Jaya-Samhita Book One : The Cause

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Jaya-Samhita

Book One : The Cause

Karna Yadav

EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011) www.educreation.in iii

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Dedicated to W The God who said, „The soul is never born, it never dies. Come into being after birth, it does not, It is unborn, eternal and primeval. Even if the body is slain, the soul is not.‟ Without His invisible help this book would not have been possible.

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About Jaya-Samhita W Ved did not write the . The epic that he wrote was called Jaya-Samhita. Containing some 8800 verses, it was a treatise on war and politics. It was based on the great war. The word Jaya means victory and Samhita means collection. As the name implies, it contained the principles of victory. It answered the fundamental question, why some people win while others lose? The Mahabharata on the other hand contains 100,000 verses and is a story within a story. The Mahabharata is a combination of two words, the Maha meaning great and refers to , one of the chief protagonists of the Mahabharata. Arjuna was known by many names and Bharata was one of them. The word Mahabharata when literally translated means the great Bharata or the great Arjuna. It is apparent by the name itself that it was written with the sole intention of glorifying Arjuna. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is the son of the chief of demigods, . Arjuna is the favorite disciple of guru Dronacharya. Arjuna wins the beautiful in a marriage ceremony after accomplishing a great feat in archery. Arjuna is a great archer and the chief commander of the army who single handedly defeats all the chief warriors of the army. Arjuna is the man loved and worshipped by God Shri Himself. He receives the words of the God in the Bhagwadgeeta. All this is perhaps true or maybe the reality is different from what we are being led to believe. There is no evidence to prove this but there are enough reasons to make one doubtful. For example,

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it is believed that Ved Vyasa wrote the Bhagwadgeeta separately as a dialogue between Nara (man) and Narayana (God). It was later on incorporated into the Mahabharata as a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna. If there is some truth in this then it was not Arjuna, who received the message of the Bhagwadgeeta on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. After compiling the Jaya-Samhita, Ved Vyasa recited it to his disciple Vaisampayana. Vaisampayana elaborated his Jaya-Samhita into the Bharata. The Bharata contained 24000 verses. The Bharata is the story of Ved Vyasa‟s Jaya-Samhita being recited by Vaisampayana to king Janamajeya, great grandson of Arjuna, at Takshasila (modern day in Pakistan). The recital of the Bharata by Vaisampayana at the sacrifice being conducted by the great grandson of Arjuna, Janamajeya, is enough to raise eyebrows. It is said that history is written by the victors. The history written by the victors is rarely a true record of the events as and when they happened. It is written to glorify the victors, to iron out the inconsistencies in their characters and to project them as the heroes they weren‟t. Arjuna too was a victor of the . First, the Bharata and later the Mahabharata were written with similar aims. Both were written at the behest of the victors. A great fratricidal war like the Kurukshetra war would not go down in history unnoticed. People will ask questions. They‟d want to know what caused this Great War and who was responsible for it? Perhaps, the were being blamed for this carnage. Now, why did Kurukshetra happen? At one time the Pandavas were ready to trade peace for five villages. When refused, Kurukshetra happened. So, the Pandavas killed their cousins and millions of other men, for what? Five villages? That is the flimsiest excuse or stupidest reason

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for killing one‟s cousins. There is more to it then what we are being told. No matter how hard the Pandavas try, they cannot justify the killing of their cousins. Such actions will always be condemned by the general public. Perhaps, the Pandavas were being condemned as well. The real cause of the war was something else. Ved Vyasa knew and wrote the truth. Perhaps, unhappy with the truth written in the Jaya- Samhita by Ved Vyasa or in order to absolve his forefathers of the blame of fratricide or to glorify Arjuna, Janamajeya had his version of events written in the form of the Bharata. Then, in order to popularize it, he organized the great sacrifice. He invited sages from all over the land and had Vaisampayana recite the Bharata. The attending Brahmins thought they were listening to Ved Vyasa‟s Jaya-Samhita. Ved Vyasa was an authority by himself and not many dared to question him. It was not that king Janamajeya was conducting a sacrifice and sage Vaisampayana just happened to be there. So, Janamajeya asks Vaisampayana to recite the story of Ved Vyasa‟s Jaya-Samhita while the sacrifice is progressing. The sacrifice went on for many days by the way. The truth is that the sacrifice was deliberately conducted with the sole intention of propagating the myths about the Pandavas. Janamajeya succeeded in his attempts greatly. The thousands of attending Brahmins later travelled all over the land reciting these events to all those willing to listen. Janamajeya‟s version of the events became so popular that this is what people eventually ended up believing. Most of us take whatever is written in the Mahabharata as the truth. We rarely question the inconsistencies and the fantasies that are written in the Mahabharata. The Bharata was later elaborated into the Mahabharata (the great Bharata) by Ugrasrava Sauti, a

