Episode 25 - Draupadi's Lament; Krishna's Excuses

Episode 25 - The continuing adventures of the Pandavas in the forest.  The story picks up with Maitreya's curse and angry departure from the court at Hastinapur.  Dhrtarastra, apparently tired of all the dire predictions decides it is time for a fight scene, and asks Vidur to tell the story of Bhima and Kirmira.  Vidur then recites the battle scene as Bhima kills another Rakshasa.

We then move back to the forest where a meeting of the Pandavas' allies is taking place, Krishna among them.  Krishna and Arjun enjoy a brief love fest, telling each other how wonderful they were and such close friends.  Draupadi finally gets fed up with it and demands to know why the outrages perpetrated against her have still not been avenged, yet she is surrounded by the greatest heroes on the earth.

She points out that if Krishna were so great as everyone keeps saying, then how did this calamity even take place?  Krishna's reply is rather surprising.  There is none of the mystical teachings here-- he wasn't far away because he was far from their hearts.  He wasn't ever-present and yet directing events towards the final great war.  No, none of that.  He was just out of town at the time, fighting king Shalva and his flying saucer, and just hadn't heard the news until it was too late!

Next time, Draupadi will turn on her husbands and really let them have it.  Stay tuned!

Episode 24 - Into the Forest, part 2

Episode 24 - The Pandavas are now settled into their forest encampment and receive a surprise visitor.  The Kauravas plot to kill the Pandavas while they are defenseless in the forest.  Vyasa himself steps in to put a stop to this outrage, and he then introduces the sage Maitreya, who scolds Duryodhana, and then finally curses him to be struck in the "thigh" by Bhima.

If you ever felt uncomfortable about the fact that Bhima had to cheat and hit Duryodhana below the belt in their final battle, you can now rest assured that it wasn't Bhima's fault.  Maitreya made him do it!

Episode 23 - Into the Forest, part 1

Episode 23 -This episode covers the Pandava's departure for the forest and the initial fears of theKauravas as they considered what they had done.  As things washed out, only the five brothers, Draupadi and a gaggle of Brahmins went into the forest.  Yuddistira did some yoga and some austerities and memorized the 108 names of Surya, and was able to get the Sun God to give him the ability to magically feed everyone while they were in the forest.

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Episode 22 - The Second Dice Game

Episode 22 - At the end of the First Dice Game, it really seemed like King Dhritarastra had put everything back the way it was.  He restored the Pandava's freedom, titles and wealth.  Unfortunately, Bhima had sworn some pretty serious oaths to kill his cousins, and cousin Duryodhana was too filled with hate and fear to allow things to be left the way they were.

The blind king then ordered Yuddistira to return for one final round of dice.  The loser would give up his possessions and retire to the forest for 12 years.  The 13th year would be a year of hiding during which, if they were caught, they would be sent back to the forest for another 12 years.

Since Shakuni once again had control of the dice, you can imagine the outcome...  This ends Book 2 of the Mahabharata.  Next time we'll pick up with Book 3!

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Episode 21 - The First Dice Game

Episode 21 - This is a big one; this episode covers the tangled details of the incident that sets off the rest of the story.  At the heart of it, it is about Duryodhana and Shakuni cheating at dice to win from the Pandavas all their possessions and even their freedom.  That much is clear, and the match culminates in the deliberate humiliation of Draupadi before the court.  Bhima swears oaths to kill both Duryodhana and his younger brother Dushasan, and the future conflict all arises from the fears and hatred born from this moment.

In detail however, many facts are quite confounding.  For instance, Shakuni says Yuddistira is addicted to dicing but is not good at it.  Where did this come from?  There is no detail either before or after this story that would lead anyone to believe this about Yuddistira.   Then there is the question of Yuddistira's determination to lose everything in the match.  While he may be excused for going forward with the dice game ("for that is the eternal oath I have sworn"), but who really made him gamble away his kingdom, his brothers and his own freedom?   These stakes were his decision and no one else's.

Finally, everyone loves Bhisma and considers him a good man, but on this day he is strangely impotent and brain-addled.  What explains the odd reticence among the Kuru elders?  How is it that the entire court stood by and allowed the maltreatment of one of their own women? 

