Krishna and Leadership: A Leader Instills Confidence

Scene 1: Kamyaka Forest
The hair-raising scenes of the Dice Hall of Hastinapura are past now. Yudhishthira has for a second time lost his kingdom and all that was his. As per the conditions agreed to before the game started, the losers hadve to live twelve years in jungle and one year in hiding, during which year if they are discovered, they have to repeat the cycle of thirteen years again. Accordingly the Pandavas have surrendered their kingdom to Duryodhana and are now living in the Kamyaka forest.
While all this was happening, Krishna was away from Dwaraka, fighting a war with Salva at Saubha and had no knowledge of the dice game or of the subsequent events. When Krishna reaches back Dwaraka after the war, Satyaki informs him of the sad, terrible events at Hastinapura and Krishna leaves everything and rushes to Kamyaka to meet the Pandavas and share their sorrow. He knows they need him with them at this moment of loss and only his presence can give them the strength they need now more than ever before. Many Bhoja, Andhaka and Vrishni chiefs join him. Draupadi’s brother Dhrishtadyumna, Chedi King Dhrishtaketu, the prince of Kekaya and many others too reach Kamyaka to be with the Pandavas in their hour of need.

Draupadi breaks down in front of Krishna and speaks of how she was dragged into the assembly and humiliated there during the dice game. How could anyone drag a woman like her into a royal assembly, she asks Krishna. A woman who is the wife of the sons of Kunti, Dhrishtadyumna’s sister and his, Krishna’s, friend? And that too when she was in her monthly period and dressed in a single piece of cloth stained by her menstrual blood? She tells Krishna of how the sons of Dhritarashtra wanted to ‘enjoy’ her like a common slave woman. And that while the Panchalas were alive, while the sons of Pandu were alive and while the Vrishnis were alive? Shame upon the strength of Bheema, she tells Krishna, shame upon Arjuna’s Gandiva, that the two of them stood watching their wife being thus humiliated before their very eyes.

Tears fall ceaselessly from the wailing woman’s eyes, drenching her breasts. She wipes her eyes, sighs deeply again and again and, her voice choked with grief and unspeakable anger, declares: “I have no husbands, Krishna. I have no sons. I have no brothers, no relatives. I have not even you, Krishna.”

Recalling Karna’s exultant laughter at her humiliation still resounding in her ears, Draupadi reminds Krishna that there are four reasons why he deserves to protect her: he is related to her, she is a noble woman who deserves to be protected, they are friends, and he has the power to protect her.

Krishna does what any man of honour should do under the circumstances. If Draupadi’s words are powerful in their appeal, Krishna’s words are power itself. His words terrify us and at the same time, send a thrill through us. “Lofty woman, grieve not,” he tells her. The women of the men who have enraged you too would wail as you wail now. They too would lament seeing their men lying dead, their chopped limbs lying scattered on the battlefield, their body bathed in blood, pierced by the mighty Arjuna’s arrows.”

Krishna speaks with the voice of destiny itself. And those words instill strength and confidence in Draupadi’s [as well as in the Pandavas’] mind. And in doing so he gives us a lesson in true leadership: a leader instills confidence. Later Krishna would risk his own life to avoid the war by going to Hastinapura on a peace mission. But at the moment he knows it is not talk of peace that would help a shattered Draupadi gather herself together but of vengeance and that is precisely what Krishna does.

Krishna shows this uncanny ability to restore confidence in people through his words and actions again and again throughout the Mahabharata.

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Scene 2: Thirteen Years Later
The Pandavas live twelve years in the jungle and one year in hiding in Virata to fulfill the terms of the dice game they had lost. When they claim their kingdom back at the end of it, Duryodhana refuses to give it back to them and instead asks them to go on another round of twelve years of life in the jungle and one year in hiding, as the conditions of the dice stipulated, saying that they had been discovered just before they completed their year of life in hiding. War becomes inevitable but Krishna decides to make yet another attempt at establishing peace. He gets ready to go to Hastinapura with a message from Yudhishthira. The message is: peace at any cost. The Pandavas would settle for as little as five villages. Give these to them, and there would be no war.

Draupadi hears of Krishna’s peace mission and comes before her sakha – her friend, Krishna. Her dark, curly hair is loose, as it has remained for thirteen years now. She had been dragged by her hair to the assembly by Dusshasana and she would tie it up only when it has been besmeared with the dying blood of Dusshasana.

