April 16, 2005

वृंदा आणि विष्णु

काही दिवसांपूर्वी लंच टेबलवर सहका-यांशी गप्पा मारता मारता श्रीकृष्णाचा विषय निघाला. माझ्या एका सहका-याने मत व्यक्त केले की विष्णु /श्रीकृष्णाने बरीच 'मजा' केली. श्रीकृष्णाने १६०० स्त्रियांची बंदिवासातून सुटका केल्यावर त्यांच्याशी लग्न केले या गोष्टीकडे त्याचा रोख होता. श्रीकृष्णाने समाजातील पत गमावलेल्या त्या दुर्दैवी स्त्रियांना स्वत:चे नाव आणि प्रतिष्ठा प्राप्त करून देण्याचे धाडस दाखवले हा पैलू त्याने विचारात घेतला नसावा. मी या विचारास विरोध केल्यावर आपल्या मताच्या पुष्ट्यर्थ त्याने तुळशी-विवाहाची गोष्ट सांगितली.

शिव पुराणात मला वाचावयास मिळालेली ही कथा याप्रमाणे :
जालंधर नामक दैत्याने कठोर तप करून वर मिळवले. यानंतर तो उन्मत्त आणि अनियंत्रित बनला. त्याची पत्नी वृंदा ही पतिव्रता असून तिची पुण्याई त्याच्या पाठीशी होती. यामुळे त्याचा वध करणे कोणास शक्य होत नव्हते. एक दिवस त्याची मजल पार्वती देवीकडे वाईट दृष्टीने पाहण्यापर्यंत पोहोचली. शंकराने त्याच्याशी घनघोर युद्ध आरंभले. जालंधराचा वध करण्यासाठी त्याची पतिव्रता पत्नी वृंदा हिच्या पातिव्रत्याचा भंग करणे आवश्यक होते. ही कामगिरी विष्णूवर सोपविण्यात आली. विष्णूने जालंधराचे रूप धारण करून आपले कार्य पार पाडले. हे जेव्हा वृंदेला समजले, तेव्हा तिने देहत्याग केला. परंतु देहत्याग करते समयी तिने विष्णूला दगड - शाळिग्राम होण्याचा शाप दिला. विष्णूनेही तिला 'तुळशीचे रोप' होण्याचा प्रतिशाप दिला. परंतु वृंदेच्या पातिव्रत्यामुळे संतुष्ट होऊन विष्णूने तिला वरही दिला, की तुळशीची पूजा केली जाईल आणि या घटनेची स्मृती म्हणून शाळिग्रामाशी (प्रत्यक्ष विष्णूशी) तुळशीचे लग्न लावले जाईल.

माझ्या मित्राचा, विष्णूने केलेल्या या अनैतिक कामगिरीवर कटाक्ष होता. ही गोष्ट वाचून माझ्या मनात काही विचार आले, जे माझ्या मित्राच्या मताशी अजिबात मिळतेजुळते नव्हते.

मला सांगा...
समजा
तुम्ही विष्णू आहात
आणि एखाद्या पतिव्रतेच्या पातिव्रत्याचा भंग करण्याची कामगिरी
तुम्हावर सोपविण्यात आली आहे.

तुम्हावर सोपविलेल्या या कामगिरीला
तुम्ही 'संधी' समजाल, का 'शिक्षा' ?

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous उवाच ...

:) "There are countless examples of 'Pandawas' breaking rules and very few examples of 'Kouravas' doing so". This one is correct, but only when you look at the battle. Look at the "entire" Maha Bharat, and u will find the truth to be other way round. eg Kauravas trying to kill bhim, kauravas taking away kingdom from pandavas using dice made up of bones of jaraasandha, attempt to murder pandavas in 'laksha gruha' :) and pandavas did unfair things only in war, where as kauravas did those countless number of times through out their life ! Looking at the whole picture, I certify (!)panbdavas !

