From Kurukshetra to America: How the Mahabharata warns of superpowers destroying themselves

It ends with the destruction of the Yadus, the submergence of Dwaraka, the death of Krishna, the end of the Pandavas and the beginning of the present Kali Yuga. The latter events take place a mere 36 years after the end of the great 18-day war, close enough to be seen as part of the same conflict.

The post-Kurukshetra portion has some surprising and counter-intuitive denouements. The Yadus, who had emerged as a great power after the Kurukshetra war, kill each other in a drunken brawl. Krishna himself clubs the remaining warriors to death, save his charioteer and a single heir. Balarama enters the encroaching ocean under which Dvaravati, their capital, disappears.

Then a hunter’s arrow penetrates a retiring Krishna’s foot, resulting in his physical death. Finally, Arjuna, whose help is sought to take the women to safety, is defeated by a gang of bandits who overpower him with just staves and stones.

After this, Yudhistira realizes that the time has come to move on and leads his brothers and wife onto a trek to the Himalayas in an attempt to ascend to heaven in living form. With that, the Epoch of Kali begins, a period in which dharma or righteousness is eclipsed by ignorance, licence and evil. There, the world stands and awaits the arrival of Kalki to turn the cycle and take us back to a new righteous age.

I have oversimplified a complex and multi-layered story, but this is the essence. The Mahabharata’s Mausala Parva, the Vishnu Purana and the Bhagavad Purana that recount variations of this story also give the vexed reader a good explanation of why these extraordinary events happen.

It turns out that the destruction of kings at Kurukshetra and near Dwaraka were part of the same divine plan—and of the Krishna incarnation’s mission—to “reduce the burden of the earth."

Humans in general and their kings in particular had become so powerful that it became a cosmic problem. Balance had to be restored. Although defeating the perfidious Kauravas was a goal at one level, the bigger goal was to destroy political and military power centres across the land.

The massive bloodshed on all sides in the Kurukshetra war achieved this objective. However, the Yadus, who were part of the victorious alliance, became the new, unchallenged superpowers. No external enemy was powerful enough to cut them down to size. So, it was arranged that they should destroy themselves in a civil war triggered by jealousy, vengefulness and inebriation, with Krishna personally completing the exercise.

The job done, he departs the earthly world for his heavenly abode through the artifice of being mistakenly shot by a hunter.

Further, as Vyasa explains to a perplexed Arjuna, “Time is responsible for creatures existing and not existing. (All has been) created by time. It is time that will again lead to their destruction."

The puzzle of how a great warrior could be defeated by stick-wielding bandits is resolved by seeing which side divine power was on. “At the time of your rise, Janardana was your aide. At the time of your end, Keshava glanced favourably toward your adversaries."

We notice that there appears to be a positive correlation between Time and divine intent. I have not read enough to know if the epic’s narrators and subsequent commentators address this version of Euthyphro’s Dilemma (where Socrates asks “Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?").

Lest you think that this column has taken a spiritual turn, let me state that I was reminded of this part of the Mahabharata by the politics and geopolitics of our times. As eminent psychologist Jai B.P. Sinha lays out in his magisterial work, Psycho-Social Analysis of the Indian Mindset, references to mythology to understand current events is part of the way our mind works.

The US might be a victor of two previous world wars. As a liberal democracy, its system of governance might still be among the more righteous systems. Even so, could it have grown so powerful as to ‘burden the earth’?

Could it be that being an unchallengeable superpower itself constitutes an imbalance that has to be addressed? If no outside powers can reduce it, is internal dissension the pathway to its downfall? The physical universe might have no purpose, but could it be that human actions add up in ways that prefer balance and social mechanisms act to restore it?

The Mahabharata is a repository of India’s collective wisdom over the ages. Its deeper message might be one of the amorality of balance, one that realists will readily appreciate.

“Strength, intelligence, energy and power remain for as long as the time of adversity does not come. O Dhananjaya! Time is the root of everything. It is the seed of the universe. As it wishes, time also draws everything back again. A person who was strong can subsequently become weak. One can possess prosperity, or one can be commanded by others." (9 Mausala Parva, Mahabharata 1987, Debroy’s translation).

The author is co-founder and director of The Takshashila Institution, an independent centre for research and education in public policy.