Example sentences: Ramayana: When the giant Kumbhakarna stepped over Lanka’s huge wall to march toward the monkeys, that sight was so bizarre that the monkeys fell back in shock. Mahabharata: The notion that the entire Kaurava army with its galaxy of great warriors could be defeated by a single warrior was bizarre — except if
Example sentences: Ramayana: Vibhishana, working in tandem with the monkeys, launched a surprise attack on Lanka while the demons were celebrating what they thought was Indrajita’s slaying of Rama and Lakshmana. Mahabharata: Susharma working in tandem with his brothers diverted Arjuna away from the main battlefield so that Drona could attack the Pandavas using the
Example sentences: Ramayana: Vibhishana warned Ravana that the same Visnu who had been the nemesis of demons since time immemorial, had now descended as Rama to be his nemesis. Mahabharata: Karna longed for an opportunity to defeat Arjuna who had been his nemesis for decades. Bhagavad-gita: As long as the mind is uncontrolled, it remains
critique:
a critical evaluation or analysis, especially one dealing with works of art or literature.
Example sentences: Ramayana: Rama’s acceptance of his exile as destiny is much more difficult for us moderns to relate with than is Lakshmana’s critique of such acceptance as passivity. Mahabharata: Vidura’s instructions to Dhritarashtra, which contain a strong critique of excessive family attachment, has come to be celebrated as Vidura-niti. Bhagavad-gita: The Bhagavad-gita’s critique of
Example sentences: Ramayana: As the monkeys raced towards the ocean to find Sita, they realized that their meeting with Sampatti was no fluke; providence was guiding them in their service to Rama. Mahabharata: The sages pointed out to Duryodhana that each time he had persecuted the Pandavas, they had emerged stronger — such repeated good
Example sentences: Ramayana: Although thousands of monkeys marched across the bridge, it turned out to be neither friable nor sinkable. Mahabharata: The tunnel-maker sent by Vidura noted where the palace floor and the underlying earth were friable, then started making a tunnel from the palace to the forest. Bhagavad-gita: Whereas the soul is not friable
Example sentences: Ramayana: Ravana’s statement to his assembly that Sita had agreed to give herself up to him after a year was balderdash. Mahabharata: Drona angrily rejected as balderdash Duryodhana’s accusation that he was fighting half-heartedly against the Pandavas because he was partial to them. Bhagavad-gita: The mind is so cunning that it can make
Example sentences: Ramayana: While the Ramayana uses literary ornaments to embellish the narration of the story, the story itself is not a poetic exaggeration; it is a historical description. Mahabharata: After the mysterious killing of Bakasura, the villagers embellished the story of his death till his heroic slayer attained mythic status among them. Bhagavad-gita: Whenever
Example sentences: Ramayana: Vibhishana reminded Ravana that because Hanuman was a messenger, killing him would be a flagrant violation of time-honored diplomatic codes. Mahabharata: When six warriors ganged together to kill the sixteen-year-old Abhimanyu, that was the most flagrant violation of war codes in the Kurukshetra war. Bhagavad-gita: The mind is usually not flagrant in
Example sentences: Ramayana: Vibhishan insisted that the sight of Indraji’s beheading Sita couldn’t have been veridical; Ravana was too infatuated with Sita to let her be killed. Mahabharata: For Duryodhana, whether his mystical meeting with the demons was veridical or hallucinatory didn’t matter much; what mattered was that his resolve to win against the Pandavas