There is something oddly somnambulistic about this whole scene, where it seems the events had to work themselves out in a certain way, and therefore a spell was cast over the players to ensure things had their proper outcome...

One thing is certain, and that is relations between the Pandavas and the Kauravas will never be the same from here on, and are trending for the worst!

Episode 20 - King of the World

Episode 20 - The Pandavas range the Four Directions and conquer the world, bringing home mountains of treasure.  Soon after, the Rajasuya Sacrifice commences.  Krishna is given the top honor among the guests and this causes a tumult of disgruntled kings and nobles.  They point out the problem that has become apparent in the story, which is that Krishna is a nobody in terms of societal ranking.  He's a former cowherder from a caste of shudras who claims his father is a prince (alas, there were no witnesses to his alleged birth by Devaki).  But even if he were not lying about his descent, he was still a noble of the 3rd tier, and from an insignificant backwater kingdom, where they had been forced to move by Jarasandh's armies.

The general of that army, Sishupal of Chedi, was particularly outraged by this elevation of a milkman over the heads of all the kings of India.  Sishupal had other grievances against Krishna, since his fiance Rukmini had been abducted by Krishna, his boss had been killed by Krishna's plan, and his friend and ally Rukmi had been killed by Krishna's brother.

So Sishupal points out what should be obvious to us all-- that Krishna was a low-class cowherd, who boasted about killing a vulture and a cow, a woman, and an ox cart!  Who said that these animals and the woman and the cart were demons?  Furthermore, Krishna killed his own king-- a treasonous act of regicide that should be obhorred by anyone who desires law & order in society.

Finally, Sishupal suggests that maybe Rukmini had already been used & put aside by himself before Krishna took her as his wife.  That does it for Krishna.  His killer frisbee comes flying and Sishupal is Beheaded.  Check out that link, it's to the picture I mentioned in the podcast.  It's pretty cool.

This episode ends with a little vignette of Duryodhana wandering the Pandavas' palace and getting fooled by the illusions of the place.  He falls into a pond and gets laughed at by his cousins.  I've got more to say about how this scene gets changed over time, but we'll get into that in a later episode.

Episode 19 - Killing Jarasandh

Episode 19 - This episode, Yuddistira gets it into his head that he should be King of the World! As he has been inclined to do since becoming king, he calls for Krishna to advise him on how to accomplish this task. Krishna tells him to send Bhima and Arjun to Magadha and get rid of his main rival to the imperial title, King Jarasandh.

And so, Krishna, Bhima and Arjun go down to Magadha and pick a fight with Jarasandh. Bhima wrestles the old guy for fourteen days and finally body-slams him, killing him instantly.

This whole Rajasuya thing will result in 13 years of misery for the Pandavas, and finally the destruction of nearly the entire race of Kshatriyas. Since dieing on the battlefield is one of the surest means of getting to heaven, I guess it all worked out OK for the men. All those widows probably wished Yuddistira had stuck to his little kingdom of Indraprastha, and been content with his reservation at Lord Yama's palace...
Sorry I've slowed down my production lately. I've had some musical commitments that have eaten up my free time. That's mostly over, so hopefully things will pick up a bit from now on! If you'd like to encourage me, please send a message; it certainly helps morale. Also, it would be great if you were to go into iTunes and rate my podcast. It would help increase its visibility for other potential listeners. Thanks!

Episode 18 - Arjun Slept Here

Episode 18 - This is a longer, pithy episode, covering the way the brothers decided to prevent future conflicts over their shared wife, and Arjun's subsequent adventures when he breaches those rules.  Despite the punishment he receives for breaking the oath he swore, Arjun ended up having a lot of adventures and getting to know a lot of hot princesses around India.  Draupadi would have been better off keeping him closer to home!

So Arjun ends up coming back from his year-long exile with a new wife-- Krishna's sister-- and leaving a trail of baby boys across the sub-continent.  After his return home, he and Krishna spend a lot of time together in Indraprastha, and we are told that they are the re-incarnation of the ancient seers Nar and Narayan.

