There are certain stories that tug at our hearstrings just for the sake of evoking a tear. A common man's struggle - Citizen Kane, a society's penance at the hands of a dictator - Battleship Potempkin, a nation's quest for independence - Gandhi, a world's justification for its existence - GATTACA, and a universe's fundamental motivation - the "hopefully" upcoming Foundation. A story that transcends these realities is one of God. Even God has a story. In today's scientific outlook, God has to justify himself also. And while there are a myriad mythologies ranging from human sacrifice like the Ramayan and the Bible, to doctrines on Morality like the Qoran, to questions on what personal morality itself is like the Book of Scientology; and from religious tolerance preached by the Guru Granth Sahib to religious hegemony preached by the politically motivated leaders of today, none has touched upon the sacrifices of God as much as has the Mahabaratha. And no God, including that doyen of human sacrifice, Christ, has ever proclaimed the virtue of malpractice to further justice in a world devoid of such, as has Lord Krishna.
Vigilantism has existed in this world since its existence. From the very first protozoa that decided by cosmic design or evolution - take your pick - it does not matter in the grand scale - that certain species were unworthy, to the Khat Panchayats of today, vigilantism has defined the course of individuals, their moral conduct, nations, their civil codes. Vigilantism has been the torchbearer of what we consider today to be the code of law that defines us as a people, wherever we might live.
To all my Christian friends, Jesus accepted the sins of his fellows as his own, and absolved the world of its ills. He died for it. He was magnanimous. He was the ideal human being, the pinnacle mortal coil. To my Hindu Friends, while Sri Ram was the epitome of human virtue, he wasn't really a good example of how to tackle the political landscape of today's world. And to my other friends, God is an entity to be followed unquestioned. But Lord Krishna is the one God whose canniness is an example on how to lead an ideal life. Maybe because of his birth in the Dwapara world, with its schemes and backstabbing galore. And the movie Karna is the greatest screen capture of the sacrifice of a God.
It is about how virtuous man's destiny is designed by a God's cruelty. It is about how man's cruelty is designed to be God's example of virtuosity. It is about how a pawn is sacrificed in the grand game of Chess. It is about how you can be right all along and yet go wrong. It is about life. This is why, in my opinion, the Mahabharata is the greatest epic on human life that has ever, and will ever be written, It is about sacrifice. Of man. Of God. The universe sacrifices so many subatomic particles every quintessential metric of measurable time to generate more useful entities. Whole stars sacrifice themselves into supernovae and black holes to create the building blocks of a better, more useful universe.
Every measurable instance of time, something in our multitude of universes dies, a little energy is lost towards absolute zero, in the hope that some definition of order may be created out of the chaos that is the cosmos. So too are the examples of Karnan - will a human being be better because of his example; so too is Krishna - will a God have to resort to schemes to make the world a better place; so too is Karna - will a movie be made that asks us the fundamental question of this blog, will there be a better movie than this...
I am too lax of ethics to write any more about this. Persons better than me have composed a beautiful song to commenorate these virtues. Listen, enjoy, cry... and maybe learn a little bit...
Friends, the cosmos is an amazing place. It makes us laugh and cry and feel and emote. Let us try to be a small part of making it BETTER. One simple way you can do that is by reading my blog. Derisive, or sarcastically or wholeheartedly, did that last sentence not make you laugh? Haha... I just increased your lifespan by a little bit. A little bit of Krishna is within all of us.
