Kamala Subramaniam's Mahabharata in English a gripping read even if voluminous about great Hindu epic which is relevant even today

I finished reading Kamala Subramaniam's Mahabharata in English a few days back. My post: Have started reading Kamala Subramaniam's abridged English translation of Mahabharata, an easy and interesting read so far, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2022/03/have-started-reading-kamala.html , 27th March 2022 has some pics and some details of the book.

The Mahabharata Hindu epic is relevant even today among Hindus, with many Hindus knowing about the main characters and events in it, including, of course, the vital role Krishna played in the Mahabharata war to ensure victory of the good Pandavas over the bad Kauravas who were their cousins.

In the foreword to the book, Dr. K.M.Munshi writes, 'To an English reader, this volume will bring home the validity of the comment made by generations of Indian authors that "what is not there is nowhere to be found."'

Mahabharata's characters and events capture a wide variety of human weakness and goodness, with more coverage of human weakness than of human goodness. Arrogance of kingly power, hatred of those who rightfully want part of the kingdom even if they are cousins, using lowly gambling to trap powerful warrior king and princes who are cousins as they cannot be defeated in fair combat, humiliation of the defeated princes especially their wife, the queen, in open court, the miraculous intervention of the divine to save the queen from complete humiliation, the queen's hatred and rage prompting her to focus on taking revenge and her eventual success, the adherence to ethics of defeated king (Yudhishtira) even in the face of great provocations and how his brothers struggle to follow his leadership due to the provocations but eventually succeed in controlling their anger and follow his leadership, great war becoming inevitable as arrogant king refuses to give up even five cities/villages, great war fought over 18 days slowly descending into savagery, divine figure (Krishna) using all sorts of ways including some seemingly unethical ways in the war to defeat the bad and ensure victory for the good etc.

And in the midst of all this, there is the great philosophy of Bhagavad Gita where Krishna teaches Arjuna about divinity and leading a good (Dharmic) life.

And there is romance and gandharva marriage (love marriage where the woman, usually a princess, elopes with her lover, a prince, against the wishes of the princess' family), along with at least one prince who develops uncontrollable lust towards a woman (Draupadi incognito as a servant of a queen) who rejects his advances, with the woman asking her incognito husband (Bheema incognito as a cook) to kill the prince, which he does.

And there are rishis (sages) and Brahmins who use their power of curse, when they are grievously hurt by warrior princes or are humiliated by them. 

There is penance by warrior princes too but usually to get divine weapons which will make them very powerful in duels and in war. And some princes have enough knowledge of yoga to go into a yogic trance to give up their bodies.

The epic is said to cover events of around 5000 years ago in India (mostly northern and western India). But the human weakness and goodness covered in the epic are easy to relate to in our times as we have similar events happening in our times! Arrogance, jealousy, humiliation of the defeated etc. along with war becoming inevitable in many cases, across the world! I mean, we even have war in Europe going on now, which is being fought quite savagely with missiles and drones, against whom defense is very difficult. Yemen is still suffering the horror of war. Afghanistan has just come out of a terrible and long war.

I think the brutal reality of life is that life is a complex mix of the horrible like war and disease, the tough problems like poverty and unemployment or underemployment of significant sections of the populace, and the good and noble like selfless service of the poor and needy, divine intervention to help devotees, and teachings and example of saints & sages to lead man out of worldly bondage into self realization and merger with the divine. And this complex mix of horrible and good was there in times of Mahabharata which is brought out very well in Kamala Subramaniam's book, and is there in our times too! Like the good & noble characters in the Mahabharata dealt with this complex mix of horrible and good around 5,000 years ago, we too have to deal with it in our times.