My Favourite Book
George Orwell says that the supreme test of a good book is its ‘survival’. Reading books of various kinds is my passion. When I find time, I read classics. They are the nursing of immortality. Of them, I have read the Mahabharata a lot of times, and everytime it leaves an abiding impression upon me.
The Mahabharata was originally composed in Sanskrit by Vedvyas. It was composed in Bengali by Kashiram Das. It is an epic of great interest. This book has a very wide appeal. Its story is interesting and reflects the true picture of the then India.
The story goes like this. Pandu and Dhritarashtra were two princes. Their capital was Hastinapur. Yudhistira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva were Pansy’s sons. They were called the Pandavas. Dushasan and Duryodhana and their ninety eight brothers were Dhritarashtra’s sons and were called the Ksuravas. The Pandavas were superior to the Kauravas in every respect. So, the Kauravas were jealous of the Pandavas. The Kauravas tried their best to kill the Pandavas, but they escaped.
Then, Duryodhana made a plan. Yudhistira was invited to a game of dice. A trap was laid for the loser. The trap was that the loser would have to go on exile for twelve years and live in perfect secrecy for another year. If detected, he would have to live in exile for another twelve years. Yudhistira agreed, but he lost the game. He went into exile along with his wife and brothers. When the term of their exile expired, they returned and demanded five plots of land, but Duryodhana refused. The Pandavas were asked to get it by fighting.
This lit the flame of war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Lord Krishna became the guide of the Pandavas. The battle was fought at Kurukshetra. It was also called the famous Mahabharata war. It was the battle between justice and injustice. It lasted for eighteen days. The Pandavas won the battle of Kurukshetra and established justice.
The defeat of the vile plans is the moral of the epic. Lord Krishna’s ‘upadeshas’ (advices) to Arjuna have been enshrined in the sacred book called the Bhagabat Gita and has become an integral part of India’s spiritual culture.
I get engrossed in this book every time I read it. This book teaches me how to subtly deal with the various aspects of life. Frequent reading of this book helps me understand life better. My disappointment disappears. Crassness of men is forgotten. This book reminds me what Alonso had once said, “Age recommends three things – old wood to burn, old friends to trust and old books to read.”
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