“Do you really believe that
you are a selfless person?” Draupadi asks Bhishma in my short story, The
Autumn of the Patriarch. And the Patriarch of two kingdoms stands speechless
before that question. What prevented Bhishma from seeing the adharma of what
was done to Draupadi first by Yudhishthira and then by Duryodhana? What kind of
dharma did this man, this great patriarch, practise? Draupadi contemplates. She
recalled what he had done to Amba, Ambika and Ambalika. Just carried them off
without even bothering to find out what their wishes were. And then gave them
to another man as wives. As if women were commodities made for gratifying men’s
varied pleasures some of which were as perverse as Bhishma’s when he carried
them off like trophies. And when Amba faced problems one after another because
of what Bhishma did, the great patriarch treated her as if she were a lump of
cow dung. No, even cow dung gets more respect!
“Dharma is too
subtle,” Bhishma tells Amba in my story. “Truth is simple,” Draupadi retorts.
This story
which I wrote a few months after Modi became India’s Prime Minister in 2014 kicked
my memory awake yesterday as I sat in a movie hall watching the Malayalam
movie, Bhishmaparvam (Book of Bhishma). The movie has little to
do with the mythological patriarch except that the protagonist, Michael (played
by the inimitable Mammootty), shares certain characteristics like: he is the
patriarch of a huge family with villainous characters (one of the villains
being a Catholic priest who is treated rightly like scum from beginning to end),
he is a bachelor pledged to look after dharma and won’t hesitate to kill for
the sake of that dharma, he has been given the mandate as patriarch by his
father, and he is good at heart even when he kills ruthlessly.
Draupadi in
my story mentioned above accuses Bhishma of lovelessness. What is the meaning
of selflessness devoid of love? Draupadi makes Bhishma think. But Michael in Bhishmaparvam
has love in his heart. Maybe, Bhishma in the Mahabharata also had love in his
heart. The problem with love is that it seldom walks hand in hand with truth. Love
is blind. Truth has a 6/6 vision.
Is it
possible to combine love and truth with one yoke? I often think people like
Jesus died young because they realised the futility of trying to yoke those two
things together.
Dharma leans
more towards truth. But it cannot ignore love. The great patriarch has to walk
the tightrope between truth and love. Tough. Bhishma managed it as best as he
could, I should say though I never liked what he did to Amba. And Draupadi too.
He did not exercise his heart enough, I think. Or was he a misogynist? Even
Bhishma cannot be perfect, that’s all I know in the end. Even the incarnations
of God had too many imperfections – irrespective of their religions.
I mentioned Modi somewhere in the beginning of
this post not without a reason. Not because I’m obsessed with Modi as some
people allege. I found myself contrasting and comparing old Vyasa’s Bhishma
with present India’s Modi. The latter is a ruthless bachelor with a
single-minded dedication who kills love at every bend in the road for the sake
of what he thinks is dharma.
What
did Bhishma’s dharma achieve in the end? Even Krishna, an incarnation of God,
shot murderous arrows through that dharma in the end. Treacherously too. Even
God gives up dharma before love. Michael in Bhishmaparvam is more on the
side of Krishna than Bhishma. Modi is on the side of Bhishma. But there is a
big difference, a difference that snarls at me whenever Modi rises in my
consciousness like he did this morning when my breakfast news reported that he
has started a website, Modi
Story, to advertise himself even more aggressively. Oh my God! How
much should we endure in a lifetime! Amba would have found Bhishma too good in
comparison. Forget Draupadi’s disrobing.
I did not like Bhishmaparvam. It’s just another cliched story of a benign patriarch adding to the entropy in our immoral universe.
I am tired of how many things are invented just to praise him and barely any that question him
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of people who question him. But they're all silenced.
DeleteIt's lovely to read your blog after such a long time. I agree, Modi stands out and I have a lot of respect for the gentleman.
ReplyDeleteProgressing from a nonexistent tea shop to the opulent Central Vista does call for attention.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDelete...he may live as one, but Modi is most definitely NOT a bachelor. His wife, Jashodaben Chimanlal, is still very much alive and living on meager pension with her brother and sister-in-law. The analogy with Bhishma does Bhishma no favours! Modi sees himself more as some sort of mahatma, without having gone through any of the asceticism... YAM xx
You said it. The man is personification of fraudulence. But people see a Messiah in him! I'm sure the hollowness will burst sooner than later with a terrifying boom... And India will be stunned by the emptiness of itself.
DeleteIf self-serving can be called Dharma, then Modi is definitely following HIS Dharma with complete sincerity. Love (except for his chair) is something he does not appear to have come across in his life till date. As far as Bhishma is concerned, by combining his (so-called) Dharma and love (for the Paandavas), he allowed himself to be split into two with the heart being at one place while the body at some other one. Your article is an objective one. My one question for Draupadi - Is she sure that whatever she did in her life was righteous ? Did she never put any foot wrong ? Perhaps the thing that she could not understand that destiny repaid her in the same coin. We are too conscious about the wrongs done to us but become amnesiac when it comes to the wrongs done by us to others.
ReplyDeleteEntering into the Mahabharata is tricky. You don't know which side to take. Even the god in it is deceptive. I am like an ice skater when I touch the epic. Just on the surface. I'm obliged to you for raising these questions. I have endless questions too on all the characters in the epic. All said, that's a sign of greatness in the epic.
Delete