| The ideal
characters like Rama and Sita that we find in them firmly establish Hindu Dharma in our
minds. Therefore the authors of these books Valmiki and Vyasa should be looked up on as
great nation-builder's. It is no exaggeration to say that Hindu society is still following
the lines chalked out by them. Even today characters in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata
dominate our domestic, social and national ideals. The Mahabharata, especially, is an encyclopedia
of Hindu Marina. It is
rightly called the fifth Veda. It consists of long stories, episodes, descriptions,
discourses and sermons. The most important part of it is, of course, the Bhagavad-Gita,
which is a dialogue between Krsna and Arjuna on the battlefield before the commencement of
the Great War. The importance of the Gita is due to its context as well as its contents.
It forms, as it were, the focus of the whole epic. |
