O God, God, wherefore art thou, God?

I was watching this Telugu movie - Akhanda 2 a week ago. There was a dialogue in that movie where a character asks "Where is God? Why won't he come to our aid when we are suffering?" As much as how the movie addresses this question makes some sense, I had quite a different thought. 'When was the last time God came down himself to our mortal realm? When was the last time he spent time with us mortals with the mortals in full awareness that they had a God amongst their midst? What happened when was amongst us?" The story of Mahabharata happened. Kurukshetra happened. A war happened, which was so large and extensive that the entire world felt the ramifications of it - physically, environmentally, spiritually and most importantly - morally.

I can imagine what you're thinking. 'Mahabharata might not have happened in reality! It's a mythical tale!' But for me, the Mahabharata really happened, because I chose to believe it did. Want to know why? We all know man has since repeated all the injustices and immoralities seen in the Mahabharata. If those are possible in the reality we all believe in, then the rest should be possible too, yes? But I digress. I do not want to debate the veracity of the Mahabharata, but rather want to focus on what the epic represents.

I believe the Mahabharata represents two things - An cautionary tale with an example. A cautionary tale of how one's sins will bring down karmic retribution upon them, be they man or God. The Kauravas perpetrated injustice after injustice against the Pandavas.They denied them their right to a kingdom, they cheated them in a game of dice, they attempted to disrobe Draupadi, they used underhanded tactics to defeat Abhimanyu, and many more! As for the Pandavas, they had to resort to unjust tactics themselves, though it was to defeat the Kauravas. Yudhishthir had to lie, Bheem had to break the rules of mace combat, and Krishna himself had to allow and encourage many unjust activities.

Of course, the Pandavas had to do all that they did to overthrow the immorality and injustice the Kauravas represented, but it still doesn't mean didn't do those unjust things. They did those things for the greater good, but still suffered. Lord Krishna, the almighty God himself, couldn't save his dynasty from collapse and obliteration. He had to reap Karmic retribution for his actions as well. And if you aren't aware, he admits as much. When the war ends, and Queen Gandhari curses Krishna's Yadava dynasty, he says he will gladly pay the Karmic price for his actions, whatever it may be. And that's the example I was talking about. Lord Krishna made himself an example of what Karmic retribution would be like, so we might learn from it.

Mankind has a profound, ironic history of not learning from their history. We have become extremely talented in reasoning away our less than moral actions. Of course, as with time and everything, morality has to change, like all things. We can't really expect to survive on the ascetic principles of morality that are mentioned in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita and other such writings. But it also doesn't mean we perpetrate whatever actions we want as long as we can reason those actions away!

I believe God already came to live among humans before. He tried all he could to show us the error of our ways. When he failed, he led the Kurukshetra war to cleanse the world of impurity. Even doing so, he showed us that though we may act in the interest of the greater good, no one is exempt from their Karmic debt.

So, the next time you want to ask God to come down to answer your questions or solve your problems, be careful what you wish for. Instead, focus on what you can do to improve yourself and move beyond what you cannot control. Look to the wisdom he has left with us for guidance. Trust that your just actions will lead you to peace and happiness, though it might not seem so today. And most importantly, don't use God as a scapegoat for your troubles! Like Lord Krishna showed us, we are all responsible for our actions, and we will be held responsible for all our actions.