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The Crown that Corrupts


We know from the Hindu epics and mythologies that after ruling the kingdom of Hastinapura post Mahabharata war the Pandavas retired to Himalayas. Yudhisthira handed over the throne of Hastinapura to Parikshit, who was son of Abhimanyu and grandson of Arjuna. Parikshit was a pious king. His reign saw the beginning of Kala Yuga or the Dark Age which began soon after Lord Krishna left his mortal body and went to Vaikuntha. In the Puranas the dark age is personified the demon "Kali". He symbolises corruption, evil, suffering and everything bad. When the Kali Yuga began, the demon Kali entered Parikshit's realm. When Parikshit stopped him the demon asked Parikshit to name few places where he can dwell. Parikshit granted him five places to reside amongst which was gold. Kali immediately entered Parikshit's golden crown and began to corrupt his mind. This made him arrogant and made him do wrong things. When he went to a sage who was meditating, he threw a dead snake on the sage because he was not responding to Parikshit's call. This led to the sage's son curse Parikshit which later caused his death by a snake bite. Parikshit was succeeded by his son Janamejaya who was enraged by his father's death and decided to eliminate all the snakes from the planet.

The Crown here stands for power. Power has the ability to turn a pious and good person into arrogant and corrupt. It makes a person do things which goes against their own set of ethics and morals. In a democracy we see that political parties keep on changing their stands depending on whether they are in power or in opposition. Every opposition party tries to connect with the people but when they return to power their attitude change. The more time they remain in power the more arrogant they become. That is why Mark Twain once said - "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."

The demon Kali can be witnessed everywhere around us. It is not only in politics, but also in corporate sector, media, film and television. We all are the users of Parikshit's crown at some point in time.

Good day!

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