Mahabharat proves Revenge is Self-Destructive!

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Posted: 11 years ago
#1

Revenge is a destructive violent response to anger, injury, or humiliation.Revenge is an intentional target with the intent of doing harm to individual.Desire for avenging on others satisfies self only.It increases Bad Karma and gets you caught in the cycle of birth and Death.

Revenge is an attempt to eliminate shame and increase dominance. Instead, it usually increases violence. Intention to take revenge is the general feeling that individual have to defend the honor of themselves and their family.

One feels pride of taking revenge may be a momentarily satisfaction.Revenge can not change the past but the present and the future. Revenge is a poisonous emotional negative thought.It is condemned in Spiritualism...Vedas & Upanishads.Even in Bhagavad Gita Krishna advises to fight for Dharma but he doesn't promote avenging!


Revenge is indeed a strong feeling in Mahabharat...Harvest of hate is bitter. Very bitter. All those who wanted revenge, got what they wanted in some measure. But, they had to pay a heavy price for their vengeance. Most lost their lives to exact the revenge or they so desperately craved someone they could not live without. So if anything, the epic tale teaches us that revenge is a poison not worth taking.


Amba - Amba wanted revenge on Bhishma.She did great Tapasya for Lord Shiva but requested for revenge on Bhishma- She had to become Shikhandin(neither male nor female) and subsequently lost her life in the Great War.She had no peace of mind.


Shakuni - Shakuni wanted revenge on the Kuru clan for asking his sister to marry a blind prince - Shakuni abandoned his own lands and family to wreck a revenge that destroyed his sister's family.Finally he lost his life in the War.

Shishupal - Shishupal wanted revenge on Krishna for doing Haran of Rukmini, from under his nose on the eve of his marriage - Lost his head during Rajasuya.


Drona - Drona wanted revenge on Drupada for refusing to acknowledge Drona's friendship and insulting him calling a beggar.He was killed by Dhristadyumna during Mahabharat War.


Drupada - Drupad sought for revenge on Drona when the later attacked him with the help of Kuru Princes and snatched half of his Kingdom.He performed a Great Sacrifice to obtain a son who could slay Drona and a Daughter who could enter Kuru Clan - He lost his sons in the great war and met death in the hands of Drona.


Dhrishtadhuymna - Dhrishtadhuymna wanted to kill Drona to avenge the partition of Panchal - He was killed by Ashwatthama in the Pandava camp during the night.


Ashwatthama - Ashwashthama wanted to kill the Panchalas, and Dhrishtadhuyman in particular, for having killed his father - He killed Upapandavas and blinded by hatred and vengeance, he directed Brahmastra towards the womb of Uttara who was pregnant with the child of Abhimanyu. This was the only child left in the family of the Pandavas.The foetus was protected by Sri Krishna.But due to his Prarabdha Karma Krishna cursed him that he will carry the burden of all people's sins on his shoulders and will roam alone like a ghost without getting any love and courtesy for thousands of years.The wound caused by the removal of this gem on his forehead will never heal and he will suffer from leprosy.He will be in search of death every moment, and yet he will never die.


Kauravas - They wanted revenge on Bhima for having dragged them around the palace as children - They put poison in Bhima's food - They met their end in the Great War.


Duryodhan - Duryodhan wanted revenge on Pandavas & Draupadi because they laughed when he fell into a pool of water - He insulted Pandavas and Draupadi during the Dice Game with the help of his Brother Duhsasana - He was brutally killed by Bhima during the war.


Karna - Karna wanted revenge on Pandavas and Draupadi for calling him SutaPutra and not allowing him to participate in her Swayamvar - The most hurtful occasion was when he incited Duryodhan to call Draupadi his 'slave', strip her and even ask her to sit on his naked thigh in full view of all Kurus.Draupadi never forgave him for that.Karna met his death on the battle-field.


Bhima - Bhima wanted revenge on Duryodhan for having insulted Drupadi by asking her to sit on his naked thigh.Bhima wanted revenge on Dushashan for having dragged Drupadi in public by her hair - He killed both of them during the War - He tore Duryodhan's thighs and drank Duhsasana's Blood and applied it to Draupadi's Hair.


Sahadeva - Sahadeva wanted revenge on Shakuni for having cheated them out of their empire and having caused them so much pain - Sahadeva killed Shakuni.


Draupadi - Draupadi wanted to see the Kauravas dead to avenge her public humiliation in the Kuru court.Draupadi wanted to see Ashwashthama suitably punished for having killed her sons, brother and countrymen in the cowardly night attack.Draupadi vows not to tie her hair until it was coloured with the blood of Dushasana.She always thought about the injustice done to her. She was successful by igniting the spark of revenge in the hearts of the Pandavas.Bhima fulfills her vow by - Her fight for Justice ended the wicked souls but her revenge killed many soldiers, widowed countless women and she lost all her sons,and countrymen.Her crying couldn't retrieve her sons.