She tells Krishna of what wise men say: that not to kill someone who deserves death is as much a sin as killing someone who does not. And she does not want Krishna to be tainted by that sin.

The fire-born Draupadi’s words are always fire. She tells him she is speaking words she has spoken earlier, asking questions she has asked him earlier. Is there another woman on earth as unfortunate as she is? Daughter of a king like Drupada; born from the heart of a burning sacrificial pit; Dhrishtadyumna’s sister; and his, Krishna’s, friend. She became the daughter-in-law of the illustrious Pandu and thus a part of the celebrated royal family of Ajameedha. She married the five Indra-like sons of Pandu and became the mother of their five sons. And yet she was caught by her hair and dragged into the royal assembly. While the sons of Pandu watched. And while he, Krishna, was alive. While the Panchalas and Vrishnis were still living. Finding no help coming from her husbands, she had called out to him, to her Govinda, begging for protection again and again.

Draupadi then takes her thick, curly, long, dark, snakelike hair in her hands and holding it up before Krishna, tells him: “Remember this hair of mine, Krishna, every time you speak of peace with the sons of Duryodhana. Keep this in mind, and also remember that if Bheema and Arjuna will not fight for my honour, then my old father will do it for me, along with his sons and my own sons, lead by Abhimanyu. My heart shall know no peace Krishna, until I see the wicked Dusshasana’s dark hand that touched my hair severed from his body and lying in the battlefield covered with dust. I have been tending a fire in my heart, Krishna, for thirteen years.” With this the beautiful Draupadi breaks down in inconsolable tears before her only friend in the world.

Krishna assures her once again. “Just as you do now, the wives of the men you hate too shall wail soon, unless the sons of Dhritarashtra would listen to me. Those men too shall be food to dogs and jackals, slain in the battle.”

“Hold your tears back, Krishnaa,” Krishna tells Draupadi, “the Himalayas might move from their place, the earth might shatter into a hundred pieces, the skies might come down along with the stars, but my words shall never go wrong. I promise.”

Once again Krishna shows how well he knows how to give strength to and restore the confidence of those who have neither.

Scene 3: Kurukshetra Eighteen akshauhinis is a huge army: 393,660 elephants, 393,660 chariots, 1,109,700 cavalry and 1,968,300 foot soldiers. And this army is standing face to face in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. The greatest battle ever fought on the soil of India. Every king, small and big, from all across the land is present there, each with his army. Conches have already been blown, announcing the beginning of the battle. The armies would clash any moment now. Arjuna asks Krishna, his driver, to take his chariot right to the centre of the battlefield. “Take my chariot to the middle of the two armies, Krishna, for I want to have a good look at the warriors hungry for battle assembled here to please the evil Duryodhana.” Krishna does what he is asked to do by the one man whom he loves more than anyone else in the world – his friend, his cousin, his brother-in-law and the greatest warrior on earth.

Arjuna takes a look around and what he sees is not two armies of fierce warriors but his dear revered grandsire Bheeshma, his guru Drona, guru’s son Ashwatthama and countless others near and dear to him. There are fathers and sons standing there, uncles and nephews, brothers and cousins all ready to maim and slay each other in a brutal war. His eyes cloud, head reels, perspiration covers his body, legs give way under him, arms lose their strength, the mighty Gandiva falls from his hands and he collapses on the chariot floor, telling Krishna “I shall not fight” and giving a hundred reasons why he will not. It is better to live begging for alms than enjoying pleasures stained by the blood of such near and dear ones, he tells Krishna.

Krishna gives him the teachings that the world today knows as the Bhagavad Gita, the immortal spiritual classic generally acknowledged as the most beautiful spiritual gem in the world. Arjuna wanted to desert his horrid duty and escape into a life of renunciation and Krishna teaches him what true renunciation means and how it is not running away from the battlefield of life but standing there facing it. When Krishna finishes, Arjuna picks up the Gandiva from the chariot floor, straight, energy and power coursing through his veins, confidence resonating in his voice. He is now ready to wage the war for which he has been preparing all his life.

