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Dharma Yuddha

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 Yudhishthira

 

This victory seems more like defeat to me,

What have I achieved?

Death is what I have reaped in the end,

And that too using the foulest means.

 

What am I but a ruthless killer?

It was better to be a gambler

than a warrior for dharma.

 

Krishna

 

My birth was blackened by the shadow of death

Cast by none less than my uncle.

I erased that shadow by killing my uncle.

Killing came to me as naturally

As romance did.

 

I led the ultimate war between dharma and adharma,

Using adharma so that dharma wins.

It was better to be an ordinary mortal

Than a deity with a mission.

 

Comments

  1. This makes me think a lot... it's like thoughts firing from every corner. One of them goes like this,

    "Ordinary mortals with power name their actions dharma making them,look like gods."

    I feel this connected to one of your previous blogs, the place beyond rights and wrongs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmmm. Right you are. It's better to be an ordinary mortal than a deity with a mission. In India, a lot of wrongs are (and have been) justified by quoting the examples of those called as gods (from the mythology).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some of the weirdest ironies of life! Anyway, what the epic writer said in the beginning is true: "Whatever is in the world is here." The epic has everything from virtue to vice to cunning to … Today's rulers, even outside India, seem to take all those vices and cunning more seriously than the virtues.

      Delete
  3. the gambler stayed true to his dharma...even war is a gamble. the Killer stayed true to his dharma... killed every thing that challenged him and his autonomy. Yet romance turned them both into icons. Hasyam Kamadahanam.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This reminds me of king Ashoka and how the Kalinga war had a devastating effect on him making him realize death is all he reaped

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A lot of people realise the futility of their deeds too late!

      Delete

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