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disciple of Vaisampayana. The Mahabharata that we know today is the story of Vaisampayana‟s Bharata being recited by Ugrasrava Sauti to a group of sages performing the 12 year snake sacrifice for King Saunaka Kulapati. Thus, the Mahabharata is a story within a story. What we know today as the Mahabharata is not the original Jaya-Samhita written by Ved Vyasa but the works of his disciples. These facts are mentioned in the Mahabharata itself. The Mahabharata of today is the corrupt form of Jaya-Samhita. However, if one studies the Mahabharata minus the legends and supernatural phenomenon, replacing these with simple, scientific explanations then the original Jaya-Samhita reveals itself in all its glory. Buried somewhere under the 100,000 verses of the Mahabharata are the 8800 verses of the original Jaya- Samhita. This book is an attempt to get to those 8800 verses of the original Jaya-Samhita. After so many centuries, it is difficult to reproduce the original Jaya- Samhita but it is not impossible to get somewhere near the truth. I do not claim that this is what the original Jaya-Samhita looked like but I firmly believe it is near the truth. I would still advise the reader to use his discretion if he finds something disagreeable. This book is not a historical record of anything. It is a modern interpretation of the Mahabharata. It is based on the Mahabharata but it is not the Mahabharata.

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About Ved Vyasa W Ved Vyasa is known as the author of the four , 18 , the Mahabharata and the Bhagwadgeeta. Ved Vyasa was born some 5000 years ago (exact date of birth unknown) to sage and his wife Satyawati. His father was a renowned Brahmin. His mother was a fisherman‟s daughter. Legend has it that his mother used to ferry people across the Yamuna as part of her religious duties. On one of these trips, sage Parashara fell in love with her and the two got married. A year later, Ved Vyasa was born to Satyawati. Since he was born on an island located in the middle of river Yamuna, he was named Dwaipayana or island born. He is also known as Krishna because of his dark complexion. When he came of age he was instructed in the religious texts. It was customary in those days for the son to follow in the footsteps of his father. Like his father he too was expected to learn the sacred scriptures by heart and then pass them on to the next generation. Ved Vyasa was a brilliant student and within a short span of time, mastered everything that his father and other sages taught him. Unlike others, who learned everything by heart and then recited it verbatim, without questioning or understanding what they were being taught, Ved Vyasa sought explanations and reasons behind everything. He had an inquisitive mind. He questioned everything and experimented to ascertain the truth. Having obtained knowledge from his father he is known to have meditated on this knowledge for years. After having learned the great truths through hard work, he wrote and taught about them.

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One of the first things that he realized was that the Veda was not one particular branch of knowledge but different branches of knowledge combined into one. So, the first thing he did was to split the Vedas into four different branches of knowledge - the , the , the and the Ayurveda. With this action, Dwaipayana became Ved Vyasa or the classifier (or splitter) of Vedas. Earlier the Vedas used to be one and signified knowledge. The word Veda comes from the word vidi meaning knowledge. Whatever the ancient learned they wrote it in the form of a verse and that verse was then added to the ever expanding Veda. Unlike sentences, the verses can be easily remembered and passed on to the next generation without much difficulty. These verses were related to different topics – God, religion, health and black magic. Having learned the Veda from his father, Ved Vyasa realized that each verse was related to a different topic. These verses can be reorganized into different branches for better understanding and remembrance. Thus, he reorganized them into four different branches. This action made him Ved Vyasa. This single piece of information speaks volume about Ved Vyasa and his character. This goes on to show that mentally Ved Vyasa was very brilliant. Only a gifted person could have thought about dividing the Veda into four. His contemporaries were more interested in learning everything by rote. Memorizing everything and reproducing it verbatim constituted great talent. Questioning or experimenting was associated with slow wit or lack of intelligence. That he questioned things is indicative of the presence of great intelligence in Ved Vyasa. Apart from the Vedas, he is also known to have compiled the 18 Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Bhagwadgeeta. It is possible that he did not write these

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texts but rather reorganized them like the Vedas. Perhaps, he just rewrote these texts simplifying things and making sense out of them. His Bhagwadgeeta is the testimony to this fact. Having read through all the religious texts, Ved Vyasa realized that although known by different names, all these texts more or less contained the same ideas about God, soul, nature and salvation. There was a common denominator to all these texts. Perhaps he asked himself, why so many texts for the same set of ideas? Why not write one text explaining all these ideas. This led him to write the Bhagwadgeeta, his crowning glory and his finest work. The ideas explained in the Geeta have existed since a long time. Ved Vyasa simply reorganized and rewrote them. Towards the end of his life, he witnessed the Kurukshetra war and wrote the Jaya-Samhita. Jaya-Samhita was perhaps the last literary work of his. Not much is known about Ved Vyasa‟s life. The things that one hears about his life are probably speculations. No one knows how and when Ved Vyasa died. He is believed to be one of the ten Chiranjivis or men blessed with long life. In reality, he may not have been immortal but he was indeed blessed with a long life. It would take a long life to write so much literature. Ved Vyasa to us is much more than someone who wrote the Mahabharata. He was a great sage. He can rightly be called the father of Hindu religious philosophy. It was he who made sense out of various religious texts and gave us the Bhagwadgeeta - the song divine. The text that today forms the core of Hindu psychology and thinking. He is the greatest Hindu that ever lived. He did us a great service by writing the Bhagwadgeeta. He did something thousands of years ago that, otherwise, we would be doing today. That is, making sense out the vast religious literature. It is wrong to think that the Hindus lack a religious book or a guru