Scene 4: Indraprastha, before the Rajasooya The Bharata kingdom has been divided and Pandavas have been given Khandavaprastha, the wilderness around modern day Delhi. They clear the land and establish Indraprastha there, a splendid capital city by any standards. Yudhishthira turns out to be a just, loving and competent ruler and the glory of the Pandavas spread wide. For the glory of his dead father, Yudhishthira now wants to conduct a rajasooya sacrifice which will declare him as the most powerful ruler on the earth. He consults sages and brahmanas, his ministers and his brothers, all of whom advise him to go ahead and do that, but he is still not sure. How does he know that everyone is advising him to go ahead just to please him and not because they feel he should do it, he asks himself. Or maybe they all have something to gain from it and it is for their selfish reasons that are asking him to do the sacrifice. But there is one person who would give him advice he can trust totally – Krishna. Yudhishthira sends word to Krishna telling him he wishes to consult him and Krishna comes to Indraprastha.

Yudhishthira places his concerns before him. He certainly wants to do the rajasooya, but he is not sure he should do it, nor even that he can do it.
Krishna, as always, looks at things from the higher standpoint. For him it is not a matter of Yudhishthira’s or the dead Pandu’s glory, nor even the glory of the Bharatas as a whole, but a matter of the welfare of the world, the one goal for which he has lived every day of his life – lokasangraha.

Krishna paints a very detailed picture of the dark political situation of the land at that time. One by one he takes the names of the kings of the land and tells how Jarasandha has conquered or subjugated each. The list includes many who are very close to Yudhishthira and who cherish love for him in their hearts, but such is the evil might of Jarasandha not one of them is able to take an independent stand against him, barring a rare king here and there. The dungeons of Jarasandha at Girivraja contains eighty-six kings he intends to sacrifice in a final ritual – he is waiting the number to grow to one hundred. The day the number is completed, a hundred crowned heads will be ritually sacrificed by him. No rajasooya will be possible unless Jarasandha is eliminated. Eliminating him is not only a political necessity for Yudhishthira if he wanted to perform rajasooya, but is the need of the hour. Dharma calls for it.

Krishna also tells him it is impossible to eliminate Jarasandha through a war. He is too powerful for it. But he has to be eliminated, there is no alternative to it. And Krishna tells Yudhishthira the time is right to do so.

Krishna himself has fought seventeen battles with Jarasandha, all forced upon him by the evil emperor, but eventually had decided to move away from Mathura to Dwaraka for the safety of his people. Jarasandha has a personal grudge against Krishna. The wicked Kamsa, Krishna’s uncle whom he killed, was Jarasandha’s son-in-law and Jarasandha wanted vengeance for the killing. However, in the seventeenth and final battle they fought, a happy thing happened. Kansa had two ministers, Hamsa and Dimbaka, brothers who were totally devoted to each other. In the battle some other king by the name Hamsa was killed and when Dimbaka heard of this, the jumped into the Yamuna and committed suicide, thinking it was his brother who had been killed. He did not want to live without his brother. And when Hamsa heard this, he too jumped into the Yamuna and killed himself. This has weakened Jarasandha to some extent, as has the death of Kamsa. It is the right time to strike him.

Both Bheema and Arjuna too are of the opinion that this is the right thing to do and that it can be done through the combined power of Bheema, Arjuna and Krishna. Yudhishthira, however, does not have the self-confidence that these three have. As he very frequently does, he begins wavering, unable to make up his mind. He is also worried for the life of his brothers and Krishna. He begins praising the virtues of contentment rather than valour. Considering everything, in spite of his great desire to do the sacrifice and become an emperor, he says it is better to forget all about it. Rajasooya appears indeed to be difficult and the best thing is to drop the whole idea, he tells Krishna.

Arjuna interferes and speaks of the need to act with valour. When he finishes, Krishna speaks, telling Arjuna he has spoken like a true Bharata and like a son of Kunti. The implication is clear: Yudhishthira has not spoken like a son of the Bharatas or of a brave mother like Kunti. Who knows about death, asks Krishna. Who knows about what will happen tomorrow? A life lived in the fear of death and defeat is not worth living. He speaks of the duty of killing Jarasandha – they owe it to the kings imprisoned by Jarasandha. And Krishna does not care if they are killed by Jarasandha’s people after they kill him. [He is saying this because the plan to kill Jarasandha is fully formed in his mind. It is going to be through neeti, indirect means, avoiding a direct war with him. It is possible that after Jarasandha’s death, his army would kill them. But Krishna is ready for it. Such is his commitment to dharma and lokasangraha.]

