Why did Krishna choose Arjuna instead of Karna,Drona or Bhishma ?

The Mahabharata is one of the greatest literature’s in the world. No other work brings out the complexity of human problems in such a profound and entertaining way. It shows us the application of philosophy when it comes to deciding between the right and wrong in such cases where the answer is not straightforward.Four of the most striking characters in the Mahabharata are Arjuna,Karna,Drona and Bhishma . These men were perhaps the four greatest warriors of the era and werealso well learned and had firm principles bywhich they lived.They lived their life by different values and their lives came to very different ends. The Mahabharata shows that all four men were great in their own way, but threeof them failed in doing what is truly right and therefore came to futile ends, their lives not serving the greater good.Out of the four characters, Arjuna is the character who stands out as the hero who future generations of Hindus admire the most. The other three are remembered as tragic heroes. Their names are not associated with the same awe and respect as that of Arjuna. They all met sad deaths on the battlefield, fighting on the side of evil despite knowing in their hearts that they were doing wrongThere is a fundamental difference in the outlook and character of these four great men that was responsible for their different outcomes.KarnaKarna was a great warrior, in many ways greater than Arjuna. They may have been equal as archers, but physically, Karna was by far the stronger of the two. And even insticking to one’s principles, Karna appearedmore steadfast compared with Arjuna. Butin Karna’s life there was one fatal flaw. Hemade his friendship and loyalty to Duryodhan higher than anything else, even higher than right and wrong, and even higher than God. While loyalty is a great value in such cases when it overrides a sense of dharma and even the direct calling of the Divine in the form of Shri Krishna, such loyalty leads one to a tragic end.Karna used all his strength to serve his friend Duryodhan, without even one selfishthought for himself. However, his loyalty was so blind that he would even follow his friend when he was doing something totallywrong, selfish and harmful to others. This shows that loyalty to another person can lead even a great man to a tragic end. Dharma, and the call of God, must always be greater than loyalty to another. Karna knew what he was doing was wrong and paidthe price for it.Karna put loyalty to Duryodhan as his highest loyalty. His tragic story warns us tochoose loyalties wisely. Only Krishna deserves such unflinching loyalty.BhishmaBhishma was another person who never performed a selfish action in his whole life.He was mighty, learned and respected. Buthe too ended up fighting on the side of adharma, and came to a tragic end. He was actually an impediment to the establishment of a righteous kingdom. Why? Because he put his personal oath on apedestal and made it the focus and obsession of his life.That oath was that he would unquestioninglyfollow and do the bidding of whoever was the king of Hastinapur (Delhi). This vow, he would never break as long as he lived, even when it involved fighting his own beloved nephews who he knew had done nothing wrong.Sticking to a vow is important, especially today when people make promises and break them the very next day (or even the very next second). But the Mahabharata demonstrates that if your attachment to apersonal vow stops you from doing what is blatantly right, and ends up making you serve evil, such a vow should be discarded and set aside.Bhishma put his personal vow above anything else, even when that vow became an instrument of evil. He disregarded Krishna’s advice, which was that to drop the vow for the greater good.DronaDrona was an employee of the king of Hastinapur, who happened to be Dhitirashtra, the father of Duryodhana. He was employed to teach all the princes ofthat kingdom in the art of warfare and statecraft, and was considered the very greatest teacher of the era. For his services, he was remunerated handsomely. Before he got this job, he was very poor and therefore was very grateful to the King for employing him.When Duryodhan was doing wrong, Drona was fully aware of it. On some occasions he even tried to stop Duryodhan, at which Duryodhan would say: “Do not bite the hand that feeds you.”When the battle finally dawned, Drona fought on Duryodhan’s behalf and was eventually slain in a scheme engineered by Krishna. Drona, despite being an outstanding warrior, and well versed in morality, put his loyalty towards his employer before the more important and fundamental question of dharma. Despite knowing better, he never quite had the guts to just leave and tell the king – “Enough is enough, what you are doing is wrong, I will not support you anymore.” He was too afraid of being called ungrateful.Drona put his