The Hindu narratives glorified one who submits to the will of
father, society and tradition. The obedience is the highest virtue. The good
son is who obeys. Father knows best, Father is wise, Father is tradition and he
must succeed. The Father must win to keep the cultural values intact. We hear
this sound right in our home. The Father generation always reminds us how they
were obeying their father and how we should obey them, surrender to them, and
submit to them. The mindset is called as Yayati Complex! Why?
The two stories from Mahabharata are illustrative:
Yayati, Chandra-vamsi king, was married to Devyani, daughter
of Sage Shukra. Devyani has a maid Sharmishtha, who travelled with Devyani to
the palace of Yayati. Soon, Sharmishtha caught the eye of Yayati. The two got
married secretly and even had children.
Found about this, sage Shukra cursed (Shap) his son-in-law
Yayati, ‘You will become old and impotent’. But it was soon clear that the
curse had its worst impact on his daughter Devayani only. He couldn’t reverse
his curse. So he modified (U-shap). He told Yayati, “If one of your sons
accepts the curse on your behalf, you will regain your youth and potency’.”
Yayati immediately sent for his sons. His elder son, Yadu,
refused to accept curse on his father’s behalf. But younger son Puru, born of
Sharmishtha, agreed to suffer for his father. So Puru suffered old age while
his father enjoyed his youth.
Devavrata was 8th son of Puru King Shantanu by Ganga. He grew up to be a handsome prince and a skilled warrior. The people of Hastina-puri loved him and hoped for a day when he would be king. But this wasn’t the wish of destiny.
His father Shantanu had fallen in love again, this time with Satyavati, a fisherwoman. But Satyavati put a condition: she wanted to be sure that only her children would be his heirs. This put Shantanu in awkward position as Devavrata was already declared as crown prince and he couldn’t possibly satisfy Satyavati’s condition.
Learning about the cause of his father’s misery, Devavrata went to Satyavati and said, “I renounce my claim to the throne. I shall never marry. I shall never father children”. This terrible vow brought him the title of ‘Bhisma’!!
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| Artist Ravi Varma's depiction of Bhishma abdicating the right of his throne to secure the hands of Matsyagandhi, a fishergirl, in marriage to his father Shantanu. Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, Mysore from http://www.kamat.com |
Devedutt Patnaik in his book ‘Jaya’ written that:
“In Greek worldview, dominated by the Oedipus complex, it is
the next generation which inherits society, while in Indian worldview,
dominated by the Yayati complex, it is the older generation which always
dominates society..”
The Yayati complex can be seen everywhere in Indian society.
From politics to sports, from cinema to family. I remember the Indian cricket
team on 1990s. Despite some splendid performance by young players in Ranji, we
always relied on some great ‘experienced’ players for long. Experience has
divine sanctity in our selection. When it came to selection for Australia or
England tour, older players came back. We lauded their ‘experienced’
performance. Even now, in the great debate about Sachin’s retirement, a large
chunk is batting for his ‘experience’ rather than his talent, his utility in
current team.
In politics, it is older generation that is dominating the
scene. The politics of India still imprisoned in the old Nehruvian logics. We
refuse to see the 21st century through new vision, new vigor, through
the eyes of youths. The Congress is trapped in its old Nehru-Gandhian thinking.
The BJP is struggling to come out from Atal-Advani leadership. The Shivsena
refused to shed Bal Thackeray’s shadow. Karunanidhi is pulling the string from
wheel-chair. The so called ‘Young Turks’ are from the families dominated by the
older generation.
Bollywood movies are best example of this Yayati complex. The
angry-young man theme is popularized in Indian cinema is nothing but the son
fighting for his father’s cause and taking revenge of his father’s killing. The
son is devoting his complete life for the happiness of his father’s soul. There
is another theme popular in Indian cinema. The Govinda-Kadarkhan duo was chief
anchor of this theme. Bad father, so good son fought, struggled to have a good
life for his father. There were departures from these themes with the dawn of
love stories (QSQT). It ran like - girl and boy falling in love with each
other, then defying their parents, defying whole universe for the love.
Is it good or bad, difficult to answer. There is no answer.
There cannot be any answer. The tradition of respect and glorification of old
generation has its Demographic dividend. The demographic divided of this Yayati
Complex has yielded a mixed result. We kept our family system, our age old
cultural values and our ‘Indian-ness’ intact, but lost the dynamism of culture
to rigid customs and traditions.
Let us see how this 21st century ‘demographic
divided’ find a way through this ‘Yayati Complex’!
