This Is Sanatan Dharma

“When I first shared this story with a monk-friend, he asked me why I wrote it as fiction and not biography. Many others who read this book may have the same query. So let me share: the first reason was the most obvious one — Ahana hardly lived an outer life, her entire life unfolded within, in her consciousness. Outwardly, her biography could be written in a single paragraph: She was born in India, in the early sixties, to academic parents and grew up in a university environment. She met a young man when she turned eighteen, perhaps fell in love, and left her studies and social life to live in an obscure ashram in the Himalayas and explore Vedanta. She then left the ashram and came to Almora, a small Himalayan town, where she lived alone in a cottage.

Inwardly, however, Ahana’s life was rich, fascinating, multihued, multilayered, profoundly inspiring. The more I discovered and understood of her life, the more I realized how much is possible, and how much the human being can attain, in a single lifetime — none could come to her and remain unchanged. So how does one write a biography of such a being?

 And second, as I discovered in writing this book, a biography ties you down to facts and timelines while fiction can free you of all such needless fetters. Ahana’s life, I feel, is the stuff poetry is made of.”

How often have you been advised to follow the teachings of Krishna but wondered what those teachings were? Krishna-Niti: Timeless Strategic Wisdom brings forth eleven of the most important lessons delivered by Krishna at critical junctures in the Mahabharata. These practical lessons are different from the spiritual wisdom imparted to Arjuna in the celebrated Bhagavad-Gita. Whether negotiating for peace between the Kauravas and Pandavas, resolving internal conflicts in the Pandava camp, or inspiring Yudhishthira to rule as a Dharmaraja (righteous ruler) at the end of the Kuruskshetra war, Krishna emerges as the strategist par excellence, who is as worldly wise as he is spiritually enlightened.

Krishna’s instructions cover a wide range of subjects, including ethics, strategy, governance, policy, and above all dharma. However, throughout its wide scope, Krishna-Niti is governed by an underlying worldview, which can be summarised as jnana-karma-samuchchaya, or the right combination of knowledge and action to achieve the fourfold goals of human life. Krishna argues that karma is essential to life and natural order. Steadfastness in one’s karma is the key to the attainment of one’s goals whether material or spiritual. Escapism or inaction is not an option, neither is indecisiveness stemming from unending intellectual debates. In no case should one abandon one’s duty by citing a lack of good options.

Krishna’s role in the Mahabharata is not just as a knower of dharma (dharmajna) but as its upholder and institutor (dharma-samsthapaka). Therefore, unlike other great works on niti, Krishna’s instructions are not theoretical but have an immediate relation to the situation at hand. His guidance is always delivered to a particular character in the epic, especially in moments of crisis, internal dissension, or war. This implies that we get to see the principles of Krishna-Niti in action throughout the epic.

The authors, Kushagra Aniket and Nityananda Misra, draw upon their extensive research into the Mahabharata to present a unique gem of Nitishastra that is distilled from the quintessential Itihasa of India. They analyse Krishna’s practical wisdom through his interventions on numerous occasions. Rooted in the vision of the epic, Krishna-Niti: Timeless Strategic Wisdom paints the authentic picture of Krishna as a statesman—an enduring image that is deeply relevant to our times.