Krishna and Karna Meeting

On the occasion of Janamashtami, the birthday of Lord Krishna, I would like to take up an aspect from the epic Mahabharata, for which he has been much maligned.

This refers to the meeting between Lord Krishna and Karna prior to the war of Kurukshetra, where Lord Krishna reveals to Karna his parentage. Many have questioned the timing of this act, since it was just before the war and have accused him of trying to ‘buy’ the support of Karna. Was this not an emotional blackmail, which would have weakened him just when he needed to be strong? Was this not an act of extreme selfishness, especially when Karna was the greatest adversary of Krishna’s protégé, Arjun? Also, was it ethical to lure him with Kingship and all that was Pandavas to be his (surreptitiously speaking, Draupadi too)?

To understand this act in perspective, it is important to understand the background. Lord Krishna was always against the war as he was well aware of the quantum of destruction of human lives. He had made all efforts to avoid a war, much to the disagreement of many who see him as a God.

Right at the beginning, when the war was first proposed in the city of Virata, it was Krishna who had advised against it. When Arjuna came to seek his participation in the battle, he wowed not to take up arms in the battle and that he would not fight. But even that did not stop the war. All who have done justice to the epic would vouch for his earnest effort to stall the war. Seeing no alternative, he proceeded to Hastinapur hoping that he would be able to broker peace by meeting the seniors of the Kuru clan there. The meeting was not fruitful; rather it was quite acrimonious when Duryodhan ordered that the ‘cowherd’ be arrested. Thus this last effort too was wasted.

Krishna never doubted the ability and the sincerity of Karna. One would also agree that Karna was a major strength of Duryodhana. If Karna’s assistance was not forthcoming, Duryodhana would never be so forceful for the war. If he felt that Karna was with his enemies, he could have refrained from the war and that was Krishna’s major objective of trying to stall the war. The offer to Karna to defect and all that was offered to him was not to ‘buy-him’ but to make the last–ditch effort to stop the massive destruction which only he could foresee.

Needless to say, that this was in the interest of all. First, it was in the welfare of Karna, as he would become the King and would also be in the right company which he so deserved. Second, this would benefit Duryodhana too as in the event of a war; there was a distinct possibility that he would not only lose his kingdom, but his kith and kin too. Third it would also give Kunti a chance to accept Karna her first born and allow some legitimacy to the much-insulted Karna on his parentage. It was in the interest of the Pandava’s too as with the avoidance of war, the Pandava’s would be absolved of the barbarous war and slaughtering of their kin. This single act of revealing to Karna his identity was an act of supreme righteousness and goodness as the advice would save innumerable human lives.

Was this a selfish act on the part of Krishna? It is pertinent to mention here that if Krishna’s intentions were malicious, then he could have revealed Karna’s parentage in public. If he didn’t achieve his prime objective of stopping the war, at least he would have had him broken in public. It could have created some rift between him and Duryodhana and Krishna would still have benefitted. But he did nothing of that sort. Krishna gave the brave his due and did not compromise with his sense of privacy right till the end of the epic.

It is important to see certain things in the right perspective, though it is quite interesting to see things tangentially. Tangential vision creates for juicy controversy and gossip. But an educated and matured mind should see things in the right perspective, especially since we are talking of an important character in Mahabharata. Detractors and sceptics abound in this world and there are a many. But readers of this Blog are encouraged to see things the way they are and ought to be.

Anybody disagreeing can write to me with their views, as debate is the foundation of a matured society, as against outright criticism.

Happy Janamashtami to one and all, believers and non-believers!!

Earlier articles on Janamashtami -

This is Utkarsh Speaking: Arjuna's Dilemma
This is Utkarsh Speaking: Krishna

Team Anna has Lost

It is tough and sad to accept that Team Anna has lost the battle against corruption and those who beget it, but it is extremely important for all to accept that they have lost.

Team Anna

Introspection is always important after an event, more so if it is a failure.

• They lost because the Gandhian philosophy of peaceful protest has lost its significance
• They lost because the modern Indian has a short attention span and thus could not sustain focus on the movement for too long
• They lost because people like you and me got busy with our personal duties as against our national responsibility
• They lost because what seemed like a movement with a great tag-line did not 'seem' that interesting when seen from close quarters
• They lost because the politicians managed to create a good illusion of chinks in the armour of Team Anna, where there were none
• They lost because sections of this untrustworthy ilk who had promised support, decided to withdraw it when they realized that the political mileage they wanted had been achieved
• They lost when they saw that there was a greater movement coming from the Parliament as a response to a small (maybe irresponsible) comment by a member of Team Anna, irrespective of the fact that such comments and worse have been uttered by every thinking citizen of India everyday and Bollywood has been spewing such venom on screen since ages
• They lost when their single-minded focus got diluted for the occasional controversies that the members of Team Anna were embroiled in as a part of a well-orchestrated strategy by the politicians
• They lost when irrelevant issues took centre-stage against important issues
• They lost when all and sundry wanted to be a part of the movement and Team Anna welcomed all (even who did not deserve) with open arms

Please re-read all the above by replacing ‘They lost’ with ‘We lost’, because that’s what it is.

Team Anna has not lost; it is we who have lost a great opportunity to do a world of good to ourselves. 

• We lost the chance to improve the condition of our own selves and our next generation
• We lost our face in front of the next generation, who will ask us tomorrow as to what kind of irreparable India have we left for them?
• We lost the chance to call ourselves, part of a matured democracy
• We lost the last chance of raising our head high with pride in the global world
• We lost……

I can go on…..but then you too need to think, right?

