Every Fiction Writer Should Steal This Trick from the Mahabharata

Today I was rewatching an episode from the epic series Mahabharatha on YouTube. 

I have an obsessive habit. 

I tend to scroll through the comments even as I watch the video. 

But today while doing so I read a comment that read like this: Sathyavathi's assertiveness and overly calculating nature was the reason for the ultimate downfall of Hastinapura. 

And it was followed by some profanity that insisted that Sathyavati was characterless and that every characterless woman would led to the destruction of her own lineage. That she was the curse of the Lunar dynasty. That if she never interfered in the crowning of Devavradha, he would have ruled Hastinapura to prosperity.

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Needless to say, this enraged me beyond reasoning.

Sathyavati is a strong, clever and sexually (and otherwise) assertive woman who knew what she needed and incorporated clever ways of attaining it without shedding the classic tears or relying on a man's generosity alone. But that doesn't mean she had no part in the decline of the Kuru Legacy.

Actually, the downfall of Hasthinapura was due to permissive parenting on the part of two sets of parents: Sathyavathi and Druthirashtra. But the responsibility falls heavily on Druthirashtra. If only had he parented his sons well and hadn't permitted Dhruyodhana to commit injustice on Draupathi, the woman of his own family, the lunar dynasty would have cherished with more than 100 Kings. Every disaster that happened before this incident can be attributed to misfortune but not the spiteful disrobing of Draupathi by Dhuryodhana. That was injustice. There's no arguing that.

The very core of Mahabharatha is to insist that any amount of injustice committed on any woman for any reason no matter what, would lead to total annihilation.

It's clear as day.

Why don't people get this simple message? 

Or is it deliberately ignored?

Do people realise that acknowledging this truth would pave way to an uncomfortable reality?

Which as an author got me thinking all over again.

Somehow authors nowadays believe that writing a story with morals would make it boring and flat. I've read numerous articles insisting that morals are for children's stories. Even I believed this misguided information.

But think about it. 

Mahabharatha was and is still a testament to the fact that stories with strong morals persist for numerous generations. It's even celebrated as a religious text that preaches the most important values of human life.

Like Mahabharatha's Vyasa, we have the power to influence and inspire. We must wield this power responsibly, not squandering it on tales devoid of substance.

Do not write for entertainment and commercial value. Do not dilute the potency of your words for the sake of commercial success.

Craft narratives that challenge, provoke and endure.

Instil strong morals into your novels in a way that it makes your story be spoken for ages. 

Don't cower from being strong and bold. Instead, talk about issues that bother you in your stories. There are more than plenty in the world. Look around you!