While they are hanging out together, Krishna suggests that they go to the river for a kind of picnic, and while they are there, Agni the god of fire meets them and requests their aid in burning down the Khandava Forest, which was the home of Taksaka the snake and under the protection of Indra.

Arjun and Krishna get some cool new weapons as part of the deal.  Arjun gets the famous Ghandiva Bow and an inexhaustible quiver of arrows. Krishna gets his Sudarshana discus.  The pair of friends then help the Fire God to burn down the forest, fighting off legions of magical creatures and even an army of Gods.

It is interesting that Arjun's marriage to Subhadra was in large part the result of Krishna's suggestions.  I also noticed that the pair were sitting near the forest where they could meet the Fire God due to Krishna's suggestion that they have a picnic.  I'm going to keep score on this and we'll see just how much of this story moves along due to Krishna's well-placed suggestions!  It's going to be a lot!!!

This episode actually covers the end of  Book 1 of the Mahabharata, called the Book of the Beginning.  There are 18 books in total, and we'll start Book 2 next time, which is called the Book of the Assembly Hall.

In case you were not able to figure it out, I did start using some of the alternate names for Krishna and Arjun in this story. Some of Krishna's alternate names are: Vasudev & Madhusudana.  I refer to Arjun as Partha, Dhananjaya, and Gudakesha.

Episode 17 - Cut the Baby in Half

Episode 17 - With this episode, we finally get back to the main characters and the main storyline.  The news of the Pandava's emergence from obscurity has reached Hastinapur, and King Dhrtarastra has to make a decision-- does he go along with his favorite son and launch a surprise attack on Pancala?  Or does he follow his uncle Bhisma's advice to make Yuddhistira heir to the throne.  His conclusion is to try to strike an impossible balance between these two extremes, and he divides the kingdom, making Yuddhistira king of the lesser half of the Kuru lands.

This episode has a little more commentary than I usually give, and I hope no one is too bent out of shape by my critique of the Bhagavata Purana and the way Krishna is portrayed in there.  If you have anything to say that might change my opinion on the matter, please leave some comments on this blog.  I'd love to hear from you!

Unfortunately, my day job has gotten busy lately, so I've not been able to produce new episodes at the rate I was doing it in February and March, but I'm already started on the next episode, and I've come up with a new way to produce the material that will hopefully make up for the limited amount of time I have for this project!

Episode 16 - Don't Mess with Balaram

Episode 16 - This is the final installment of the "Krishna Episodes", where I've covered Krishna's back story up to and beyond the point when the Pandavas met him in Panchala.  There are still some interesting details in the Bhagavata Purana which I want to compare with later events in the Mahabharata, so I'm not completely done with that book, but for the upcoming episodes, we'll get back to the Mahabharata and see what the Pandavas do next.

I have to apologize for narrating this one kind of fast.  I guess I just had a cup of coffee before I got started, because I did some fast talking.  Next time I'll make it a glass of wine, and I promise I'll slow down a bit, as was suggested to me in one of the comments!

Episode 15 - Kamsa Goes Down

Episode 15 - This episode is about Krishna's spectacular entry into international politics.  Having established his manhood by cuckolding the entire tribe of cowherders, Krishna returns to Mathura to get his revenge on Kamsa.  Killing Kamsa has repercussions, however, because Kamsa had a powerful ally in King Jarasandh.  Krishna ends up killing more than 130 million soldiers as he defeated 17 armies raised by Jarasandh and an 18th army belonging to the Black Greek.  You'd think there were no soldiers left in ancient India after that, but Krishna is only getting started!  Krishna also checks in on his cousins the Pandavas, sending an embassador to report back on how the boys are being treated.

Our two stories are beginning to come together, so next episode we'll have some more adventures of Krishna and Balaram, get them married off (16,000 wives!!!), and see how their sons come along, and then we'll finally be caught up, and will resume the story of the Pandavas.

