READING MAHABHARATA BY A STUDENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Abstract

Sadistic pleasure is the amusement of enjoying passively from observing the pain of someone after inflicting great torture or degradation. The incidence of anguish inflicted on a dog in Yajña ceremony of king Janmeñjoy and the fight between Bhīma and Jīmῡta, by the order of the King Virāṭa were just for amusement at the cost of great sufferings of the animal or warriors. These activities may be interpreted as the action of Thanatos. Dhṛtaraṣṭra’s ego was hurt from seeing the popularity of Paṇḍavas – he might feel castration threat; Gāndhāri’s envy at the birth of Kunti’s son Yudhishṭhira insisted her to perform self-destructive activity; and Duryodhana felt sibling rivalry, which caused acute depression. The vow of Debabrata might be the manifestation of deep hatred against father or father figure, and subsequently, withdrawal from family and social life. Burning of Khandava was solely to establish supremacy and hegemony. Duryodhana machinated for exiling and burning Panḍavas; again, to escape from the claws of Duryodhana safely, Yudhisṭhira needed six burned dead bodies so he might plot for the burning of Purochana and the Niṣāda family in Varnavata. At the end of the nineth day’s battle, accompanying Krishna and other brothers, Yudhisthira went to Bhīṣma, during conversations, Krishna, like an efficient psychologist, might bring out the information from the deep mind of Bhishma, and with the help of these he planned out the scheme of killing Bhīṣma in the next day’s battle. In the tenth day’s battle, actually, Shrikhandi was the protector of Arjuna from direct fight with Bhīṣma, the grandfather; and as per his old agendum of not fighting with any woman, Bhīṣma did not strike Shrikhandi – this might be due to the guilt feeling for his past misdeed. Again, there may remain mutual love between Bhishma and Shrikhandi – here the expression of ambivalence was most probable.