Written by London swaminathan

Article no. 1726; dated 17 March 2015

Up loaded at 10-18 am London time

Sage Vaisampayana wanted to tell the full Maha Bharata story to king Janamejaya. He approached the king with great interest and enthusiasm. But the king rejected his proposal outright saying that he was too busy for such stuff. This did not dampen the enthusiasm of Vaisampayana.

“No problem there are 18 Parvas/Sections. I will just narrate to you only one Parva”.

Janamejya gave him a curt reply. “Sorry Vaismpayana. I have no time. I am very  busy”.

Vaisampayana was very persistent. He said to the king, “No Problem. I will just recite only one chapter”.

Janamejaya was very rude now, “how many times do I have to tell you I am very busy”.

Sage Vaisampayana was the embodiment of patience. He insisted, “No Problem. I will tell you just one couplet (sloka) from the one hundred thousand couplets”.

“OK, Ok. That is fine, just one Sloka. Hope that would not take much of my time. Please go ahead”, said the king.

Vaisampayana did not miss the opportunity. He began, “King Duryodana raided the Pandava territory and took the cows. That was the reason for the great war. At last Duryodhana died in the battle field. Finito!”

I am finished, God Bye, said Vaisampayana.

Hang on. Duryodhana was a great king. Why did he raid for cows? It does not sound correct, said Janamejaya.

Vaisampayana was very happy that he kindled his enthusiasm. Then he gave him the reason for the cattle raid.

Then Janamejaya asked some more sub questions on the same topic. Vaisampayana started narrating the full epic. Janamejaya listened to him with pin drop silence.

Mahabharata, the longest epic in the world with 100,000 couplets, 200,000 lines with approximately one million words, will captivate anyone! Any modern problem can be compared to one of the problems already narrated in the epic. And there is a solution to all the problems of the world too!

No Pain, No Gain!

(Source: Moksha Sadhana Rahasya by Subrahmanya Siva, Year 1925.)