Understanding the Mahabharata

[Shantanu]

While the Vaidika mArga is more complete and reveals BhagavAn (theistically), I would not judge the actions of masters and make generalizations on such a large scale. There are those who were benefited. As you said, those whose guNas were suitable for that path. The original intended dhyAna of Siddhartha Gautam Buddha is not really different from dhyAna as per VedAnta, and it is nice to be in that kind of Samadhi at times .... but then it is nicer to be at Shri KRshNa's side (at His Lotus Feet) once out of it. The 5-fold path (satya,ahimsa,dharma...) is nothing new to Hinduism but it was a good simplification for the citizens there at the time in the common Pali language, and then again -- the ascetic limbs of the practice were not meant for gRhastha (householders). It is all about Desha-kAla-pAtra (place, era/time, candidates)



Bhagavad GeetA is correct. It is more about how you understand the verses. Please see my post # 36 about the samsara chakra in Bh GitA Chap 3 and perhaps you will agree.

ekam shAstram devakIputragItameko devo devakIputra eva |
eko mantrastasya nAmAni yAni karmApyekam tasya devasya sevA ||
--- GItA MahAtmya shloka 7, Mahabharat
One and only scripture i.e. Bhagvad GItA by Son of DevakI (KRshNa)
One and only God i.e. Son of DevakI (KRshNa)
One and only mantra - that of KRshNa
One and only deed i.e. service to the Deva (KRshNa)

Not a moment should go by when the mind does not wonder about God's presence in it and from it the guidance that a person receives from HIm into ones actions as the manifestation of total surrender. Only such a mode results in the truths that would save the individual from the most dangerous of enemies that he faces in material life. The five-fold path you mention is sattvic (no doubt) but access to Sri Krishna needs one to transcend the gunas to His Lotus Feet subservient to this submission; for example ahimsa is not treated as a path within this dharma in that God may require the individual to kill not just human beings as in the epic of Mahabharrata but also animals for food or other purposes like animal experimentation. The dharma that is right for one is the one that determines the reality of ones situation and takes appropriate action moment by moment in total detachment to the fruits of those actions, that is by not knowing or even caring what the consequences of those actions will be other than assist in one's survival. When one is in faith that one has surrendered to Sri Krishna, it matters not a bit what the consequences of one's actions are but one sees that the action has made one survive in dignity. We then wait for the next moment and assess afresh what is needed. That is then seen as the right thing to have done. That is karma yoga. An individual can therefore lie and deceive (hide the truth) in the struggle to survive with dignity as described in the Mahabharatta when he or she is confronted with evil.

So I do not buy into Buddhism or a Hindu dharma comprising of the five-fold path. Mahatma Gandhi could not survive: hence he had the wrong ideas. The first duty of an individual is the sanctitity of life, but beginning with his/her own personal life as being the most important. This is the difference between Buddhism (and Christianty) and Hinduism. Hinduism recognises that great evil is part of Nature that has to be confronted and destroyed when it gets into one's path. My personal experience shows that Sri Krishna supports this resistance and that is what we know from our scriptures too.