Mahabharat 1: Status Anxiety

There is a very interesting study in management called Howthorne Effect. In the study, a group of employees were allowed to work under various light intensities. An interesting  result was obtained. Howthorne Effect has shown that the productivity of a particular set of people will increase if they are given proper attention irrespective of the fact that whether the facilities are being improved or reduced.

The same is the case with the character of Karna in the epic of Mahabharat. He was a low borne son of a charioteer. His whole life was about trying to be someone! He became one of the greatest warrior of his time (even better than Arjuna, son of Indra, god's king). He learnt from the great sage Parashuram, Guru (teacher) of Arjuna's Guru. He even lied that he was a Brahmin, just to be Parashuram's disciple. He became so benevolent that he won't return anybody empty handed if confronted during his morning prayers. This also became the reason for his death.

image courtsy: hinduhumanrights.info

So, what is it that forces people to be someone, to do something worthwhile? Why is there a status anxiety among people? Why do we have to prove ourselves in the eyes of others? Pavan Verma in his book 'Being Indian' calls it the strong tendency of upward mobility that is also being cited as one of the reason for India's unprecedented growth in last 20 years.

Karna's status anxiety forced him to look away from the real Dharma, the reality, the righteous path. He allowed Draupadi, the queen of Pandava's to be humiliated in the open court of Kuru. His whole life, he tried to be someone who is worthy of respect. Duryodhan, prince of Kuru Dynasty, anointed Karna the king of Anga. And by doing so, he earned the most loyal friendship of Karna. Karna refused to look at the faults of Duryodhan. He vowed to be with Duryodhan, no matter what. And this is what made him cynical.

As for what I think, it is not always important to be of matter. One don't need to be better than others. He just need to be better than what he was yesterday. If a sweeper does his work perfectly and without feeling disregarded, then he will give best outputs. The problem of this world is that everybody is pretending to be somebody else. How beautiful this world would become if we just try to do what we do best. It may be cleaning, or washing, or studying, or may be, just trying to put a smile on others face!

The epic chose to prove its point of reducing status anxiety by creating and demeaning the character of Karna. The irony is, in the course of epic, people came to know that Karna was actually a high borne- the true heir of Kuru dynasty!!!