Charioteering

 

“Have you reached safely Amma – I am Subramaniam Auto Driver calling from Chennai.” My mother received this return call from an auto-driver who had dropped her off at the railway station last week. A heart-warming recollection, perhaps a courteous after-sales service, if you will 😊 The result of being treated well.

A driver has to be treated with enough respect – financially and morally – my uncle says this all the time. There’s a reason why he says that; he’s quick to back it up with a couple noteworthy stories from his repertoire in Santhana Dharma mythology.

Devavritha, who later becomes Bhishma, gets to know of his father Shanthanu’s gloom through their driver. Devavritha is at a marriageable age and was already going to be the heir apparent. However, during a hunt, Shanthanu comes across a beautiful woman by name Yojanagandhi. He immediately goes in search of her father and expresses his desire to marry his daughter – Yojanagandhi (who later comes to be known as Satyavati). He is so lovelorn and depressed due to the fact that he also has an existing son – Devavritha who is ready to be married and coronated.

Devavritha learns this secret through their driver – he goes to explain King Shanthanu’s depression to Devavritha. Learning this, Devavritha tells his father that he is ready to give up on his crowning and lets him know that he doesn’t wish to marry. He then convinces his father to get married to Yojanagandhi and have the offspring from that marriage to become the next King.

This is famously known as the Bhishma Prathigna (stringent vow) – who thus goes on to receive the boon of Iccha Mrithyu (postponing death until he was ready).

In another couple incidents straight off the battlefield – Kurukshethra in Mahabharatha, we have the classic example of our very own Parthasarathy (Partha – Arjuna’s Sarathy – Charioteer) – Krishna doubling up as Arjuna’s charioteer and even going to express His Vishwaroopam form to His dear friend and maternal cousin Arjuna. We all know the importance of the role that Krishna plays here by giving him the motivation he needs through the divine song – Bhagavad Gita. Thanks to Arjuna’s depression, that the world got this jewel of Gita.

Quite the opposite happens in the case of arch rival and Arjuna’s paternal cousin – Karna. His charioteer Shalya is infamous for his deliberate persuasions to divert Karna’s attention and in ripping his confidence apart – making him feel weak and debilitated. The world knows about Karna’s expertise in archery, which is beyond comparison with that of Arjuna’s skills – even Krishna endorses this fact. However, Krishna converts this into a positive and turns it as an opportunity for Arjuna. While the contrary is done by Shalya for Karna.

These little stories from our Bharatha Ithihasa explain the value of a good driver whose job is not only to drop the passenger off at a point. The journey is as essential as the destination and it takes skill and common sense for a driver to complete his task at hand. The compensation paid to him is thus for this very reason, vs. the distance he’s covering in terms of kilometers. There are factors like taking you through the best route, with utmost safety. If he is thus irked by the bargain right at the start, beware of the ride ahead. It’s not so much about being oblivious about the economics of the ride. It’s about being fair to the driver as well as taking into account our own wellness as a passenger. The positives would outweigh the negatives and the end result would be a safe drive, which we wouldn’t want to regret in the future. You can’t put a cost to safety and measure it in the same scale as that of the price of fuel. It’s always a wholesome package that you receive – we will need definite dependence on the sense and sensibilities of the driver, who’s role cannot be ridiculed or reduced to that of mere driving. It takes a certain road sense to navigate, after all.