The Mahabharata: a Modern Rendering Volume 2 Pdf, Epub, Ebook
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THE MAHABHARATA: A MODERN RENDERING VOLUME 2 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Ramesh Menon | 600 pages | 19 Jul 2006 | iUniverse.com | 9780595401888 | English | Bloomington IN, United States The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering, Vol 2 Viewed times since 30th Nov, About the Book The Mahabharata is the more recent of India two great epics and by far the longer one: first composed by Maharishi Vyasa in verse it has come to us down the centuries in the timeless oral tradition of guru and sishya profoundly influencing the history culture and art of not only the Indian subcontinent but most of Southeast Asia. At , couples it is seven times as long as the Iliad and the odyssey combined far and away the greatest recorded epic know to man. The Mahabharata is the very Book of Life in its variety majesty and also its violence and tragedy. It has been said that nothing exists that cannot be found within the pages of this awesome legend. The epic describes a great war of some 5, years ago and the events that led to it. The war on Kurukshetra sees ten million Kshatriyas slain and brings the Dwapara Yuga to an end and uhers in a new ans sinister age this present Kali Yuga or modern times. At the heart of the Mahabharata nestles the Bhagavad Gita the song of god. Senay or ubhayor madh ye between two teeming arise Krishna expound the eternal dharma to his warrior of light Arjuna AT one level all the restless action of the Mahabharata is a quest for the gita and its sacred stillness. After the carnage it the gita that survives immortal lotus floating upon the dark waters of desolation the final secret. With its magnificent cast of characters human demonic and divine and its riveting narrative the Mahabharata continues to enchant readers and scholars the world over this new rendering bring the epic to the contemporary redder in sparkling modern prose. It brings alive all the excitement magic and grandeur of the original for our times. About the Author Ramesh menon was born in in New Delhi. He has recently published a modern translation of the Ramayana. Foreword Three hundred and sixty five human years make one year of the Devas and the pitrs the Gods and the ancestors. Four are the ages in the land of Bharata: the krita, treat, dwapara and kali. The krita yuga lasts for divine years the treat for the dwapara for and the Kali for ; and then another krita begins. The krita or satya yuga is an age of purity it is stnless. Dharama righteousness is perfect and walks on four feet in the krita. However from the treta yuga adhrma evil comes to the world and the very febric of time begins to decay. Finally the kali yuga the fourth age is almost entirely corrupt with dharma barely surviving hobbling on one foot. A chaturyuga a cycle of four ages is 12, divine years or x 12, humab years long. Seventy one chaturyugas make a manuvantara fourteen manutaras a kalpa. A kalpa of a thousand chturyuga 12 million divine years is one day of Brhama life is savanas long one day of mahavishnu is the lifetime of brahma. The great war the Mahabharata is fought at the very end of a dwapara yuga the third age just before the sinister kali yuga begins once in time out of mind the gods created the kshatriyas to establish dharma justice in an anarchic world most royal kashtriya bloodlines can be traced back to the devas themselves in most ancient days the Gods came freely to the earth. But in time generations the noble race of warrior kings has grown arrogant and greedy. By the end of the dwapara yuga have become tyrant and they are still practically invincible. Krishna the Avatara and his cousins the Pandavas are born to destroy the power of the kshatriyas of Bharatavarsha India forever this is what the Mahabharata yudddha the war on the crack of the ages accomplishes; and thus ushers in the Kali yuga modern times. By this Hindu calendar the Great war was fought some five thousand Years ago. The house of Kuru is one of the oldest and noblest Houses it traces its origins to some Deva the Moon God. Timeless hastinapura the city of elephants is the capital of the Kuru Kingdom and one great king after another has ruled from here. The legend of the Mahabharata begins with king shantanu of the Kurus and how a son is born to him but this prince Devavrata will never sit upon his father through instead shantanu blind grandson