loyalty towards his employer above the bidding of Shri Krishna who triedto tell Drona not to keep supporting the side of evil just because of his loyalty to his employer.ArjunaArjuna was a great man. Yet he had weaknesses that were actually absent in Karna, Bhishma and Drona. He was in some ways foolhardy, saying and doing several stupid things that could have landed his brothers and himself in serious trouble.For example, at one point, Arjuna had madea vow that he would take the life of anybody who insulted his ‘Gandiva bow’, which he was exceedingly proud of. During the Mahabharata war, it happened to be Arjuna’s eldest brother and leader, Yuddhistir, who dealt the fatal insult.Arjuna drew his sword and was about to kill his own brother, and was restrained only byKrishna’s presence. Instead of killing Yuddhistir, Arjuna instead insulted him in public. But then, Arjuna felt bad for insulting such a virtuous person as Yuddhistir, and said that he would commit suicide as there was no point even being alive after doing something so vile as insulting his own brother in public! Once again, it was only Krishna’s presence which restrained Arjuna. Krishna eventually talked Arjuna out of suicide, but Arjuna was sad that he had not kept his own word,and felt very bad. Krishna gave Arjuna a loophole. According to dharma, praising yourself in public is a sin that is asbad as one’s own death. So Krishna said to Arjuna that just praise yourself in public, and your vow will be fulfilled. And thus were the lives of both Arjuna and Yuddhistir saved.Yet despite this foolhardy streak in his character, Arjuna is the one who is etched upon the heart of humanity as the ideal to which to aspire.This story illustrates that while Arjuna was far from perfect, he had one over riding quality which sets him above and apart from the others. To Arjuna, it was Krishna’swords that were absolute. He would follow Krishna’s words even at the expense of other principles or promises that he held dear. Therefore he had the grace and favour of Krishna’s guidance throughout his life.Therefore, Arjuna’s fate was to be the hero of the era, and the instrument of Godin being the restorer of dharma to society, rather than a tragic figure who ended up wasting their huge life potential in fightingon behalf of a fake cause. Arjuna put Krishna as his highest guide and ideal, and despite his faults, stands out as the most successful and glorious of the four.ConclusionThe comparison between Karna, Drona, Bhishma and Arjuna shows us that while we can admire a person’s loyalty to a friend, loyalty to their employer and dedication to their principles or promises, all of these things must never be allowed to become an obstacle in doing what is truly for the benefit of the greater good. Krishna, the divine guide, will always shower his grace onpeople who will put Him first, and thus we remember Arjuna as the true hero above any of his contemporaries.

Who was Rama?

Who was Rama – Myth or Historical HeroWe present an insightful article by eminentscholar of Vedas and History – Sri Rajveer Arya written three years ago on the issue of Sri Rama being a myth or a historical legend. Its evident from the facts that Sir Rama was not only an Indian legend but a global phenomenon. There can be nothing more shameful than living in India and yet denigrating one of its greatest role models.Kindly read and circulate widely on eve of the Ayodhya judgement:Nowadays, the issue of Ramsetu is highly talked about by many people. The government filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court which clearly denies the historical existence of Shri Rama on this earth. However, the strong opposing political parties, and other Hindu activists forced that the givernment withdrew the affidavit. Some Hindu organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad, claim that posing questions relating to the existence of Ramacannot be simply answered by scientific or historical data.The existence of Rama is basically a question of faith for millions of people. Therefore, no government or any other party can deny the existence of Rama. Some of these so-called “great advocates” of Hinduism did not show guts to take on the Government/Karunanidhi, and proved that Rama is as historical fact and not a myth.Nevertheless, they were supported from unexpected quarters like the Hurriyat conference from Kashmir. Hurriayat also claimed that scientific or historical evidence is not the yardstick to judge various issues related to religion. Hence, whether Rama existed or not cannot be decided on basis of scientific or historical findings. This is basically associated with religious sentiments of millions of people around the world, and therefore the interference of any government or politicalparty is undesired.As of now, many scientists, based on astronomical data, have propounded that Rama existed around 5044 BC. In such a perplexing