VIBHISHANA v/s KARNA- The Moral Dilemma!!?

               Bittu and The Guava Tree!

Once upon a time there was guava tree in the forest. All the neighboring birds used to come and eat its delicious fruits. Bittu, a parrot, was amongst those birds that used to enjoy the tree’s bounty. There developed a great sense of camaraderie between the tree and the birds. This continued for 5 long years. But then all of a sudden, it started to produce less fruits and the birds that once used to come and sit on its sturdy branches found the company of new fruit bearing trees and left the guava tree and its fruitless branches alone. Bittu still continued to be by the tree, unable to leave the company of his friend and still hoping it would start producing fruits again. The other members of the flock found Bittu’s behavior very eccentric and asked him why he was still there long after the tree had stopped producing the fruits. Bittu replied calmly that he couldn’t leave the tree just because it was not useful or productive as it used to be. Its fruits had nourished him in his growing up days and it was his noble duty to be its ‘friend in need’ when it was fruitless. Now, this story could end in 2 ways-

1.     The tree doesn’t produce any fruits, the other birds don’t allow Bittu to come and eat the fruits from other trees thinking he is mad and Bittu dies of hunger..

2.     After a few weeks, the tree produces a bumper fruits and Bittu, after weeks of starvation gets to devour all the fruits and the camaraderie between the two grows and both continue to live happily.

If you were Bittu, what would you have done?

Alright, think about this one now..

 Vibhishana v/s Karna

Vibhishana and Karna, the two righteous stalwarts from Ramayana and Mahabharata have always seemed intriguing to me for the kind of choices they made and the sides they represented. Before the respective battles began, both Vibhishana and Karna were on the side of ‘Adharma’- Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana, and Karna, the adopted brother of Kauravas. As the battle began, both had a choice- To be true to their men and fight for them or to side with the ‘Dharma’, the armies of Lord Rama and Krishna respectively. Vibhishana decided to relinquish the side of the Adharma and joined the army of Lord Rama, leaving his brothers who (must have) needed his wisdom for the warfare alone.

Karna, on the other hand, decided to stay true to his duty and chose not to be lured by the concept of righteousness as he believed that the only ‘Dharma’ was to be with the men who had taken care of him while he was alone in times of their turmoil. He knew that the Kauravas were wrong yet decided to fight for them considering it to be his moral duty.

What then is Dharma and Duty?? To stand by the side of ‘RIGHT’ or to fight righteously for either side he finds himself in??

If standing by the side of the ‘GOOD’ is what you believe in then may be, Karna was wrong! But if you believe that warrior’s duty is to fight righteously for whichever side he finds himself thrown in, may be, Vibhishana should have stood there and protected Lanka and its people?! Karna died a bitter but brave death, Vibhishana went on to be the king of Lanka and if the mythology is true, he is still reading this piece of article(he is considered immortal!).

If anyone here has read ‘The Shiva Trilogy’, he or she would know that Parvateshwar, one of the main characters of the story faced a similar dilemma whether to be on the side of his people or the side of Lord Shiva! He chose to fight for the people of his kingdom despite having his utmost respect reserved for Shiva. Was he right? Was he wrong?

Or let me rather ask you-

Who would you be?? A Vibhishana or a Karna?? I know that's a dilemma in itself!!

As the philosopher Richard Norman said-

"Its a mistake to suppose that there is always a single right answer to every moral dilemma!"

Thanks for reading.. 

GENIUS- A state of Work or A State of Being?

