In the previous episode, we had witnessed the crucial role played by Bhagawan Krishna in bringing all those people following “Adharma” to book. None of them were spared on either camps, except the five Paandava brothers. Each and every individual of the 18-Akshauhini-strong army had to bite the dust at the end of the eighteenth day of the war. As Sage Vaishampaayana narrates all of these with a “chilling” effect, King Janame-Jaya was moved to tears. Till that point, he did not know all of what had happened in the past, and he was totally unaware of Bhagawan Krishna’s important role in his family lineage. Thus, with the divine “Anugraha” of Bhagawan Krishna, the Paandava brothers succeeded King Dhirdiraashtra to the throne of Hastinapura, ruled the kingdom as per the “Dharma” for many further years, and finally attained the highest “Moksha” with the divine “Anugraha” of Bhagawan Krishna. With this accord, Sage Vaishampaayana stops his narration and is about to take leave from King Janame-Jaya’s place. He had narrated the entire story within just 30 slokas!
This “brief narration” triggered King Janame-Jaya’s curiosity even more. He replies to Sage Vaishampayana thus, “Oh Sage! I was thinking that you would give me a detailed accord with more than a lakh slokas about what happened to all my ancestors! However, you’ve finished the entire story within just 30 slokas! With this, there is a huge trigger within myself with so many doubts and queries. Therefore, I request you to elaborate the entire story in such a way that all my queries are answered! Oh Sage! I’m not satisfied with listening to this brief. I want to hear more!”
“Itham shata sahasraamhi slokaanaam punya karmanaam!
Satyavatyaatmanatheeneha vyaakhyaatam amitoujasaa!!”
As King Janame-Jaya expresses his wish thus, Sage Vaishampayana was more than happy to continue his accord in a great elaboration. He replies to King Janame-Jaya thus, “Oh Janame-Jaya! I was actually waiting for you to come up to me with this request. Is it going to be a burden for me to narrate the entire “Charitra” that has been authored by Sage Veda-Vyaasa? It is indeed a pleasure for me to do so! I was just thinking whether you would have the liking and the time to listen to the elaborate narration or not!”
In fact, there is a background story to this – When Sage Vaishampayana approached King Janame-Jaya earlier to enlighten him about his past, King Janame-Jaya was not ready to sit and listen to all this. He was a great king and with that, came a lot of responsibilities too. King Janame-Jaya was extremely busy with his roles as a king and did not have time for all this. He kept postponing this for a while now. However, Sage Vaishampayana was very smart. He requested King Janame-Jaya multiple times to listen to atleast one “Parva”, or atleast one “Upa-Parva” or atleast one “Adhyaaya”. To all these requests, King Janame-Jaya wasn’t ready to budge. However, when Sage Vaishampayana requested him to listen to just one sloka, he acceded. Sage Vaishampayana explains thus, “Oh King Janame-Jaya! Suyodhana and Dashaanana, although they knew of their enemy’s valor and power in war, they still came to fight each other!” With this, the sloka came to an end!
Upon hearing this, even we’re unable to understand anything, isn’t it? King Janame-Jaya too had the same feeling! Many questions arose in his mind – Who is this “Suyodhana”? Who is this “Dashaanana”? Why did both of them come to loggerheads? Suyodhana was none other than Duryodhana. When Arjuna and the Paandavas were living in the “Viraata-Nagara”, Duryodhana witnessed Arjuna’s enormous powers in warfare. He was slightly taken aback by that. However, Duryodhana’s ego pushed him to go for an all-out war against Arjuna and the Paandavas at Kurukshetra, isn’t it? Similar is the case with “Dashaanana”, who was none other than Ravana. Even though Hanuman had come to Lanka and burnt down the entire city, Ravana still did not relent from his stance of submitting Mother Sita back to Bhagawan Rama, isn’t it? Even though Ravana knew that one Hanuman was enough to destroy a thousand Ravanas like himself, he did not relent and still fought a war with Bhagawan Rama, isn’t it? We’ve seen this in our earlier Ramayana project. Thus, Sage Vaishampayana’s message here was that both “Suyaanana ” and “Dashaanana ” were the greatest fools on this earth! Saying thus, Sage Vaishampayana asked King Janame-Jaya whether he can leave!
As Sage Vaishampayana was about to leave, King Janame-Jaya was filled with questions in his mind! He wanted answers! This is where Sage Vaishampayana was very smart! He triggered King Janame-Jaya’s interest with just that one sloka, within just 5 seconds! How long is it going to take to chant one sloka? Maximum 10 seconds maybe? This is what we call in today’s management terms as “Elevator Pitch”. In other words, we should be able to convince and impress an investor within just five to ten seconds while going on an elevator that we’ve got a business plan that is fundable! Similarly here too, Sage Vaishampayana employs an “Elevator Pitch” to King Janame-Jaya to impress them that he should spend time listening to the Mahabharata story! With this, Sage Vaishampayana succeeded in triggering King Janame-Jaya’s interest, and from now onwards, the Mahabharata narration in a great detail is about to start!
So for today, let us leave it at this point, and we shall continue this discussion forward in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 