situation it becomes very difficult for common masses to arrive at any conclusive view regarding the existenceof Rama. Hence, we have to first analyze various facts regarding Rama, and his epic, Ramayana, before arriving on any final verdict.Maharishi Valmiki, in order to guide the future generations, decided to write a historical epic that can help everyone follow a path of morality and righteousness. He ended up in a dilemma regarding this issue. Later on, he consultedNarada Muni, who in return suggested him to write about Rama, the son of Dasratha, who was born in the clan of Raghu.Similarly, Mahakavi Kalidas wrote Raghuvansham. This book throws light on the lineage of Raghu, and also states various kings who ruled after Rama. So, nowthe point of the argument is that if Rama was a mythological character, then how did Valmiki provide the history of Rama’s forefathers?In Raghuvansham, how did Kalidasa provide details of Rama’s forefathers, and his various Santatis (successors) who ruled after him? In present times various books dealing with stories of Rama are prevalent in India and around the world. We will throwlight on this issue in the latter part of this article.WHEN WAS RAMA BORN: (based on Valmiki`s Ramayana)One of the most anticipated topics in this modern era is that when was Rama born?Before dwelling onto this point, we have to understand that our great Maharishies have systematically divided the period of shristi into Manvantars. Each Manvantar is further divided into chaturyugis. Each chaturyugis consist of Krita (satyuga), traita, dwapar, and kaliyuga. The present Manvantar is Vaivast Manvantar. So far, twenty-seven chaturyugies have already been passed. Right now, it is the 28th chaturyugi, and we are still in the first charan (period) of this chaturyugi.It is a well-known fact that Rama was born during the latter part of traita. Hence, if we assume that Rama was born in the present chaturyugi, then it means that he was born at least 1,000,000 years ago. The period of his birth will probably be more than this.However, Vayu purana provides us the correct chronological period of Ramayana. If we take Vayu purana’s period into consideration then the period of Rama becomes at least 18,000,000 years old. Hence, we can easily conclude that the period of Rama in the time scale is at least 1000,000 to 8,000, 000 years. This issue will be resolved in another topic called “Blunders of Indian History”).This particular view is also supported by the fact that when Hanuman travelled to Shri Lanka in the search of Sita, over therehe saw elephants having four teeth. Hence, this is now an issue for archaeologists/biologists to ascertain when did such elephants exist on earth? (The calculations of chaturyugies will be dealt with in another topic called “Age of present shristi”).The difficulties encountered in establishing chronological correctness of historical events for the period before Christ will be dealt with in the other articlecalled “Blunders of History.” Another interesting fact that has been mentioned in Valmiki’s Ramayana is that the maternal home of Bharat and Shatrughan was in a country where transportationstook place inthe form of vehicles being propelled by dogs or deers. When the two brothers returned to Ayodhya from their maternal home, they crossed many places covered bysnow, and were also dressed up in clothes made of wool. Now, the location in which this episode took place is yet to be ascertained.According to our logic, this episode took place in Russia, and phonetically Russia sounds like misnomer of a Rishi, but this has been taken care of in our article called “Blunder of Indian/World history”. From the facts mentioned above, it clearly gives us an insight into the period of Rama’s birth. So, those who claim that Rama is only a mythological character have been proven wrong since we have provided them with so much evidence in this article. We will also establish that before the advent of Christianity and Islam, Rama was revered throughout the world as an international cult figure.LEGENDS OF RAMAYANA IN VARIOUS PARTS OF GLOBE1) RAMAYANA IN RUSSIA AND MANGOLIA:The Deccan Herald, on 15th December 1972,on its front page gave the news in which it stated that a story relating to Ramayana was published in Elista, capital city of Kalmyk, in Russia. The news further stated that various legends of Ramayana were popular among people of Kalmyk. Many versions of Ramayana are already stored inthe libraries of Kalmyk. The news clearly stated that legends of Ramayana were extremely popular since time immemorial. Domodin Suren, a Russian writer, has mentioned various legends that were popular among Mongolian and Kalmyk people. Prof C F Glostunky`s manuscript called “Academy of Sciences”, is located atSiberian Branch of Erstwhile, U.S.S.R. This book deals with various legends popular along the Coast of Volga River, and its manuscript is in the Kalmyk