Long before Harry Potter, there was The Mahabharata!
This literary gem we devoured avidly in our childhoods, played a far greater role than merely having us engrossed in a mesmerizing new world. In fact, The Mahabharata might well be responsible for several of the ‘sound values’ that are firmly ensconced in our characters today!
Talking about The Mahabharata, today’s day and age might just be the best possible time to introduce Mahabharata Stories for Kids, to your little ones. We at EuroKids are proud to have compiled for you a list of the finest Moral Stories from The Mahabharata for Kids. Read on, to find yourself enthralled all over again, as you revisit our carefully crafted selection of Mahabharata Short Stories for Kids!
Mahabharata Short Stories for Kids: Top 5 Moral Stories from the Mahabharata for Kids
If you’re unsure about which Mahabharata Stores for Kids you want to be narrating to your children, you’ve come to the right place!
Presenting the Best Mahabharata Stories for Kids, that are especially relevant in today’s age!
- Arjuna and the Bird’s Eye Test
- Duryodhana’s Big Mistake
- Abhimanyu and the Chakravyuh
- Arjuna’s Dilemma
- Eklavya and Dronacharya
The great guru Dronacharya once asked his students, the Kauravas and Pandavas, to be part of an archery test. Telling them to aim at the ‘eye’ of a toy bird that rested on a tree branch, he then asked them what they saw. One of them said ‘sky’ and another, ‘the bird’. It was only Arjuna, who said he saw the ‘blackness’ of the bird’s eye. Satisfied with Arjuna’s answer, Dronacharya permitted only him to shoot. And he did, that too with precision!
Moral: We must push aside the irrelevant things in our lives, and focus on our Goals.
Before the great battle of Kurukshetra, both Duryodhana and Arjuna were furiously campaigning to gather all the support they could for their respective armies. They both approached the great Lord Krishna. Duryodhana chose to sit near Krishna’s face, as he found sitting at his feet ‘demeaning’. Arjuna, however, chose to sit at the Lord’s feet, considering it a ‘blessing’. When Krishna woke up, he ‘saw Arjuna first’, and hence gave him the choice: ‘My sole presence with you in the war, or my army of 10,000 men.’ Arjuna chose the Lord’s presence with him, much to Duryodhana’s delight. Little did Duryodhana know then, that very choice would help Arjuna win the war against him!
Moral: Arrogance will get you nowhere in life.
The Chakravyuh represents a most intricate Battle Formation.It was this very ‘formation’, that Abhimanyu had learned to break into while still in his mother’s womb! Many years later, Abhimanyu, now a sixteen-year-old, found himself fighting on the thirteenth day of the Great War. He easily made his way to the center of the circular formation, and found himself face to face with Duryodhana. At once several of the Kauravas rushed in to defend Duryodhana. Abhimanyu fought valiantly and killed many of them, but could not escape. After all, he hadn’t devised a way to ‘exit’ the Chakravyuh!
Moral: Half-Knowledge is always a dangerous thing.
It was on the battlefield of the legendary war of Kurukshetra that the great warrior Arjuna found himself presented with the biggest dilemma. He knew that soon he would have to wage an attack on his own family members. That would be nothing short of ‘sacrilege’ and ‘bad karma’, he thought, and it instantly had him in a quandary. That’s when the great Lord Krishna stepped in, and told him that it was his ‘duty’ to attack the ‘evil’ part of his family. He told him that if he did not fight in this most ‘righteous’ war, he would lose his reputation!
Moral: Witnessing a Sin without taking Action is the greatest of sins.
Eklavya was a tribal boy who refused to be taken up as a student by the great guru Dronacharya. The reason was simple: He taught only Kshatriyas and Brahmins. Undeterred, the boy placed a clay idol of Dronacharya in front of him, and practised hard. One day, angered by a barking dog, he shot arrows into its mouth. Arjuna learned about this, and told Dronacharya,who couldn’t bear the idea of his star pupil Arjuna having a rival. Summoning Eklavya, he asked him for his right thumb as Gurudakshina, knowing well that he would never be able to shoot without it. Eklavya happily cut off his thumb, and placed it at his Guru’s feet!
Moral: We will never be able to repay our teachers, but we should always respect them.
Summary of The Mahabharata for Kids
At its very core, the Mahabharata teaches us the following lesson: ‘In the end, Good is always triumphant over Evil.’
While each of the individual Mahabharata Stories for Kids have their own individual morals, The Mahabharata as a whole has a Moral, too. Namely, that ‘One must always do the Right Thing and fight for the rights they deserve. That is, just like the Pandavas fought for their rights against the Kauravas. The very ‘rights’ that had been wrongly’ taken away from them by the latter.
The Mahabharata Stories for Kids outlined here, rank among the finest Moral Stories from the Mahabharata for Kids. At EuroKids we are always encouraging parents to tell their kids Stories with Morals. Narrate to your children these Mahabharata Short Stories for Kids today itself. They will be sure to inculcate in them some Sound Moral Values!
