ESTABLISHED IN 1993, THE HINDU UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA IS A SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY OFFERING MASTER'S AND DOCTORAL PROGRAMS IN HINDU STUDIES AND MASTER OF ARTS IN SANSKRIT. IN ADDITION, THEY OFFER VARIOUS CERTIFICATION AND FURTHER EDUCATION COURSES.
Professor Śrī Vishwa Adluriji – a leading authority and expert on the Mahābhārata and my HUA course teacher on the Mahābhārata war made a remarkable observation about how Śrī Vyāsa humanizes the Mahābhārata through his poetic narrative approach. This poetic, narrative approach, laced with metaphors and similes and focused on "specificity" with respect to the individual, is the ethical lens through which Śrī Vyāsa presents people, events, discussions, and philosophical reflections. Without this "poetic-narrative" approach, the events of the past would be reduced to a collection of events compiled with a scientific flair but without humanistic or spiritual value.
Professor Adluri's opinion is that a dry scientific approach would suffice to describe inanimate objects. But when it comes to talking about human beings, we need a narrative that allows us to understand and connect with the human condition (its glory, frailty, divinity, aspirations, emotions, etc.). Poetry plays an important role here.
Poetry laced with similes and metaphors preserves differences on an individual level. An individual is more than just a line item in a big table. Śrī Vyāsa spends a fair amount of time with several characters and paints us a word picture of their character traits (say, Abhimanyu) from various perspectives—father's (eg Arjuna's view of Abhimanya), mother's (eg Subhadra's view of Abhimanya), teacher (eg .sight of Śrī Kṛṣṇa) and so on and so forth.
The ethical evaluation of Śrī Vyāsa's project, namely the Mahābhārata, can be better understood if we understand the very philosophical basis of ethics in the light of Upaniṣadic wisdom. Therefore, I resort to Advaita Siddhanta's interpretation of the Upaniṣad. This forms part II of this blog post. Section III briefly touches on the two main purposes of Śrī Vyāsa's narrative (seen in the light of Professor Adluri's comments), knowing that we can properly appreciate the purpose of the Mahābhārata. Section IV summarizes the considerations.
CONTACT - 407-205-2118
WEBSITE- Hindu university of America
EMAIL- saksham.mangwana@hua.edu
Address- 5200 Vineland Rd 125 Orlando, FL 32811
EXTERNAL LINK-
Quora: bit.ly/3TZLvuV
Reddit: bit.ly/3EpJpPw
FB: bit.ly/3tJgnp7
Twitter: bit.ly/3ViUIQl