Monday, September 18, 2006

கிருஷ்ணா கிருஷ்ணா


Recently, I read this book "Krishnaa.. Krishnaa" by Indira Parthasarathy . I came to know about this from my uncle and I got this book after a long time.

In this book, the author explains the mission and ideals of Krishna.He embodies Krishna as a political strategist, management guru who made the entire epic a game. Krishna is the mastermind of all the events took place without whom nothing would have happened.The author uses Narada as a narrator. Narada introduces himself as World's First ever Journalist (Information broadcasting) in this. Interesting point of view!!

The book starts with the event of Krishna getting a hit from the arrow of the hunter Jara. Before his (planned) death, Krishna started telling Jara about the events that took place and the role he played in each event. He explains Jara how he planned to make the war to happen, whom he loved etc. Couple of incidents for example are below:

While Jara asked him (as others) "Why did you follow adharma in some cases in the war? , Krishna replied him "Till 9th day, everything went according to the rules.Then the opponents didn't follow dharma.So I also changed my rules accordingly. Unless you change the gamestyle, you cannot win." In many places he hints that the "Change is the only constant thing"

Krishna gave a hint to Beema to kill Dhuryodhana by hitting him in his thigh (Hitting below the waist is not a rule).Then Beema kills him in that way as he made a vow in the palace earlier. When Balarama questioned about this to Krishna, he said "Was the rule followed while 6 Maharadhi's (Dhuryodhana, Karna, Dhrona..) killed Abhimanyu who didn't have any weapon?" for which Balarama could not answer.

It has some interesting events known/unknown to us and gives a new dimension of Krishna. In Krishna's words, "Krishna himself is the mission of Krishna avatara" which is not in the case of other avataras. Dont hold or stick to any rule constantly and Change according to the environment as needed.

P.S. To say about the author Indira Parthasarathy, he worked as a Tamil Professor in Delhi university, Warsaw(Poland), Pondicherry. He wrote around 15 novels, 4 short novels, 6 small story collections, 10 dramas and 2 essays.He won "Saraswathi samman" award for his drama "Ramanujar". He also won "Sangeeth natak" award and "Sahithya academy" award(for "Kuruthippunal" novel). He is the only tamil writer to do so.

For buying the english version of this book, go here. Though I suggest you to read it in Tamil. ISBN எண்: 81-8368-080-1


- NSR.

3 comments:

Sumana Sundaresan said...

"Was the rule followed while 6 Maharadhi's (Dhuryodhana, Karna, Dhrona..) killed Abhimanyu who didn't have any weapon?"

A reasonable question I agree. However, if every human thought that way, the world would never know peace. It the answer for an unjust act is another unjust act then honesty,law and order, compassion, everything will be lost.

I have my doubts on whether this is a good/right solution!

Subbaraman said...

I agree with you. As Gandhiji told "An eye for an eye makes the entire world blind".
But the point I wanted to mention here is "Changing the strategy", which is nowadays termed as a management principle.
There are other points which the author explained well.
Especially Krishna's Concept of Love and his attitude. When Draupadi asked him to marry her, he is telling her "Marriage is not only the medium of love.There are other relationships through which Love can be realised. like, Sister, Mother etc. So let you be my sister."

Megarajan said...

Saami,

When I last saw this book ,I decided not to buy it as the author himself says "Krishna is one of the most described but misunderstood characters. "

Now that you say its worth a read , I will read it.