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THE STORY
OF
THE GREAT WAR
. SOME LESSONS FROM THE MAHIbhIEATA
FOE, THE USE OF HINDU STUDENTS IN
THE SCHOOLS OF INDIA
BY
ANNIE BESANT, F. T. S.
From Notes of Lectures Originally Delivered
AT THE Central Hindu College, Benares.
Theosophical Publishing Society, Benares,
Theosophist Office, Adyar, Madras.
Theosophical Publishing Society. 26 Charing Cross.
London.
18S9.
Benares :
Printed by Freeman & Co., Ld.,.
AT THE Taba Printing WouKa.
TK
CONTENTS. ZSB-^
Chapter I. Introduction. '
Chapter II. The Youth of the Heroes. Adi
Parva.
Chapter III. The Perils and Triumphs of the
PAndavas. Adi Parva,
Chapter IV. The Gathering of the Storm
Clouds. Sabhd Parva.
Chapter V. The Thirteen Years' Exile. Va7ia
and Virata Parvas.
Chapter VI. Peace or War? Udyoga and Bhtsh-
ma Parvas.
Chapter VII. The Sin of Yudhisthira. Drona,
Karna, Shalya, Saupiika, Strt, and
Shdnti Parvas.
Chapter VIII. The Great Exhortation. Shdnti
and Anus has ana Parvas.
Chapter IX. The Closing Scenes. Ashvamedha
Ashramavdsika, Matisala, MaJid-
prasthdnika^ and Svargdrohatiika
Parvas.
852900
THE STORY
OF
THE GREAT WAR
CHAPTER I.
Introduction
We are going to study the book called the "Maha-
bharata ", one of the greatest books in the world.
To do this usefully, we must begin by seeing what
sort of book it is that we are going to study, and
what sort of mind we are to bring to the reading of
it. For the mind of the student has a great deal to
do with understanding the book. If his mind be
properly prepared he will understand more easily the
book he is going to read, than if he comes to it with
his mind in a wrong attitude. If you want to see
a thing, you must look at it with your eyes open,
not shut. You must turn your face to it, not your
back. And so with the mind ; its eyes must be
opened and its face turned to the book. We must
know how to read it, and what principles are taken
for granted in it. So we will begin by getting our
minds ready, and putting them into the right attitude.
6 INTRODUCTION
We must find out how to read our book. Then we
shall take up Parva after Parva (volume after volume),
picking out the most important parts and stringing
them into an orderly story. We shall try to get a clear
idea of the whole book — what it is meant to teach, the
kind of people whose story is told in it, what they were
doing and trying to do, how the Gods helped or
hindered them, and the working of the Gods in the
events that took place.
When you go out into the world you will meet
people who do not believe that Gods are shaping
events, and guiding the worlds. Those who do not
believe in the Hindu religion will also attack your
Scriptures, your sacred books. It is therefore part of
the duty of a Hindu boy to understand a little about
the sacred books of his religion, so that he may not
be shaken by what ignorant or foolish people may
say against them. -^
The " Mahabharata " has a high value as literature,
that is, when judged from a literary standpoint.
Every nation has a literature — books — and some stand
high and some low in this respect. They have
poems, histories, stories, philosophic and religious
books. The place that a nation holds in the mind
of the world depends very largely on its books. If a
nation produces great books, that nation is looked
A NATION'S GREATNESS 7
on as great by other nations. If it has no great
books, it is despised. There is no nation which has
greater books than the Indian.
You read about die Greeks, with their poet Homer
who told -the story of a ten-years' war, and with many
splendid writers of philosophy and history. People
now read their books and say, what a great country
Greece was to produce such writers. People in the
West are beginning to read your books written in
Sanskrit, and to say what a great nation the Indians
must have been in the old days to write such books.
The " Mahabharata " is the greatest poem in the
whole world. There is no other poem so splendid as
this, so full of what we want to know, and of what it
is good for us to study. It is so beautiful in its lan-
guage and tells so interesting a story, that every
Hindu boy should know something about it. It is
not good to grow up without knowing a little of this
greatest poem in the world, written by and for your
own fore-fathers. So we are going to begin its
study.
There are three things In which its greatness
chiefly consists : (a) Its Ethics ; (d) Its Philosophy;
(r) Its History.
