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Bharata must reclaim aapaddharma
If the Mahabharata is an infinite ocean that’ll never dry up, its Upakhyanas (minor episodes and sub-stories contained within it) are truly the pearls and the corals that reward the patient and the diligent diver who takes the effort to snorkel into its immeasurable depths. There’s no subject that theseUpakhyanas don’t touch and turn into gold. These Upakhyanas build on the Vedic and dharmic lore and expound now in the form of a story and now in the form of discourse. The chief value of these Upakhyanas lies in how they elucidate both the theory and application of complex, subjective concepts in the form of stories, anecdotes, and analogies drawn from both the inanimate and the sentient world. And among said complex subjects, these Upakhyanas deal with various facets of statecraft in a manner that even the best of scholars can’t match.
For this essay, I’ve selected an extraordinary Upakhyana from the Shanti Parva. Extraordinary because it delivers such brilliant and eternal insight into what can loosely be called foreign policy, a key facet of statecraft through a very simple story. This Upakhayana forms part of the Aapaddharma parva, a sub-parva of the Shanti Parva. The fact that an entire sub-Parva has been dedicated to Aapaddharma (loosely, “dharma to be followed in times of crisis/danger”) shows the depth and breadth of statecraft in ancient India. This learning was then assimilated, expanded and supplemented with knowledge and original insights by Kautilya in his Arthashastra.
To my mind, here is a representative sample from the Aapaddharma Parva that should give us a foretaste of what will follow:
Nobody is nobody’s friend,
nobody is nobody’s well-wisher,
people become friends or enemies only from motives of interest.
Our story begins with a badly-wounded and bleeding Bhishma lying on the Sharatalpa, the bed of arrows which he asked his favourite warrior and grandson to construct. Endowed with the bizarre boon oficchamarana (choosing death whenever he wishes), Bhishma waits for the auspicious Uttarayana, to leave the mortal world. The cataclysmic Kurukshetra war is over, the Kauravas are annihilated but it is Yudhishtira who grieves—sometimes justly, sometimes weakly—at the enormous loss of lives and total destruction. Accompanied by his brothers, he visits Bhishma to seek advice, guidance and blessings.
Wendy Doniger's ignorance of the Bhagavad Gita
This marks the beginning of the Shanti Parva.
We can now directly cut to Aapaddharma Parva (138)where Yudhishtira asks this question:
I desire, O grandsire, to hear of that superior intelligence aided by which a king, conversant with the scriptures and well versed with morality and profit, may not be stupefied even when surrounded by many foes. I desire to hear… about the manner in which a king should conduct himself when he is assailed by many foes. When a king falls into distress, a large number of foes, provoked by his past acts, range themselves against him and seek to vanquish him. How may, a king, weak and alone, succeed in holding up his head when he is challenged on all sides by many powerful kings leagued together? How does a king at such times make friends and foes?… With whom should he make war and with whom should he make peace?
Bhishma answers this with a story that needs to be memorized by all political science theorists, legislators, and all manner of defence/foreign policy experts.
There was a large banyan tree in the midst of an extensive forest, which provided shelter to diverse kinds of birds with its extensive creepers. It had a large trunk from which numerous branches extended in all directions. The shade it afforded was very refreshing.
Palita, a mouse of great wisdom, lived at the foot of that tree, having burrowed a hole there with a hundred outlets. On the branches of the tree lived a cat named Lomasa, daily devouring a feast of birds.
This happy state of affairs was interrupted when a hunter came into the forest and built a hut for himself. Every evening after sunset he spread his traps made of leathern strings and went back to his hut, and returned to the spot at the dawn of day. All sorts of animals fell into his traps every night.
It so happened that one night, Lomasa the cat, in a moment of heedlessness, was caught in the hunter’s snare. When Palita spotted this, it got out of his hole and rambled around the place fearlessly, happy that his natural foe was trapped. It then spotted a piece of meat near the net where the cat was trapped and began eating it. A couple of minutes later, it sensed danger and beheld Harita, a mongoose, all ready and waiting on its haunches to attack Palita. And then the rat also sensed something else. It looked around and beheld the owl Chandraka looking down patiently, waiting to swoop down any moment.
Trapped from all directions, Palita thought hard. If it descended down on the ground, the mongoose would kill it instantly and if it remained in the trap, the owl would devour it. And so Palita made the choice to befriend Lomasa, the cat, its natural enemy. Although an enemy, Lomasa was in deep distress, and the night was fading away fast. Befriending him would grant Palita protection against the other two foes. And yet Lomasa was not to be trusted.
