The Difficulty of Being Good: A Discussion with Gurcharan Das

[@thesudstar6236]

this is awwwfuuul....the speech appears to be without preparation

[@kalichatterjee6684]

Gurcharan Das is an excellent speaker.He is very clear in his ideas .His ability to express his views and thoughts are superb.

[@meghnakhandelwal6866]

Brilliant!

[@nirbhaynandan72]

I read his book by same name as topic here...all can say is that he did not read Mahabharat of sanskrit version and wrote a lot about about it.....there is only 3 unabridged version of mahabharat in english latest one is by vivek debroy. .....this man wrote a lot of things about mahabharat in his book which is not there....he missed lots of nuances which can only be known if you would read other many supplementary sanskrit text.

[@Akaula1]

That Krishna thought Pandvas are going loose, is his assertion. And Krishna does not tell him about Draupadi.

[@mridulagrawal6687]

The caste system was not lyk this, why don't u tell them that,vedvyas writer of mahabharata was also born a low caste but, became a Brahmin

[@Akaula1]

He is talking up the wrong tree. The Notion of Good and Evil is Christian Biblical narrative. It has no place in Dharma traditions. And there is no notion of religion either in Dharma traditions. SO the speaker is seeing Indian traditions from christian point of view. Nevertheless a great narrative

[@fridaytrainersindia]

chewing gulping should never be mixed with such serious discussions or talks. he could be seen moving tongue while speaking. put me off.

[@satchitananda8836]

The twists given by the speaker to fit his narrative like Yudhishtra still searching for answers to dharma after ascending to heaven is very wrong from what Vyasa portrayed. Worse is the case when he concluded Arjuna got scared and concluded on his decision to fight. If true, then did the Bhagavad Gita have 7 more chapters. Of course dealing with an ignorant audience, one is given the latitude to be terse, but one has to be careful about not changing the tone of the original. After listening to the lecture, I lost the interest to even bother reading his book. No wonder the book seems to be approved by Sheldon Pollock, Wendy Doniger, Martha Nasshbum... Just like one has to read the labels of anything we eat, I guess it is good to see who are giving thumbs up or foreword. It is very sad that anyone who doesnt listen carefully can miss the nuance introduced.

[@sabgyl08]

He's a typical product of an Indian of a bygone era. Ashoka's example, how triggered he gets to correct the only relevant/technical question of Dharma asked by the Indian when the poor guy mis-pronounces "Conscience". It's a shame, that these are the soft-power ambassadors of India. It's also a delight that we have new age proud Indians like Dr Jaishankar who are also using Mahabharat to awaken the Indian narrative in Indians.

[@earthmovingmachines007]

Would have been great if each listener would have got a copy of the Amar Chitra Katha Stories from the Mahabharata......

[@mridulagrawal6687]

Completely incorrect explanation of the draupadi incident,first of all at that tym ppl in India didn't wear saris,sari was not a cloth at that tym,and society was not patriarchal,as rig Veda has hymns written by women rishikas, equivalent of prophets in abrahamic religions

[@nirbhaynandan72]

lots of nonsense i think i knew better than him about mahabharat....i ask people to read unbridged mahabharat yes it will take time its not 2 mint. noddle kind of thing unfortunately such huge text require a huge amount of time and dedication which today's generation lack. ...this text has been written over a 800-1200 years period so you might get many contradictory incidents as well.....he has formed his views through reading translation and bad translation perhaps...