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At a discussion about the Indian epic, the Mahabharat, recently, the group talked of how characters are sometimes trapped by the promises they have given others ... and what it means to keep one's word under all circumstances.
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Dear Reader,
The Indian epic, the Mahabharat, contains several characters, plots and sub-plots.
One of these goes thus:
The two friends, Krishna and Arjun, were walking through the forest when an old man approached them, asking for food. They promised they would give him food. At once, he turned in to a Fire God, and said his food was the whole forest and all the creatures in it. Having given their word, the friends had to help him devour the forest.
We have a discussion group here that talks about this epic, and this story gave rise to a lot of thoughts on displacement and other things. One of the topics discussed was -- the giving and keeping of a promise.
So -- the friends had given the promise of food to an old man. The assumption was that he ate what they did. That he was a Fire God in disguise and that their promise would lead them to destroy the forest and its creatures was unknown to them when they gave the promise.
Should the promise have, then, been invalidated?
Indian lore is replete with such examples. Here's another.
Lord Vishnu disguised himself as a dwarf and approached the demon king, Mahabali. Mahabali promised the dwarf, Vaman, that he could have whatever he could cover in three paces. The assumption -- the paces would be the size of a dwarf's foot. Lord Vishnu grew to his full size, and in two paces, covered the earth and the heavens. He told Mahabali that the promise had gone false, Mahabali owned nothing else to give, and the third pace had not yet occurred. Mahabali declared that he would keep his word. He bowed his head to Vishnu, and said, 'Place your foot on my head for your third stride."
Let's now move to contemporary literature -- and my favourite source of examples in newsletters -- Harry Potter. Let's take two instances of 'promises' here.
The first instance occurs in the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Hagrid is afraid he is going to get the sack, and wants Harry and Hermione to keep his giant half-brother, Grawp, company in his absence. He extracts a promise from them before they know exactly what it is they have to do, and after that, they can't get out of it.
The second instance occurs in the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Dumbledore takes Harry along to search for the Horcrux, first making Harry promise to follow any order he might be given by Dumbledore, including orders such as 'run', 'hide' 'leave me and save yourself'. The incident culminates in Dumbledore having to drink a poisonous potion, which Harry has to force-feed him, owing to the promise of obedience.
So what is the similarity between the two?
In both, the person who has promised doesn't know what exactly s/he has promised.
What is the difference?
In the first one, Hagrid knew what he was asking for, and was deliberately cagey about it till after he had received Harry and Hermione's word. In the second, Dumbledore didn't know what they were in for either, and had told Harry so. He had told Harry that the order given could be anything, and Harry would have to follow it.
Here's what I think. I think Harry was not obligated to keep the promise to Hagrid, and he was obligated to keep the promise to Dumbledore. The context of the promise, the intention of the person taking the promise and who-hid-what-from-whom all count, in my opinion. A promise obtained through trickery doesn't qualify as a true promise, I think.
The thing is, it makes for interesting stories, the dilemma of the word given and the word kept.
Let's enjoy writing those stories!
Thanks for listening!
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Moving on --
What examples in literature have you found, that hinged around the keeping of a promise made almost unknowingly?
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Spiritual: October 24, 2018 Issue [#9182]
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