Ancient Olympics and Cheating

Cheating and corruption is not the prerogative of modern man only! It was prevalent during the ancient Olympics too, except that it wasn’t as widespread as it is now in our society. In the wake of recent match-fixing in the 2012 London Olympics, this subject gains more importance, so let’s see how such things were dealt in the Ancient Olympics.

There weren’t too many occasions and opportunities of cheating as there weren’t too many events. However, one of the ways of cheating was applying oil in certain parts of the body during the wrestling bouts. Oil was banned during such events. Some other ways of cheating were shifting loyalties to another city-state other than the one they belong to. One was always supposed to represent his own city-state. But since victory was supposed to bring benevolence by the gods, many city-states tried to bribe the athletes from other states to owe allegiance to their states. Purposeful false start during the race was another way of cheating.

During the reign of the Romans, corruption was supposed to have reached its climax. Emperor Nero (of the fiddle-fame) is supposed to have bribed the judges to include poetry-reading in the schedule of the Games! The judges were also supposed to have declared him the victor in the chariot race, which he had not even completed! There are many such cases of corruption.

One of the first recorded cases of corruption involved a boxer who was supposed to have bribed three of his opponents to lose. He along with the others was fined heavily for the crime.

A vase design depicting the whipping of athletes who were caught cheating

One of the punishments for such crimes was collection of heavy fine, which was used to make bronze statues of Zeus (known as Zanes), on which the details of the crimes were inscribed. Athletes prior to the games would walk past these Zanes to remind them of abstaining from such acts. There were also instances of flogging the culprits who were caught cheating. Sometimes along with the contestants, their trainers and their city-states were also fined for such acts of cheating.

16 of survived Bases of Zanes, on which the Bronze statues were installed

Cheating was seen as something much beyond just a crime. The Ancient Olympics were religious games and prior to the games, each athlete was supposed to take an oath at the altar of Zeus. Breaking a rule was seen as an act of transgression and an insult to their gods, who were supposed to be the divine audience. Such acts were not tolerated and thus the severity of punishment.

Over time, with more games being introduced, such acts have given way to more modern and innovative methods of cheating. Today you have consuming of power-enhancing drugs, feigning genders and sometimes the judges being in cahoots with the athletes, the latest being fixing of matches. However, in the modern times, the fines are not very hefty, except for banning the athlete and revoking the medals, if won. However, public outcry and international shame is heaped on the athlete and his/her coach.

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Ancient Olympic Games and Women

To begin with, women were not allowed to participate in the ancient Olympic Games. There is no documented reason for the same but the following are some of the probable reasons –

The Olympic Games were conceived as games which were played by men and something manly. Women in those days were confined to indoors and household activities. Women did not venture into anything that was a man’s domain, like governance, administration, teaching, etc. Basically all outdoor activities were meant for men. Also, women were expected to be beautiful, buxom and voluptuous in the then world of men. Participating in such games would mean training, and training would give then a muscular look, which was not something that women were meant to be. Even if this seems chauvinistic, let us understand the fact that this was a different time and feminism or equality of the sexes was not an established concept.

Another aspect was that these games tested ones military and heroic skills, which again was not a domain of females. Further, it is said that many athletes would stay away from home to undergo special training for months ahead of the games (some say for about ten months prior to the Games), something a women could not afford due to her household, foremost of which was the child bearing and rearing responsibilities.

The other reason could be that the participants, i.e. men were to participate in the nude. The Greeks worshiped beauty and seeing a male in his raw athletic form was not considered to be voyeuristic, but an act of appreciation of the perfection of body-sculpting. Besides, nudity was not quite a taboo in those days.  Women viewing men in such a form and that too in public would not be considered virtuous for women, and thus they were kept out of it.

There is an interesting story about why even the trainers were supposed to be in the nude during the games in the stadium. According to this story, a mother named Kallipateira (or Pherenike), from a well known family of athletes accompanied her son to the Games dressed as a trainer. However, when she was trying to get out of the trainers area, her private parts were exposed and it was revealed that she was a woman. From that day onwards, even the trainers had to be in the nude. However, what is surprising was that the woman was not punished and she was allowed to go. According to the custom, women were not supposed to be anywhere close to the stadium and if any woman was caught witnessing the games, then she would be killed by throwing her off the cliff of Mt. Typaion!

Priestess of Demeter

However, to all the above, there was an exception. Only one lady was allowed to witness the games and that was the Priestess of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility. Many scholars feel that this was to ensure that the rituals were carried out properly as the cult of Demeter is supposed to predate the Olympics and thus the significance of the Priestess.

Besides women, many slaves and foreigners were kept out of the games. This probably goes on to show that women were second class citizens and the games were only for free Greek males. However, I would like to re-iterate once again that the concepts of feminism were unknown to them, till at least the Romans took over, who initiated many changes in the format of the Games.

Finally, it is said that the women had their own games, which were held in the honour of Hera, Zeus’s consort, known as the ‘Heraia Games’ and took place in the non-Olympiad years.

To conclude, I don’t want to get into the fairness of the reasons of keeping women out of the Olympics, but one must not see everything ancient from the prism of modernity. The past had its own thought process and justifications and that should be respected for the times. What is important is that the anomaly (as we see it today) was corrected in due course of time, and women now participate in large numbers. To quote Times of India, dated 27/07/12, “4847 Women athletes, the highest number in any Olympics, are participating in the 2012 London Olympics. Nearly every participating country has women in its team”. This amounts to close to 48.5% of the total number of athletes participating this time – that’s a good score for equality!

So cheer up ladies, you are making up well for all the lost time!!

Next we will read about another aspect of the Olympic Games.