Sunday 31 May 2015

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.. 

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