So, with great caution, Palita addressed Lomasa: “I seek your friendship. I wish you to live. In the morning, the hunter will retrieve you and surely kill you. But it is only me who can free you from this trap. You know that both of us have lived here for long years. And you are very wise. He upon whom nobody places his trust, and he who never trusts another, are never applauded by the wise. It is better to have a learned person for an enemy than a fool for a friend.”
Hearing these words, Lomasa who was equally shrewd agreed to Palita’s offer.
And so, Palita cautiously crept under Lomasa’s breast and crouched there. When the owl and the mongoose saw this impossible friendship flowering in front of their eyes, they were astonished but waited. In the end, they realized that they couldn’t wean Palita away from Lomasa and left the spot.
Now, it was Palita’s turn to honour his end of the bargain. He began slowly cutting away the strings, taking his time. Lomasa urged him to hurry up. However, Palita took his own time, and told Lomasa that he would cut the net fully only as the hunter approached them in the morning. To which the cat replied, “’I rescued you from great danger with considerable promptness. Alas! Honest persons never do the business of their friends in this way. O wise Palita, please expedite your efforts so that it would be mutually beneficial. Please don’t keep past hostilities in mind. If I have ever, unconsciously done you any wrong I beg your forgiveness. Be gratified with me.”
To which, Palita replied, “O Wise cat, listen to my words. That friendship in which there is fear and which cannot be kept up without fear, should be maintained with great caution like the hand of the snake-charmer from the snake’s fangs. The person who does not protect himself after having made a covenant with a stronger individual, finds that covenant to be injurious instead of being beneficial. Nobody is anybody’s friend; nobody is anybody’s well-wisher; persons become friends or foes only from motives of interest.”
Their conversation continued in this vein even as the night wore away and dawn approached. Both Lomasa and Palita then spotted the hunter, with a fierce expression accompanied by a pack of hunting dogs. Lomasa was near-paralyzed with fear and in a trembling voice beseeched Palita to save his life. With astonishing swiftness, the rat cut the last of the strings that held the net together and freed Lomasa in time even as the hunter neared them. The cat leapt up the banyan tree and scampered quickly for dear life. It didn’t take too long for the tiny Palita to return to his hole.
The frustrated hunter took his tattered net and left the spot disappointed.
After Lomasa was satisfied that there was no danger, he climbed down the tree and addressed Palita in a sweet voice, “my dear friend, you suddenly ran away without conversing me. I hope you don’t suspect of evil intent. I am very grateful to you for saving my life. You have inspired trust in me because of which we have become such good friends. Of what use is it if we don’t celebrate our friendship? I swear by my life that you have nothing to fear from me. Let’s please celebrate our friendship.”
To which Palita replied, “’I have heard, O Lomasa all that you told me. Now please listen to what I have to say. Friends should be well examined. Foes also should be well studied. In this world, a task like this is regarded by even the learned as a difficult one, something that requires acute intelligence. Friends assume the guise of foes, and foes assume the guise of friends. When compacts of friendship are formed, it is difficult for the parties to understand whether the other parties are really moved by lust and wrath. There is no such thing as a foe. There is no such thing as a friend. It is force of circumstances that creates friends and foes. Both friends and foes arise from considerations of interest and gain. Self-interest is very powerful. He who reposes blind trust in friends and always mistrusts foes without paying any regard to considerations of policy, finds his life to be unsafe.
You are very wise. You will agree when I say that his escape is very difficult who immediately after he is freed from danger seeks the means of his enemy’s happiness. You came down to this spot in great haste and fell into the hunter’s trap. You were not careful. You failed to protect yourself. How can you protect others, including me? You tell me in sweet words that I am very dear to you. Let me tell you that one becomes dear from an adequate cause. Equally, one becomes a foe from an adequate cause. Generally, a person becomes dear for the purpose he serves. The affection between us arose from a sufficient cause. That cause exists no longer and therefore, that affection between us has come to an end.
So tell me, dear Lomasa, what is the reason that I have now become dear to you once again except for you making me your prey? What person possessing any wisdom will place himself under the power of a foe that is not distinguished for righteousness, that is in pangs of hunger, and is looking for prey? I shall never mingle with you, Lomasa, so cease your attempts. If you really have gratitude for me, don’t harm me when I roam around the forest heedlessly. That will be enough for me.
A residence near a person possessed of strength and power is never applauded, even if the danger that existed appears to have passed away. O cat, if weak people constantly mistrust their foes, the foes, even if strong, will never succeed in getting them under power. Dear Lomasa, someone like myself will always guard my life from persons like you. In the same vein, you too protect your own life from the hunter whose is seething with fury against you.”
Those interested in foreign and/or defence policy would perhaps find it instructive to apply the lessons from this story to examine India’s historical record of foreign policy successes and failures.
