Numerically one plus one is truly two. However  when we are referring to a person or a thing is one plus one always two?  No the equation changes completely. One gram of deadly poison mixed with one litre of milk, is more than one litre one gram. It is a deadly poison, with the power to destroy.

One spark striking one kilo of cotton is not simply two differeng things coming together. It has the power to burn the cotton and burn anything in the vicinity  of the cotton.

A young man and woman can come together for a marriage alliance, but if the combination wrong, the two of them have the power to detstroy two hundred. Marriage of Prithivaraja and with the daughter of Jayacandra changed the entire history of India.

Similarly in Mahabharata, Dhritharasthra did not understand this mathematics of relationship.  For him it was hundred children whilst Vidura kept repeating that, “hundred minus one is equal to ninety nine but ninety nine plus one is equal to death of all and more.  Dhritharasthra was trying to be simplistic to the extent of being stupid, and his stupidity led to stubbornness, and then it was too late to learn the maths taught by Vidura.

Vidura kept trying to convince Dhritharasthra that if he agreed to let Duryodhana die  he would have 99 sons, but if he insisted on allowing Duryodhana to live then not only would he  lose Duryodhana but along with him all the sons would be wiped out.

Bhisma deva was too following this maths, he wanted the Pandavas and Kauravas to stay together and rule separately.  He divided the kingdom into two, but this led to the bloody war in the future. In reality it was Yudhisthira who was supposed to be the only ruler and all others were his subordinates. But when both were made different kings, one for Hastinapura and one for Indraprastha, this decision led to destruction of not only the Kuru dynasty but many more dynasties.

Therefore it is not addition or substraction that is important, but what kind of addition and what kind of substraction. Vidura’s substraction was a positive one. It would add value to the Kuru dynasty, hundred children minus one Duryodhana would allow millions of people to live without bloodshed.  But Dhritharasthra’s addition was detrimental to growth.  Ninety nine plus one Duryodhana was deadly, it created such a substraction that it wiped out many  families in tradition.

Learnig this maths is important in life, it teaches maths plus maturity, .

What kind of maths are we willing to learn, the building one or the breaking one?

Does addition add or substraction add, think over it, and use the technique of maths appropriately

– Govinda das