Kalki movie: Three things wrong – Making sense with Bhagavad-gita

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
making sense with Bhagavad Gita.
This is the second part of the video where I will address specific things depicted in that movie. In the previous movie, I talked about how if there are concoctions done, then it is the responsibility of the traditions teachers to address them properly and convey the right conceptions based on scripture and the traditions wisdom. So, today I will address three main issues.
The first, of course, is the issue of Kalki. Now, here it is depicted that Ashwatthama was cursed by Krishna that he would have to wander alone till the time when he would save a future avatar of Vishnu and then he would be relieved from the curse. Now, the cursing of Ashwatthama is an incident mentioned in multiple places, in the Mahabharata also, in the Bhagavatam also, and this is definitely not mentioned that way in these books.
Now, in the Bhavishya Puran, in some versions something similar is mentioned. In the Bhavishya Puran is often a much touted book. Our traditions Acharyas have been quite sparing in quoting it and it’s almost widely understood that there are interpolations in that book.
So, that central prophecy of Ashwatthama’s curse being relieved by being able to save a child that might seem poetically attractive, but its scriptural basis is questionable. This does not make it a terrible thing. As I had mentioned that in artistic license some things can be done and overall Ashwatthama was a noble person and although he was attached to trying to prove himself to be the greatest archer and better than Arjuna, apart from that he respected Arjuna as a rival and he had no animosity against the Pandavas per se.
But it was after Drona was killed and after Duryodhana told him that the Pandavas had killed Drona in a cold blooded conspiracy, which was a complete distortion because actually it was Dhrishtadyumna’s individual act of anger and cold blooded hatred that led to him lopping off the head of Duryodhana when he was meditating and Arjuna chided him, chastised him for it and it was almost like a civil war broke out among the Pandavas after that action. Yes, the Pandavas had schemed to tell through Yudhishtira a lie to Drona by which Drona would lay his arms down. But the subsequent plan was to arrest him and put him in a house arrest so that he would not obstruct them in their victory and Drona himself had started using celestial weapons against ordinary soldiers, which is like in today’s world using nuclear weapons in an ordinary war.
It was completely against the laws of war and that’s why Drona had to be stopped by emergency means. So the point here is that when Ashwatthama was informed that, misinformed by Duryodhana, the Pandavas in a cold blooded conspiracy tried to and actually executed in the murder of his father, that’s when he turned bitter and became vengeful and that’s when eventually he killed the Pandava sons, he committed the night massacre and he tried to kill the child Pradixit in the womb of Uttara. So the point here is that Ashwatthama did get misled and why am I talking about all this? This is because Ashwatthama’s character has been depicted in a particular way and one of the major erroneous things that are depicted over here is that Ashwatthama and Karna had a great friendship but that is not true at all.
It came from both ways that Karna felt that Drona had not accepted him in his Gurukul and he felt that Drona is partial to the Pandavas and that’s why there was no affection in Drona’s, in Karna’s heart for Drona and when Karna would try to boast about his power, both Bhishma and Drona would try to bring him down to earth and because of this, Karna would feel that I am being minimized and there are times when Karna would minimize Drona and especially at one time during the war when Karna tried to minimize Drona, it was unbearable for Ashwatthama and Ashwatthama lashed out at Karna and there was almost again a fight that broke out between them. This especially happened at the time when Jayadrath was killed on the 14th day by Arjuna. That was a devastating loss.
It was not just a loss of military forces, so many soldiers were mowed down by Arjuna as he raced towards Jayadrath. But it was also a moral shattering and shameful debacle for the Kauravas that their entire army including all their maharathas couldn’t stop one Arjuna. So, at that time, Karna lashed out at Drona’s incompetence and Ashwatthama was enraged and he came to the defense of his father.
So, there are other instances also where there was never a fight but there was no love lost between the two of them. So, the depiction that Karna and Ashwatthama were both great friends is definitely a concoction that is at significant variance with what the Mahabharata storyline and overall relational dynamics also would indicate. Now, both of them did fight on the side of the Kauravas.
Drona felt obligated to the Kuru kingdom which had provided him the place and the facility for establishing his Gurukul and that’s why he fought on their side. And because his father fought on that side, father and son had a thick bond, Drona and Ashwatthama. It bordered and sometimes a bit of an unhealthy attachment.
But Ashwatthama also fought on the side of the Kauravas. Now, Drona had affection for his son naturally, Drona had affection for Arjuna because he is such a great student and Ashwatthama felt challenged and even threatened and usurped in his position of affection from his father because of Arjuna’s expertise. So, there was some rivalry among them.
But the rivalry was not enmity. Ashwatthama wanted to be a better warrior but it was not enmity that he didn’t want to destroy Arjuna. So, the kind of relationship between Karna and Arjuna that was there was not rivalry, it was enmity.
Karna wanted to prove his greatness by destroying Arjuna. So, the reason I am saying this, although they were both on the same side, they were not great friends and there were times when their differences of opinion were quite severe. Now, lastly, the depiction of Arjuna is often done wrongly in popular culture and especially this is done.
Arjuna is put down, portrayed as arrogant to glorify or to empathize with Karna. Now, if we look at the overall character, there is not one incident when Arjuna has ever minimized women. He has always been a protector of women, whereas Karna very heinously minimizes women.
First of all, in the Asat Sabhaya, the gambling match when he suggests that Draupadi be disrobed and at that time he says, a woman who has five husbands, she is already like a prostitute. The more men she has with, she will enjoy having even more men now and there is nothing wrong in disrobing her. So, that was a heinous accusation against Draupadi because it’s not that Draupadi had gone out of her way to seek five husbands.
It was a higher arrangement by which this had happened and also towards the end when he had a difference of opinion between Shalya, his charioteer, and himself. At that time, he not only criticized Shalya, he started criticizing his province and the people of his province and even the women of his province. Again, Karna had his virtues, but the point is that if warrior, Kshatriyas are defined by their capacity to protect those who are innocent, then it’s important about protecting women and Arjuna was a far better protector of women than Karna was and Karna repeatedly spoke terribly negatively about women.
So, that negative portrayal of Arjuna is also mistaken. So, broadly, in the Kalki movie, there is a positivity in the sense that the characters and the storyline from the Vedic tradition, from the Mahabharata is brought into the public mind of the masses. But the specifics are problematic and of course, this is not an exhaustive list of the specifics and I don’t want to sound totally critical.
It is good that such depictions are happening, but the more aligned they are, the better it is. Thank you. Hare Krishna.