Sons of Gods: The Mahabharata Retold

(Original year of posting: 2006.) I first read the Mahabharata in 1973, in India. The version I read was the big fat book by Kamala Subramaniam. I stayed up all night to finish it, and when it was over I decided then and there that this was the Book to end all Books. It was simply amazing. I've been a voracious reader all my life, but never had I been so floored by a story. I could say this in spite of the less than stellar writing. Subramaniam tends to write in short, jerky sentences, using an abundance of adjectives and adverbs. She spills the melodrama left right and centre, and is not afraid to overdo it in the emotional sector. In a way, the book seems written for children. But the story she tells in that book is simply magnificent. The Mahabharata is Hinduism's great epic story. It may be the oldest written story in the world, and certainly the longest. It tells the tale of kings and queens, gods and demons. It goes off on tangents lasting hundreds of pages, yet al...

As it is for many people, the Gita was my first real introduction to the Hindu faith and philosophy -- or Sanatana Dharma, which is the more accurate term. Yesterday I wrote on another blog, Sadhana Day by Day (sorry - no longer live) about the experience that turned my life around forty (fifty now!) years ago, and set me on my spiritual path. The aftermath of that experience was that I returned home and turned over a new leaf completely; and the lifeline that straightened out my oh so crooked life was this little book: the Bhagavad Gita. In retrospect it seems that that path was already predetermined, and that everything was all planned out in advance that I should end up devouring the Gita as if I were starving and it was living water. Before my trip through South America I had already discovered the miracle of Hatha Yoga, and diligent practice  had sorted out many of my more pressing, physical problems: drinking, smoking and an eating disorder that had made me so fat I’d f...

Karna is  the most tragic and misunderstood member of the Mahabharata, the most unjustly neglected in all written versions, even in the original epic itself.  He disappears behind the more obvious heroes, Arjuna, Bhishma, Bhima, and of course Krishna himself. Karna is a handsome, hawkish, brooding man, burdened with insecurity and the need to validate himself; even the need simply to be loved.  I would like to add: Karna is also brave, loyal, trustworthy, compassionate, unselfish, and the greatest Giver of all time. He is unforgettable. I wrote this whole book, really, in Karna's honour. The story of Karna is the main subplot of Sons of Gods . The main reason I was so dissatisfied with all the Mahabharatas I read as a young woman in India was that I fell in love with Karna early on, but could not find a single book which did his character justice. He seemed as neglected in literature as his character is in the story; the whole tragedy of his life often buried be...

Sons of Gods is now available in Print -- at last! It's available on Amazon and other retailers, in paperback. I've planned this for so many years -- I can't believe it's happened! And to celebrate, I have a new review, and a great one at that, by Shelley Schanfield  a Goodreads member, There are many retellings of the Mahabharata, India's classic epic. I have read several and would recommend Sons of Gods for anyone not already familiar with this ancient tale. Taken as a whole, the Mahabharata is unwieldy, to say the least. It is filled with digressions and stories within stories that resist linear narrative. Sharon Maas's version is admirably streamlined for readers who want to get a grounding in the basic story before exploring in more detail the rambling conglomeration of myths, legends, and history that make up this massive tale. The greatest strength of Sons of Gods lies in its introduction to the complex Kuru-Pandava lineage. Understanding the com...

Last week I wrote about the role of women  in the Mahabharata. Today I'd like to go a bit deeper into that theme--and discuss Draupadi. One day, after I had readjust about every available version of the Mahabharata and written my own in frustration, a book by  Chitra Banerjee Divakaruna  fell into my hands: The Palace of Illusions.  A whole book told from the point of view of Draupadi: at first I was delighted. Then I had second thoughts For those new to the story, some information: Draupadi is not born as other mortals. She is the result of the overwhelming desire of her father, the King Drupada, to have a daughter to marry the hero Arjuna. He undergoes a strict penance in order to do this, and one day he is rewarded: at the culminating religious ceremony, a glorious woman, surpassing all others in beauty and character, steps out of the sacrificial fire, along with her brother, Drishtaumnya. They are the fire-born twins, superior in every way. In ...