(a) Ethics means morality dealt with systemati-
cally — good conduct, and the rules of good conduct
o INTRODUCTION
When you learn arithmetic you are given certain
rules, and if you follow the rules and apply them pro-
perly, the sum comes out right. So it is with ethics^
the science of morality. It deals with rip-ht and wronsr.
v\ hat it is good to do and what it is bad to do. There
are definite rules. Ethics does not say : "You ought
to be good," or "You ought not to be bad;" but it
gives rules, showing what is good and what is bad,
what you should do and what you should avoid.
All these rules and the principles underlying them
are called Ethics,
The " Mahabharata " is great as a teacher of
Ethics, showing us how to behave ourselves. It
teaches everj^body. It teaches children, boys and
girls, men and women, and it teaches them what to
do at each part of life. It teaches Brahmanas,
Kshattriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, and people without
caste' as well, so that all may learn how to behave
themselves in everyday life. It teaches how to live
in business, in the family, as husband, father and son,
wife, mother and daughter. It teaches the common
things of everyday life, and does this in a very in-
teresting way by means of stories. Instead of saying :
"You ought to tell the truth", it tells us a num-
ber of stories about people who told the truth and
what happened to them. Instead of saying : ''You
PRAHLADA AND BEHAVIOUR 9
ought not to tell a lie," it tells us a number of stories
about people who told lies and what happened to
them. In this way we learn how to apply the rules
of conduct, and thus to understand them much better.
When one of your professors teaches you a rule in
arithmetic, he gives you a number of sums to be
worked out by that rule, and that helps you to under-
stand it much better than if you had only the rule
and no examples.
Good behaviour is a more important thing than
some people think ; success, happiness and prosperity
depend on it. There is a story about Prahlada, who,
by the merit of his good conduct, took from Indra
tlie sovereignty of the three worlds ; then Indra, dis-
guising himself as a Brahmana, went and served
Prahlada as his disciple, until Prahlada, pleased with
him, offered to grant any booii he desired. Then
Indra asked that Prahlada would give him his be-
haviour ; and, though filled with fear as to the conse-
quences, Prahlada gave it, bound by his word. As
Prahlada sat, brooding over what had occurred, a
flame with a shadowy form issued from his body, and
when the king asked, " Who art thou ? " the form
answered : " I am the embodiment of thy Behaviour,
cast off by thee. I am going away to dwell with thy
devoted disciple the Brahmana." And another form
10 INTRODUCTION
left the king's body, and, when asked, said : " I am
Righteousness ; I live where Behaviour dwells." And
in the same way went forth Truth, Good Deeds,
Might and Prosperity; and the last named said : " O
Prahlada, it was by thy Behaviour that thou hadst
reduced the three worlds to subjection. Knowing
this, the chief of the celestials robbed thee of thy
Behaviour. Righteousness, Truth, Good Deeds, Might
and myself, O thou of great wisdom, all have our
root verily in Behaviour." And then Prosperity went
whither Behaviour had gone. {Shdfiti Parva, \ 124.)
Another important principle we learn from many
stories in the " Mahabharata" is that morality is re-
lative. This means, that what is right conduct for one
person is not always right conduct for another, and that
duty depends on what a man is. If you are a boy, it
is right for you to do what your teacher tells you. If
you are a teacher, it is right for you to tell others
what to do. If you are a father, it is your duty to
train your sons. If you are a son, it is your duty to
follow your father's advice. The usefulness of a man
â– depends on his knowing and doing the duties belong-
ing to his place in life. To you, as boys in school
and college, it is not of importance to know the duties
of the head of a household. It is very important
tbat you should know and do your duties as students.
THE ONE SELF 11
The " Mahabh^rata " lays great stress on this relation
between conduct and position.
Further, this book gives all that is needed by
everybody in the way of moral teaching. Some books
are meant only for special people. A very difficult
book is only for a learned man; the ignorant man
cannot understand it. A law book is useful to a
pleader, useless to a peasant. Some books on religion
are only for advanced people. But this book is for
everybody, and however little a man may know,
there is something for him here. It can be read by
everybody, and everybody can profit by it. If they
read no other book, they can learn from this all they
need in religious and moral knowledge.
{b) Philosophy is addressed to the Intellect, the
reasoning and judging power in man. It deals with
truths about God, man, the world, and the universe,
and arranges these things in an intellectual system.