Krishna finds that Yudhishthira is still does not have the confidence required. Krishna explains his plan. Arjuna, Bheema and he would go to Jarasandha and challenge him for a one-to-one dual. And Jarasandha would choose Bheema – for he is a great warrior and for fear of ill-fame, he would want to fight only the greatest among them. And Bheema would kill him.

Perhaps Krishna still does not see the light of confidence in Yudhishthira’s eyes. But slaying Jarasandha is the need of Dharma and lokasangraha. And nothing would stop him from achieving that goal. He knows there is only thing that would make Yudhishthira relent. And Krishna does exactly that. He guarantees Yudhishthira the lives of both Arjuna and Bheema [and by implication, his own too] – for Yudhishthira is not confident of ruling his own kingdom without them, forget about performing the rajasooya, which requests the conquest of all other kings. As he says repeatedly, Bheema and Arjuna are his right and left hands.

Krishna’s words here are moving and powerful. He says:
Yadi me hrdayam vetsi, yadi te pratyayo mayi
Bhīmasenārjunau śīghram nyasabhūtau prayachha me.
“If you know my heart, if you have faith in me, then make over Bheema and Arjuna to me, as a pledge, without loss of time!"

Finally Krishna has succeeded in instilling confidence in Yudhishthira. The Kuru prince protests desperately. “Achyuta, Achyuta, don’t say that, don’t speak so. You are our lord and master, and we are your dependents.” He then agrees to Krishna’s plan and declares he regards Jarasandha already dead, the kings imprisoned by him already released and his own rajasooya, already performed.

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Instilling confidence in his people is one of the basic functions of any leader, whether in ancient days or in modern days, whether in a war or in a business organization. A leader who fails to instill confidence in his people fails to qualify as a leader, so fundamental is the leadership function of instilling confidence.

The ability to build confidence is part of the referent power of the leader, his most important power base as far as his dealings and relationships with his follower are concerned. And this ability depends on the leader’s integrity, commitment, courage and consistency. As a leader, Krishna shows the highest level of integrity, total consistency of purpose, absolute commitment to his goals and unsurpassed courage in facing the challenges these offer. Any leader if he wants to deserve the name of leader will have to show integrity, consistency, courage and commitment so that he can instill confidence in his followers. It is confidence thus instilled that gives wings to the followers and makes the impossible possible.

Incidentally, J. Collins in the January 2001 issue of Harvard Business Review defines Level 5 leadership as “the highest level in a hierarchy of executive capabilities, who blend extreme personal humility with intense professional will.” What Krishna shows is Level 5 leadership at its best.

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Daivam Kleeba Upasate: Mahabharata and Destiny

[Developed from the author’s class lectures in Indian Philosophy for Leadership Excellence to senior Management students at XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur.]

Is there something called destiny, an unalterable future decided in the past? Is predetermination a reality and all human effort in the ultimate analysis inconsequential? Will what is bound to happen happen, do what you will?

When we look at these questions from the standpoint of the Mahabharata, we find that several stories in the epic would suggest that there is an unalterable destiny before which all human effort is of no significance.

The Mahabharata tells us that when Shishupala was born, it was predicted that Krishna would kill him. Shishupala’s mother Shrutashrava, who was Krishna’s aunt, begs Krishna to give her a promise that he would never kill him. Instead, Krishna promises that he would pardon a hundred offences of Shishupala.

As is well known, Shishupala is abusive of Krishna from the beginning and sides up with his enemies. Eventually, during Yudhishthira’s rajasooya sacrifice, Shishupala objects to Krishna being offered the highest worship and becomes abusive. He abuses the Pandavas, he abuses Bheeeshma, apart from abusing Krishna repeatedly. Eventually there is a battle between the two, at the end of which Krishna kills Shishupala with his discus. [According to another version, Krishna invokes his discuss in the rajasooya hall itself and there, without giving the abusive Shishupala an opportunity for a battle, kills him after telling him he has crossed his limit.] The prediction that Krishna would kill Shishupala comes true.

Similarly, at the time of Krishna’s mother Devaki’s wedding, a prophecy is heard from the heavens that her eighth son would kill Kamsa. A furious Kamsa tries to kill Devaki that very instant, but relents to her husband Vasudeva’s repeated pleadings and spares her life. Instead, he imprisons her and Vasudeva and each of their children is killed as soon as he is born. When Krishna is born as their eighth son, he is smuggled out of the prison and taken to the cowherd chief Nanda in whose house he grows up as his son. Kamsa makes many attempts to locate Krishna and kill him. Eventually though it is Krishna who kills Kamsa, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

These two stories too would suggest the existence of an unalterable destiny. A deeper look into the epic, however, would show us that the Mahabharata does not subscribe to the view that there is an unalterable destiny.

