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Raamaayan's Raam and Mahaabhaarat's Krishn

The Raamaayan and the Mahaabhaarat are two great masterpieces of ancient Indian literature presenting two philosophies of life. Vaalmeeki’s Raam represents idealism and Ved Vyaas’ Krishn, realism.

Raam is a character. Krishn is an actor; Krishn involves himself without being involved. He is a catalyst energizing others into action. He refuses to circumscribe his life with ideas and ideals. For him life is larger than all ideas and ideals put together. They are for life; life is not for them. It’s the same mind that gives rise to both good and evil, virtue and vice. Both aspects are different transformations of one and the same energy. Krishn doesn’t deny these dualities. A mirror reflects everything that appears before it, but unlike a camera, it doesn’t retain impressions. A man of mirror-like consciousness will relate with people and things, but he won’t enter into relationships involving attachment.

Raam is a doer; he acts for his ideals and is therefore called Maryaadaa Purushottam. Krishn on the other hand, is an incomparable actor; He turns the whole world into his stage. He plays a friend and a foe without being involved in friendship and enmity. Krishn is called Leelaa-Purushottam. He accepts all contradictions and ambiguities of life. He isn’t afraid of them, that is why he is called complete or Poorn Avataar. Krishn’s mission of life was to uphold Dharm. His whole life is like an open book. He wears no mask. Whatever He is, He is. He doesn’t deny anything; He is transparent. It’s true that life is full of contradictions and absurdities. To Krishn all that doesn’t justify is escapism. He does what is situationally appropriate. Since it’s not possible to remain a mere witness, it’s better to act with complete self-knowledge and moral courage.

Creative destruction - There is one event in Mahaabhaarat, which generally doesn’t catch popular attention: the burning of the Khaandav forest. After the plan to kill Paandav failed, Dhritraashtra was forced to give them a share of the kingdom. Keeping Hastinaapur to himself and his sons, he gave a little-known town Khaandav Prasth to the Paandav. On a hot summer day, younger members of the Paandav family with Krishn’s family went for a picnic to the nearby Khaandav forest. There they drank, sang and danced. Suddenly everyone saw that the forest caught fire and Krishn and Arjun together guarded all sides so tightly that no creature fleeing from the blaze could escape.

Furiously driving their chariots, the two slaughtered everything in sight. Fire consumed almost all vegetation and life. It’s not known how the fire really started. But, the question remains: why Krishn and Arjun acted so ruthlessly and so mercilessly? Of course, the Paandav were planning to build Indra Prasth, a city bigger than Hastinaapur, which they did. And, they may also be trying to fulfill the duty of a ruling king to provide more land for cultivation. Forests had to be cleared for human settlement and entire region made rich and fertile.

Swa-Dharm as ordained by Swa-Bhaav, Krishn makes a distinction between ends and means. Ends can be idealistic but if means are absolutely pure, they will soon become ends and the distinction between ends and means will disappear. Is a pure end ever fully achieved? It’s always there as an ideal. Often at times the problem is to choose between a greater evil and a lesser evil. If it’s found necessary Krishn breaks his own vows. Violating the Kshatriya code, He once even ran away from the battlefield because discretion could sometimes be a better part of valor. His elder brother, Balaraam, decided to remain neutral in the battle at Kuru Kshetra so he went for pilgrimage. Krishn knew that great issues were at stake.

He was also aware that both sides looked at him as a friend. Neither side was totally right nor totally wrong. The way He divided himself is extraordinary. He told them they had two options: He or His army. It’s obvious that if one is anxious for victory he wouldn’t choose Krishn without his army and, more so when He says, that He wouldn’t fight. The Paandav chose him because they knew he was a great strategist, at one moment a sober statesman, but very often also the shrewd manipulator bent upon achieving his purpose irrespective of means employed. He manipulated the killings of all outstanding warriors of the Kaurav's army - Bheeshm, Drone, Karn, Jayadrath. They knew His presence was more important than His participation.

Krishn is perhaps the best example of a leader as a catalyst available in world literature. He has no interests, no position and no power. Yet on almost all important occasions when great events occur in Mahaabhaarat, He is present there. He does nothing, only His presence makes things happen. The word Krishn means center. He is the center of attraction. He stands for certain values of life and wants to destroy all those who make others suffer. Unlike Raam he doesn’t try to walk on a straight line. He deviates when it is situationally appropriate.

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