If the Mahabharata is an infinite ocean that’ll never dry up, its Upakhyanas (minor episodes and sub-stories contained within it) are truly the pearls and the corals that reward the patient and the diligent diver who takes the effort to snorkel into its immeasurable depths. There’s no subject that theseUpakhyanas don’t touch and turn into gold. These Upakhyanas build on the Vedic and dharmic lore and expound now in the form of a story and now in the form of discourse. The chief value of these Upakhyanas lies in how they elucidate both the theory and application of complex, subjective concepts in the form of stories, anecdotes, and analogies drawn from both the inanimate and the sentient world. And among said complex subjects, these Upakhyanas deal with various facets of statecraft in a manner that even the best of scholars can’t match.
For this essay, I’ve selected an extraordinary Upakhyana from the Shanti Parva. Extraordinary because it delivers such brilliant and eternal insight into what can loosely be called foreign policy, a key facet of statecraft through a very simple story. This Upakhayana forms part of the Aapaddharma parva, a sub-parva of the Shanti Parva. The fact that an entire sub-Parva has been dedicated to Aapaddharma (loosely, “dharma to be followed in times of crisis/danger”) shows the depth and breadth of statecraft in ancient India. This learning was then assimilated, expanded and supplemented with knowledge and original insights by Kautilya in his Arthashastra.
To my mind, here is a representative sample from the Aapaddharma Parva that should give us a foretaste of what will follow:
Nobody is nobody’s friend,
nobody is nobody’s well-wisher,
people become friends or enemies only from motives of interest.
Our story begins with a badly-wounded and bleeding Bhishma lying on the Sharatalpa, the bed of arrows which he asked his favourite warrior and grandson to construct. Endowed with the bizarre boon oficchamarana (choosing death whenever he wishes), Bhishma waits for the auspicious Uttarayana, to leave the mortal world. The cataclysmic Kurukshetra war is over, the Kauravas are annihilated but it is Yudhishtira who grieves—sometimes justly, sometimes weakly—at the enormous loss of lives and total destruction. Accompanied by his brothers, he visits Bhishma to seek advice, guidance and blessings.
Wendy Doniger's ignorance of the Bhagavad Gita
This marks the beginning of the Shanti Parva.
We can now directly cut to Aapaddharma Parva (138)where Yudhishtira asks this question:
I desire, O grandsire, to hear of that superior intelligence aided by which a king, conversant with the scriptures and well versed with morality and profit, may not be stupefied even when surrounded by many foes. I desire to hear… about the manner in which a king should conduct himself when he is assailed by many foes. When a king falls into distress, a large number of foes, provoked by his past acts, range themselves against him and seek to vanquish him. How may, a king, weak and alone, succeed in holding up his head when he is challenged on all sides by many powerful kings leagued together? How does a king at such times make friends and foes?… With whom should he make war and with whom should he make peace?
Bhishma answers this with a story that needs to be memorized by all political science theorists, legislators, and all manner of defence/foreign policy experts.
There was a large banyan tree in the midst of an extensive forest, which provided shelter to diverse kinds of birds with its extensive creepers. It had a large trunk from which numerous branches extended in all directions. The shade it afforded was very refreshing.
Palita, a mouse of great wisdom, lived at the foot of that tree, having burrowed a hole there with a hundred outlets. On the branches of the tree lived a cat named Lomasa, daily devouring a feast of birds.
This happy state of affairs was interrupted when a hunter came into the forest and built a hut for himself. Every evening after sunset he spread his traps made of leathern strings and went back to his hut, and returned to the spot at the dawn of day. All sorts of animals fell into his traps every night.
It so happened that one night, Lomasa the cat, in a moment of heedlessness, was caught in the hunter’s snare. When Palita spotted this, it got out of his hole and rambled around the place fearlessly, happy that his natural foe was trapped. It then spotted a piece of meat near the net where the cat was trapped and began eating it. A couple of minutes later, it sensed danger and beheld Harita, a mongoose, all ready and waiting on its haunches to attack Palita. And then the rat also sensed something else. It looked around and beheld the owl Chandraka looking down patiently, waiting to swoop down any moment.
Trapped from all directions, Palita thought hard. If it descended down on the ground, the mongoose would kill it instantly and if it remained in the trap, the owl would devour it. And so Palita made the choice to befriend Lomasa, the cat, its natural enemy. Although an enemy, Lomasa was in deep distress, and the night was fading away fast. Befriending him would grant Palita protection against the other two foes. And yet Lomasa was not to be trusted.