Abhimanyu - Abhimanu and his brothers wanted to avenge the insults Kauravas heaped on their mother Draupadi and Pandava fathers.All sons of Pandava who took part in the war lost their lives.Abhimanyu was trapped in Padmavyuha and was subsequently killed in the Mahabahrat War.


Krishna definitely is against hatred and revenge. It would have been easy for him to excite Arjuna by reminding how the Duryodhana brothers insulted Draupadi and it could have worked. No, Krishna did not want Arjuna to fight out of hatred, anger or for taking revenge. Krishna also is not interested in bringing Duryodhana to justice. Duryodhana has to die because he has been the instrument to deterioration of Dharma.Krishna wanted Arjuna to fight for Dharma without Attachment by giving up his ego and surrendering to him!



Edited by Cool-n-Fresh - 11 years ago

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TheWatcher thumbnail
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Posted: 11 years ago
#2
Few points are not right.

- Karna never asked draupadi to sit on his friends thigh, it was Duryodhan himself who did that.

- There is difference between "avenge" and "revenge", Abhimanyu and pandavas seeked to avenge draupadi's humiliation rather than take revenge


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Posted: 11 years ago
#3
Indeed revenge was a strong feeling in Mahabharata..most of the characters desired revenge!

Shakuni..he had no problem associated with his sister's marriage to a blind man. Duryodhan was highly obsessed with the pandavas, he wasn't! His revenge story is fake!
bhas1066 thumbnail
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Posted: 11 years ago
#4
Sure Krishna said all that to Arjuna and the pandavas . but wat for did Arjuna took oath to kill jaydrath after abhi's death? Why Yuri fought with Arjuna when he learnt karna was still alive. Did the panda as actually fought the war without revenge in their hearts? Did Arjuna fight without revenge even after he listened to gita?
Edited by bhas1066 - 11 years ago
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Posted: 11 years ago
#5

Originally posted by: Cool-n-Fresh


Shakuni - Shakuni wanted revenge on the Kuru clan for asking his sister to marry a blind prince - Shakuni abandoned his own lands and family to wreck a revenge that destroyed his sister's family.Finally he lost his life in the War.

Krishna definitely is against hatred and revenge. It would have been easy for him to excite Arjuna by reminding how the Duryodhana brothers insulted Draupadi and it could have worked. No, Krishna did not want Arjuna to fight out of hatred, anger or for taking revenge. Krishna also is not interested in bringing Duryodhana to justice. Duryodhana has to die because he has been the instrument to deterioration of Dharma.Krishna wanted Arjuna to fight for Dharma without Attachment by giving up his ego and surrendering to him!


Shakuni cannot be judged by the way he is depicted in popular culture. He had no personal agenda of his own with respect to Pandavas' destruction. He had nothing to avenge. In fact, he had also advised Duryodhan against doing any wrong to the Pandavas after they had built Indraprastha.

With regards to you analysis of Krishna, although he may not have acted out of vengeance, he definitely considered justice to the Pandavas as one of his top priorities after they had been sent into exile. Krishna also had some personal scores to settle, which he did with the help of the Pandavas. I am referring to Jarsandh vadh here, as Jarasandh had driven out the Yadavas from Mathura to Dwarka.

How can you say he was not interested in bringing Duryodhan to book? To say that the war served mankind a greater purpose can only be true in a spiritual and symbolic sense. The war did more harm than good in reality and the greater scheme of things. Otherwise the war, which became touted as dharmayudh because it served the Pandavas in fighting for their rights and justice, did not achieve any greater good by Duryodhan's death. There is no evidence of Duryodhan being needed to be toppled from his seat of power because he was a bad ruler to his subjects. He definitely needed to be punished though for all his wrongs against the Pandavas.

I agree with the rest of your points however and how the Mahabharata teaches us that revenge is futile.

I shall paste here an excerpt from KMG which shows Krishna's reaction to Panchali's lament.

"Vaisampayana continued, 'In that assembly of heroes Vasudeva then spake unto the weeping Draupadi as follows, 'O fair lady, the wives of those with whom thou art angry, shall weep even like thee, beholding their husbands dead on the ground, weltering in blood and their bodies covered with the arrows of Vivatsu! Weep not, lady, for I will exert to the utmost of my powers for the sons of Pandu! I promise thou shalt (once more) be the queen of kings! The heavens might fall, or the Himavat might split, the earth might be rent, or the waters of the ocean might dry up, but my words shall never be futile!' Hearing those words of Achyuta in reply, Draupadi looked obliquely at her third husband (Arjuna). And, O mighty king, Arjuna said unto Draupadi, 'O thou of beautiful coppery eyes, grieve not! O illustrious one, it shall be even as the slayer of Madhu hath said! It can never be otherwise, O beautiful one!'
Edited by Ashwini_D - 11 years ago

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