become the legacy of future generations. Parents try their best to give their children all the happiness of the world, but end up giving them their own agony as wealth. They intend to give them love, but end up filling them with hate. Think about it. 

What have you taught your children till date? You must have given them love, knowledge and wealth. But did you not fill their hearts with hate as well? Did you not impart to them the preconceived notions of good and bad? Does the conflict of one man with another, that of one society with another, and that of one nation with another, not get decided by these preconceived notions? Do murder, death and bloodshed not arise from these preconceived notions? 

In other words, parents give their children life as well as death. They give them the light of love as well as the darkness of hate. Darkness may reside in the mind or in the heart or in reality, but the result of it is only fear. Only.. fear. //

Related posts:

1. Krishna's lessons from season 2 - link

Closing the lid to be happy with our choice

How does closure affect choice overload?

In last week's behavioral economics class, we were discussing choice overload effect. It is well-established that having too many options to choose from affects how happy we are with our choice negatively. This means we are less happy with our choice when we have more options to choose from, potentially because of cognitive load for comparison, regret escalation etc. But moving this forward, in class, we discussed an interesting experiment on how closure effects happiness with choices made.

In this experiment, two groups of people were asked to pick a chocolate from a box with 6 types of chocolates or 24 types of chocolates. In the earlier version, people who picked from the 6 chocolates were happier with their choice than the ones who picked from 24. This is due to choice overload.

Now the twist.. In this variation, people were asked to close the lid of the box after they pick the chocolate. This time, both the groups of people were equally happy with their choices. That was my 'epiphany moment' on handling choice overload. Sometimes we need to 'close the lid' on the other options to be happy with our decision and avoid regret.

So that's one non-academic take-away for me: To close the lid on the options which I need to leave behind :)

Arishadvargas - The six inner enemies

This is following from Hindu philosophy that our enemies are always from within, and these six flaws fail us in discovering our inner consciousness and becoming enlightened. These succinctly summarise most of human failings:

Kama: Lust / Obsessive desire - This one needs a bit of elaboration. Firstly, the Hindu philosophy does not advocate repressing sexuality or sexual desires, till so long as they are righteous, and not against Dharma (moral code). Kama is not wrong if it is in sync with Dharma. Secondly, Kama is not only about sexual desires and is interpreted in a broader sense to apply to any obsessive desire for worldly, aesthetic pleasures. Desire is not wrong, but obsessive desire with a narrow purpose focusing only on pleasure will make life meaningless if we brood all the time only on it, without trying to make any lasting impact. Obsessive desire breeds greed and infatuation, and failure to fulfill it causes anger and jealously. We will react arrogantly even if we fulfill it successfully because we lose balance out of obsession.

Krodha: Anger - As someone who worked on anger issues a lot over years, it takes no convincing for me to admit that this is a fatal flaw. We fill our lives with misery and lose relationships because of our failure to control anger.

Lobha: Greed - To understand this, consider the opposite: Contentment. Greed is our failure to be grateful for what we have. It is our inability to be happy for others when they have something that we don't. We often forget to count our blessings. It is not wrong to seek more and work towards achieving it. But the principle of Karma from Bhagavad Gita says that we can control our actions and attempts, and not the outcome which is shaped by destiny. When we attempt out of greed, we have expectations about the outcome and will be subject to disappointments. When we work out of sincerity and give up greed, we will not be perturbed much by the outcomes. We enjoy the journey.

Moha: Delusional attachment / Infatuation / Attraction - Moha is a complicated concept in Hindu philosophy. Attachments are bound to form when there is love right? Is it wrong to love? What about love for family and friends? Should we give up on our duty towards them? To understand this, let us look at the opposite of Moha. The opposite of the state of infatuation is the state of devotion (bhakti). So, actually, where there is love, there is no infatuation at all! There is only dedication and submission. Moha stems from ego and delusions, bhakti stems from love and humility. 

What about other attractions? It is human to have likes and preferences. Should we stop enjoying life? Well, of course, we can and should derive whatever happiness is possible from our life experiences. The question is: Are our sources and priorities right? How do we react if we lose the sources? Irritated? Angry? Devastated? Are all the things that do this to us really that important? If you lose a loved one, it is truly devastating. But what about when the restaurant screwed up your order? If we ponder on this, the concept of 'delusional attraction' becomes clear. It is a reminder that the world does not operate as per our wishes and our happiness must come from within. We should not lose sight of the 'big picture' in daily life and have our priorities right. We can then cope better with times when we do not have access to things that are supposedly 'necessary' for our happiness.

Mada: Ego / Arrogance - Mada is a delusional sense of self-worth. It makes us intolerant. It results in failure to identify/accept our flaws and to see/absorb the good from others. The opposites are humility and gratitude. Gratitude, either through the path of Bhakti towards God or through the path of conscious self-check reminds us that we were never alone in doing what we have been able to do - We almost always had help. 

Can we not take pride in our accomplishments? We can, without forgetting to give credit where it is due. Without letting it affect our tolerance and openness to accept flaws in us and others. 

Matsarya: Jealousy / Envy - If you are upset because of not having something, you can try to gain it. But jealousy is being upset that others have something. There is no solution to this because it is not derived from what you have or don't have. If you are not able to be happy for others, the least you can do is not let their happiness upset you. Duryodhana's story from the Mahabharata is an example of how succumbing to excessive jealousy destroys one's happiness.  His envy of the Pandavas diminished his sense of right & wrong, brought him misery, and ultimately ruined everyone associated with him.

Referred to jointly as Kama-Krodha-Lobha-Moha-Mada-Matsaryamulu or the Arishadvargas, these six traits represent what we should forgo to fulfill our true purpose. To be successful and happy, we need to remember that our worst enemies are the ones from within and pray for the strength to overcome them. We can practice this by analyzing how these traits are causing us unhappiness whenever we feel negative emotions regularly.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this philosophical topic - please do comment.