Mahabharat - An epic of a lifetime

As a child I have always been fascinated by Indian mythology. I have memories of watching Ramayana and Mahabharata. But the impact that it made on me as a child was not as intense. Recently I have started watching Mahabharata from the first episode. Thanks to the websites that cater you all kind of stuff. I was just amazed by the direction, screenplay, characterization and above all the dialogues. The dialogues are so meaningful and intense that it reaches your soul.

The teachings that you can take from Mahabharata can help you in your day to day life. When king Bharat was the ruler of Hastinapur, the selection was merit based and not birth based. It shows you the instance from how it changed from merit-based to birth-based during the reign of Shantanu. During those times, the education that they used to impart in the gurukul had great importance on moral values, the quality that is missing in our Indian education system. A lot of problems that we face as a nation has a lot to do with lack of moral values. The respect that a child used to show not only for their parents but also to the elders was amazing. Even if you are not a believer of God and you watch it just just like a story then also it will leave you mesmerized.

There was Devvrat(Bheeshma) who took the 'Pratignya' never to get married and always protect the throne of Hastinapur, for the sake of his father's love. Then there is Vidur (minister of Hastinapur) who has all the wisdom of the world. You had Karna, who was well-known for his charity and he gave his life in charity. You have Eklavya, more talented archer than Arjuna who gave away his thumb as Guru-dakshina. You will find many characters who are modest but their characters speak a million words about them. The foremost of them all was Lord Krishna whose preachings of Bhavada gita has great followers even today. Bhagvada Gita need a seperate post and so I will not talk about it here.

As a nation I think we have failed to make use of such a great epic to build our nation. B.R. Chopra did a splendid job by bringing it to life and I thank him for this great work. I think I was lucky enough to be born in a time when Ramayana and Mahabharata were telecasted. But the current generation is not lucky enough. I think as a nation we have a very bad habit of following the west but we fail to recognize the good things that we have. You can find many examples in your day to day life. Yoga and meditation have been like the pillars of our Indian culture but we have started valuing them after the western culture has followed them. You fill find parents going crazy for Harry Potters and the other similar type of stuff for their kids, but we fail to recognize the great works of Panchtantra, Ramayana, Mahabharata and similar type of works. I am not against the western culture. But I think if we possess such great works then we need to utilize them for building our nation.

Every effort should be made to nurture the values of these great epics into the youth of our nation if we want to see ourself as a future superpower. For that we need to target the children which will be the future of our country. Entertainment is a very powerful media and we can use it for the same. Lately there have been movies like Hanuman, Ganesha, Krishna and Ghatodgach but we still need them on a bigger platform. If you see the history textbook then it is full of which country invaded us when and ruled for how much time. Rather than the history should include these great epics and similar kind of work. Bring such great books in the form of comics, video games, toys, clothes and the entire market segment of kids.

We need to do something or else such a great epic will be lost in history and as a nation we will not have anyone but ourself to be blamed for that.