What is dharma and why should it be pursued? As i was thinking of Mahabharata, two separate images emerged into my mind: the one of Yudhistira coming back to hastinapura after emerging victorious in the war and the other of Dhrutharastra, the earlier king of hastinapura, who lost the war.
Yudhistira, as we have been told, stood in the path of dharma, doing the right thing and standing up for the right causes. He was respectful to elders, learnt about the righteous duties of a king, followed the way of the kshtriya, the ruler class and when looked at did everything possibly right, including going to the gambling session, even when he knew that he was going to be cheated and went to the extremes of betting his brothers, himself and even his wife, all in the honor and tradition of a king not refusing to get up from a gambling bout. He dutifully went to the forests with his brothers and wife, even when he came to know about the cheating done by Shakuni. He came back, fourteen years later and was told that his kingdom won’t be given to him and had to regroup his armies, fight for his rights and then get what was rightfully his. All of this was done under the tutelage of Lord Krishna, who stood by him. because Yudhistira was fighting for dharma, the righteousness.
Dhrutarastra, on the other hand, cared for himself and his progeny than for the kingdom or the people as we are told. He was swayed by his emotions, let his evil son, duryodhana run the kingdom in his name, under the evil direction of Shakuni. They envied the pandavas and wanted revenge against them. Dhrutarastra let his sons trick the innocent Yudhistira in the gambling game, got his “kul-vadhu” Draupadi’s honor to be destroyed in the court by his sons and eventually let them exile the pandavas to the forest. Even when they came back, he didn’t give the kingdom back to the pandavas. As can be said, he neglected his dharma. So, in the end, he lost all of his near and dear, including his hundred sons, his favorite duryodhana, his relatives and was mourning, by the time Yudhistira was entering hastinapura.
If you do not follow dharma, then you will lose everything and if you follow dharma, like Yudhistira did, dharma will protect you. But, is this really true? When yudhistira entered the hastinapur, how was he better than Dhrutarastra? His heart was as heavy as his own uncle with all the losses of his sons, his brother’s sons, his own brother, his cousins and his relatives and all of his near and dear? There was no rejoicing on the streets of hastinapur, either, with most of the population wiped out. What good was following dharma, then? And what did it protect? Even with Lord Krishna, by his side, he couldn’t protect everything he cherished for, and as scriptures show, he left for Badrinath, for his final journey, only in a few years after this final war.
What point and what good was following dharma then? Had he not fought the war, his uncle’s family and his own family would have survived and surely with more capable men, by his side, he would have earned much more of a bigger kingdom, than he could at Hastinapur. His sons would have by side and he would wave enjoyed his life, more than he did in the desolated hastinapur?
Even if we were to argue that, dharma was worth dying for, wasn’t his fate the same as the fate of uncle, who went against dharma? Was he happier than he would have been, had he not fought the war? Or is dharma, just for keeping your name for posterity? what good is such a war, other than a vain attempt to somehow sneak your name into history?
Update:
I was chatting with my father about this and he said something that struck me a chord. You follow dharma, not because it gives you happiness or rewards, but u simply cannot not follow your dharma. Not following your dharma is unthinkable. Like a gush of water, that breaks the shackles of a dam, your mind cannot push away the pursuit of dharma and eventually you will succumb to the flow of ideas that lead you to your dharma.
Simply put, dharma is not about happiness or about luxuries of life. Its just who you are and following it is as existential to you as the breath of air u take every second, without knowing it.
So, oh! my dear mind, do not sweat on the rewards you don’t seem to get when you follow it. Just understand that, you are too weak to not follow your dharma.