Episode 14 - Krishna and the Gopis

Episode 14 - Things get hot and heavy this episode, when Krishna plays a tune on his magic flute and all the girls come running.  The association of religious devotion with carnal love is found in Sikhism, Sufi Islam and even mystical Christianity.  I've always suspected that the idea was born in India as Bhakti and then gradually made its way westward through the Islamic world and finally into Western Christianity.  It would be an interesting study-- the timelines certainly fit!  Next episode, we'll get back to the bloodletting and chopping of heads, so never fear, this sexy stuff is nearly behind us!

Episode 13 - Top God

Episode 13 - The further adventures of young Krishna.  This time we cover his youth and teenage years.  He kills a bunch of demons, imitates every boy in the clan plus all the calves, kicks Indra's butt, and then compels the girls to emerge naked from the river to retrieve their clothing-- all in the name of religion of course!  He promises to each one of them that he will make love to them before the end of Autumn, and next episode, he'll make good on it!

Episode 12 - Krishna at Play

Episode 12 - We finally get started with Krishna.  His mother and father were both of the house of Yadu in Mathura-- Krishna's mother Devaki was King Ugrasena's daughter.  Unfortunately, Devaki's brother, Crown Prince Kamsa was a bad guy, and he got an early warning that his sister's eighth child would be the death of him.  After a palace coup, King Kamsa threw Devaki and Vasudeva into prison and killed their first six babies as soon as they were born.

The seventh child, Balaram, was magically transported into the womb of Rohini-- Vasudevas other wife living in Vraja with the Gopas.  Unlike Balaram, Krishna managed to be born in his natural mother's womb, but was secretly exchanged with the Gopa chieftain's daughter within hours of their birth.  As far as anyone could tell, Krishna was born to the Gopi Yashoda, and Devaki had a daughter who was killed by Kamsa as soon as she was discovered.

So, while Krishna and Balaram are technically full brothers, it appeared as if they were unrelated, and Krishna was simply the son of a cowherder chieftain.  This arrangement worked well in keeping him hidden from Kamsa, but it must have been tricky convincing everyone that he really had royal blood and wasn't just some low-caste nobody!  We'll see how he pulls this off in later episodes.

The Bhagavata Purana is so utterly dazzled by Krishna's divinity that these everyday practicalities seem to fade out in the glare, but I'll try to keep a lookout for how the mundane folks around him-- those who did not recognize his divinity-- tried to make sense of his story and his position in society.

I have to admit that so far Balaram is a bit of a cipher to me.  We are told that he is the avatara of Adisesha, who is the Cosmic Snake; Vishnu's pal.  Somehow Adisesha appears as himself when Vasudeva makes his journey with Krishna to Vraja, but Balram was already a child at the time.  Later, we are told that Balaram and Krishna are equally avataras of Vishnu.  Hopefully we'll be able to untangle this riddle as we go along.  So far, I admit that I don't quite get it!

If anyone can explain to me how Balaram relates to Krishna, I'd love to hear it.  I'll try to come up with an analysis of the two characters as we move further along into the story.  They make an amazing contrast, often taking opposite sides on important issues.

Episode 11 - The Loves of King Yayati

Episode 11 - This episode is the first in  a series that will break away from the Mahabharata and use the Bhagavata Purana as the primary source instead.  This is necessary if you want to find out Krishna's life stories.  Up until the Pandavas meet Krishna at Draupadi's Swayamvara, no mention is made of Krishna's birth, childhood, or rise to power.  That information is only available in other books, and the main source is the Bhagavata Purana.

The first time I read a faithful translation of the Mahabharata, I was shocked that Krishna just appears in the story, fully grown, and no information is given about his background.  So in the next two or three episodes, I will try to rectify that, starting with Krishna's common ancestor with the Pandavas, King Yayati.

I meant to push on and cover Krishna's birth and childhood in this single episode, but I was afraid that all the names and details would get overwhelming if I tried to put all this together, so next episode we'll cover Krishna's birth and toddler-hood.

The story is getting much more complicated, and we're meeting many new characters, so I'm doing my best to keep it all as clear as possible in the narrative.  Please send feedback and let me know how I'm doing, and whether there is anything I could do to make the story easier to follow.  Please leave comments on my blog, or email me:  mahabharatapodcast@comcast.net.  I'd love to hear from you!