language. Last,but not the least, in Leningrad, a great number of books dealing with stories of Ramayana are still available and preserved even today in Russian and Mongolian languages.2) RAMAYANA IN CHINA:-In China, a large collection of Jatak stories related to various events of Ramayana, which date back to 251 A.D, were compiled by Kang Seng Hua. Another book from 742 AD, which relates the story of plight of Dasratha after Rama, was ordered to go for Vanvasa is still present in China. Similarly, in 1600 AD, His-Yii-Chii wrote a novel called Kapi (monkey) which elaborated on the stories of Ramayana, predominantly that of Hanuman.3) RAMAYANA IN SRILANKA:-Naresh Kumar Dhatusena also known as Kumardasa, who ruled Sri Lanka in 617 AD, wrote a book called, “Janakiharan”. This is the oldest Sanskrit literature available in Sri Lanka. In Modern Times, C. Don Bosteanand John D`Silva have written stories basedon Ramayana. Till now, majority of the population adore and highly respect the duo of Rama and Sita.4) RAMAYANA IN COMBODIA (KAMPUCHIA):Today, there are many rock inscriptions belonging to 700 AD, which are located in Khmer region of Cambodia. These rock inscriptions are based on the events of Ramayana. Many temples were constructedduring the reign of Khmer dynasty, and currently, their walls depict many scenes and events of Ramayana. The temples of Ankor are very famous for the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata. These temples belong to the earliest parts of the time period dating back from 400 AD to 700 AD. One astonishing fact in these engraved pictures is that Hanuman and therest of the other Vanars are not shown with their tails as it is against the popular belief of the masses. (Whether Hanuman was a monkey or not, this issue will be examined later on)5) RAMAYANA IN INDONESIA:According to De Casperis, there was a temple named “Chandi Loro Jongrong”, which had some scenes of Ramayana engraved on its walls. This temple was fromthe 9th century AD. In Indonesia, another version of a story from Ramayana named Kakavin is very popular. This story is a bit different from that of Prambanan. Besides this, there were other various versions of Ramayana related stories, which were present in those early centuriesafter Christ, and also proves itself that Ramayana was very popular among Indonesian people before advent of Islam. It is also an astonishing fact that the first international convention on Ramayana was organized in Indonesia, a few years back.6) RAMAYANA IN LAOS:When local people pronounce Loas in their language, it phonetically sounds like the name of one of the sons of Rama. Besides, the temple of Vat- She-Fum and Vat-Pa-Kev also depict many scenes of Ramayana on their walls. The temples of Vat-Pra-Kev and Vat-Sisket carry books that contain the epic of Ramayana. Lafont, a French traveler translated the story of, “Pa laka-Pa lama” in his book called, “P`ommachak”, in French. This book also deals with the story of Ramayana, which is still popular among the masses of Laos.7) RAMAYANA IN THAILAND:-The stories of Ramayana are still very popular among the masses. In the early centuries after Christ, many kings who ruled this country had Rama as the prefix or suffix in their name. Just like in India how we organize the play of Ramayana, till today, many dramatic versions of Ramayana are organised in Thailand as well. Similarly, many dramatic versions of Ramayana are still being organized in various South East Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia.8) RAMAYANA IN MALAYSIA:-In Malaysia till today plays are oraganised based on the stories of ‘HIKAYAT SERI RAMA’ ,written in 14 century AD,. Dalang society organize nearly 200-300 plays relating to Ramayana. Before commencement of the play people conduct various prayers and abulations revering RAMA and SITA.9) RAMAYANA IN BURMA:-King Kayanjhitha who reigned during 1084 –1112 AD; regarded himself as desecendant of clan of Rama. Various books relating to the stories of Ramayana as earlier as 15 century AD are still found in Burma. Books like ‘Kavyadarsh’ , ‘Subhasit Ratanidhi’ are based on the stories of Ramayana. Zhang-Zhungpa, commentary of Ramayana was written by Taranath, which is not available in modern times. In Burma also various form of plays are conducted based on the stories of Ramayana.10) RAMAYANA IN NEPAL:-Oldest version of Ramayana, belonging ot 1075 AD is still found in Nepal.11) RAMAYANA IN PHILIPINES:-Effect of stories of Ramayana can easily felt in the customs, traditions and legends of majority of masses. Prof Juon R Francisco found that in Marineo Muslims, legend based on Ramayana is popular, in which Rama has been depicted as Incarnation of God. Similarly among Magindanao or Sulu folk Muslims also various legends based on the stories of Ramayana are popular.12) RAMAYANA IN IRAN:In Hyderabad city, capital of Andhra Pradesh, there is museum name Salarjung. There one portrait