Take the story of Savitri and Satyavan, for instance. Savitri is one of the most revered heroines from Indian literature. She is among the highest ideals Indian culture has always exhorted women to live up to. She is like a lamp that has been guiding Indian womanhood for the past several millennia.

Ashvapati was the king of Madra and his queen was called Malati. Though the couple had been married for ages, they had no children. They please the goddess Savitri through penances that last for eighteen years and is eventually blessed with a daughter, whom they name Savitri. The princess grows up to be a splendorous beauty. However, even after reaching the marriageable age, no young man comes forward to marry her. One day as Savitri comes to pay her respects to her father after her morning bath, Ashvapati tells her she should now go out and search for a husband by herself.

Savitri wanders long in search for an appropriate husband, taking Ashvapati’s elderly ministers with her. When she comes back, she informs her father that she has chosen Satyavan to be her husband. Satyavan is the son of King Dyumatsena of Salva. Dyumatsena had become blind in his old age, and his enemies, sensing their opportunity, had attacked his kingdom and driven him away. Dyumatsena found a refuge for himself, his wife and their infant son in the jungle, where he has ever since been living, leading the life of an ascetic.

Sage Narada, who was present with Ashvapati when Savitri informs her father of her choice, praises Satyavan very highly. He tells them that in lustre he is like the sun; in intelligence and knowledge, like Brihaspati, the guru of the gods; in courage, like Indra, the lord of he gods; and in patience, like the Earth herself. When Ashvapati enquires the sage of Satyavan’s faults, Narada tells him that the youth is destined to die within a year and that was the only unfortunate thing about him.

When her father tries to dissuade Savitri from marrying Satyavan since that would mean widowhood in a year’s time, Savitri politely refuses, telling him that she has mentally chosen Satyavan as her husband and now she wouldn’t be able to imagine anyone else in that position. The marriage takes place and Savitri begins living in the jungle with her husband and in-laws.

The year passes fast. There are just four days left for Satyavan to die, though neither he nor his parents are aware of this. Savitri enters a fast that would last three days. Her father-in-law tries to stop her from it, but she does not relent. When Dyumatsena sees that Savitri does not take food even on the fourth day though her vow was over and asks her why, she tells him she would eat only after the sunset. All of the previous night she had spent in prayer. As Satyavan leaves for the jungle on that day as he has been doing every day for gathering fruits and roots and firewood, Savitri insists on accompanying him. Satyavan asks her why she suddenly wants to accompany him, something which she has never done in the past, and especially when she is weak after three days of fasting and a night spent in prayer and without sleep. Savitri tells him she is fresh in spite of the fast and the sleepless night, and insists that she be taken with him. Satyavan relents after much persuasion.

After gathering fruits and tubers for his family, Satyavan starts cutting down a dry tree for firewood. Suddenly he feels tired and develops a headache. The axe drops from his hand and as he begins to collapse, Savitri gathers him in her arms. As Satyavan is lying in her lap, she finds Yama, the Lord of Death, standing in front of them. Death throws his noose and gathers Satyavan’s life. As he begins moving on taking Satyavan’s life with him, Savitri follows him.

Yama tries to persuade her to go back. But she insists on her right as a wife to follow her husband wherever he went. Because of her spiritual power, Yama is unable to stop her from following him. When he fails, he offers her a boon – he asks her to ask for anything other than Satyavan’s life. Savitri asks for sight for her blind father-in-law. Yama grants it, but still Savitri refuses to go back. He then grants her another boon – that Dyumatsena would get his kingdom back. And then another – that her own father would have a hundred sons. When she refuses to go back even after this, he offers her a fourth boon. And she asks for a hundred sons for herself, which Yama grants. It is only then that Yama realizes the error he has made – as a chaste woman, she cannot have children unless Satyavan was alive. Yama laughs at the trick she has played on him, admires her determination and inner power that has made it possible for her to follow her husband even in his death, and grants Satyavan his life.

