Favorite Pandav from Mahabharat and why??

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Who is your favorite Pandav from the Mahabharat??

Mina Rati Desai

@...Mina...

Dazzler

+ 2

Posted: 14 years ago

My fav has always been Arjun.😍

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Janaki

@RamKiSeeta

Achiever

+ 6

Posted: 14 years ago

I like Dharmaraj, because he is the most misunderstood and criticized of the lot though Krishna always supported him.

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Shivang

@ShivangBuch

Voyager

Posted: 14 years ago

My intellectual choice is Yudhisthir. Personal emotional choice is Bheem. And devotional (being Krishna's devotee) choice is Arjun.

My vote goes to the great BHEEMSEN. Current answer as per my heart. Very very dear to me. Always clear in terms of his thoughts and followed natural instincts like vaanar sena and bhaalu sena to punish the evil. He only was the best husband of Draupadi. Naturally driven to destroy the evil people (Not just Duryodhan for his personal envy but also Jarasandh even). He many times had disagreements with Yudhishthir or even Krishna but we can imagine how much control he must have exercised on himself while almost always obeying them if at all not always. Immense power but always kept under control of dharma and the INSTANT force or instrument used by God to achieve the aim of VINAASHAAY CHA DUSHKRITAAM. And he didn't have to explain him much. Just a hint. Arjun had to be explained Geeta again & again and still he kept on forgetting it and Krishna had to lift the weapon on Bhishma. The impact of Krishna's preaching was shortlived on Arjun. Arjun was innocent (therefore dearest to Krishna) but the character with mind confused and unclear. Yudhishthir was very complex to understand. Bheem was simplest to understand, amazing in deeds, and clear in mind. Also relatively underrated by people I feel in his goodness too (I am mainly influenced by BRC characterization of Bheem rather than SK). Very very noble. Very sacrificing. I don't rate his greatness in Ekchkara nagri to rescue people from Bakasur and then going with Ghatotkach to save a Brahmin family anyway less than DAANVEERTA. Arjun's glory was mainly after the Lakshagruh story. During the early struggle of Pandava's life, they were totally dependent on Bheem's strength.

In summary, almost all characters of Mahabharat are complex to understand (like modern time people) and I therefore like only Ramayan characters who are all simple to understand. Bheem is one of the exceptional cases in Mahabharat.

Edited by ShivangBuch - 14 years ago

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Vibhishna

@Vibhishna

Dazzler

+ 3

Posted: 14 years ago

I second ShivangBuch - the characters of Mahabharat are very complex to understand, so is the entire epic. I have not even understood Ramayan fully. I have not even begun to understand the Mahabharat.

As for the Pandavas, my favourite is Bheema. Yudhishtra was the eldest and was respected by the rest of the Pandavas. Arjuna was a favourite of teachers and was close to Sri Krishna. Nakula and Sahadeva were twins and being the youngest were kind of petted by their mother and the other brothers. Also, Bheema was the only one who understood what was happening without a consolation or explanation. Bheema never confronted Sri Krishna when the latter willingly sacrificed the Ghatotkacha to save Arjuna but quietly grieved for his son. Bheema was a true devotee even a better devotee than Arjuna was. For his silent nobility and unwavering faith, I like Bheema the best.

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Janaki

@RamKiSeeta

Achiever

+ 6

Posted: 14 years ago

Nice replies, guys!👏

You're right that the Mahabharat characters are very hard to understand. Also, they had their faults like humans today. Yudhithir's fault was that one half-lie he told Dronacharya and also his addiction to gambling, Bheema's was quick anger that made him prone ot hasty actions, Arjun's was pride, and Nakul and Sahadev's....well, I don't remember but I do know they had their faults.

On the other hand, Ramayan characters were based on idealism. Everything they did was aimed towards perfection and teaching humanity. I think this is why many people prefer Ramayan, because we all desire idealism when living in this Kali Yug where everything and everyone is imperfect already. The ideal characters of Ramayan give us hope and strength to overcome our obstacles.

On the other hand, Mahabharat is great for learning how to achieve our goals in the right manner while at the same time not giving in to others' wills. It teaches us how to deal with an imperfect society, and how to get closer to God despite being surrounded by sinners.

So both Ramayan and Mahabharat are best in their own ways, but yes....like the others here, I also prefer the Ramayan a bit more because of the idealism in it.😳 I have always been an idealist since young, and cannot stand imperfection when I see no reason for it....guess that's one of my own biggest imperfection/fault.☺️

When reading fiction these days, western critics criticize a story based on whether the characters have enough faults or not, and I have never understand that because for me, it is the exact opposite.😕 It seems as if western society today actually values character flaws and imperfections, and the ones who are 'ideal' are called 'mary sues' or 'gary sues' or whatnot. For me, my favorite characters are the ones displaying ideal characteristics, and unfortunately, those characters are ones whom western society today dislikes.😆 It's the Prabhaav of Kali Yug, I suppose.

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MagadhSundari

@MagadhSundari

Sparkler

+ 4

Posted: 14 years ago

Cool topic Mina, great thinking 👏 I totally agree with the views that Janu, Vibs, and Shivang bhaiya expressed on Mahabharat characters in general... they were all so complex that it's hard to choose between them and have a comprehensive reason for it... Kudos to Janu for putting it sooooo well in that last post, there really is some twisted love of antiheroism that pervades our thinking nowadays and if we're looking for lessons, it helps to have real heroes to learn from instead... hence my attraction towards Ramayan and early Krishna leela characters over the Hastinapur batch 😳

When it comes to the Pandavs, it's a really tough choice for me between Bhim and Arjun. Observing Arjun is a great learning experience, because he's such a dynamic character and makes such progress from beginning to end. But for this poll I chose Bhim, for pretty much the same reasons given by Vibs and Shivang bhaiya. He was always true to himself, and his instincts pretty much always demonstrated that he valued compassion and protection of the weak over his own reputation.