Elizabeth Gilbert, the best selling author of ''Eat.Pray.Love'', in one of her TED talks, titled- ''Your Elusive Creative Genius'' shares her thoughts about the fear which grips the mortal creative man who has just been labelled a  GENIUS..
Her book, 'Eat.Pray.Love' became a runaway success, an international bestseller and that is when she realized that for the rest of her life, any good work she publishes,  will always be weighed up against 'Eat.Pray.Love' and if people don't like it as much, she would be labelled as having become less of a GENIUS..
And isn't she right?
Harper Lee published only one book in her entire lifetime and it was the super hit, ''To kill a Mockingbird''. She could not write down anything again, anything as moving and powerful. May be, she suffered from the same fear..
But where does this whole notion of GENIUS come from?
In ancient Rome, creative people, the sculptors, the poets, the architects, the musicians, were believed to be 'Having a Genius' within them for the time they did their best craft. GENIUS was a magical, superhuman spirit.. The people who did something extraordinary, weren't considered to 'Be a Genius'!!
According to a folklore, 'GENIUS' passed from one creative person to another. From one generation to next..
As times changed and science advanced, man became the centre of everything- the good and the bad.. And the concept evolved from 'Having a Genius' to 'Being a Genius' which has had it's fair share of admiration, narcissism, and a whole new burden of expectations..
But, if we continue to believe 'we have a Genius' rather than 'we are a Genius', it would all be so easy, so modest and so humble..
As the philosophy of the Cosmic energy goes, we indeed do not possess any energy.!! All energy is Universal! You can have it for the time being but you can never hoard it too long!! The GENIUS evolves and gets transformed to another level just like the ENERGY.. And when this Universal Energy which everyone has a hold of momentarily, gets tranformed to an altogether unprecedented levels of artistry, we call it GENIUS!!
This Genius is free, and is not to be burdened by expecatations.. The GENIUS might leave us but the Universal Energy still exists for everyone..
So, is GENIUS- A state of being or a state of work? I prefer the latter..
''There is a GENIUS sleeping within us all! The question is- Do we have enough ENERGY to wake it up?!''

Thanks for reading..
- Devashish Palkar

''Irfan Pathan offered a role of SITTING President of Russia!''

At this year's IPL auction, Irfan Pathan went unsold for the first round. But then CSK realized the need to have more drinksmen so they bought him in the squad.. He has since been warming the already hot benches of the CSK dugout.
Reports are coming that Vladimir Putin wants Irfan Pathan to come to Russia as the 'Winter Is Coming' and he will need somone to warm his Chair. And who else can do it better than Irfan!!
According to sources, his family members are excited with the news! Irfan's dad was quoted as saying- ''I always believed my son would do something big! I wanted him to take the position of Kapil Dev bt its a moment of pride that he will now be sitting on the same chair as Putin! Inshallah, the god is great!''
But there are reports that Shiv Sena is miffed with this proposal. Uddhav Thackeray was quoted as saying, ''This will harm the Indo- Russia relations. Irfan is a Muslim. He has been out of India side for more than 2 years now. Who knows, he could well have turned into a Pakistani agent?!''
To this,  Maulvi of Jama Masjid reported that, ''Uddhav Thackeray is mad. Does he not know the fact that Irfan demolished my great Pakistani batsmen with a hat trick?!'' To which Uddhav Thackeray commented- ''And still we lost the game! '' asserting his love for Indo-Pak games..
Meanwhile, MS Dhoni is pretty unhappy with all this fuss. He has secretly approached Mitchell Starc through his contacts with another bench warmer, Mike Hussey and has requested Starc to donate his stem cells to Irfan Pathan so that he may start bowling well again..
Meanwhile, Mitchell Starc was unavailable for comments.. According to CSK management, the plan before the start of IPL was to keep swapping the role of Bench warmer between Ashish Nehra and Irfan Pathan. But Ashish Nehra's unexpected good form has changed all the equations!
If Irfan keeps going on and off to Russia for warming the chairs, it will beat the record of foreign visits set by PM Narendra Modi,  who is very nervous after learning this news.
Modi has even unofficially sent a whatsapp message to Ashish Nehra pleading him to return to bad form!! Modi has also been sending videos of Ashish Nehra's earlier spells where the bowler used to distribute runs at will for free..
Narendra Modi has also appointed a standing committe with N.Srinivasan as the head to FIX this matter straight!!
Meanwhile, Yograj Singh was quoted as saying- ''Dhoni is responsible for all this. My son deserved to go to Russia. Bt there's a CSK conspiracy behind it! It's biased!''

The next game of CSK will surely generate more hype than the Mayweather vs Manny Pacquio match.
P.S.- Irfan Pathan was unavailable for comments as Ashish Nehra applied FeviQuick to his trousers and Irfan is still stuck to the bench at Chinnaswamy stadium..
-Devashish Palkar
(P.S.- This is a REALLY FAKE article! ;-) )
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