Savitri’s story is thus an example for a woman’s determination and inner power defeating destiny, altering it. Which means destiny is alterable. Destiny, however, by definition, means unalterable – what is bound to happen, do what you may. If destiny is alterable, then it is no destiny at all. It is only a possibility. It is destiny only in the sense in which we say that a seed is destined to become a tree, but whether it will become a tree or not depends on a number of other circumstances. In which case the right thing to say is that the tree has the potentials of becoming a tree, but it is not certain it will become.

Of course, those who subscribe to an unalterable destiny could argue that it was destined that Savitri would alter Satyavan’s destiny – an argument against which the only possible argument will be silence!

Markandeya is a sage who appears several times in the Mahabharata. His is another story from Indian literature in which destiny fails before human determination and man’s inner power. His parents had the option of choosing a son who would live long but would be evil, or a wise, noble son who would live only for sixteen years. They choose the latter, but when Markandeya learns that he is destined to die at the age of sixteen, he begins austerities to overcome destiny. Eventually, when Yama comes before him on the appointed day, he clings to the Shiva Linga he has been worshipping and Yama throws his noose over Markandeya and the Linga together. A furious Shiva burns Yama to death. It is originally Shiva who had told Markendeya’s parents that he would live only sixteen years – now Shiva blesses Markandeya: he would live as an immortal, his age permanently sixteen years.

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Does the Mahabharata then believe in an unalterable destiny or does it believe in a destiny that is only a possibility, but not a certainly, which will ultimately be decided by other factors affecting it?

Kripa, the old teacher of the Kuru Princes and Drona’s brother-in-law has this to say in the Mahabharata regarding destiny: “All men are subjected to and governed by these two forces, destiny [daiva] and exertion [purushartha]. There is nothing higher than these two. Our acts do not become successful in consequence of destiny alone, nor of exertion alone, O best of men! Success springs from the union of the two. All purposes, high and low, are dependent on a union of those two. In the whole world, it is through these two that men are seen to act as also to abstain. What result is produced by the clouds pouring upon a mountain? What results are not produced by them pouring upon a cultivated field? Exertion where destiny is not auspicious, and absence of exertion where destiny is auspicious, both these are fruitless! What I have said before (about the union of the two) is the truth. If the rains properly moisten a well-tilled soil, the seed produces great results. Human success is of this nature.” [Ch 2, Mahabharata Sauptika Parva. KM Ganguly translation]

Kripa clearly expresses the view that density alone can achieve nothing, but requires the aid of human effort if it is to come to fruition. But he also says that just as destiny cannot achieve results all on its own, human effort also cannot achieve results without the aid of destiny.

According to him, as we have seen, destiny is like a cultivated field, which, if aided by the rains, produces yields, and if not, yields nothing. Obviously, the destiny we are speaking about here is not the unalterable destiny. It is not a certainty unless it is aided by other factors. Which is to say, in other words, that there is nothing called an unalterable destiny.

In the whole of the Mahabharata, with the possible exceptions of Dhritarashtra and Yudhishthira, perhaps there is no other central character who believes in an inalterable destiny. Before Dhritarashtra sends the invitation for the game of dice to Yudhishthira, Vidura and others strongly advice him against it. Dhritarashtra refuses to listen to him. His excuse: what is bound to happen will happen, nobody can stop it, nobody can make it otherwise. After Yudhishthira’s defeat in the game of dice, after the humiliation of the Pandava brothers and their wife Draupadi in the dice hall, Dhritarashtra gives everything back to them, thanks to Draupadi, and the humiliated Pandavas depart for their capital Indraprastha. While they are still on their way, Duryodhana persuades his father to call Yudhishthira back again for a second game of dice. This time too Dhritarashtra yields. His excuse: what is bound to happen will happen, nobody can stop it, nobody can make it otherwise. And Yudhishthira accepts the invitation: his excuse: what is bound to happen will happen, nobody can stop it, nobody can make it otherwise.

Apart from these two, both of whom have strong loser elements in them, no other major character in the epic abjectly surrenders his fate to destiny. Even of these two, Yudhishthira’s surrender to destiny is not so abject as that of Dhritarashtra, as he proves on a few occasions in his later life.

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Later on in the Mahabharata, answering a question from Yudhishthira about destiny, Bheeshma would make a powerful statement about destiry. “Daivam kleeba upasate,” Bheeshma tells Yudhishthira from his bed of arrows: “It is the impotent ones that yield to destiny.”

