Reading the Mahabharata is a unique experience. Why so? Unlike the Ramayana which consists of ideal characters, the Mahabharata is peopled with imperfect, even downright negative, characters one would never like to come across in real life.
Who is the worst of them all? Tough to decide! That precisely must be the unique appeal of this great text. Let us begin with the Pandavas. Our total sympathies are with them. Constantly are they ill treated, most unjustly, and for no fault of theirs.
Recently I was at the Mana village, the last one in India. A few kilometers away is the Tibet border. It is believed that the Pandavas started their journey to the heaven from here. At the outer most boundary of the tiny hamlet, beyond the mightily roaring Saraswati, so fierce that Bheema had to plop a huge boulder in it so that the terrified Draupadi could cross it, begins the "swarg arohini", the final road, the route to the heaven.
Here most significantly would get told a tale that points out the faults and mistakes of the protagonists of the Mahabharata! Just a few feet beyond the beginning of this path to the heaven is a tiny temple dedicated to Draupadi. She is the first to fall.
As usual, Bheema wants Yudhishthira to explain her failure to go to heaven. She was duty personified. Despite being the best every which way, she had to suffer lifelong. She bore the tragedies with dignity and grace, too. Then why does not she reach the heaven?
Because of her partiality, explains Yudhishthira. This discussion goes on till all the four Pandavas have fallen by the wayside, Nakula for his obsession with his good looks, Sahdeva due to his pride in his great fund of knowledge, Arjuna due to his ego about his valour, Bheema due to his exultation over his power.
Why, the Mahabharata shows that the ever truthful Yudhishthira who is integrity personified, too, lies a little, actually tells a half-truth, as a result of which his chariot, which used to be driven afloat in the air, gets grounded! In other words, the Mahabharata shows the warts and faults in all the protagonists.
It can hence be argued that the real villain according to the Mahabharata seems to be the human condition itself which never allows pure perfection, total excellence. There would be some tiniest fault which makes each and every character in this epic truly human. Why, Shri Krishna, too, is thus human(e). He advocates wise compromises with the human condition! May be, in this sagacious balance lies the meaning of existence. The real villain is someone who does not understand this boundary!
Pratima@Tomorrow let me see if I can explain the other, the downright villainous, side, the antagonists of the Mahabharata as the vices to be avoided.
Incidentally, in the Vyas Gufa, right next to the Gajanan Mandir in the Mana village, there is a rock that has the look of a huge tome! The cave thus proves the truthful vision of Mahabharata, eternally etched in Nature itself!
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