The Twist in the Tale

So, which is the greatest story of all times?
Would you say, Godan? Or, Devdas? Or Sholay or Guide?
Or shall we expand the horizon? Gulliver's Travels? Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? What about The Godfather? The Dark Knight? Harry Potter? There are too many contenders, really. And I could have just missed your favourite pick.

What makes a good narration a contender for one of the greatest stories of all times? A twist, which quite often is not the very soul of the story, not even the protagonist or the narrator. A trigger which causes the very events to start and flow which form the very backbone of the entire story. The twist may not be that apparent or may even lose its face as the story progresses, but is the most important singular point in the story.
While in Devdas, the twist could be attributed to Narayan Mukherjee who caught Paro with Devdas in his room, Sybill Trelawney takes the honours in Harry Potter when she made the famous prophecy. Be it the villagers who caught Raju guide stealing from temple or Dr. Jekyll's insanity to differentiate from his wicked self. Be it the train robbery in Sholay or the shipwreck in Gulliver's Travels, not always have the twists got the recognition, or shall I say, coverage, they deserved.

What about the Mahabharata?

The first marriage: King Subala of Gandhara, which now falls around modern day Kandahar in Afghanistan, once performed a very holy Yagna in his kingdom.
An astrologer who had attended the Yagna advised him to get his daughter married off to a goat, to bring fortunes upon herself and her family. Heeding to his advise, King Subala got Gandhari married to a goat, and then killed the goat subsequently. Technically, this made Gandhari a widow and Dhritrashtra her second husband.
This fact, though a bit trivial, however was kept hidden from Dhritrashtra, the eldest prince of Kuru kingdom, who was blind since birth. Gandhari had voluntarily decided to blindfold herself throughout her married life.

The moment of truth: Dhritrashtra, eventually learned about the truth of her wife, and decided to punish the entire Subala clan. He imprisoned all of them, and used to supply one handful of rice for all of them every single day. With such a meager amount of food, most of the members of the family died eventually.
King Subala decided that one of them should live and avenge the death of the entire family. From then itself, all the rice allocated for the family was fed to the youngest son, who eventually went on to become stronger and much sharper than before.

Why Shakuni?: Subala had 100 sons whom Dhritrashtra had imprisoned when he came to know of the absolute truth about his wife's marriage to a goat. Subala decided to take a test of all the sons, so as to decide who would be getting that one handful of rice to live and sustain and avenge their family's destruction. He gave a bone to each one of his son, and asked them to put a thread through it. None of his other sons were able to complete the task when Shakuni tied the thread to an ant who went through the entire length of the bone to reach a grain of rice at the other end.

Death of Subala: Subala realized that he could no longer survive, and would eventually die of hunger, he requested Dhritrashtra to forgive him and his only son left till then. He promised that his son would not claim any right to his throne and would always be a guardian to all the 101 children of Dhritrashtra, the Kauravas.
Dhritrashtra took pity on the old man and freed him eventually.and his son.

The Twist in the Tale: King Subala, before dying, instructed to make a pair of dice from his bones, which would always produce the numbers requested by him. He also asked Shakuni to be the reason of downfall of the entire Kaurava clan.
As promised, Shakuni became the guardian of the 101 Kauravas, and was the sheet anchor of the entire "Chaupad" episode in Mahabharata, which then led to the very war of Mahabharat. He provoked the Kauravas to do all the incorrect acts and thus formed the very basis of all the wrongdoings of Kauravas.
As per other legends, it is believed that when Bhishmapitamah brought the matrimonial proposal of Dhritrashtra for Gandhari. The royal Gandhars felt angry and insulted that their princess was proposed of marrying a blind person. The Kurus were mighty kingdom, and refusing the proposal of a mighty king was akin to being suicidal, so they were left with practically no choice but to accept the proposal of Bhishmapitamah.
The anger, however propelled the king and his son Shakuni to avenge for the insult and Shakuni vowed to being an important tool in eliminating the entire Kaurava clan.

