Mahabharata – 83

By 

Sankar Mukherjee

&

Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                                            Aadivamsavatarana Parva

We have been told that gods were born on earth to fight the demons incarnated in human beings. That is an interesting motif. True, that the gods had vanquished the demons in the heaven. But the demons could not be annihilated. Being defeated by the gods they took shelter on earth in human forms. And they ushered in an age of anomie upon the earth. The ethos of the earth was consequently shattered. The state of the earth was very deplorable. One might compare the then state of earth with that of ours. The politician here are mad for power. Do irks disturb the cropful bird?

Do doubts fret the maw-crammed beast? But thanks to Swiss bank. Thanks to the cold storages. The politicians today are never satisfied with the attainment of their power. The capitalists today are never satisfied with the attainment of money. And they are employing different technologies to satisfy their greed. In India they are selling rice made of plastic. There are eggs in the market manufactured with plastic. The labourers are never satisfied with the leisure that they get.And one wonders whether demons have replaced the human souls. The earth being overburdened with the demons seem to become helpless. The tortoise stands as support for everything on earth moving about in space. There are eight elephants that keep the directions in right balance. The earth is held up in space by thousand hooded snake Ananta. All of them were weighed down with the burden of the demons. We can imagine all of them sweating under the great burden of demons. So they led by Earth itself visited the creator the lord Brahma. The creator himself was in the know of the latest development in earth.However the Earth, the elephants, the tortoise & the thousand hooded snake Ananta went together & informed Brahma that they could not any longer perform the task ordained by Brahma to maintain the stability of the creation. The demons in the human shape were to blame.It was no news for Brahma. Because Brahma is in the know of every development upon earth.He summoned the gods & asked them to reincarnate as men to fight the devils of men.The king of gods presently discussed the issue with Lord Vishnu who is in charge of the maintenance  of the creation.And Vishnu said that the Brahma’s wishes must be complied with & he himself would be born as a man.

This is the story behind the story of krishna’s birth & the birth of Karna ,Yudhishthira,Arjuna & others,the chief protagonists of the Kuruskhetra war.May be a global war between the holy & the sinful might takes place in our much loved earth in times to come.

The tales told by Vaisampayana might seem to us to be myths.Is it not mythical to look upon the earth as a living being?But modern science tells us about the Gaia theory.It asserts that the earth is a living thing & may we take the liberty here- from to infer that all the stars ,planets & galaxies are equally living?