A few days ago, Hindu Blog posted an interview with me on Sons of Gods. A couple of the questions concerned a subject I was planning to write about in the near future, so let’s see  what I said there: Who do you think is the most tragic woman character in the Mahabharata?  The Mahabharata is a book about men, yet the few female characters are powerful indeed: the goddess Ganga, the Pandava’s mother Kunti, the Princess Amba, and of course the Pandavas common wife, Draupadi. Of them all, I find Amba the most tragic, as well as the most interesting, and I tend to identify with her. As a woman, how do you see the treatment of women in Mahabharat? Is your view reflected in the book? When we consider the women in the Mahabharata and their treatment,  it’s important not to see them through the prism of Western feminism. This is a story set in an age and a place far removed from our own world. Different standards were valid in that age, and it wouldn’t be fair to ...

 Warning: Identical post to today's Sadhana Day by Day! I haven't posted for a long time. I do have a new post in mind; a continuation of the last one. In a few days I'll get down to it, but in the meantime, you can read a gallery feature I wrote for Beliefnet: The Russian Doll of Hinduism in Ten Sanskrit Terms  And while you're on the Beliefnet website, please read the following article entitled Microsoft's Encarta: Biased Against Hinduism? A point-by-point examination of the popular encyclopedia's treatment of Hindu beliefs. It's excellent, and echoes a syndrome I've long been aware of: the denigrating way Hinduism is often portayed in the West. I did try to correct some of that portrayal in my own Russian Doll article, simply by showing "the other side" of Hinduism; but the Beliefnet article above takes the bull by the horns and address the subject point by point. I've commented on the article on its page, so do take a l...

The Gita really begins with Arjuna's despair as he sees the great army of the Kauravas before him on the battlefireld of Kurukshetra. Krishna, seeing all these kinsmen arrayed here to fight, my mind reels; I can hardly stand, for my limbs grow limp. My mouth is as parched dry as desert sand; my body quivers. The mighty Gandiva bow slips from my fingers wet with sweat; my skin is on fire. What greater crime is there than killing one's own friends and relatives? What gain is victory, what use sovereignty, what joy in wealth and pleasures, what value life itself, if gained by killing one's loved ones? It  is a great sin, Krishna. I cannot do it. How can we ever live happily hereafter, if we kill our own people? I cannot do it, Krishna. I prefer to be poor, and live as a beggar, or a pauper. Krishna, I cannot fight. He casts away his bow and arrows and sinks down in his chariot in utter dejection. And who cannot sympathise with him? After all the tribulations of the yea...

As promised, I've published Chapter 58: The Song of God as a blog page above. To understand what is happening here one really needs to have read the Mahabharata, but the Gita is important  that it has taken on a life as its own: 18 chapters of sublime wisdom, known  as a major world scripture in its own right. For Hindus it's the equivalent of the Bible. There are many translations, of course, and I certainly have not read them all in order to make a choice as to which is the best. The version I own is a translation by W. J. Johnson published by the Oxford University Press. The chapter 58 of Sons of Gods is a much condensed version of the Gita, and not a translation of a selection of verses: it's what I believe to be the essence of Krishna's message to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Much as I would have loved to include the entire Gita, doing so would have broken the word limit I had set for myself and held...

There's an interview with me today on Hindu Blog about the Mahabharata.  And last week this interview was published on Diane Dooley's writers' blog: Interview and Giveaway with Aruna Sharan.  My thanks to those blog owners.  Meanwhile, on my new blog Sadhana Day by Day the ideas for future posts are simply overflowing -- I'm very excited about putting all of this to paper!  And right here on Sons of Gods I'll be keeping my promise to highlight the Bhagavad Gita over the next few days.

This is a fun quiz -- see how well you do! The thing to remember, though, is that in spite of all the gods and goddesses in Hinduism -- they are all only aspects of the One; the mind, being too gross and scattered to understand that One, likes to have a form and a name and tangible personification of that One on which to focus, and that's where gods and goddesses come in useful. By focussing on that name and form the mind grows subtle, and capable of more abstract understanding. That is what meditation is all about.

A great review is now up on the literary site AuthorScoop , written by up-and-coming Simon and Schuster author Jamie Mason . Sons of Gods: The Mahabharata Retold, by Aruna Sharan Strictly speaking, AuthorScoop is not a book review site, but occasionally we’ll come across something in our private reading that really calls for a crowing. As such, here I go. -Jamie Mason I’ve always loved mythologies. Like most of my American contemporaries, Greek and Roman myths were part of our school curriculum. On my own, I sought out Native American and Norse tales. As I let them, they spilled the secrets of the forces and spirits that put color and flourish over the grey cogs of physics and rationalism. I’ve loved these stories for the freedom from the strictly literal that they offer; the chance to swim in what it says of humanity in the stories we invent to explain the universe. I had certainly heard of India’s rich fables and parables, particularly, the Bha...