The Smart moves: Shakuni, by his sheer intelligence and judgement of characters, was smart enough to sense the jealousy and anger trapped inside the heart of Duryodhana towards his cousin brothers, and how he also feared them for their chivalry. He had also judged Yudhishtir's love for gambling and how he could be manipulated to keep playing in spite of losses.
Another smart move which Shakuni applied was that he had guessed Krishna as one of those persons who would be able to successfully foil all his plans for Kauravas in pitching them against Pandavas. For this reason, each one of his manipulations and moves was done at a time when Krishna was away from the Pandavas.

The Tricks and Tweaks: To say that Shakuni was the brains behind all the master plans which the Kauravas instrumented against Pandavas, would not at all be exaggerating things. He was the brains behind cajoling Yudhishtir to play Chaupad and then lose all of his kingdom and royalty, right to his family to Duryodhana. He again, was the one who suggested 12 year exile for Pandavas and 1 year anonymity exile after their loss in Chaupad. He was the one who suggested to wage a war against the kingdom that was holding the Pandavas secretly, so that they are revealed and they may again be sent for 12 year exile.
It was Shakuni idea to burn down the house of lac where Pandavas were supposedly hidden and could have died, and also it was his idea to send Durvasa sage to the forests where the Pandavas were living so that he may curse them.

A figure to worship?: Even though, unlike Ravana, the name of Shakuni is associated with pure villainy, a temple of Shakuni is located in Kerela at Pavitreshwaram. The temple as such doesnt encourage any puja or worship, just a few offerings are  made in the form of coconuts.

It is notable indeed that in his endeavour to avenge the destruction of his family, or maybe to help his nephews out in defeating the Pandavas, Shakuni himself never properly ruled his own kingdom. Seeing the atrocities he meted out on Pandavas, keeping Kauravas in front, Sahadeva, one out of the five Pandavas vowed to kill Shakuni and avenge all that he did to hurt their dignity and prestige. Shakuni had two sons, Uluk, who was killed by Nakul and Kalikeya, who was killed by Abhimanyu. Shakuni himself was killed by Sahadeva on 18th day of Mahabharat.

Symbolically, Shakuni represented the Dwapar Yuga, a time when brother would kill brother in the quest for power, and Shakuni was the catalyst.

Twists have a peculiar habit, they make a story a legend, but somehow get lost amidst the main themes, the protagonists, the major players of the story. Shakuni, as such, doesn't enjoy any kind of divinity which his contemporary characters command and receive, but his role in one of the biggest epics of all times, certainly deserves a special mention

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The Krishna Advantage

In older times, old enough to be termed mythological, the kings used to have a council of ministers, The Board of directors, who used to suggest various methods and tools to improve and expand their kingdom, generate more profits, while keeping the people happy.

Now, not all the kings were exactly concerned with keeping their people happy, they were more concerned with their exploits and trying hard for their names to be etched into the memory of all future generations to come. So, you have books and songs written about them, huge palaces built by them, and cities being named after them. Out of these kings, seldom came the ones, who had perfected the art and skills of management so well, that not only they grew to the divine status they deserved and commanded back in those times, they are synonymous to God even thousands of years later in this modern world. Lord Rama was one, Lord Krishna, another.

They didnt have any educational degrees back then, and neither the colleges which would specialize in such courses, so the practice of "branding" people with their educational qualification didnt exist. Whatever knowledge they possessed was majorly on account of them being earned through their initial years in Gurukuls and then while gaining experience when interacting with the world. It therefore, would be no smaller a feat, if a legend rises high, so as to attain a divine status. Sri Krishna had all what it takes to be one of the greatest managers of all times, and we are not talking of Bhagvad Gita yet.

(Credits- www.totalbhakti.com)

Ethics first: So, Arjuna was the husband of Krishna's half sister. And that would make him an ideal choice for Krishna to take sides with. Why the dilemma then, when both Duryodhana and Arjuna visited him to ask for his help?

Being an upholder of Dharma, Krishna would never take sides based on relations. An attribute similar to the concept of Internal Equity in management terms.

So, Krishna not only gives both of them an equal opportunity to take him into their sides(and Duryodhana pretty much knows it, the reason why he approaches Krishna), he also decides to be fair again and asks Arjuna to make a choice between himself and his entire army. Arjuna chooses Krishna himself, and the entire army is given to Duryodhana. So, Krishna always put ethics ahead of priorities. But now the question, why did Krishna give Arjuna the chance to make a choice?