18.4.05  
Anonymous Anonymous उवाच ...

Ahhhh and what you can say about loosing your brothers and wife in gambling. Then watching someone harrasing her... thats the worst crime of all. And before commenting about magical dice and other things I would say please read "Duryodhan" by "Kaka Widhate". This book can give another way of thinking about "Mahabharat". But also I warn that this book can give a shattering blow to the way we look at "Mahabharat".
Also I never said that the "Kouravas" are our icons, I was pressing the point that sometimes you have to very bad things while you are at war, which was supporting the story about "Vishnu's" act.

19.4.05  
Anonymous Anonymous उवाच ...

I would say Pandawa were always compelled to do unfair task. If you remember, Pandawa lost Draupadi because of magical dice, which were made up of "Jarasangha's (or some other Rakshas)" bones, who was killed by Bhima. So dint Kaurav do unfair task? Again, on Kurukshetra all "Rathi-Maharathi" killed Abhimanyu even when rule was to fight 1 against 1.

And Ofcourse, every coin has two sides. its up to you which one you choose.

I agree with the comment that it was a duty assigned to Vishnu. Krishna helped and protected all those 16000 women by marrying them when no one was ready to accept them as a member of community. Hence, I really feel sorry that people think it as an opportunity.

20.4.05  
Blogger paamar उवाच ...

Hi anon-inc and other anon ! Thnx for the valuable comments...Anon-inc, I absolutely agree with u that pandawas were no good either. Or may be that they did mistakes like anybody else under various pressures. I dont think we sing songs of pandawas as such. Yes, Krishna is a person in that position where ppl worship him, but not the pandawas. I will definitely try to get and read the book that you have mentioned :"Duryodhan". I dont care about shatterring my views :) They keep on changing, and thats the way to learn for me. Even I wud strongly recomment a couple of books to u, if u havent read those already - "Swayambhu" by P V Vartak, and "DroNacharya" (dont remember author). Even "Yugandhar" is a book giving diff. view of things.

And yes, u need to do bad things in war to achieve some good in bigger picture. I read an interesting stmt in 'Nazi bhasmasuracha Udayaast' by V G Kanitkar - 'Anartha gaaDaayalaa titakaach bhayankar Anartha karaavaa laagato' (not sure abt exact wording!)

If we decide to look 'objectively' at each apsect, I am sure you can prove anything ! because ethics are not laws of physics. After thinking more and more objectively, one may come to a conclusion that 'After all nothing matters'.

20.4.05  
Anonymous Anonymous उवाच ...

Mahabharata has a very big scope than just 'Good and Bad'. That's exactly where it stands apart from the 'Ramayana' which has teh traditional 'good and the Bad' storyline. Mahabharata is teh tell of Humans, and not spuerpowers. No one is perfect and the 'Niyati' plays with everybody. Everybody has shades of black and white including Krishna. I'll recommend you to read 'Vyasa-parva' one awad winning (rather very small) book, I guess, by Durga Bhagwat. Yugandhar, Mrutyunjay, though give a different view, thay are novels.
In Mahabharata, at the end when Pandavas and Draupadi are in the journey for Heaven, except dharma everyone dies on the way. It's mentioned that they die of their sins, they mention the sins and then die. Draupadi, who's one of the 'patiwrata's was attracted once towards Karna, for which she dies before reaching the swarga. Only Dharma reaches there with his body (sadeh swargarohan).
Basically, scope of Mahabharata is huge, and I seriously doubt if any of teh 'mahakawyas' in the world have reached that complexity and scope. That's whay it's said "Vyasocchishtam jaagt sarwam" there is no part/ stage/emotion of human life that Sage Vyasa has not touched.
Mahabharata simply can't be discussed in a B& W way, it's a largest epic ever told and one will be amazed by the human relations and transitions that are depicted in Mahabharata.
Mayuresh.

10.1.06  
Blogger mukund उवाच ...

ya kamagirila me fakta kamagiri samajen. Anakhin kahi samajane va tasa vichar karane va tasa artha kadhanyacha vichar ha, vyartha vel davadane asate. shankasoor asha shanka nirman karat vel davadatat va lokana bhramit karatat. karmanyevaadhiaraste ma faleshu kadachana ase me sangoon thevalech ahe.
- Yogeshwar

23.8.08  

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