“Nothing comes into existence without seed,” says Bheeshma, quoting an ancient conversation between Brahma and Vasishtha. “Without seed, fruits do not grow. From seeds spring other seeds. Hence are fruits known to be generated from seeds. Good or bad as the seed is that the husbandman soweth in his field, good or bad are the fruits that he reaps. As, unsown with seed, the soil, though tilled, becomes fruitless, so, without individual exertion, destiny is of no avail. One's own acts are like the soil, and destiny is compared to the seed. From the union of the soil and the seed doth the harvest grow… Everything can be secured by exertion: but nothing can be gained through destiny alone, by a man that is wanting in personal exertion. Even so does one attain to heaven, and all the objects of enjoyment, as also the fulfilment of one's heart's desires by well-directed individual exertion.”

Bheeshma states it all very effectively when he says, “He who, without pursuing the human modes of action, follows destiny only, acts in vain, like unto the woman that has an impotent husband.”

In his answer to Yudhishthira, Bheeshma cites the victory of the Pandavas themselves as an instance of human determination and effort and not an abject surrender to destiny. Says Bheeshma, “The Pandavas too regained their lost kingdom, of which they had been deprived by the powerful sons of Dhritarashtra, not through the intercession of the fates, but by recourse to their own valour.”

Bheeshma’s stand on the issue is clear: “Even as a fire of small proportions, when fanned by the wind, becomes of mighty power, so does destiny, when joined with individual exertion, increase greatly (in potentiality). As with the diminution of oil in the lamp its light is extinguished, so too the influence of destiny is lost if one's acts stop… So there is no authority inherent in destiny. [My italics. SC] As the pupil follows one's own individual preceptor, so does destiny follow exertion. The affairs in which one's own exertion is put forth, there only destiny shows its hand.” [KM Ganguli translation.]

Every major character in the Mahabharata, except for the possible exceptions of Dhritarashtra and Yudhishthira, believes in the strength of human will and effort. Krishna never leaves things to destiny, nor does Arjuna, or Bheema, or Nakula or Sahadeva. We cannot imagine Draupadi leaving things to destiny. Kunti expresses her trust in the power of action when she sends her whiplash words to Yudhishthira in the form of the Vidula Upakhyana. We do not find Karna, or Duryodhana or Dushshasana, or even Shakuni, leaving things to destiny.

When Krishna makes that powerful promise in the Gita and says, “Whenever dharma declines and adharma prospers, I shall create myself. In order to protect the virtuous and destroy the evil, I shall be born in age after age,” he is actually stating that the world depends on will and effort for the protection of the good and destruction of evil, and things cannot be left to themselves, or to a power called destiny.

No, it is not destiny that makes the world what it is, but human will and effort and no better proof could be offered for this than Krishna’s own tireless, long life during which he waged war after war to wipe out evil from the world and establish dharma in its stead.

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Does it mean there is nothing called destiny and everything depends on human will and effort?

Well, there are forces outside us that powerfully influence our lives, says the Mahabharata. The epic calls such forces, in their totality, daiva, which is the word used by both Kripa and Bheeshma in their discourses, and has been translated as destiny. Daiva is often described as samashti karma, the karma of not just the individual, but of the group, of the totality. Daiva is like a mighty psychological force formed by the merging together of the psychology of each individual that forms part of the totality. It influences and shapes the world we live in.

Our world, which is a constantly changing flux, is shaped by this totality of individual psychological forces, and it is subject to the psychological power of each one of us: the power of our thoughts and emotions, and of our will; and to the thoughts, emotions and will of other people around us. The weak among us influence the world we live in mildly, and the powerful among us, powerfully.
Life is like being in a river. True, the current of the river is mighty, but in spite of that we have our choices. We can decide to let go and float with the river, or we can swim in its direction, thus making our journey faster than what it would be if left to the river alone; or we can fight against it, and swim in the opposite direction.

And some of us alter the very direction of the river – Krishna being one such man.

And that is what Krishna’s promise means. That he shall be born again and again, in age after age, to alter the very direction of the river of life, the river of the world.

His promise to incarnate in age after age is not an assertion of destiny; on the contrary, through that statement he is saying that there is nothing called an inalterable destiny.

What does it all mean to us at a professional and a personal level? It means that destiny is essentially in our hands. It is we who create our destiny. Even the mightiest powers bow down before human effort and will, provided these are strong enough and sustained.

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