(Credits- gardenofthefareast.com)

Why Arjuna? As per legends, Krishna was sleeping when both Duryodhana and Arjuna arrived near his bed side to ask for his help. Duryodhana arrived first, and considering himself to be the superior one, sat besides Krishna's head. Arjuna, who respected Krishna as a father-figure sits near his feet. When Krishna wakes up, he sees Arjuna first, and thus, decides to give him the choice of choosing first.

Krishna makes this decision, not because he knows that Arjuna respects him a lot and considers him a father-figure(that would have been a bad management skill!)

Krishna is always considered a father-figure, a Guru in the entire Mahabharata. If legends are to be believed, he has already shown God-like attributes and miracles before this setting. Still, Duryodhana, bitten by his ego, chooses not to respect Krishna, costing him the opportunity to make the first choice. Arjuna, a warrior himself greater than all his contemporaries, displays the qualities of a humble person. Arjuna places his aim and vision ahead of his ego and thus, Krishna chooses him to make his choice first.

On a side note, Duryodhana was quite happy on being given the army, this was what he would have chosen anyways.

(Image taken from internet)

Raas-Leela: I have never seen a divine and sacred term being misused and quoted in such derogatory terms as Raas-Leela, special thanks to Bollywood. 

As per legends, in Raas Lila, Krishna plays flute and girls danced around him. The Raas Leela happens in dark forests, where the girls are away from security of home and family, yet feel secure enough. They dance around Krishna, not for any duty or custom, they do so for the love of him, at their own free will. Krishna is believed to be giving complete attention to each and every girl, and the moment they try to gather more part of his attention or feel Krishna loves her more, Krishna disappears for her.

The above setting is the perfect model of how an organizational setup is ought to be. Everyone feels equally appreciated and safe within the realms of the organizational culture. No one is supposed to be jealous and there should be gradual warmth among people. There should be perfect harmony, and its all in the hands of the manager, the leader, the Krishna.

(Image taken from internet)

On another side-note, Krishna was only 8-10 years old when he performed the Raas Leelas, so to use the term in derogatory terms by Bollywood is not only incorrect, it is highly stupid.

Commitments First: Radha was the first and the biggest love of Krishna's life. They loved each other like the body and soul(jeev-Atma and Param-atma). What then, made him leave her and travel to Mathura?

(Image taken from internet)

Krishna and Radha were together since their early childhood days. It is even believed that radha was born blind, and she gained her sight only after seeing Krishna. The childhood pranks, the games they played together and their celebration of Holi is legendary. But, as a child, Krishna never knew that he was destined to be a king, nor did Radha.

Once Krishna knew he was to kill Kansa and then be crowned as the King, Radha choses to stay back and keep alive the memroies of their love together. A staunch believer of Karma, Krishna knew his destiny was now different from Radha and their love would never be the same once they are together in the palace. Her staying back would etch their eternal love forever in the Vrindavan.

Krishna chose to follow his commitments over his personal prefernces. He could have chosen to stay back, but then the world would never have seen such a just and enigmatic King. The Mahabharat would not have been won by Pandavas, the Bhagvad Geeta never told. The power of letting your personal desires go in the pursuit of betterment of organization is what he teaches us.

(Image taken from internet)

The Strategist: Krishna knew, had guessed it from the start itself, that with a smaller force, the Pandavas dont have much of a chance against the mighty Kauravas who had the likes of Duryodhana, Karna, Bhish-Pitamah, to name a few. He also knew that though Kauravas would stoop low to unethical methods, if situation demands it, but the Pandavas would never do it under Yudhishtira.

As a smart strategist, he never broke any rule, but bent the semantics of the rules much to the benefit of the Pandavas.

He knew Bhishm-Pitamah would never attack a eunuch, so he asks Shikhandi to stand in front of Arjuna while Arjuna shoots his arrows at him. Arjuna vowed that he would kill Jayadratha before sunset and Jayadratha goes into hiding. Krishna stages a solar eclipse to make Jayadratha believe the sun has set and come out of hiding.

A good and ethical manager never breaks the rules of the organization and the society, but should be smart enough to bend these rules, being in the realms of ethical processes, to the benefit of his company.

