300

I watched the movie 300 with much awe. It was not the special effects that put me in awe, it was the heart and courage of men of battle that took me in. The battle at Thermopylae pitched one man's courage against another. I have been reading more and more about the Spartan culture these days impressed by their ideas of dignity, bravery and their ferocious spirit of independence.

In fact I have always been a believer that there indeed are two kinds of people - those that uphold their principles and dignity above anything else and would literally make it as the basis of their life while there are the others for whom material gain is all that matters or they are just happy to exist from one day to another. The world of the battles was the world of honour, respect and dignity - a world run by warriors. The world of today is run by businessmen and politicians, mostly spineless creatures.

Sometimes I wonder if today we really are better off than before. Taking for instance the case of India, values of the aryans - their patronage of knowledge, art, spirituality and valour are mostly forgotten. Mahabharata and Ramayan are nothing but odes to men who stood up for what they believed was their Dharma and took on overwhelming odds to come out victors as much due to their valour in the battlefield as to their deep belief in doing what was right. Unfortunately, these aspects of the epics have been forgotten and such human values as those enshrined in them are almost lost.

It is the world of back stabbing, self gain and exploitation now. If you just imagine that somehow we were to be returned to those times of the past where men had to stand up in battles for their families and clans you would not take long to realise that the breed of businessmen and politicians currently in power would be the first ones fleeing a battlefield because there would be little by way of their physical condition, bravery and inner uprightness that could keep them holding their ground.

Not too far back in history, considering that I started off with the battle of Thermopylae, 480 BC, right here in India we had Shivaji and his fearless warriors that we can look back to. In almost similar circumstances as the battle of Thermopylae, in the year 1660, Baji Prabhu Deshpande a brave sardar of the Marathas, held up a huge army sent by Adil Shah at the Pavan Khind pass to allow Shivaji to retreat to the Vishalgaad fort where he could regroup his men to set up an attack in return. Baji Prabhu Deshpande took on an army of 10,000 with 150 men. He fought with such bravery that it's now one of the greatest testaments to Maratha courage. He held off the whole army with his men and even with fatal injuries kept fighting, giving up his life only after he heard the canons at the Vishalgaad fort go off, signalling the successful escape of Shivaji.

For men of such constitution I don't think any corrupting influences exist. It's men like these and their values that we have lost. And probably, in the process much more that we can not comprehend.

My belief in warrior culture has just been re-enforced.



Baji Prabhu Deshpande