Mahabharata - Introduction

Mahabharata is a vast collection of stories, you may consider it as historical or you may consider it as mythological. For a spiritual aspirant it is of no significance. Most of these stories have deep spiritual message and it is for us to dive down in that ocean to pick up the various gems which are scattered. Let the scholars debate on the authenticity of the texts. There is no other literary creation which can even remotely compare with Mahabharata.

The general perception is Mahabharata is the story of the feud between Kurus and Pandavas. But there is much more to that story, which nevertheless forms the central theme.

The Shanti Parva of Mahabharata is esp. significant. Bhisma, the grand old man, on his death bed is imparting a treasure house of knowledge to the aspirant king Yudhisthira. There is almost a vast, limitless discourse on social customs, duties of a king, duties of a householder, ways and means for obtaining dharma, artha, kama and moksha (emancipation), art of war, dos and donts, diplomacy, politics, science, economics, revenue management and so on.

The Mahabharata in its entirety consists of one hundred thousand slokas or lines. Mahabharata was composed by Krishna Dwaipayan Vyasa, the great sage who also logically divided the Vedas into four divisions. Vyasa also wrote the Puranas, dividing them into eighteen main ones. He composed the Brahma Sutras by taking the knowledge of Brahman or the Supreme Being from the various Upanishads. After compiling Mahabharata Vyasa taught it to his son Suka and then to his disciples, who narrated it in the great sacrifice of king Janmejaya, the great grandson of the Pandavas. Vyasa himself is a character in the great story of Mahabharata as technically the Pandavas and Kauaravas both were his grandsons.

The greatest stories of Mahabharata are those of Sakuntala and king Bharata, the story of Nala and Damayanti, story of king Sagar and Bhagiratha that of bringing the celestial river Ganga to the earth, the story of Kacha and Devyani, the story of Yayati, story of Nahush, story of Madalasa, stories of Vasistha and Viswamitra, the great sages, stories of Ruru and Pramadvara,  that of sages Mudgal and Durvasa, story of Parasurama, that of Jaratkaru and Astik, story of Agastya and his drinking of the ocean, the story of churning of the ocean, story of Indra's killing of Vritra and the self sacrifice of sage Dadhichi. There occurs the story of sacrifice of king Shivi, the love of sage Chavana for Sukanya, the daughter of Saryati, the filial affiliation of king Harishchandra, the might of ancient king Prthu, story of Gaduda, the story of Utanka who was the priest in Janmejaya's sacrifice, and the story of Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna, whose untimely death by the curse of a sage led to the sacrifice held by Janmejaya.

The story begins in Naimisharanya when Ugrasava Sauti, the son of Lomaharsana was narrating the story of the Mahabharata to a group of sages who had gathered there on account of the beginning of the Kaliyuga. Suta had heard it from Vaishampayan, one of the disciples of Vyasa, who narrated the story to king Janamejaya during the serpent sacrifice.