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Janaki

@RamKiSeeta

Achiever

+ 6

Posted: 14 years ago

Originally posted by: lola610
Kudos to Janu for putting it sooooo well in that last post, there really is some twisted love of antiheroism that pervades our thinking nowadays and if we're looking for lessons, it helps to have real heroes to learn from instead...

I know, I once got into this debate with someone about the characters of Harry Potter, and people were comparing Lily Evans Potter with Hermione Granger, and many people said they preferred Hermione because she actually had flaws unlike what we knew of Lily. Don't get me wrong, I love the character of Hermione as well, but you know from my past PMs that I prefer Lily because of the ideal qualities she exhibited for her family. And I was sitting there wondering how it is a good thing to have imperfections. Isn't the basic message of morality that we should always strive to be the best? And yet in our society, it seems as if people strive to be the worst, and to cover up their actions they put a message across that 'flawed characters' are more enticing than ideal characters.

One of my friends told me that the reason may me because people feel like they can relate more with flawed characters, and while that may be true, the main reason I read fiction is to get away from the imperfections of real life and enter a fantasy world where anything can happen, even all good. And also to learn something from the characters in stories and gain a deeper understanding of what it means to strive to be an ideal person. Like you said, we learn from the ideal characters in stories, not the imperfect ones (well I guess we learn from them too since we learn what not to do😆), so what is the point of reading stories where the characters in it are just like the people in real life? I personally do not find anything to gain from such characters.

Then again, I have always been an idealistic person so it is hard for me to understand how some people do not believe in idealism. I personally find it encouraging and inspirational when following the life of an ideal character, because it teaches me how best to change myself for the better and help society, you know? I do not feel the same way for normal, everday flawed characters, other than mere entertainment when reading the story.

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Anisha

@.anishaa.

Inactive

+ 4

Posted: 14 years ago

Amazing topic!

And great replies everyone!
I originally picked Arjuna because he was Shri Krishna's favorite and I feel most familiar with him, but Bheema came a close second.

After I read Shivang bhaiyya's reply, I turned over to Bheema's side for all the reasons he cited.

But actually, I think it wasn't Arjuna himself who was a confused soul--he was God's instrument and God made him that way so he could give him the Gita pravachan that would ultimately benefit us confused souls.

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Shivang

@ShivangBuch

Voyager

Posted: 14 years ago

Very very nice additions Vibhishan and Lola. I loved them to read. And like Lola said, it was tough to choose. It was tough choice between three of them but still had I not chosen Bheem, I would have chosen Yudhishthir because I am in complete agreement with Janaki in that. On Orkut, apart from writing essay on Vibhishan, I also had done the same for Yudhishthir trying to defend him for long throughout the thread. In case of Arjun, other than the point that he was most liked by Krishna, I had very limited number of direct reasons of getting attracted to him or liking him personally and while arguing in his favour in debate. He was MOHAK and handsome of course. He was known for excellence in archery and concentration. But the choice between Bheem and Yudhishthir was more tough for me than the choice between Bheem and Arjun.

@Anisha

You have nicely put forward the point of Geeta dear sister. And it is my great honour that you say that you would even feel to vote for Bheem after reading my previous post. Your insight is really very very nice. Arjun was a great instrument in gracing the confused souls with Geeta. He had the flair characteristics of Narayan in him being the incarnation of Nar. But he was favoured most by Narayan to fill in the lacking part. The intellect of Narayan. He needed the direction. He needed the discretion power to be used to decide when to choose Bheem's natural instinctive extreme ideology of instant justice and when to use the other extreme ideology of Yudhishthir of peace and patience using the intellect and shaastragyan at appropriate situations. His innocent questioning, curiosity and eagerness definitely gave the world the Geeta. He definitely surrendered to Krishna and lifted Gandiv. But what after that? Did Geeta have long lasting impact on him other than the fact that he just started the war? I agree that Bheem didn't have to fight against Bhishma or Dron but still if we think from the point of view of people participating in the war, wasn't the drama of 10 days which was going on between Grand sire and Grandson irritating? Neither Bhishma nor Arjun was going to kill the other one and poor all innocent foot soldiers!!!!!!! They were the victims of this waste of time family drama. What Krishna actually wanted him to do through Geetopadesh was done by him actually only after Abhimanyu's death in anger and revenge for the son. And the same thing Bheem was doing right from the beginning with clear mindset (Not advocating the revengeful nature here but the clarity of mind). Leave aside the revengeful Paanchaal family. Just put yourself in place of Saatyaki. Put yourself in place of Magadh king Sahdev. Put yourself in place of Viratnaresh. Put yourself in place of Chedi king Dhrishtketu. All the friends and well wishers of Pandavas had waged war against Duryodhan without much personal interest. They had already gambled their life in friendship. Now if you are at their place or at the place of those thousands of foot soldiers, whom would you prefer? Bheem or Arjun? Who was more RELIABLE? The one who was not required to be told Geeta at that point of time or the one who made Geetagyan available to the future generations?

Arjun-Karna remind me more of Vaali-Sugreev. Bheem was Pavanputra and the brother of Hanuman.

Edited by ShivangBuch - 14 years ago

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Aditi

@ADMJCXNK97fan

Explorer

Posted: 14 years ago

#10

i like arjun cuz of his realtionship with almost everyone, and of course his many skills, but for a long time my fav was always yudhistir....i always was in awe and admiration because of his dedication to dharma. unfortunately the yudhistir in BRC's mahabharat was kinda annoying.......the actor didn't portray him very well :( otherwise i feel he could have been a LOT better! anyway arjun and yudhistir r my fav :)

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