Redefining Our Protagonists!
Part 11
The Great War of Kurukshetra which is regarded as a dawn of the principles of justice, is a result of Kunti’s efforts in a dusk of hardships. Her character is like a sacred mural originally painted by Maharishi Vyas. The thousands of years are passed; but it is so dynamic that it remains relevant to the modern time. Every time someone looks at, it appears differently as per the perception of a viewer. Here are the five lessons a modern mother can learn from the character of Kunti.
1. Choose your motherhood carefully:
We all know about a forlorn motherhood of Kunti with respect to her premarital firstborn. However, Kunti is just an adolescent girl when she experiences motherhood for the first time. She pays a heavy cost for it for the rest of her life. She learns from her mistake. She grows into a mature woman who carefully chooses her motherhood. In the forest of Gandhamadan before using the power of her secret Mantra that bestows her with motherhood, she has a long deliberation with her husband Pandu with respect with what Dharma says about inheritance of their child. She ensures that in each situation her children would be considered as the legal heir of Kuru dynasty.
For the eldest Pandava Kunti has makes a right choice of invoking Lord of Law (Dharma), who is known for inherent qualities of a lawful king among all Gods, for the future king of Kuru throne — Yudhishthira. Kunti carefully chooses to invoke Lord of winds (Vayu) for begetting second son of Pandu -Bheema, who is able to provide a fence of power around a family and a kingdom. Kunti should be praised for her ability to call upon even Lord of heaven (Indra) to beget a son upon her who becomes a possessor of rare human qualities — Arjuna.
After the birth of three sons of her own and twins of Madri, Kunti categorically denies the further use of Mantra and for the rest of her life we all know that she focuses on successful upbringing of Pandava.
A contemporary woman must do what Kunti does — To choose motherhood carefully and to make a motherhood our choice. We often observe that the society tries to put pressure on a married woman for motherhood, but from the example of Kunti we must learn that a motherhood should be a choice of a woman so that can enjoy her motherhood and give her best to it.
2. Be patient with your children:
After death of Pandu Kunti comes back to Hastinapur with a hope that someday her children would inherit Kuru dynasty. Kunti does not enforce her ambition on her children, she is patient enough to let the destiny unfold itself. Instead of rushing to ‘direct’ her children to acquire the throne of Kuru, she ‘prepares’ them to be the good rulers. She focuses on building a strong character of her children. She has to wait for long to see her eldest being coronated on the throne of Hastinapur. However, by the time this happens, her children are the valiant heroes of Kurukshetra war.
Kunti gets paid for her patience — the patience she shows while raising her children single-handedly; the patience she shows while her children are wandering as incognito after the incidence of Varanavat; the patience she shows when her children lose their self-built empire and have to spend twelve years of exile and a year of incognito. Amidst challenging time, as a mother Kunti never loses her hope. She shows a great patience with her children to stand up and to raise to fight on their own. In every situation, Kunti motivates her children but does not pressurize them.
This is a great learning for a modern mother in a time where we seem to have forgot a lesson that a still and steady wins the race. But the story of Mahabharata also reinforces the importance of this lesson. When it comes to a mother her patience helps a lot in building a strong character of her children.
3. Respect your children for the person they are:
Each of Pandava is unique. Instead of comparing them with each other Kunti focuses on capitalizing their unique capabilities. Imagine what would have happened if Kunti would have pressurized to Bheema to gain an excellence in archery or to Arjuna to be equally good with a mace; what would have happened if she would have compared Bheema with a linear and handsome Sahadeva.
The key of Pandva’s success is their unity. Kunti as a mother acts as a fist for five fingers who maintains their unity. At the same time, she respects each of them, including twins of Madri, for the person they are. She works towards building up their individual capabilities. In the course of Mahabharata story we see that these unique capabilities of Pandava result into a strong foundation of their characters and with the strong pillars of their character a beautiful edifice of success is built.
A modern mother who raises her children in the competitive world must keep Kunti’s example in her mind every time when others compare her children with someone. Most importantly she must at first place respect her children for the person they are.
4. Be a strategist:
As a mother Kunti is a great strategist who carefully cements right alliances in her children’s life. After an escape from Varanavata, Kunti, with her farsightedness takes an initiative to turn a love of Hidimba in a formal relationship with Bheema. A son born out of this alliance saves Arjuna from Karna’s Vaijayanti Astra during Kurukshetra war. Kunti’s efforts to build an alliance between Krishna and Pandava shows how precisely is able to judge a character and to make the most out it. This alliance reaps wonderful results in the course of Mahabharata. She knows an importance of a right companion in her children’s life. She strategically gets her children wedded to Draupadi. Krishna has applied the various strategies in the battlefield of Kurukshetra to bring victory to Pandava; but this strategy of Kunti wins half of the battle of Pandava’s life.
A modern mother also like Kunti must strategically build right alliances in her children’s life. In the time where it’s very easy to get carried away with social media connect it becomes all the more important.
5. Enjoy the journey:
The Kurukshetra War is described as a victory of dharma — ‘path of righteousness’. Kunti has carefully chosen this path of righteousness in her life. The victory of Pandava side is a fruit delivered out of a seed that Kunti has sown and nurtured. After life-long battle of endeavors and pains, when Kunti should be enjoying the riches that her sons have acquired, she leaves everyone astonished including her sons by her decision of accompanying Dhrutarashtra and Gandhari for retirement in the forest. This brings greatness of Kunti’s character who has taken life-long efforts to bring success in the life of her sons. Despite her life-long efforts, she has no emotional attachment to the results of her efforts. She possesses no greed of eating fruits. She is the one who enjoys nurturing and gets satisfied by looking at the fruits. Her journey of planting and nurturing is more joyful and fulfilling than eating the fruits. She is able to see her life distantly. While living in the bonds of relationship, she shows a great amount of courage to traverse all these bonds and retain her individualism.
In the world of conflicts, A modern woman must learn this lesson from Kunti. As a mother it is very important to remember — ‘Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kada Chana’.
