Vegetarian Discussion

[Guest]

Reg Beeshma' eating impure food of Kauravas and his Dharma:

The way I read (also as shown in Ramanand Sagar's Krishna) is that Bhisma was a follower of his own Dharma (his Oath to serve the Throne of Hastinapur), which came in conflict with the much more larger Dharma of a Kshatriya protecting the interests of the subject (Dharma Sankat). At this juncture, one has to make a judgement on which is bigger. This is where Bheesma failed and himself admits that later in Shanti Parva. The best example of it was given by Krishna when he invoked he Chakra to kill Beeshma to protect Dharma as Arjuna refused to kill Beeshma. This was against his own oath of not weilding a weapon during the war but the larger Dharma of killing adharmis was more important than his own oath.

I think the food clouding the judgement is not about food itself per se but becoming addicted to it especially when it is served by the Adharmis (Guru Nanak example given earlier.

Kisari Mohan Ganguly's translation of Mahabarata nevertheless
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/