In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of Bhishmachaarya’s lengthy accord on the “Raaja-Dharma” and the “Aapad Dharma” to Yudishtra. Here, the current context of discussion is the “Ganatantra Raajyam” (Democracy), and Bhishmachaarya is narrating important pointers on certain situations wherein the “Ganatantra Raajyam” will encounter challenges and failure. Firstly, Bhishmachaarya spoke about unity amongst people – Only if people are united, will Democracy be able to function successfully. Secondly, people should not be selfish in nature. If people are more interested in their personal growth and comfort, more than the nation’s progress as a whole, democracy is bound to fail. Having said this, if the country is united and democracy functions well, external invaders will struggle to capture us. However, they will try their best – The first thing that they will try to do is to create “fake narratives” amongst the society, thereby creating a divide. Once the unity amongst people is broken, it becomes easy for the invader to slowly and steadily capture us. The Britishers did exactly this – We’ve seen in our previous episode as to how the Britishers attacked our “Gurukula Education system” by building a fake narrative that this system is leading us nowhere, and their so-called “Successful Western Education system” is the one which gives money, name and fame. Slowly and steadily, Indians started falling prey to this narrative and with this, the Britishers successfully divided our society and broke our unity. After this, all of us know what happened and the Britishers ruled India successfully for the next two-hundred-odd years.
Saying thus, Bhishmachaarya concludes the discussion on the “Ganatantra-Raajyam” with all these points for us to ponder. Thus, the important message from this entire “Ganatantra_Raajyam” discussion is that, as a society that is an ardent follower of our “Sanaatana Dharma” we should be an epitome of unity. We might be from several parts of our “Bhaarata Desha”, talking different languages and following several different cultural and worshipping practices. But we should realize that as a country, we form the land of “Sanaatana Dharma”. There should be no deviation from this common thread and thought process amongst all of us. Some people might try to create a divide using language, cultural practices, etc. In today’s context, we see this happening – Some anti-Indian elements functioning within our country are trying to divide us in terms of language and regionalism (North vs. South divide within India). We should realize that all of us are proud “Bhaaratiyas” and every language of our Bhaarata Desha is significant with enormous history and literature pertaining to our “Sanaatana Dharma”. We should never fall into the fake narrative that Tamil is a more significant language than Hindi or any other language. All our languages are rich enough with extremely talented and eminent scholars, taking them to great heights. There is nothing for us to feel ashamed about. In fact, all of us should be able to appreciate and understand each other’s languages and cultural practices, along with the various ways through which we worship Bhagawan. We should remember this always – Bhagawan Krishna is the same for all of us. It is only through different ways and means we try and attain His divine lotus feet. If we have this realization within us, unity amongst us – the proud “Bhaaratiyas” can never be broken by any kind of divisive forces – both within and outside our territorial borders.
Moving on further thus, Yudishtra asks the next question – “Oh Bhishmachaarya! If a person comes and talks with us – How do we understand whether this person is really talking out of his heart, or, is he faking? In other words, how to find out whether a person is talking directly from his heart, or is he thinking something and talking something else?” This is a pertinent question that all of us might be having within us as well, and for this, Bhishmachaarya is going to narrate a beautiful and an interesting story about a tiger and a fox to drive home his answer! So for today, let us understand up to this point, and in the next episode, we shall take this story forward for discussion! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 