In Mahabharata, Duryodhan was perhaps right to accuse Krishna of treachery. The war could not have been won without his manipulations. All the great commanders of the Kaurava armies - Bhishma, Drona, Karna and Duryodhan - were killed unfairly, under instructions from the master trickster. Although he did not shoot a single arrow, Krishna won the war for the Pandavas through cheating.
He, of course, calls it superior strategy, but the text is clear that he violated the dharma of war in doing so. Indeed, Krishna had acquired a reputation for deception very early in the war so that when Arjuna unlawfully cuts off Bhurishrava’s arm, the latter exclaims :
“Who, indeed, could commit such a crime who was not a friend of Krishna’s?”
V.S. Sukthankar, editor of the Pune Critical Edition of the Mahabharata, called Krishna a “cynic, who preaches the highest morality and stoops to practice the lowest tricks… An opportunist who teaches a God fearing man to tell a lie, the only lie he told in all his life! (He is a) Charlatan who advices a hesitating archer to strike down a foe who is defenceless and crying for mercy.”
Nevertheless, the epic’s sympathies are clearly with the Pandavas. Sanjaya frequently reminds the audience that the Pandava’s follow dharma while the Kauravas are evil. On a number of occasions he catalogues their wicked deeds. They tried to burn the Pandavas in the house made of lacquer, usurp the Pandava’s kingdom through a crooked game of dice and tried shamefully to disrobe Draupadi.
Krishna’s defense is that the only way to defeat evil is with evil. The Kaurava’s are the stronger side – they have more division and greater warriors. The threat of their victory looms over the epic and there is a danger that evil might triumph. Hence, the Pandavas must match their might with triumph. Hence, the Pandavas must match their might with “strategy”.
But the Mahabharata does not buy his logic. It makes sure that everyone is aware, including the Pandavas of the immorality of these acts. After Drona is killed, Arjuna is disconsolate and Bhima has to remind the unhappy warrior to stop harping on dharma :
“You are right in what you say, O son of Partha! You have spoken as though you were a sage who had retired to a forest. But you are a warrior, whose duty is to protect living creatures from harm… It doesn’t do you honor or your family to speak thus like a fool.”
“Moreover”, Bhima reminds his brother, “wasn’t the kingdom of one devoted to dharma (Yudhisthira) carried off Immorally?”
[Published with permission from Penguin Random House India,
from the book"The Difficulty of Being Good", by Gurcharan Das]