Let us go to the 'Mahabharata', the greatest epic of the Hindu civilization. We might start our discussion with Yudhisthira, the epitome of honesty and truthfulness. Yudhisthira never lied but once. According to the karma theory, he was duly punished. In the balance-sheet of his deeds for the part of sin show a single lie only, his penalty was limited to a momentary stay at the hell’s inferno.
Was it just an itsy-bitsy faux? Or was it a grievous one for which even the legend of truth, Yudhisthira, needed to go through salvation?
At this point I feel it’s worthy to go through the chronicle. Those who have a spiffing grasp of the epic saga can skip this paragraph at ease. All the Kourava brothers* had their combat training from Dronacharya, an invincible fighter himself and a great teacher. Dronacharya’s only weakness was his beloved son Ashwaththama. When the five Pandava brothers raised arms against the rest of the Kouravas, Dronacharya took the latter’s side (out of his bindings, not from will though). Dronacharya started taking heavy toll of the Pandava-soldiers, so he was ought to be deleted. But he was unvanquishable until he was weak. As his scion Ashwaththama was immortal, there was no choice left but to deceive Dronacharya that his junior is slain. So the Pandavas killed an elephant, which was a namesake of his son, and Yudhisthira heralded him “Ashwaththama hata iti gaja” (Ashwaththama, the elephant, is dead). The trick was to utter the part ‘iti gaja’ (the elephant) in an inaudible gamut. Shattered Drona lost his will to battle and was fallen instantly to a pawn, Dhristadumna.
Though Drona knew that his child could not be perished, he blindly believed in what he heard from Yudhisthira because Yudhisthira never lied in his life-time. The one discussed here, as you can see, is not a frank lie too, rather a half-truth. The wise veteran Dronacharya believed in it and got killed. So, he was not fallen to Drishtadumna who was nothing of a warrior compared to the legend, but to the ‘just a lie’ by Yudhisthira.
The weapon was not the lie, on a second thought. Had anyone told the same, Drona would never believe. But he trusted the candor. So neither the blade of an assassin nor the lie took Dronacharya’s head. It is the ever truthful image of Yudhisthira, which slaughtered him. Here, the lie is not a Lilliput deviation from his virtue but a sheer modus operandi. I am not ascertaining that he has maintained this image to take the advantage of trust one day, but he had definitely used it in the above-mentioned case.
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In Depth: The Three Mistakes of Arvind Kejriwal
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In Depth: The Three Mistakes of Arvind Kejriwal
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Now it is time to get to the moral of the story : clean image is not something to be trusted upon. Constant vigilance is required to deal with persons who flaunt this. Else, on one crucial day, one auspicious moment, if the candor show it as her/his most treasured and thunderous trump, we would simply have no choice but to give ourselves in like the duped Dronacharya.
But none so far had learned the lesson. The commoners always had a knack to show their back to reality. They had always preferred a dream capsule to stay in, that makes them believe a Hero would come and will pull them up from their toiling; putting an end to all evils, the famine, fever and follies. This ingrained delusion is dangerously prevalent among the mango people and is no less than a pandemic. Examples are scattered across the globe:
- Muammar Gaddafi, the 'brother leader' of Libya;
- Robespierre, the instrumental figure of French Revolution (advocated against death penalty when he was chosen as the leader and was called "The Incorruptible" but is better remembered as the ‘dictateur sanguinaire’ (bloodthirsty dictator) of the Reign of Terror, which ended after his execution in July 1794);
- Napoléon Bonaparte, the 'son-of-revolution', trusted by the French people to end the Reign of Terror, turned out autocratic;
- Adolf Hitler, a decorated war hero, the Prussian youth-icon;
- Fidel Castro, the communist revolutionary and apple of Cuban eyes (proved to be an economic flop).
Still many Indians believe that if Subhas Chandra Bose comes back, India will turn into the best place in this world, overnight. (Do not take me wrong, I am not questioning Bose's achievements and abilities but slamming the silly faith that if the Hero runs the country, there will be no corruption despite people taking bribes like they are doing and so on. )
We must keep in mind that Rome was not built in a day. The lesson from history is, therefore, DO NOT lay your trust upon Arvind Kejriwal or any other corruption crusader or Hero incongruously. Their show-off might be a master-trick to get the throne. Hence, in lieu of lime-light I strongly recommend a search-light for Arvind Kejriwal & his Aam Aadmi Party.
* Kourava means all the descendents of Kuru, the forefather of Vichitravirya, the legal (not biological) parent of Dhritarashtra & Pandu. The five sons of Pandu were collectively called pancha pandava (five heirs of Pandu). But, after all they were also Kouravas. So, it is a common mistake to utter that 'Kurukshetra War' was between Kauravas and Pandavas. Rather the battling sides were Pandavas and rest of the Kauravas, both with their alleys.
