Mahabharata Condensed in the Poet's Own Words /3

FOREWORD
 

 
WE
 
HAT is man? What is his place in
the universe ? What is his ultimate
destiny? What constitutes noble living ?
Questions like these have been raised from
the beginnings of thought. Though the
dignity of man is not affected by his inability
dignity of man is not affected by his inability to answer these questions, it is affected by
his indifference to them. Man does not live
by bread alone. He desires not only to live
but to understand and behave well. To live
in a world that makes no sense is intolerable
 
to him. He feels an overwhelming need to
explain the universe, to reduce the bewilder-
ing diversity of phenomena to some order.
Hunger and thirst after righteousness is as
much a characteristic of the human mind as
much a characteristic of the human mind as hunger and thirst after rationality. Codes
of conduct and systems of philosophy which
give abstract rules and definitions cannot
satisfy these vital needs as art and literature
do through their creations which embody
give abstract rules and definitions cannot satisfy these vital needs as art and literature
do through their creations which embody high ideals of life and conduct.
 

 
Our moral nature owes a great deal of its
growth and education to the work of artists.
Even illiterate people are influenced by it
far more profoundly than they know, for
art exercises its power over us with or