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The Conception of Good Life in the Mahabharata: Purusarthas revisited in the light of Narrative Ethics.
The present paper attempts to look into the Mahabharata for an understanding of the present malaise. The degradation of our moral environment has one major reason-the loss of a wholistic vision of life. We have stopped looking at our life nom a wholistic point of view and have started looking for short term gains which ultimately land us with longterm losses. The solution of this impasse lies in Tempering our present approach with the wisdom of our ancient sages.
Mahabharata contains a host of situations where the protagonists are compelled to ask questions about the meaning and purpose of human existence. These can inspire the reader to look into our contemporary life in the light of the ways of living propounded by our ancestors. This paper is not an attempt to reverse the sequence of time and re-establish our past ways of life. But it is inspired by an effort to relook into our past to get cues for a more meaningful life. The idea is to synthesize or integrate the past into our present with a view to make our life qualitatively better.
The Mahabharata sees the purpose of human life in terms of liberation which comes by gradually detaching ourselves from all that we hold dear-wealth, power and even human relationships. Built into its narrative is the view of phasing of the four purusarthas-dharma, artha, kama and moksa. The whole thrust of the text is towards a balance of all the different dimensions of human life with a view to überate ourselves from all impediments. Each aspect of life is significant at a particular period of our life. If we can understand this constant change that life enforces, one who is endowed with discretion would naturally understand that not everything is possible at any time. Neither does it make any sense to pursue in old age things that we valued in our youth. Thus there is time for the pursuit of artha and kama and a time for the pursuit of moksa. Dharma, of course gets interpreted according to our stage and station in life (varnasrama).
Thus, one could say that the present paper attempts to look upon the Mahabharata as a document of narrative ethics for sorting out the present crisis in our values.
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