So, with great caution, Palita addressed Lomasa: “I seek your friendship. I wish you to live. In the morning, the hunter will retrieve you and surely kill you. But it is only me who can free you from this trap. You know that both of us have lived here for long years. And you are very wise. He upon whom nobody places his trust, and he who never trusts another, are never applauded by the wise. It is better to have a learned person for an enemy than a fool for a friend.”
Hearing these words, Lomasa who was equally shrewd agreed to Palita’s offer.
And so, Palita cautiously crept under Lomasa’s breast and crouched there. When the owl and the mongoose saw this impossible friendship flowering in front of their eyes, they were astonished but waited. In the end, they realized that they couldn’t wean Palita away from Lomasa and left the spot.
Now, it was Palita’s turn to honour his end of the bargain. He began slowly cutting away the strings, taking his time. Lomasa urged him to hurry up. However, Palita took his own time, and told Lomasa that he would cut the net fully only as the hunter approached them in the morning. To which the cat replied, “’I rescued you from great danger with considerable promptness. Alas! Honest persons never do the business of their friends in this way. O wise Palita, please expedite your efforts so that it would be mutually beneficial. Please don’t keep past hostilities in mind. If I have ever, unconsciously done you any wrong I beg your forgiveness. Be gratified with me.”
To which, Palita replied, “O Wise cat, listen to my words. That friendship in which there is fear and which cannot be kept up without fear, should be maintained with great caution like the hand of the snake-charmer from the snake’s fangs. The person who does not protect himself after having made a covenant with a stronger individual, finds that covenant to be injurious instead of being beneficial. Nobody is anybody’s friend; nobody is anybody’s well-wisher; persons become friends or foes only from motives of interest.”
Their conversation continued in this vein even as the night wore away and dawn approached. Both Lomasa and Palita then spotted the hunter, with a fierce expression accompanied by a pack of hunting dogs. Lomasa was near-paralyzed with fear and in a trembling voice beseeched Palita to save his life. With astonishing swiftness, the rat cut the last of the strings that held the net together and freed Lomasa in time even as the hunter neared them. The cat leapt up the banyan tree and scampered quickly for dear life. It didn’t take too long for the tiny Palita to return to his hole.
The frustrated hunter took his tattered net and left the spot disappointed.
After Lomasa was satisfied that there was no danger, he climbed down the tree and addressed Palita in a sweet voice, “my dear friend, you suddenly ran away without conversing me. I hope you don’t suspect of evil intent. I am very grateful to you for saving my life. You have inspired trust in me because of which we have become such good friends. Of what use is it if we don’t celebrate our friendship? I swear by my life that you have nothing to fear from me. Let’s please celebrate our friendship.”
To which Palita replied, “’I have heard, O Lomasa all that you told me. Now please listen to what I have to say. Friends should be well examined. Foes also should be well studied. In this world, a task like this is regarded by even the learned as a difficult one, something that requires acute intelligence. Friends assume the guise of foes, and foes assume the guise of friends. When compacts of friendship are formed, it is difficult for the parties to understand whether the other parties are really moved by lust and wrath. There is no such thing as a foe. There is no such thing as a friend. It is force of circumstances that creates friends and foes. Both friends and foes arise from considerations of interest and gain. Self-interest is very powerful. He who reposes blind trust in friends and always mistrusts foes without paying any regard to considerations of policy, finds his life to be unsafe.
You are very wise. You will agree when I say that his escape is very difficult who immediately after he is freed from danger seeks the means of his enemy’s happiness. You came down to this spot in great haste and fell into the hunter’s trap. You were not careful. You failed to protect yourself. How can you protect others, including me? You tell me in sweet words that I am very dear to you. Let me tell you that one becomes dear from an adequate cause. Equally, one becomes a foe from an adequate cause. Generally, a person becomes dear for the purpose he serves. The affection between us arose from a sufficient cause. That cause exists no longer and therefore, that affection between us has come to an end.
So tell me, dear Lomasa, what is the reason that I have now become dear to you once again except for you making me your prey? What person possessing any wisdom will place himself under the power of a foe that is not distinguished for righteousness, that is in pangs of hunger, and is looking for prey? I shall never mingle with you, Lomasa, so cease your attempts. If you really have gratitude for me, don’t harm me when I roam around the forest heedlessly. That will be enough for me.
A residence near a person possessed of strength and power is never applauded, even if the danger that existed appears to have passed away. O cat, if weak people constantly mistrust their foes, the foes, even if strong, will never succeed in getting them under power. Dear Lomasa, someone like myself will always guard my life from persons like you. In the same vein, you too protect your own life from the hunter whose is seething with fury against you.”
Those interested in foreign and/or defence policy would perhaps find it instructive to apply the lessons from this story to examine India’s historical record of foreign policy successes and failures.