Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part A
In the Ramayana, I thought that the gods had fairly little involvement in the mortal world aside from being reborn as humans. Yes, Rama and Sita were supposedly a god and his wife reborn, but in their earthly endeavors, the other gods would only visit for a bit of advice, then leave. Part A of the Mahabharata started off slow, with a lot of introductions to various characters. We learn about the background of each character, their personalities, and how each relates to the next. The first half of the reading sets up the background plot points that lead to the main conflict of the Mahabharata. For the first several stories, the various characters are fairly normal. Devavrata vows to never marry or bear sons, initially starting as the first as a condition by his mother to be wield the 8 Vasus's power and later as a vow to his father to allow his father to marry a woman that he loves. The other characters make human like mistakes, acting with the best intentions but maki...