14 Reasons for Sadness

According to the Ancient Indian Epic of Mahabharata

The grand epic of Mahabharata is one of the foundational heritage of India. The Critical Edition of Mahabharata calls the epic “an inexhaustible mine for the investigation of religion, mythology, philosophy, law, customs, political and social institutions of ancient India.”

Mahabharata contains almost 100,000 verses, spread across 18 Parvans (chapters). Mahabharata is considered to have been composed between the 4th century BCE and the 4th Century CE. The story which it tells, however, can go back millennia.

The nucleus of the story is simple. It revolves around the feud between two warring factions of the Kuru family — Pandavas and Kauravas. The feud culminates in a massive 18-days-long war. The war ends in the victory of the Pandavas (5 brothers, of whom Yudhisthira is the eldest); it, however, comes at an overwhelming cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

As Yudhisthira prepares to ascend to the throne, he first decides to visit the dying patriarch Bhishma.

A casualty of the war himself, Bhishma is the greatest warrior of the Kuru clan and statesman of the highest caliber. Yudhisthira’s inquisitive dialogue with Bhishma here spans the Shanti and the Anushasana Parvans of the Mahabharata.

During this expansive dialogue, Yudhishthira asks Bhishma, “Why does one feel sorrow? why does one feel pain?” Bhishma provides a comprehensive answer, and it nearly spans 18 verses. The reasons he enlists are both intrinsic and extrinsic in nature.

Reason 1 –

Despite worldly comforts, one feels gnawing loneliness when one is in a foreign land, away from home and away from loved ones. That makes them long and yearn.

(In the Welsh language, there is a beautiful word that captures this longing for home — hiraeth)

Reason 2 –

Maybe because of personal flaws, but when their friends and loved ones desert a person, the home itself feels like a foreign land, which makes the person sad.

Reason 3 –

Sometimes even when a person has been noble and kind, and if their friends mistreat them, that leads to anguish.

Reason 4 –

Wealthy and influential people, who might not be as good a human being as you are, if they treat you with disrespect and apathy, sometimes that leads to pain.

Reason 5 –

Despite being a learned, honorable, and capable person, one does not receive the justified rewards. Yet when the undeserving ones do, this leads to resentment.

(In human resource management, there is an expectancy theory of motivation, which is similar in nature)

Reason 6 –

When one does not have proper means of livelihood (lack of a unique skill), it makes one anxious. And yet, if the person is too proud to ask for a helping hand out of a false sense of self-respect, it leads to suffering.

Reason 7 –

When your generosity and goodness of heart are perceived as your weakness by those who benefit from the same qualities, when they take it for granted and reduce you in your own eyes, it causes deep anguish.

Reason 8 –

When a learned and deserving person is belittled and insulted by those who lack knowledge and kindness, it could cut deep and cause them pain.

Reason 9 –

When an enemy behaves like a friend, earns trust, and eventually betrays, the manipulation and the betrayal then lead to resentment and anguish.

Reason 10 –

A person understands the material world well, has a knack for explaining complex phenomena well, and yet if the person is ignored and belittled by the learned and the respected, it leads to pain.

Reason 11 –

Devoid of money and devoid of intelligence, when one still aspires for lofty goals and fails due to own shortcomings, it leads to sorrow and suffering.

Reason 12 –

Domestic troubles such as the lack of harmonious relations with the family, disapproval of your decisions by your own family, betrayals, and malice by sons and sons-in-law can lead to bottomless pain.

Reason 13 –

If the money a person has set aside for retirement is stolen, and they have to depend on unworthy people for subsistence, it makes them anxious, afraid, and awkward.

Reason 14 –

A person dear to you has been distant and angry due to their own doing/misunderstanding, and you are unable to pacify them and make amends, which leads to suffering.

The description of this passage of the interaction between Yudhisthira and Bhishma is taken from the lecture by Dr. Pradeep Apte, which is a part of the course on “18 Parvans of Mahabharata” by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

In the lecture, Dr. Apte points out a poignant juxtaposition.

In this conversation, the one who asks the question, Yudhishthira, has suffered immense anguish through ignominy to the victory. The one who answers is Bhishma, who has lived a life full of difficult choices, and who, even in his last moments, experiences a prolonged agony.

Maybe the complexity of these characters and their gravitas enable the exploration of such diverse and expansive topics in a timeless manner.