Saturday, April 17, 2010

Devdutt Pattanaik's analysis of Bhima

This critique is a response to what Devdutt had to say about Bhima. You can find his original thesis (which spurred this criticism) at http://devdutt.com/bhima


This article is a classic case of what happens when someone not familiar with the nuances of Indian Philosophy decides to write on spiritual topics and positions himself as an interpreter of spiritual ideas (and to obtain management lessons from ancient scriptures.)

Bhimsena is an exalted personality whose yogic knowledge and powers remain (and will remain) unequalled in Bharat or anywhere else in the universe.

Lets take two ideas on which the author seems fixated upon. His gluttony/physicality and vengefulness.

Bhimasena was advanced in yoga that he had the ability to use even Rajas and Tamas in the service of the Lord and not merely Sattwa. This is a very difficult type of Yoga and in fact very humans can do it and is difficult for even the greatest of Gods. Bhimasena was an expert in that. He could do that easily. In his life there is a lesson of complete surrender to Sri Krishna and how even the basest of emotions can be divinised and deployed in the service of the Supreme Divine.

What we see as vengefulness and anger and "raw emotions" is nothing but the activity of the outer personality or what Sri Aurobindo calls the Outer Being when the Inner Being has decided to use Rajas in the service of the Lord. Our Spiritual Guru the great Devadutt Pattanaik completely misses the Divine Movement of the Inner Being and concentrates on the Outer Being which will only deploy Rajas as anger and hatred and vengefulness when called upon to do so. He is fixated on the vehicle and forgets the Driver.

In fact most Indians cannot comprehend the possibility of Rajas as a component of Yoga. They think being spiritual means being Sattwic and soft natured and polite and tolerant. Sattwic Yoga is all that Indians know. And this is greatly responsible for all the criminal activity which takes place in India.This explains why criminals rule over neighbourhoods and politicians swindle our country. Because they know that the Indians do not know how to use Rajas as a part of Yogic Sadhana. The people will sit quiet and do nothing. Only Stillness. No Movement.


The second aspect of Bhimasena's Yoga, in fact the most important one, is his ability to perceive the Divine as both Creator and Destroyer. Once again this is a capacity that is reserved for only the "rarest of rare" souls. In that time-stopping moment when Krishna reveals the World-Vision, as Loka-Kshyaya Prvariddha, the Great Destroyer of Worlds , Arjuna trembles and begs for the two-armed form of the Lord with which he is familiar and becomes composed only after seeing that. But Bhimasena could hold that Great Vision and was composed and unafraid of facing the truth. His commitment to destroy the evil forces derives largely from his great yogic perception, his ability to see the Divine in both acts of creation and also acts of destruction. The Hindu society wrongly giving importance to Arjuna, has consequently lost this Integral Vision of the Divine and suffers from bomb blasts on a daily basis.Any attempt to knock down the enemy terrorist camps is looked down upon and considered as immature , emotional and unspiritual. Acts of Destruction are not seen as Yoga. The SEEING quality that Bhimasena possessed is completely lost and what we practise today is a partial and incomplete Yoga, that is bound to have an impact on our National Life.


Devdutt writes:

"They humiliated his wife. Dragged and disrobed her in full view of the court. He avenged her humiliation. Killed them all. Drank their blood. Abandoning dharma in the process."

Bhima UPHELD dharma by doing what he did. Its worthwhile to note that when he did all this, Bhishma and other elders condemned Bhima as "being barbaric". But Krishna quickly came to Bhima's defence and said his act of dismembering Dushashan's body and drinking his blood, was correct because he deserved only that kind of treatment. Divine Law's operate on the basis of DESERVEDNESS and NOT EQUALITY
or HUMAN RIGHTS. There is a different set of treatment for divine peoples and an entirely different set of treatment for demoniacal. Divine Law not only states that bodies of Rakshashas and Asuras must be dismembered and desecrated, but also they should always be killed by trickery and deception. Sri Aurobindo states that Great men have always killed infra-humans by trickery and thats how they must be treated. Hindus have no idea of what their Scripture's say, they IMAGINE what their scriptures say.Our army treats the bodies of enemies with great respect and buries them with state honours. They think it makes us spiritual. It only makes us demoniacal and arrests our spiritual development. The Russians who wrap the bodies of Jihadis in pigs skin follow the dharma and in turn dharma protects that nation.


Devdutt writes:

"A henchman who did as he was told without question or thought."

Really ? Throughout the Mahabharata we find Bhima advising even Yudhisthira on proper law and conduct and questioning many of his ideas and decisions. He corrects Yudhisthira many times.

