Gandhari spent the night on the battlefield, stumbling among corpses, seeking her sons.
But suddenly, she felt hungry.
So very hungry.
Smelling a mango, she jumped and grabbed, but the mango was out of a reach. Then she made a pile of stones to reach the mango.
It was delicious!
As she ate, she realized these were not stones.
They were skulls.
She had been standing on the skulls of her sons to reach the fruit.
"All we see is maya, the illusion of the world!" she groaned. "Blindfold or no blindfold, we are all maya's fools."
Then Gandhari wept.
Inspired by: Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattanaik.
Notes: This story is on p. 302. You can find out more about maya, the illusion of the world, at Wikipedia: Maya. For more about Gandhari and the mango: The pain of a Mother: Gandhari (Urubhangam: A Kutiyattam Performance).
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