which is depicting a burly monkey having a very big stone in its hand. This portrait reminds one of Hanuman holding Dronagiri. Similarly MarcoPolo in his book (translated by Sir Henry Yule in English) wrote at page no 302, vol II about a peculiar belief among Muslims, spread from Afganistan to Morocco and Algeria. These Muslims believed that members of imperial house of Trebizond were endowed with short tails while mediavel continentals had like stories aboutEnglishmen as- Mathew Paris relates…. ; .We are of the belief that if one seriously start investigating various legends prevalent, before advent of Islam and Christianity, in Arabic countries and European countries than existence of Ramayana and Mahabharta can be proved. Due to barbaric and dogmatic acts of these peoples wide range of literature and buildings of historical importance has been wiped out.13) RAMAYANA IN EUROPE:In Italy, when excavation were carried out in the remains of Astrocon civilization, thenvarious houses were found having peculiar type of paintings on their wall. These paintaings, on closure investigation, seems to be based on the stories of Ramayana. Some of the paintings shows peculiar persons having tails along with two men bearing bows and arrow on their shoulders, while a lady is standing besides them. These paintings are of 7 century BC. It should be remembered that once Astrocon civilization was spread over 75 pct of Italy.Sir Henry Yule in his translation of works of Marcopolo has refered to the belief prevalent among Medival Europeans that there Ancestors were having small tails. The same fact has been referred by Maharishi Dayanand in his magnum opus ‘Satyarth Prakash’. There Swamiji state that people of Europe were called as Vanaras(monkeys) ,due to their appreance in our epic like Mahabharta, Valmiki Ramayana etc. If we a analyse this statement in present context, then how we are going to define various statements like kangaroos(Australian team) meet men in blue(Indian team) at Calcutta.Similar sort of epithets were used during World war to describe armies of different countries or else we see that we have helicopters named cheetah etc. As these words(epithets)are just a way to describe different set of people, arms etc, similarly world like Rakshas, Vanaras etc were used in our legends. These facts clearly indicates that legends of Ramayana are not work of fiction and were very popular around the world .14) RAMAYANA IN AFRICA(CONTINENT):It is for readers to decide when such conclusive proof are there to establish thatepic of Ramayana is not mythological legend but it is historical evidence which bears testimony to various legends prevalent around the world. Till today play named Ramasitotav is played in various communities of Mexico. To our amazement Rama has been mentioned in Bible, new testament, Mathew ch 2/18, where it is mentioned “ his voices was heard in RAMA”.Rama is proper noun there, now it is for biblical society to define who was Rama andwhy he has been mentioned in Bible.Even the name of Dasratha and Ayodhya are there in Bible. We will be referring to these facts in Blunders of Indian/world History.Now we would pose some tickling questions to the sickular historians:1) Why month of fasting among muslims is called Ramadhan ?2) Why place in Gazastrip is called Ramallaha ?3) Why place in London is named as Ramsgate ?4) Why capital of Italy is known as Rome(misnomer of Rama)People of Ethiopia call themselves as descendents of Cushites. This word Cush is basically phonectic misnomer of Kush, the son of Rama. This fact is verly established by Satpath Brahamans, commentary on Vedas. These Brahamans while explaining various mantras of Vedas uses many histrorical events to elucidate the topic.Astonishingly in Satpath Brahaman we findreference regarding the rule of King Bharata (predecessor of Kaurav and Pandavs) in Rhodesia .Besides many inconsistent legends inspiredby epic of Ramayana are prevalent in African Communities and they basically refers to various activities of vanars.Egypt basically derives its name from Ajpati which is one of the name of forefather of Rama. If analyse various legends prevalent in Egypt there we will found references of Dasratha(fatherof Rama). These facts can be very well established from various historical refernces of Brahamans.