Monday, November 14, 2011

Episode 81 - Downfall

Episode 81 - So this is it; the moment everyone has been waiting for.  Ever since Episode 7 when Duryodhana was born, he has finally received his well-deserved defeat.  But even as he falls, the finger pointing, hand-wringing and grief at the price that has been paid for this victory has already begun.

Balaram shows up just in time to referee the final death match between Bhima & Duryodhana, only to get really annoyed when Bhima is forced to bend the rules a bit in order to win.

15 comments:

  1. excellent podcast. just wondering in terms of txt how far are we through the epic. I know most of the story through my mother, and other family and friends, however they always stop at once the war is over and the panadva's rule again. surely there is more to this story? will you be taking it all the way to the end of their lives?

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  2. Lawrence,

    Thank you very much for this podcast.
    Love the effort you have put in creating this podcast.

    Do you have anything similar to the Ramayana as well?

    Gaurav

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  3. Ash: Unfortunately, I do not have a complete translation sitting on the shelf to be able to judge how far we are into this. I've been buying the Parvas piecemeal as we go along, and now I'm depending on an electronic version of Ganguli's translation. But by the looks of it, we are only 2/3rds of the way through the text. In terms of the story however, we must be much closer to the end. A large chunk of what remains are Bhisma's teachings, which I plan on mostly skimming over! But other than that, we're going all the way to the end!

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  4. Gaurav: Sorry, no Ramayana here. The only podcast I've found is on iTunes, where the podcaster attempted to read directly from the unabridged Tulsidas text. I think he might have given up. At least I never made it very far listening to it!

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  5. lawrence lord krishna bless you , you have done a remarkable seva.Indian puranic history needs to be opened to the english speaking world. similarly the Arabs-spanish-portugal-chinese versions will be a ultimate acheivment. but for now please concentrate on this only.

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  6. If anyone needs an English copy of the Ramayana (ebook), there's one here:

    http://www.holybooks.com/ramayana/

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  7. Hello Lawrence.
    Great work ..
    which book are you following;

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  8. It's been a long, complicated journey. I've been using the Clay Sanskrit Library volumes for the battle books up thru the end of the Karna Parva. Starting with the Shalya Parva, I've resorted to Ganguli. I think I may use Ganguli exclusively from here on out.

    Ganguli is the guy who consistently translated the entire epic. So far I've flitted from one translator to another, some using the Critical Edition exclusively while others dipped into the Bombay & Calcutta rescensions.

    It's unfortunate that there is no complete translation of the Critical Edition, so now I think I'll save some money and stick to Ganguli.

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  9. how are you coping with Ganguli! I've approached it on several occasions only to give up, what with the convoluted language and long-drawn-out tangential passages. ideally one would prefer a version as close to the CE as possible, but given the drawbacks of English viz. Sanskrit retellings seem more the way to go.
    as far as I know CSL has attempted a (close-to-) exhaustive translation--how do you like their volumes? how many books are they missing?
    also: I believe P. Lal is another to translate the epic in its entirety. unfortunately this translation proves a difficult search, even though 16 of his 18 volumes have been reprinted since 2005.

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  10. I've basically run past the available volumes of the CSL. The Drona Parva was only half-done, and apparently the Sauptika Parva is not out yet, nor are there any later parvas ready, so those are simply not available.
    It is probably just as well, because it was breaking my bank. They divide each Parva up into at least two volumes, each for $22. It was getting expensive!
    I've never seen the P. Lal translation. If you have any links to find it, I'll look it up. Otherwise, I'm running low on options, so it looks like Ganguli will have to do! Thanks.

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  11. You are doing a great work, can you kindly avoid filthy words f... etc.

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  12. Sorry. I just replaced this audio with the bad word bleeped out. I guess I got too emotional-- after all they'd just been through, it took a lot of nerve to criticize Yuddistira over his brother's comportment! Maybe next time I use a bad word I'll remember to bleep it out in advance...

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  13. Its written as "he has finally received his well-deserved defeat" ( Duryodhana) ..

    Well , we all know, Great Balarama was referee in the battle of Duryodhana and Bhima. and even shri krishna and everyone knew that Though Bhima is huge , Duryodhana is best after balarama.
    Even Balarama said after battle, Bhima did not battle with dharma and my student Duryodhana is greatest in the world . Duryodhana was clever and battled with brain but when bhima could not do anything , he was told to hit on the knees of Duryodhana ( which is against the rule of war) .

    Duryodhana , deserved to win if we look at battle of bhima and duryodhana .

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    Replies
    1. So why then did Bhima win? I believe that there is a message hidden in this story, which is that karma and destiny will always work themselves out perfectly, even if it means sometimes breaking the rules.

      In other words, would the larger story of the Mahabharata have worked itself out better had Duryodhana won the fight? What would have happened if Duryodhana had won? It seems like Krishna would have had a mess on his hands!

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