(Image taken from internet)

The Motivator: And finally the Bhagvad Geeta. For the sake of upliftment of Dharma, and the destruction of Adharma, Krishna would never shy away from taking any step. Even if it would mean destruction, it would be creative. Arjuna was worried that the people he is fighting are his own family, and there will be blood shed. Krishna not only motivates him to gear up for the battle to follow, he emphasizes on creative destruction. He controls the entire army of Pandavas under his single command and guides them to victory, in spite of facing the mammoth Kauravas.

And to think of it, in the end, Krishna had vowed not to play any combative role in the entire war. He was there as a strategist, motivator, a guiding force, never really taking part in the war physically, the qualities a good manager ought to have. In-spite of a smaller workforce, he guides them to success, purely based on his management skills. Skills, which no one taught him,which cannot be imparted, he learnt it himself. Each chapter of his life, be it his friendship with Sudama, his friendship with Arjuna, his fight with Kansa, has a lot to teach us. No wonder, he commands one of the biggest headcount of devotees in Hinduism.

Jai Shri Krishna

Coming up with a book based on Indian history/mythology.
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Image Credits

References:
1.) http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/slideshows/management-leaders/6-management-lessons-from-various-forms-of-lord-vishnu/krishna-on-not-being-wrong-in-breaking-rules-if-dharma-is-upheld/slideshow/19126174.cms
2.)http://themotivatorsarab.blogspot.in/2009/11/lessons-from-life-of-lord-krishna.html
3.) http://www.slideshare.net/ravi_volley/lord-krishna-as-a-strategist
4.) http://www.academia.edu/1055932/Application_of_Mythology_in_Modern_Indian_Management_Practices
5.) http://eawc.evansville.edu/essays/de.htm
6.) http://www.hinduhumanrights.info/why-did-krishna-choose-arjuna-instead-of-karna-drona-o-bhishma/

The Matrix Reloaded

असतो  मा सद  गमय,
(Lead us from darkness to the light)
तमसो मा  ज्योतिर गमय, 
(Lead us from knowledge of the unreal to the real)
मृत्योरमा अमृतं  गमय.
(Lead us from fear of death to knowledge of our immortality)
शांति, शांति , शांति .
(Peace, peace, peace.)

One of the biggest and most successful franchises of all times in the world, ends their trilogy in the year 2003 with four simple lines taken from Brihadaranyaka Upanishada.
Composed into an adrenaline rushing melody by Don Davis, he named the track "Navras".

Epic, for the first time in the history of cinema, had truly found a new address. The address was by the name of The Matrix. The grandest and the most complex phenomenon had hit the world, and till that day, Nolan wouldn't have even conceptualized Inception and Cameron had already given up the idea of Avatar once. Though, some would argue that The Matrix is much more complex than Inception and much more grand than Avatar, and believe me, I would not argue back on this.

Ever thought, what made the Wachowski Brothers end their most grand, most colossal and most ambitious project with a verse out of the sacred books of Hinduism, with all the cultures of the world at their helm to look into? Of course, they had to choose something eventually,  one could argue. And that seems true for a while. But as we try to dig in deeper and try to see more than whats easily visible to the eyes, reality confronts us on its own. There are obvious signs of Hindu symbolism all over The Matrix, and the verse was not a mere chance.

Namaste and welcome to the ninth post of the blog. I wish to take up yet another used and majorly discussed topic of all times. Understanding the pan-Indian philosophy of The Matrix. While its a mighty known fact that the entire movie was based around on the concept of Karma and the notion of One-ness (Neo being an anagram of One), I would still like to talk about the lesser talked about signs and symbols present in the movie. A special thanks to my friend Rohit Batra for giving me idea about the topic.

There is no spoon: "Sab Moh Maya hai" :- One of the heavily used jargons in engineering colleges around India. The line finds its heritage in various ancient sacred texts. The word 'Maya' appears 70 times in Rig Veda and 27 times in Atharva Veda. In the earliest of texts, Maya is believed to be an illusion which lets you forget your original nature or consciousness. Scientifically, this state is equivalent to being in a state of dream. A human falls into deep sleep, and then transcends into a state of dreaming. This transition of mind from deep sleep to dream state is Maya. Maya is creation out of nothing. In other words, The Matrix itself was Maya. From Morpheus, Neo learns that how he had perceived himself in the Matrix was simply "the mental projection of your digital self".

