Saturday, February 10, 2007

Stony Abhimanyus

Abhimanyu was the son of Arjuna and Subhadra. Legend has it that Arjuna, the exponent of piercing the Chakra Vyuha/Padma Vyuha (Wheel/Lotus formation) was explaining the technique to a pregnant Subhadra. Supposedly, the lady went off to sleep at the halfway point which meant that the foetus aka Abhimanyu also gained only half the knowledge. That is, he learnt how to pierce the formation and force his way in, but didn't know how to get out safely. Ultimately, his heroic but tragic death became a prime example of the saying 'Half Knowledge is Dangerous'.

Loose stones on the road are what I would classify as 'parasitic Abhimanyus'. They know how to get into any small gap created by my sole and the slipper. And they just don't know how to get out. But, do they die a tragic death? No way; no. They kill the walker by piercing the soft part of his foot and the only escape is to disband the "formation" aka remove the slipper and force them out.

That brings me to an interesting question and if you have any views on this, please do leave them in the comments section. "How would the course of the Mahabharata have changed if Abhimanyu had survived?"

My opinion is this:

1. The fake sunset illusion created by Krishna would not have been necessary to kill Jayadratha
2. Esteemed gurus like Drona and Kripa would not have had their name sullied.
3. The war would have got over sooner with a victory for the Pandavas.

2 comments:

Sheraton said...

You would not have written this :D

..btw the mahabharata is far too complicated...did you know abt bhima's grandson who was apparently THE strongest of them all ( and he fought on the side of the kauravas ) .....better than arjuna/bhishma/karna etc. etc. ...and but for krishna, he wud have won the battle for the kauravas...abhimanya or not....

and a whole other complciated stuff up there...

Shivakumar said...

Maga..one doubt..are you sure it was Arjuna who was narrating the technique to Subhadra..I some how feel it was Krishna..