Humorin religious texts -2 from Mahabharat

Humor in religious texts ……..contd Sr no 2

Hope folks, you read my earlier piece about Agasthya Maharishi as part of my attempts to spot a bit of humor in religious texts. Another instance, this time in “mahabharatha” came to my mind. While this may not strictly conform to the popular notions of what constitutes “humor” as the piece is heavily loaded in favor of another theme namely “bhakhthi”, I felt strongly that the piece needs sharing as (a) any which way one looks at it the piece is beautiful, and (b) how humor gets dovetailed easily into the larger message of divine love. Here I go folks…..

Imagine this scene: The Pandavas have resigned to the fact that war is inevitable as Duryodan is just not keen to yield. Lord Krishna decides then to don the mantle of an ambassador to king’s court to plead for peace and the king ceding at least 5 houses for the 5 pandavas. He arrives in Hastianapur in the evening and goes straight to Vidhura’s house, where the latter’s wife is overjoyed to see the Lord at her doorstep. Vidhura is away at the court, and his wife takes the Lord inside and after the usual “athithi satkar” offers the lord some fruits which includes bananas.

The narration goes somewhat like this; Vidura’s wife is so overwhelmed that instead of offering the Lord the fruits she inadvertently offers him the peels of the banana skin . The Lord is so overwhelmed Himself with this “bhakthin” that He is also equally unaware of what thelatter is offering. He even offers her a part of it!! Both are thus enjoying eating the peeled off skins in absolute ecstasy. It does not end there. Vidura comes home and he also joins them in this; all totally oblivious of their action lost in their mutual love for each other.

The narration will not be complete if I do not share what happens later though this has no humor. Vidura is said to be poor. His wife cooks a watery porridge for dinner and the Lord is served this in a plantain leaf. As she serves, the porridge spreads and in order to prevent it from overflowing the lord uses his other hand. And when he does that the porridge takes another route till finally the Lord is forced to reveal His other two arms to help him hold the leaf in perfect balance and to prevent the overflow, giving both Vidura & his wife a glimpse of the Lords effulgent form.

The narration in verbal form with sufficient ethos would be a far more satisfying experience. The humor as also the bhakthi part comes out much more beautifully. But this will have to do; and I can only hope that you are all able to derive as much pleasure as I am able to derive by just narrating/sharing with you. And there is some satisfaction that humor is not after all totally absent in such texts.

Love

Vichu