Sati: Sati is the first person which is shown after the Matrix is destroyed. Sati, being the wife of Shiva, the god of destruction is symbolic to resurrection and peace after mayhem.

"No one can be told what the Matrix is": One of the most famous lines of the Matrix, "No one can be told what the Matrix is, you have to see it for yourself", seems to have been directly picked from various chapters out of Bhagvad Gita and Shiva Purana, Ramayana, etc. In all these texts, more than explaining the concept of God and his divinity, the emphasis is on the devotion towards God, and understanding him, experiencing him.

The Unbalanced Equation: "Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix."- The Creator to Neo, The Matrix Reloaded.
Bhagvad Gita claims that evil is as important a part of the entire existence as the good. A concept well explained in Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code", this is the concept of duality. For the earth to spin, the good has to exist along with the bad. Destruction is as important as creation.

The Lotus: Neo sees a lotus towards the end of the movie. Lotus, again is a sacred symbol as per Hindu mythology, and Lord Brahma of the Divine Trinity sits on the lotus flower. Brahma is known as the creator of the Universe, and after Shiva plays his role of destruction, Brahma begins resurrection. The flower is seen at a point when the Matrix is going to be destructed, and a new Matrix will be created.

Krishna-Arjun: And now lets talk about the most interesting part of the entire Matrix-Hinduism symbolism. Doesnt the entire sequence where Morpheus introduces himself to Neo and subsequently to the Matrix and its semantics have a close resemblance to some well-known concept??

Yes, thats Krishna and Arjun for you on celluloid.

When Morpheus gives both the red and blue pills to Neo, and asks him to make a decision, he has yet not told anything about the after-effects. He lets Neo choose his destiny, much akin to Krishna asking Arjuna that acts of an individual is his sole choice. God can only be his helping hand, but the individual makes his decisions controlled by mother nature and his past Karma. This concept of Neo in total control of his own decisions and destiny comes up time and again during these sequences. When Morpheus takes Neo to meet Oracle, he says, "I can only show you the door, but you are the one who has to walk through it."

Krishna-Arjun(II): Morpheus' revelations that Neo's soul(trapped inside the Matrix) and Neo's body(trapped in the human battery farms) are completely distinct from each other and Neo, which he learns after taking the red pill, is again similar to Krishna telling Arjuna that his duties of the soul are different from his duties as the body. One can only experience the soul if he lets go of the false conceptions of the body.

To say that The Matrix was solely based on Hinduism alone, would be baseless. To claim that The Matrix was the only movie based on Hindu concepts, is again baseless. However, Hindu themes did form one of the most important baselines of the entire trilogy. Though we may find certain obvious and hidden references of Hindu symbolism in a number of movies like Inception, Avatar, etc, I chose The Matrix as it perfectly embraces Hinduism concepts like the Karma, Holy Trinity, etc and presents its own implementation of it, much to the viewer's delight.
Maybe, and just maybe the Wachowski brothers didnt have this much "Hinduism" in mind when conceptualizing The Matrix, but then that further strengthens the scientific base of Hinduism. It automatically applies to every modern and scientific concept of the world.

दैवी  ह्येसा  गुणमयी  मामा  माया  दुरत्यया 

मामेव  ये  प्रपद्यन्ते  मायामेतम  तरन्ति  ते

(Bhagvad Gita ShlokaII.4)

In other words,

"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"

I would like to end the post as of now, and would like to know what you thought about it.
Coming up with a book based on Indian history/mythology.
Please join the Facebook page and invite others as well to do the same.
Please help me promote the book and the page and make it a huge success.

Please click here and like the page which comes up - Finders, Keepers
If you are on Facebook and are interested in such topics, please click on the link below and like the page which comes up.Khoj-In Search of Lost Signs

References:
1.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gadadhara-pandit-dasa/the-matrix-through-hinduism_b_1925721.html.
2.) http://forums.gameaxis.com/showthread.php?t=1436777
3.) http://www.scribd.com/doc/16880/The-Matrix-Decoded
4.) http://thematrix101.com/revolutions/symbolism.php
5.) http://forums.gameaxis.com/showthread.php?t=1436777
6.) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/?ref_=sr_1