"Kichaka tried to rape Draupadi. Yudhishtira refused to come to her rescue for fear of exposing their identity. Rational thought came in the way of rage."

Oh ! Its rational to allow women to be raped rather than protect her (and in the process lose your kingdom) ? And this is "principle" and getting angry over women being harmed is "emotions" ! Is it any surprise that crimes against women are at such a high , child-rapes are so common in India, and there is large scale environmental(prakriti,feminine principle) in India, in your own home-state of Odisha ! With such Guru's like Devdutt its inevitable ! Property( GDP growing @ 8%) and Principle (National Development) is more important than protecting the feminine (environment) ! But pray tell me how are you going to stay alive without air and water ? And how do you turn a house into a home without women ? Is it really worth having a kingdom in which women are not safe and protected ?



The importance the Hindu society gives to Arjuna is baffling. It shows most don't read the Mahabharata and rely on misguided charismatic people to enlighten them on spiritual matters.

One possible reason for the adulation of Arjuna could belong because he was a participant in the dialogue which became the Bhagavad Gita. But this is like giving importance to a weak student who took extra lessons and tuition and completely forgetting the brilliant student who did not require any sort of teaching because he knew intrinsically all there is to know.

Its worthwhile to note that even after the Gita was revealed to him , in which Krishna asks him to lead a life committed to the Divine, and keep that relationship with the Divine above all familial relations, Arjuna cries unconsolably after the death of his son Abhimanyu. It took a monumental effort on the part of Krishna and Bhima and to get the fellow back into fighting mode, once again tell him the importance of saving Bharat from the forces of Darkness and how Nation was above personal tragedies.

But Bhima was always clear-cut about his role in the cosmic scheme of things, kshatriya dharma, the need to exclusively serve the divine. And so when he saw his son Ghatothkach was badly injured , he advises him to get close to the Kaurava army and die falling on them and wipe out a large section of the instruments of Darkness. GhatothKach follows his Father's orders and wipes out an entire battalion collapsing on them with his gigantic frame. Bhima stands out as devotee and intellectual par excellence , Arjuna a sentimental fool and pitiable miserable fellow.


Bhima knew the duty of a Kshatriya is to kill those who harrass women and Draupadi knew Bhima was aware of this. She knew if she went to Arjuna or Yudhistira , people who had little spiritual knowledge and novices when it came to serving the Divine Purpose, nothing would come out of it. We go to a committed policeman who is aware of his duties to catch a criminal. We don't approach arm-chair philosophers (Yudhisthira) or sentimental emotional fellows (Arjuna). Draupadi knew only Bhima had correct Knowledge and so she approached him. Simple.

There is no question anybody using the other. As Divine beings they knew what needed to be done and they did what had to be done to secure the spiritual evolution of Bharat.And make life safe for the future generations of Indians in particular and World in general.


I cannot understand all this fuss about Bhimasena's display of anger and vengefulness. When asked about the atrocities that happened to female devotees in the Hare Krishna movement, Prabhupada said "It happened because the devotees did not get angry. If evil has to be stopped devotees must get angry". Anger is the mechanism that makes possible the destruction of evil. Bhima was demonstrating what Prabhpada preached 5000 years later.

As regards consuming huge quantities of food, we must realise that Bhima was a very powerful man and if he has to get that strength he has to eat that much. When Avatars incarnate, they behave like humans and obey the laws of physics.For that level of destruction and physical strength, he had to eat so much. Criticising that only reveals the author's poor knowledge of how Divine Incarnations work,take place and act-out in this earthly domain.


In the Mahabharata, Bhima was Krishna's favourite. He was always close to him , guiding him like a Father. He advised Bhima on how to kill Jarasandha (splitting him sideways) and Duryodhana (hitting below the belt). Whenever the criticism of "barbarism" was brought upon Bhima, Krishna comes to his defence and explains and justifies the "barbarism". Sri Krishna and Bhimasena are the central characters of the Mahabharata and the rest are just item numbers who really don't matter.

Similarly in the Ramayana, Sri Rama and Hanuman are the central and important characters.

Across Ages, Vishnu and Vayu are the closest to each other and have worked closely together establish divinity on earth. The others simply don't matter.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Why this blog ?

Devdutt Pattanaik is a mythologist and chief belief officer for the future group. He writes on the nature and language of mythology in his blog www.devdutt.com and gives his interpretation of the hindu mythology, mythological characters and also their role and relevance in our modern lifestyles.

I wrote this to critique many of his views which I find to be inaccurate. Sometimes a part of what he writes is correct and part incorrect. Sometimes he gets the whole thing wrong. I intend to critique and correct his mistakes and present the correct interpretations.

Yours truly,
D.Harish Kumar