Mahabharata : About Birth and Death
Mahabharata : About Birth and Death is a brief compilation of the contents appearing in the great epic on the topics of Birth, Rebirth and Death including birth & death of certain important characters in the epic. The topic covers both philosophical aspects and to a limited extent the story aspect. However it cannot be said that I have included every passage related to these topics. Particularly deep philosophic discussions on these topics are not completely included here in the interest of limiting size & scope of this document. Interested readers can read the second PDF under Spectroscope called MB-Mokshadharma for more detailed and additional content.
The main ‘Headings & Sub-headings’ under which passages are compiled are:
- Creation & Destruction of Universe
- Birth: General, Birth & fate, Karmas & birth, Character & birth time, Status at birth and qualities.
- Rebirth: Opinion/Views on rebirth, Effect of karmas done on rebirth, Innumerable birth cycles, Role of karmas in obtaining the four varnas, Story of Vyasa, insect and its rebirths, Conduct/nature & rebirth.
- Specific cases of birth: Arjuna, Bhishma, Draupadi, Kauravas, Karna, Parikshita, Shikhandi & Vyasa
- Death: Opinion/Views on death, What is mrityu, Types of death, Death as punishment, State of jeeva after death, Post-death states/lokas, Illustrative stories about death.
- Specific cases of death: Abhimanyu, Bhishma, Drona, Duryodhana, Dushasana, Ghatothkacha, Karna, Pandavas & Vidura
- Overcoming death & rebirth
- On existence of jeeva
- Vyasa reveals secret of all characters
I hope the readers will find the document of some use in their study on this subject.
I have extracted these contents from my other comprehensive & unique work on Mahabharata called Mahabharata–Spectroscope. The material in that is in the order in which it appears in the original epic and segregated across different broader topics.
If you have any feedback, please write to me at gh.visweswara@gmail.com
You can download the PDF here: (1.88 MB; 77 Pages)
For other Topic based compilations from Mahabharata see under Menus ‘Mahabharata’ and ‘More Compilations’