the rules

15.06.2026

‘So what you’re suggesting,’ Alfonso said, raising his voice excitedly, ‘is that the usual rules do not apply to you’. He gave me a look of admonishment. ‘Why not? What makes you so special?’

‘Genius has its own rules. I don’t rate the tedious morality and cant of the non-men. Rules made for cowards that have no honour.’ I wrinkled my face in disgust.

‘That is how you always phrase it. That you are a genius. That is how you rate this society and its laws, by reckoning it against honour and bravery.’

‘What else would you have a warrior do?’ I asked him. ‘And after all, their rules favour them. The rich and powerful in their society. The racists. Why would I follow their rules? I am the son and lover of The Mother. We do not have their law. We have the dharma.’

‘Dharma is not the right to do whatever you want.’

‘No one says that it is. What dharma is, would you like to know? Depending on the situation, the hero chooses the path that is right for him. That is the dharma.’

‘It sounds like a licence to do whatever you want.’

‘That is because you are speaking from the position of those that follow the dishonourable laws of the cowards. Where there is one rule that you cannot deviate from. Where everybody is treated the same, no matter how unfair it is, because they are a herd of unthinking sheep. The dharma is that which comes to the thinking man. He chooses the way of honour and bravery.’

‘Give an example of why dharma is superior to this law.’

‘This law favours oppression. Injustice. The example is The Mahabharata, the greatest of texts and the greatest story that gives an exposition of dharma. In the story, the family is unjustly dispossessed of their kingdom through fraud and cheating. Their wife is dishonoured. If they followed the objective rules of combat, they would lose. Because the so-called objective rules protect the usurpers who cheat, lie and steal. Therefore, following dharma, and following honour and justice, they disobey the rules. Because it is more important for honour, justice and right that the heroes win. That is the difference between this shitty law and dharma.’

‘What makes you think The Mahabharata is the truth?’

‘Anyone that reads it is inspired. As my grandfather taught me, it contains within it everything.’

‘You say this because the hero is Krishna, who you are named after.’

‘I am the hero. I am The Mahabharata. I am the authority of our religion, our past, our present and our future. I am the hero with the dharma.’

At first, Alfonso shook his head. And then he smiled. ‘You are incorrigible. And that, my friend, that is why I like you.’