Yoga and the Mahabharata: Engaged Renouncers

The Mahabharata serves as a didactic text, a cautionary tale about epic figures who veer from the course of dharma. It employs a device of nested stories that inculcate the prime values of Indi~ tradition. The Mahabharata also seeks to reconcile the tension between the life of those who seek ultimate religious fulfillment through renouncing the world, and those persons who remain within the world seeking to uphold truth, nonviolence, and justice.

This essay examines three accounts that contribute to the discussion of Yoga-related practices in the Mahabharata, with a focus on nonviolence (ahimsa) ~d austerity (tapat). The first pertains to a conversation between a brahmin ascetic named Jajali and a wise, nonviolent merchant named Tuladhara, narrated by Bhisma on his funeral pyre. The second centers on the vow of Savitri she practices tapas to save the life of her husband. In the third, Bhisma praises the vow of ahimsa as expressed through the abandonment of flesh foods. These stories will be summarized and then discussed in light of the tension between renunciation of the world and active involvement within the world.