Parthasarathi (Pariksit Dasa)

Arguably the most archetypal image of Mahabharata. Describes the crux of Mahabharata. An unwilling warrior king charioteered by an unbiased, divine counsel and driven by machinistic animals of war -- white chariot horses -- towards destiny, through the blur of dark, irrelevant corpses of silent allegiance, fragmented armour, and destroyed machinery. Thematic of "Duty".

Many similar versions exist and the exact author was almost a headache to find. It seems to be Pariksit Dasa. Many of his other realist works have appeared on the covers of ISKCON books.

Epics in the Classical age (Greek, Indian, etc.) were somehow very transparent, moral-bearing and Herculean. There was a sense of direction and achievement very detached from shorthand material gains. Somehow the image of god that men longed to attain sight of was not one of fear and misanthropy but of obligation and aspiration. Religions came up, teaching different 'cheats' to attain forgiveness, and continuing this delusive trade all the way to the supposed human afterlife.

Also, strange things happened to the Indian race following that. A race of cultured, educated, moral, obligated men suddenly left all their ego and gave in to lust, allegiance and chaos. Probably all our famines made us like this. All our lack of resources and our mismanagement. It will take time to reach the zenith of abudance laden creation once again.