Dhritarashtra will become king. The main them of the Mahabharata is the story of Dhritarashtra sone the Kauravas ans his brother Pandu sons the pandavas and the enmity between them. Dhritarastra hundred boys are evill prnces led by the eldest of them the ruthless Duryodhana who is a demon Pandu five princes are devaputras Devas sons born to fight for dharma in the world. Almost every king in Bharatavarsha takes one side or the other in the Great war and ten million Kshatriyas are killed. Dharma is established again on earth but an age has ended and another has begun. The maharishi vyasa the poet of the Mahabharata himself wanders in and out of the story. Unearthly beings Devas yakshas gansharvas nagas and apsaras find their way into the story as do demonic ones asuras and rakshasas. The Mahabharata is set in a pristine and magical time of the earth. Its heroes and villains are all larger than life. The war itself is fought with occult weapons; the astras of the Gods. Just before the war begins the third Pandava Arjuna the greates archer in the world loses his nerve on the field of Kurukshetra. That perfect warrior cannot bear the thought of killing his cousin. Krishna who is Arjuna charioteer expounds the etrnal dharma to him. This exposition is the Bhagavad Gita the song of God the gita is the heart of the Mahabharata its real treasure. At one level all the rest of the restless action of the epic is a quest for the precious Gita and its stillness. The Gita is the Hindu new testament. Senayor Ubbayor Madhye.. To this day Kurushetra is holy ground for the Hindu because it was here that Krishna sang his immortal Gita and here that he revealed his vishwarupa his cosmic form to Arjuna. The original Mahabharata in Sanskrit is an epic poem of , couplets; seven times s long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. To record his epic for posterity is such a daunting task that Vyasa begs the elephant headed God, Ganesha to be his scribe. Ganesha has one stipulation: Vyasa must never keep him waiting for even a moment during the narration. The poet agrees and manages to keep ahead of his quicksilver writer often with long digressions from his main story. Ganesha writes down Vyasa legend with a tusk he breaks from his own face. This is modern prose version timeless epic the legend of the sons of Pandu. Preface Once, in more Gracious times when the kshatriyas of the earth were like gods, there was a devout sovereign of Chedi called Uparichara. Indra of the Devas gave him a marvelous vimana, a crystal ship that flew anywhere at his very thought. That king became known as Uparichara Vasu; for like the Vasus, he ranged the sky in his vimana. Uparichara's wife was Girika, and she bore him five excellent princes. One morning, when she was in her fertile time, Queen Girika came to her husband and asked him to make love because she wanted another son. But he had to go into the forest to hunt some meat for a sacrifice to his fathers in heaven. Uparichara set out with his bow in his hand. Earlier, his queen had come to him wearing the sheerest robe; the king did not realize how much she had aroused him, until he missed two red stags with his arrows. Uparichara came to a lotus-laden pool in the depths of the forest and, with Girika's lush body before his mind's eye, ejaculated onto a banyan leaf. He folded the leaf, chanted a potent mantra over it and called his hunting falcon down from the sky. The eagle mistook the banyan leaf for a shred of meat and flew at the falcon. The birds fought briefly in the air and the leaf fell out of the falcon's beak, down into the river. Now, a year ago the apsara Adrika had flown down from Devaloka to swim in the Yamuna. It was the twilight hour, and when the nymph had been in the water for a while she saw a sage at the river's edge, at his sandhya vandana his evening worship. The austere on sat motionless his eyes shut first. This was followed by the work by R. The culmination so far has been in the two volume work by Ramesh Menon. The last one is exquisite in its simplicity an Sonia Murthy Certified Buyer. This edition of Mahabharata is all you shall go for if you want to choose from the Mahabharat by different authors. By a week's reserch on various sites, I came to know that I have to choose between this edition or the one by Late Mrs. Kamala Subramaniam's. Let me tell you Mr. Menon has drawn lot of material from the edition by Kamala Subramaniam, which he duly acknoledges at the start of book.