1 he " Mahabharata" teaches a great philosophy, that
which underlies all the Hindu religion. There is
one Supreme Being, God, the one Self in ever}'body
and in everything. This God is everywhere, in the
sun, moon and stars, in Gods and men, in animals,
vegetables and minerals. There is one life in all, and
that life is God. Therefore all creatures are one ;
they are not really separate ; what is good for one is
12 INTRODUCTION
good for all ; what is good for all is good for one.
Because of this, we should be kind to all and love all ;
there is a common life, and we hurt it in ourselves
when we hurt it in another. The life in the ox, in
the bird, is your life, is yours. You should take care
of it and protect it as your own. Let me tell you the
story about king Ushinara and the pigeon who sought
his protection. The chief duty of a king is to pro-
tect all in his kingdom, and two of the Gods, Indra
and Agni, wished to test Ushin&ra in his discharge of
this duty. Indra took the form of a hawk, Agni of
a pigeon, and the pigeon, chased by the hawk, took
refuge in the king's lap. The hawk demanded the
pigeon as his lawful prey, but the king refused, on
the ground that the hawk had sought his protection.
Then the hawk argued that, deprived of food, he
would perish, and that in protecting one life the king
failed to protect many. The king, refusing to give
up the pigeon, offered other food, but 'all was refused,
until at last the hawk offered to give up his claim if
the king would give of his own flesh as much as
equalled the weight of the pigeon. The king gladly
consented, and placed a piece of his own flesh in the
balance against the weight of the pigeon ; but the
scale rose. So he cut off piece after piece, and still
the pigeon was the heavier, until at last he placed his
THE LOSS OF BELIEF I3
own mangled figure In the scale. Then the Gods
revealed themselves, and blessed the king who saved a
suppliant at the cost of his own flesh. ( Vana Pawa,
§ 130, 1 3 1-)
(c) The " Mah&bharata " is a history, although it is
more than a history. This big book in eighteen vo-
lumes tells a story about things that really oc-
curred some five thousand years ago. Five thousand
years ago Shri Krishna, the Blessed Lord, put off His
mortal body. Then began the Kali Yuga. The story
told in this book ends soon after He left the earth.
That is the first thing to understand. This is not a
fairy-tale, but a history. The mighty Kshattriya
caste, the warrior-caste of India, was for the most
part destroyed in the Great War. .Her soldiers that
kept her safe, and made an iron wall around her,
were slain in this war, and that caste ceased to exist as
a powerful order, and was carried on only by scattered
families. Its destruction opened the way for India's
conquest and fall.
The Kali Yuga is a time in which people lose
belief in the Gods and their work, and become more
and more the servants of outer things. They believe
in the things that they can see, hear, touch, taste or
smell — the things your bodily senses tell }'ou about.
You believe in a table, because you can see and
14 INTRODUCTION
touch it. You believe in a house, a person, the
objects round you, because you can see and handle
them. But many people do not believe in things
that they cannot see or touch, in Gods that are round
us all the time, in the Supreme Self whose Life is
our life. Most people here are half-way. They will
not say they do not believe in the Gods, but their
lives show that they do not believe in them. The
things that are done by the Gods every day among
us are not seen as their work. You talk of nature,
of the sun rising, the moon shining, the water run-
ning, the fire burning. These things are matters of
course. But in every one of them a God is at work.
When the fire burns — on the hearth, in the jungle —
a God is at work, and the fire is his way of showing
himself The fire is not a mere chemical thing, but
it is the way the God Agni has of showing himself
down here. In other worlds he shews himself in
other ways, but here as fire. When the water of
Ganga rises, a Goddess is there; in Svarga she shows
herself differently, but here as a rushing stream. If
you cannot believe this, the " Mahabh^rata " will
always puzzle you ; for it relates things as they really
happened, instead of in the way in which they look
to our eyes. Instead of saying the fire burned the
forest of Khandava, it says Agni burned it. It talks
THE USE OF MANTRAS 1$
always of what the Gods are doing, and people who
do not believe in the Gods thirtk that that is a fanci-
ful way of putting things. Few people believe that such
things happen now, ^id yet they do happen as much
as ever they did. In other ages the God would often
shew himself at work and let people see him. Now
the Gods hide themselves, because the people have
become materialistic and do not care for them. Now
and then a person who is pure and loving sees them
as in the old days, and such a person believes in a book
like this, and its stories do not seem strange to him.
