There is a story of Indra becoming afraid of a rishi who is performing severe
penance. This attracted my attention for the following reason. Indra, afraid of losing his leadership, tries to interfere with the
penance by sending a beautiful damsel. On seeing her, the rishi loses his "vital fluids" into the water. They morph into a child in the river. Indeed, Vyasa
himself was born this way. There is more than one such story in Maha Bharata
alone.
This leads me to think that the writers of mythology did not
consider the rishis as possessing super-human control. All these rishis had all the common passions of a man. Indeed, rishis as generated by Prajapati were neither human nor gods; but, somewhere
between.
There are other interesting implications of stories of off-springs
arising from the discharge of so-called "vital fluid" into the rivers and pot. In these
stories, the woman is always the seductress and therefore, the “bad one” and the rishi still remains “holy”
and keeps his virtues as long as he does not have actual physical contact. That
does not agree with my sensibilities.
More interesting is the implication that the male carries
all that is needed to make a human. Indeed, it was considered for a long time
that everything needed for a human baby to form were in the male. The woman
provided only a space for the baby to grow! Some cultures thought that the
woman’s fluid had all that was needed. In other words, our ancestors, in
several cultures, knew that sexual union between a male and female was needed,
but did not know that a sperm and an egg were needed to make an offspring. That
lack of knowledge is understandable in those days. This may even be the reason
for the emphasis on male offspring in India and in all male-dominant societies.
(Please see my essay on The Seeds and the Field. http://timeforthought.net. January 1, 2016.
Also see Edward Dolnick’s book on The Seeds of Life published in 2017)
From what we know in modern biology, the females of most
species carry two X chromosomes and one of them shuts down in each cell. The
male is the one who carries an X and a Y. There is at least one reptile in
which the female carries an X and a Y and therefore can give rise to
off-springs without mating. But, all of them will be males!
The battle between Bhima and Duryodhana is described at the
end of Book 9. In this portion, three conversations are worth reading. In one,
Krishna tells Arjuna that Bhima may not be able to defeat Duryodhana in a single
combat unless he uses a deception. In fact, Krishna approves of it and
encourages such deception. He also is critical of Yudhishtra for foolishly
agreeing to Duryodhana’s request for one-on-one combat.
In another area, Bhima has broken Duryodhana’s thighs and is
standing with one foot on Duryodhana’s head. His soliloquy recounting all the
reasons which led to the battle and to the loss of so many lives is worth
reading. The third is where Yudhishtra tells Bhima that Duryodhana needs to be
pitied and not insulted.
Yudhishtra asks Bhima to cool down, now that he
had vanquished him. Yudhishtra also forgives Duryodhana. And goes on to say:
“You are the lucky one, dying as a hero and going to heaven. We, who are left
behind are the losers in that we have to suffer the loss of all of our family-
members and friends and bear the wrath of all the spouses of the fallen
heroes”. Is it not true for all of humanity?
Finally, I cannot ignore my suspicion that several passages
were not written by Vyasa, the original author, but added by someone at a later
period to perpetuate a favorable order of things. It is amazing how firmly
these myths are implanted in the minds of people for millennia.
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