SELFISHLY SELFLESS

Two opposites seldom reconcile, in fact they’re always at loggerheads.

The Mahabharata offers another perspective that is more about life management.

Management involves dealing with tempting times and testing times which is harsh realities of life. The idealistic approach for life is very fantastic, and most of the times it stays in the realm of the fantasy world.  Idealistic  understanding  combined with  the realistic approach, gives rise to confident action.   One of the major theme discussed in mahabharata is the struggle between being good in a bad world, and how difficult it is to do that.   Some are very idealistic, and and some are very ambitious for only physical gain at any cost, for them idealism is useless to be discarded in the dustbin of past. 

Bhishma personifies selflessness. very idealistic.   Personal agenda was far from his existence. He did not lead a normal life, rather surrendered his being fully for others. Result? -Massive exploitation by Kurus, headed by Duryodhana. In one sense, his selflessness had  no benefit to others. And of course, there was no personal consideration anyway.

Dhritarashthra represents complete selfishness. fiercely ambitious.    He couldn’t go beyond his blindness,  physical one and the moral one too.  and therefore looking for any opportunity to install his son as the king of Hastinapura.  which he missed because of blindness.  To achieve this, he was actively conspiring to destroy the Pandavas. Unfortunately, he did not realize that his son was blackmailing him because of his unfound attachment. The result? –His desires were blown away and all his sons got death on the battlefield.

The Pandavas  had the same  psychology as Bhisma but   with Krishna they  were practical. To do good to others was their motto. To achieve this ideology, they had to be self-conscious. They collected resources as an individuals  and  then utilized  for the growth of the society.

The story of Arjuna and Eklavya illustrates this point better. When Arjuna saw Eklavya demonstrating better skills , he asked his teacher how Eklavya was better than him?   His Guru demanded  Eklavya to pull out his thumb, and sure enough, he received a thumb as gift,  and became an ordinary archer.

 Sounds harsh, but the reality was that Arjuna used his superiority caused by the inferiority of Eklavya to establish good governance based on the teachings of Gita.

For any any good Governance, the governor or a leader has to  inspire sacrifice in their followers, and some time bring down the opponent who is not competent to lead, but has some isolated skills,  has to stop him from growing, harsh but is it not reality of mundane existence? 

The Pandavas used selfishness as a tool to be selfless servants of God. The Kauravas used selflessness of Bhishma,  ambition of Karna, friendship of Ashwatthama and selflishness of Dhritharashthra to be utterly selfish.

What tool would we like to use? and for what?  the choice is ours. selfishness for selflessness or selflessness to be exploited by selfish people like Duryodhana?  choice is ours.