Men now often speak of the invisible side of
nature as "supernatural." That is a mistake. The
greater part of nature is made up of the worlds and
the beings that are invisible to our physical senses^
but who move this lower world.
In the old days the Gods taught men, sometimes
directly, sometimes through great men called Sages,
or Rishis. Mantras — that is, a word, or a sentence, of
which the sound has power in the invisible worlds-were
given to men to use, and great effects were produced
by these mantras. Men were taught how to think, so
that their thought had power. We read how a man
thought of a God, and the God appeared. How he
thought of a weapon, and the weapon came to him.
Thought has the same power now, and scientific men
l6 INTRODUCTION
are beginning to make experiments with it. Everyone
could not use it in the old days to call a God, or a wea-
pon, but only great men could use it, who had been
taught by the Gods. Now-a-days some Yogis can
use thought in this way, for the Gods have not
changed, nor have they changed their laws; it is only
men who have grown weak, because they are un-
believing.
The Gods guide the world. As a coachman guides
his horses, so the Gods guide the world. As you
might sit in a carriage and pull the reins this way and
that, the horses obediently moving the carriage, so
the Gods sit over the world and pull the forces one
way or the other, and then the world is moved. They
are always trying to drive the world the best way.
The world is making a long journey, and there are
many side-roads off the main track. We call the
main track "evolution", the v/ay of the world from
the beginning to the end of it. If you go from here
(Benares) to Allahabad, you pass many side-roads,
but going along the trunk road you reach Allahabad
in the shortest time. The Gods drive the world
along the trunk road, evolution, but men often want
to turn down side-roads that look pleasant. But the
Gods have dug ditches and put up sign-posts along
the main road, and, when men wilfully try to leave
THE WORK OF THE GODS 17
It, they fall into the ditches and knock up against
the posts, and then we say they are suffering pain
and trouble. But these pains and troubles are the
very best things that can happen to them, for if the
Gods had not made the wrong ways full of pain,
men would wander a^vay and lose themselves.
Sometimes a whole nation goes wrong. Then
the Gods place in its way a great war, or a famine,
or a plague. The nation is going wrong and must
be driven right, or has gone wrong and must suffer,
so as not to go wrong again. And the Great War,
the story of which we are going to study, was brought
about by the Gods, because it was necessary for the
evolution of the nation. We see many men and
animals killed in a war, and say : " How terrible !
how shocking." But men and animals are only killed
when the bodies they are in are of no more use :
when a man cannot do any more in a particular bod}^
the Gods strike it away, so that the man may have
a better one. We call this "death". The body is like
a coat that we wear, and when we outgrow it, it is
torn up. Instead of regarding a God as cruel when
he strikes away a bod)', you should think of him as
kind, setting the man free to grow. Many of the
men who were killed in this Great War went from
their bodies to sit in Svarga with the Gods.
B
1 8 INTRODUCTION
The work of the Gods is to carry out the huv of
the Supreme Lord, or Tshwara, who is manifested
to us as a Trinit}', Mahadeva, Vishnu and Brahmft.
Tliis law is tliat tlie universe shall evolve into an
image of God, and the Gods work for that end, and
not for furthering separate personal aims. This
makes their duties different from the duties of men.
They have to test people ; so they put difficulties and
temptations and trials in their way, in order that
men may grow strong, and learn wisdom and gain
virtue. In this work they must often do things that
men ought not to do, and they are not examples
for men in conduct, any more than a king, or judge,
or magistrate, in punishing a man who has committed
a crime, is an example that you are to follow. If a man
.steals your shoes, the magistrate puts him in prison
for breaking the law, though he has stolen nothing from
the magistrate and the magistrate is not angry. But
if you, from whom he has stolen the shoes, get angry
and lock him up and keep him as a prisoner, }-ou
would be doing wrong. When you are older you will
learn that all things that are wrong are wrong because
they are done from what is called " a personal
motive" — that is, from thinking and acting in your
own way to please, \oursclf, instead of doing the will
of God.
MAKING DESTINY 19
We also learn from the " Mahabharata ' that when
a nation goes wrong, it sifffers. This is what we
call a moral law, and this law is worked out by the
Gods. If India is to become rich, strong and free, as
she once was, it can only be by Indians becoming
pure and religious and good. There is no other w^ay.
