I keep telling everyone to read the Udyoga Parva of Mahabharat. Again and again and again. It is one of the greatest manuals on ethics, statecraft and diplomacy that you will come across.

I want to really talk a bit about the back and forth diplomacy that preceded the great war. This period really shines a light on the psychology of the key characters in the Mahabharata.

For example, there is an instance where Bhimasena adopts a conciliatory tone and tells Shri Krishna to sue for peace with Duryodhana, agreeing to follow the latter and be under his control so that the family is not destroyed!

In the same section, Sahadeva says that even if all his elder brothers wanted peace, he himself would never agree to it, and if need be, would fight Duryodhana alone!

All the Pandavas realize that Duryodhana is an evil man, however, to avoid the destruction of the Kuru clan (and the larger kshatriya samaaj in India) most of them advocate peace even at great personal cost.

However, Duryodhana, egged on by his own pride, avarice and evil advisors refuse every conciliatory gesture. He wants the total annihilation of the Pandavas, and not just mere victory.

So we have a situation where one side is hyper aggressive, wishing to put everything at stake to attain total domination. The other side, although powerful, is willing to make compromises keeping in mind the larger society.

But, and this is crucial, the side willing to make compromise was doing it from a position of strength. In Arjuna and Krishna, they had the only two people in Aryavarta truly capable of annihilating the world. They understood their power, and hence were circumspect.

On the other hand, Duryodhana, Karna, Shakuni etc overestimated their own power, and underestimated the Pandavas. In doing so, they remained recalcitrant and doubled down on their extreme, zero sum position.

We see reflections of these behaviors even today. In the political space, we come across people who would subvert and destroy their own country if they do not get to rule over it. They too are proud, they too think of ruling as a birthright. They too overestimate their power.

We see people who would refuse to co-exist with political rivals and would try every trick in the book to insult and humiliate them in public, and then send them to the forest - away from public life, voices unheard...

When this type of mentality affects all sides in the political spectrum, we end up in a situation of anarchy - Matsyanyay. The big fish eats the little fish.

However, when you have principled people on one side, who have gathered strength and clarity through tapas, then we often end up with a Kurukshetra. Annihilation of corrupt order to restore order.

The coming days, years and months would tell us which way our own destiny will swing.
1. The duty of a king is to prevent MatsyaNyay from taking hold in society.
2. The dharma of war is victory.
3. Ahimsa is not just non-violence in the physical sense only