Republic of the Philippines

SOUTHERN LEYTE STATE UNIVERSITY

Tomas Oppus Campus- College of Teacher Education
Tomas Oppus, Southern Leyte 6605

World Literature
Marvin B. Gerona BSED 202

Mahabharata
(Reaction Paper)

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit of ancient India. The authorship
of the Mahabharata is attributed to the great sage Veda Vyasa. Mahabharata is known as
the longest epic in the world. It comprises thousands of verses, long prose passages, or
about 1.8 words in total as what I have research. It is called Mahabharata due to the
immense size and its dealing with the story of the people of the race descended from the
ancient emperor Bharata. This epic tale combines or composes war, religion, philosophy,
and Hindi history.

As what I have read the story, first I found it difficult to understand and analyze it
because there are many characters being portrayed and I get confused sometimes on the
happenings of the story. The summary itself was quite long and it is not that enough for me
to read it once. As I wanted to apprehend this story, I’ve searched many short summaries
and analysis for me to conceive what the story try to tell us. Based on what I have
understood, Mahabharata depicts the truth that life is like a journey as it was being practice
by dharma. A journey where you didn’t know or you can’t predict what will happen to your
life on the other days. This story also talks about power, leadership, consequences and as
well as selfishness. Having a power is not a bad thing, but abusing it is different. Leaders
have this power to lead other people just like what it was stated in the story. Some leaders
abuses their powers and didn’t use it for the good of his/her under or people. They become
selfish that they think only into their selves. In overall, the story Mahabharata depicts about
doing good vs doing the evil one. As what I have research, the important lesson from
Mahabharata is that shrewdness and breaking the rules is not always a right of the evil, the
rules and the patterns can be and should be broken to fight to achieve the right just like the
story how Karna died and Duryodhana met his end. There is no right way to achieve the
ultimate objective.