A Song of Fortune
- A Classical Gîtâ -




     

EPILOGUE

     


 
   
After Krishna and Arjuna had finished their conversation, they engaged spirited and energetic in the battle with their nephews. Arjuna therein took, together with his four brothers, up his arms against also de army of the Yadus of Krishna himself which fought at the side of the Kauravas. Before the battle began Krishna in a diplomatic meeting had offered the Pândavas and the Kauravas a fair choice with the words: "You either fight against me or against my army".

    The battle between the family members lasted for eighteen days. In these days , one after the other, all their opponents were defeated. While as good as every Kaurava found his demise in the fray because of the karma which, exposed with it, had led to a corruption of skills and concrete support, doubtful presentations, bad association, envy, anger and a poor spirituality, this was not so with the well trained Arjuna and his army of insurgents who were constantly advised and protected to the perfection by Krishna's spiritual power, control and personal presence on the battlefield as a charioteer. Together with him no enemy was spared, and even, some time after the battle, the Yadu clan of Krishna himself found its demise in a collective fight against itself, exactly the way Krishna had planned it for all the ruling powers of the time.

   Duryodhana, Arjuna's archenemy, fell, hit on the battlefield by Bhîma's club, with a broken spine and thus had to pay for all the foul tricks and schemes he with his brothers had employed in his repressive campaigns in the past. The blind uncle Dhritarâshthra lost his credibility and authority as a founding father and man of wisdom and withdrew to Himalayas where he literally burnt up in the flames of penance. Thus his life ended together with his destructive family attachment. Yudhishthhira, the eldest Pândava, became, with the support of Krishna, the new king. But never again the honor of the family was definitely restored. The closed ranks they had always formed, had collapsed and so had the public morality associated with it. Kali-yuga, the age of quarrel had commenced. Whereas in the old days of the yugas before, there had been an undisputed rule of emperors and great kings representing the four legs of the bull of dharma, the four values of truthfulness, faithfulness, sacrifice and compassion, these values were ever since found in decay.

  The break the traditional family rule had suffered was that severe, that the close association of the dynastic religiousness of sacrifices, welfare activities, charity and public ceremonies at the one hand and the secular rule of the state at the other hand, definitely had alienated into two separate societal worlds. The righteous rule and the brahmin intellect had separated. Arjuna's grandson Parîkchit, who, born with a fine intelligence and character, had a keen eye for everyone and everything, and personally never missed an opportunity to defend the dharma, had followed in great-uncle Yudhishthhira's footsteps in his acceptance of the by his great-uncles arranged transference of the throne when he was still a boy. That rule of his was also the last rule representative of the old age. Because of a conflict which had risen between his person and a representative of the brahmin class, he, as the last great ruler of the family, withdrew also, having fallen from public grace. He stood back after having been cursed by the son of a meditating sage, who was insulted by Parîkchit because he hadn't properly welcomed him at his hermitage.

   Parîkchit in his insult had maintained that the alienated intellectuals and the priesthood were all too lax and uncommitted escapists, locked up in their own self-righteous ivory towers. But later on he could no longer maintain this offensive position. In the end he turned out to be a staunch and dedicated brahmin himself, after he, because of the curse, had given up his rule. He sat himself down at the feet of S'ukadeva, the son of Vyâsadeva, who in the week of fasting which he according to the curse had to fulfill until his death, enlightened him on the entire history of the Vedic culture including the story about the life of Krishna, the fortunate one, which later on was handed down in disciplic succession as the Bhâgavata Purâna, the most important collection of stories or bible of the Hindus (there are eighteen big ones and small ones). The integrity of the dynasty had definitely died along with him and could in its full glory only be retraced in the closed circles of the religious communities of the priests, sages and scholars who today are called the teachers, the gurus of example, or the âcârya's, who traditionally are divided in different schools of learning or sampradâyas. Because the classical rule of the dynasty of Bhâratavarsha, or India, was never again restored to its original glory, and, in that sense, the world order it stood for definitely had fallen apart, the common man worldwide, without much honor and decency, continued quarreling in the political age of Kali-yuga until that ego struggle had reached the end of its synergy, and a new era for the planet earth had dawned.







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