The Rejected Princess and Other Stories

Book excerpt: The Mahabharat, one of the two great epics of India, depicts life on earth and human beings in all its myriad shades. There is a popular saying that what has not been depicted in the Mahabharat, be it good or bad, does not exist in life. It is the story of human beings with all their goodness and virtues as well as faults, frailties and weaknesses. In the age of the Mahabharat people lived life king-size. A son thought nothing of renouncing the throne and with it, life’s major happiness, for the sake of making his father happy. A celestial river could readily agree to go down on earth, marry a human being and give birth to eight young brothers. A princess, unfairly rejected by her lover, could pray so hard, so earnestly and for so long that Lord Shiva himself could be moved and grant her the boon of destroying the man who had ruined her happiness. A sage who is otherwise a wonderful man has such a massive ego about not keeping his promise that he demands an obnoxious and cruel sacrifice from an innocent and devoted disciple. In the Mahabharat one sees man at his best and at his worst. And how good and evil always co-exist side by side.