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like other religions. Shrimad Bhagwadgeeta is our holy book and Ved Vyasa our guru. To us, he is akin to a God. Unfortunately, not many are aware of the extent of his greatness. Read his Bhagwadgeeta again and again and you will realize the extent of this man‟s greatness yourself.

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Yadav

1 W Jaya-Samhita

Ved Vyasa, a lean old man of medium height and dark complexion, sat under a giant sacred fig tree. Clad in a white dhoti (loincloth), he had a white cloth wrapped around his torso. He had a thick white moustache and a long beard that fell up to his navel. The hairs on his head were also white and tied up on the crown of his head to form a large bun. He sat on a raised platform built around the trunk of the sacred fig. The tree stood in the middle of the courtyard of his hermitage. Its branches with numerous leaves formed a canopy over the hermitage. It kept the sun out during summer. In winter, the branches were pruned to allow the warm sunlight. The courtyard is surrounded by huts on three sides. The huts with thatched roofs were made of sun dried mud bricks. The walls were plastered in clay. The doors of all huts opened into the courtyard. The hermitage is located on the banks of river Yamuna not far from the city of Indraprashtha (the present day Delhi) Ved Vyasa called his disciple Vaisampayana to him. Vaisampayana is leaner and much younger than his master. He is dressed just like his master. His clothes are a bit more worn out than his master‟s. His hairs are also tied in a bun on the top of his head. He too possesses a moustache and a beard that reaches his navel. While Ved Vyasa‟s hairs are all white, his disciple‟s are all black.

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Jaya-Samhita Vaisampayana came armed with a pen, a bottle of ink and scrolls to write on, as had been instructed the day before. After years of research and travel that took him to all the four corners of this country, Ved Vyasa had returned to his hermitage only a few days earlier. He had gone to learn the truth about the Great War that was fought on the battlefield of Kurukshetra in which millions of Kshatriyas (Warriors) perished. Now that he knew the truth, he wanted it written down for posterity. Vaisampayana sat on a bamboo mat on the ground, a level below Ved Vyasa ready to write. Ved Vyasa sat on the raised platform on a tiger skin. Ved Vyasa said, “I have, after years of hard work, ascertained the truth about that great war that was fought on the battlefield of Kurukshetra between the armies of the (sons of ) and the Pandavas (sons of ). Standing on the Asta hills, I myself witnessed that Great War in Kurukshetra. I can still recall vividly that battlefield, flanked by the Udaya hills in the east, the Asta hills in the west and the Sarovar (Lake) located in the distance. I can still see clearly in my mind, those two massive armies standing facing each other on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. They were so large in numbers that they resembled two mighty oceans. I can still recall vividly, after all these years, those great warriors - Arjuna, Duryodhana, , and - standing in their respective chariots, commanding their respective divisions. Images of those two warriors, Arjuna, with his ape bannered chariot driven by lord Krishna and Karna with his sun bannered chariot driven by Shailya, still sometimes flashes through my mind. I can still see that very old Kuru patriarch, the great Bhishma, standing in the vanguard of his army on his chariot driven by four horses. In my mind, he stands unmoving on the battlefield holding a massive bow in his hand, his long white beard and white

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Karna Yadav robes fluttering in the wind. I still get nightmares about that Great War. After all these years, I can still hear the din that was produced by millions of shouting men, neighing horses, trumpeting elephants and clanging metals, all sounding together. The cries of the dead and the dying, still wakes me up at night. What a terrible war it was. I will recite to you the story of that Great War. Write everything down without stopping. I don‟t think I have much life left and I don‟t want to die without telling this great story. However, if there is anything that you do not understand then tell me for I will be happy to explain. This knowledge that I am about to impart to you is superior to all knowledge and it is my firm belief that anyone who understands the import of this story and reads it regularly will eventually become unconquerable. In a hundred battles that he fights, he will never have to see the face of defeat. This is my firm belief. First of all saluting the lord of the three worlds, , I begin reciting this great truth for the benefit of the mankind. Let this knowledge be known in the world by the name of Jaya-Samhita.

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