For the Gods rule the world, and they make national
greatness the reward of doing right, because that is
the law. If people do wrong, the great nation be-
comes small, and the small nation that does right
grows great
When the time comes for a vast change in the
life of a nation — as it came in India 5,000 years
ago great men are born into that nation. Some of
these men are great in goodness, some are great in
evil — strong, bad, men. These men are born because
they are wanted in the nation, and they are men who
have prepared themselves in past lives for important
work. These great men, good and bad, are not here
for the first time. In former lives the good ones had
grown good and strong, till they were fit to be born
at a critical time to work with 'the Gods. Others,
the bad ones, had been selfish, cruel, revengeful, and
they had fitted themselves to resist the good law of
evolution, and by their resistance to bring on troubles
that would teach the nation it was going wrong.
20 INTRODUCTION
Both the good and the bad men had made their own
fates, one set to work with the Gods, the other set
to work against them. There is no favoritism on the
part of the Gods, but suitable men are guided to
the places they have earned, and are born in them.
We are told in the Adi Parva, the first volume, of
the " Mahabliarata ", about the preparations that
were made in Svarga for the Great War. The Gods
consulted, and decided that certain men should be
born as leaders ; four men were chosen, who in the
past had filled the office of king of the Gods ; the
king of the Gods is called Indra, and these four men
had all been Indras. The present Indra had one
day behaved proudly, and had been condemned by
Mahadeva to lose his power for awhile. " Those that
are of disposition like thine," said Mahadeva, "never
obtain my grace." And He went on to say that he
and four other Indras should be born as men,
and perform a certain task, and then return to
Svarga. Then four of these Indras prayed that
they might have divine fathers when they were
born of women, and the fifth Indra said that
he would create from himself the fifth man who
was to fulfil the task. To this Mahadeva agreed.
(Adi Parva, § 199.) When the time came, the four
Indras were born as Yudhisthira, and Bhima, and the
THE HEROES OF THE BOOK 21
twins Nakula and Sahadeva, the Gods Dharma
(Justice), Vayu (wind), and the twin Ashvins being
their fathers ; and Arjuna — who had been Nara, a
great Rishi — was born as the son of the present Indra.
And these were the five mighty warriors whose deeds
we are going to study, and who were the conquerors
in the Great War.
And as a new age was to begin after the war,
even the great God Vishnu Himself took Avatara
as Shri Krishna, accompanied by Shesha, the eternal
serpent, as His brother Balarama. (Adi Parva, § 199.)
An Avatara is a special manifestation of the Supreme
Being in a physical form, appearing in order to
destroy evil, when it has become so sti'ong that it
threatens to stop evolution.
The "Mahabharata" contains the story of a race des-
cended from a powerful king named Bharata. He was
the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, whose story
you must read some day. (" Shakuntala," a drama by
Kalidasa.) Bharata means the descendants of Bharata,
and maha means great So our book is "The great story
of the descendants of Bharata". One of these des-
cendants was named Kuru, and he was a king who was
also an ascetic. He carried out many austere practices
in a field that was named after him Kurukshetra, or the
field of Kuru, and it was on that field that the great
22 INTRODUCTION
battle took place. Among the descendants of Kuru
were three brothers : the blind king Dhritarashtra,
whose sons fought on the wrong side in the Great
War ; Pandu, the nominal father of the five princes
who foLight on the right side ; and Vidura, a very-
wise and just man, holding high office in the kingdom.
The story of the lives and deeds of these men is
told in this great poem of eighteen volumes, or
Parvas. Each Parva takes its name from the part
of the story told in it.
This poem was recited to a number of ascetics,
resting themselves in the forest of Naimisha, by
Agrashrava, the son of Lomaharshana, surnamed
Sauti. One of these Rishis asked him whence he
had come, and he answered that he had come from
attending a great sacrifice, the Snake-Sacrifice of
king Janamejaya. There he had heard recited the
. poem called the " Mahabharata," and he had himself
learned it. It was composed by a famous Sage,
named Krishna Dvaipayana Veda Vyasa — Krishna,
because he was so dark ; Dvaipa)-ana, because he was
born on an island ; Veda Vyasa, because he had divided,
i. e. compiled and arranged, the Vedas. The Rishis
asked Sauti to recite the poem to them, and he did