[Advaita-l] Help in locating this incident in the Mahabharata

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Fri Aug 14 14:39:14 EDT 2020


In the Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya, Madhvacharya says the following:

तत्रापरांश्चैव बहूनसत्यं निरीश्वरं चाप्रतिष्ठं च लोकम् ।
सिद्धोऽहमीशोऽहमिति ब्रुवाणान् गुणान् विष्णोः ख्यापयन् वादतोऽजैत् । २२.२८४ ।
[22.301]
भिन्नं विष्णुमधिकं सर्वतश्च ब्रुवन् प्रवीरान् लक्षमेषां निजघ्ने ।

In the battle that erupted at the Saugandhikavana between the soldiers of
Kubera and Bhima, the above verses say: There were many others who
proclaimed 'the world is asatya, without Ishwara, without any pratishTha,
basis, I am accomplished, I am Isha (Ishwara), .. Bhima debated with them
and vanquished them all and saying 'Vishnu is different and greater than
all' he killed several hundreds of them.'

The commentary cites the Bhagavadgita 16th chapter verses that bring out
the thinking of aasura-natured people.  One can read the verses here:
https://hindi.webdunia.com/religion/religion/hindu/geeta/Chapter16_6-20.htm

The chapter concerning the Saugandhika incident in the Mahabharata is 3.155.

https://sa.wikisource.org/s/1za

https://bombay.indology.info/mahabharata/text/UD/MBh03.txt

The question is: Where in that chapter does the stated incident occur? The
chapter no doubt reports that Bhima killed many opponents in that battle.
But the debate on the 'asatyam apratiShTham nirIshvaram, siddho'ham...etc.'
does not appear in the Mahabharata chapter either explicitly or implicitly.

regards
subbu


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