Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

by Devdutt Pattanaik

‘Remember, Arjuna,’ said Krishna, ‘he who says he kills and he who says he is killed are both wrong. I am both the killer and the killed. Yet I cannot die. I am your flesh and your soul, that which changes and that which does not change. I am the world around you, the spirit inside you and the mind in between. I am the measuring scale, the one who measures and that which is measured. I alone can bend the rules of space and time. I alone can shatter the web of karma. Realize me. Become a master of your intellect as a charioteer masters his horses and you will realize it is not about the war, it is not about fighting or not fighting, it is not about winning or losing, but it is about taking decisions and discovering the truth about yourself. When you do this, there will be no fear, there will be no ego; you will be at peace, even in the midst of what the deluded call war.’

The epic ends not with the victory of the Pandavas over the Kauravas but with Yudhishtira’s triumph over himself. This is spiritual victory or Jaya. This is the ultimate aim of the great epic. The phrase ‘Jaya ho’ is a greeting and the phrase ‘Jaya he’ is part of the Indian national anthem.

Merit can be earned in many ways. It can be earned through acts of charity, by performing religious rituals, by bathing in holy rivers or by dying in holy places. One such holy place which purged all demerit and provided merit was Kuru-kshetra. Another one is Kashi, on the banks of the river Ganga, which is why people still go to Kashi to die. Unlike Biblical traditions, Hindus have more than one heaven. There is Swarga and Vaikuntha. Swarga is the paradise of Indra where all desires are fulfilled. Vaikuntha is God’s heaven where one is free of all desires.

‘There are two kinds of victory in this world,’ said the storyteller-sage, ‘Vijaya and Jaya. Vijaya is material victory, where there is a loser. Jaya is spiritual victory, where there are no losers. In Kuru-kshetra there was Vijaya but not Jaya. But when Yudhishtira overcame his rage and forgave the Kauravas unconditionally, there was Jaya.

the point of existence is not to accumulate merit, but to attain wisdom. We have to ask ourselves—why do we do what we do? When we truly accept the answer, we break free from the cycle of births and deaths, and discover the realm beyond Swarga, Vaikuntha, where there is peace forever.’

Adharma is thus an eternal temptation, while dharma is an endless work in progress that validates our humanity.