A Song of Fortune - A Classical Gita: Introduction

Once in a great union of states, about 5000 years ago, there was a family called the Kaurava family descending from a great dynasty of nobles ruling the world: the Kuru dynasty. They had worked hard for their rule and wealth, and had achieved the dominion over the entire planet. The world was the playground where they set the rules of the game in which they held sway over all. But a conflict of justice had risen between the haves and the have-nots of the family.

   The Kaurava family of the Kuru dynasty had split up in these two opposing factions in society. The have-nots of the Kauravas, befriended with the Yadu clan, became destitute being cheated by their nephews in a gambling game and had lost their possessions, stature and positions. The Yadu clan was another branch of the Moon dynasty to which the Kuru dynasty belonged, but it had ages before fallen in disgrace with a founding father of the Moon dynasty called Yayâti, who wanted his sons to take his burden of old age. The Kauravas were the descendants of the son who had complied to the wishes of the founding father. The Yadu clan had descended from the eldest son and original heir to the throne who had refused to take the burden. The have-not Kauravas being unemployed, were, to their shame and downfall - with the foul play as was arranged by the Kauravas in function -, not admitted to any authority, considerable position or proprietorship in whatever field. They were simply denied an equal position in society and were always turned down with whatever they tried, so that they had to live degraded as second-rank citizens with the minimal rights of mere slaves.

   But the Yadu clan, which still had maintained its wealth by honestly serving as a kind of police force fighting the bad elements in society, helped out the have-nots who were also called the Pândavas, because of their father Pându who, after dying untimely, had left them behind with their mother Prithâ, or also called Kuntî, who was a daughter of the Yadu family. A younger nephew of hers, the master of the Yadu clan, was called Krishna¹, because of his dark complexion; he was a divine type, an ardent defender of the philosophy of yoga, very beautiful to behold, who dressed up finely with good taste. He was highly intelligent and of great renown for his heroic, virtuous and beneficial acts and was most benevolent in his piety of taking the lead in wisdom and defending the order of the honorable culture of the Moon dynasty.

   Krishna, basically living with eight beautiful women next to the 16100 women he as good as all had freed from the hands of scoundrels, was befriended with Arjuna², one of the five Pându brothers who had assembled in a great association that brought together all the repressed ones of the time in order to contest the Kaurava rule. So the Pândavas came to fight their own family members, the Kauravas, with whom they had grown up under the care of their blind father Dhritarâshthra, their uncle, who, as the brother of their early deceased father Pându, had taken them into custody next to the care for his own sons. It was a hundred half brothers, who were lead by the difficult, arrogant and treacherous character of the eldest son named Duryodhana. But uncle Dhritarâshthra was too attached to his own sons to defend and help out his Pându nephews when they lost their wealth, after in their weakness of gambling having wasted their right to the inheritance.

   The Pândava nephews were five brothers with Arjuna as the second one, who was great in archery and accomplished in intellectual matters. Bhîma was big, voracious, and very strong. Yudhishthhira was the eldest and the dominant one always taking the lead. Then there were the twin-brothers called Sahadeva and Nakula. So they constituted a unique union of volunteers, because voluntarism was the only type of work they were permitted to do. Tired of all insults and repression, injustice and denial from the side of their Kaurava nephews, they decided to build an association of lovers of a comprehensive spiritual jñâna, the âtma-tattva knowledge as defended by Krishna. They were determined to fight their position back in society and retrieve an equal stature and responsibility. But that would, of course, result in a serious confrontation and turnover of power in the family. Being curbed in that desire by the Kaurava rule, they thus suffered many repressive measures designed to prevent them to get that far. Fighting that repression they planned for a military campaign which would bring them the victory as well as the popular support, but for that purpose they had to take position against the doubtful quality and character of their own nephews, the honor of their own family clan of the Kuru dynasty, that had ruled the world for millennia.

   For Arjuna, the most docile and friendly of the brothers, that was a thing hard to handle. And so he, ready for the battle, consulted with Krishna, his best friend as he faced the forces of the repressive and forbidding Kaurava nephews. Krishna then sung a song of wisdom to him he would never forget, for it made him aware of Krishna's supreme nature as Bhagavân, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and incarnation, or avatâra of Vishnu, and gave him back his confidence and also brought him the final victory over the rule of the Kaurava nephews. Our story begins with the blind uncle Dhritarâshthra hearing from his secretary Sañjaya what took place during the showdown between the Pândavas and the Kauravas.