(for the proof of it see our article Blunders of Indian/World history)15) RAMAYANA IN NORTH AMERICAN AND SOUTH AMERICAN CONTINENTS:Before Columbus discovered North American continent European people were not knowing about it. However A DE QNATREFAGES in his book, THE HUMAN SPECIES, categorically says that Chinese people were aware about the American continent and the use to have trade relations with them America was referred as Fad-Sang. Similarly in Japanese people it was known as Fad-See. Similarly, if we refer to various historical reference in Mahabharata, Valmiki Ramayana etc we willfind that American continent has been reffered as Patal Desh(Patal means below foot). If we geographically see then we will find that American continent is just below the Indian Subcontinent. We will throw greater light on this issue in our topic, BLUNDERS OF INDIAN HISTORY/WORLD HISTORY.But for your reference we are providing you some prevalent legends.a) Beautiful girl in Mexican tribal area till today are called as Ulopy. If we see in Mahabharata we find reference of Arjuna marrying girl named Ulopy who was daughter of King of Patal Desh.b) W H Prescott in his book , ‘ History of conquest of Mexico’, provides various reference which prove that earlier civilization of American subcontinent have major similarities with that of Indian(Aryan) civilization.However here we are providing you one reference which clearly state that Ramayana is not mythological epic but it bears historical testimony. According to writer of the book there is popular legend in Aztec community which state that a beautiful person named Quevtsal Katal came there from east and taught them various aspects of advanced civilization as a result his period was treated as golden era. He then went back to his original homeland because of persecution by some divine creature. This legends surprisingly does not throw light on the reasons why he returned.Another interesting fact that has been stated by Prescott is that this legend is available in documented form. Now, none except Indian tradition can claim that they bear root to this legend. The same story has been narrated in Valmiki Ramayana, in uttarkand where it is mentioned that Salkantak Rakshas who dwelled in Lanka were persecuted by Vishnu. Due to this persecution they left Lanka and went to Patal Desh. The leader of this group was Sumali. According to Ramayana they lived in Patal Desh for long time. When they found condition congenial they returned to their homeland.We can provide various examples where word Rama has been used as suffix or prefix with the names of various historical places/persons or misnomer of Rama has been used as name for historical places/persons. None of the historical evidence provides conclusive answer to these facts unless we take Indian historical evidences into account.In our article ‘ Blunders of Indian/World history ‘ we will provide proof for it. We also believe that if barabaric religion like Christinity and Islam have not gained popularity than we would have more datas to prove our point conclusively. These two semetic religion have inflicted unparrelled havoc on historical datas and buildings. They destroyed all the libraries/monuments of historical importance which does not confer their beliefs.Still we have lot with us and we can recreate correct chronological data of world history. It is widely accepted that the King Alexander invaded India. It really sounds ironical that we are accepting this theory without any historical evidence, on the other hand we go on to deny existence of Rama despite various historical evidences are there to prove that he was not mythical but a historical Mahanayak.These historians in order to refute Rama`s existence are ridiculously harping the sameold tone of theory of evolution which does not have any scientific proof. (Why and howtheory of evolution gained importance will be dealt in our article – How the universe iscreated. The only thing of significance regarding theory of evolution, we want to state here is that it was a tool which was invented to challenge the draconian supremacy of church. The church use to claim that this world was created by God out of nothing and the age of this Univerese is not more than 10000 years. By the help of evolutionary theory scientific world challenged the supremacy of churh and overcame the clergy.)This is for readers to decide by themselveshow they are going to treat Rama. We thinkthat we have provided lot of food for thought. Those who are illogically biased may still refute the existence of Rama while those who are logical and believe that mythological character can never gain such world wide respect/reverence will start looking upon Rama from wider historical evidences.Here we want to clarify following points:1) Rama was a Mahanayak, a legendary person who lived a pristine life and is an example to be emulated till today.2) Its immaterial whether Ramasetu, on which lot of controversy is being created, was built by Rama so far proving authenticity of Rama is concerned. Regardless of whether they prove Ramsetuto be manmade or natural creation, existence of Ram cannot be denied.3) Valmiki Ramayana is not fiction but an epic based on historical evidence.For those who are questioning existence of Rama, let them first justify whether their forefathers ever existed, by using the same yardstick that they are using to question the existence of Rama. At least there are more evidences of Rama being a historical hero than existence of forefathers of these historians