Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

Today we have a recording for Mukthisudhakaram. I am still proceeding towards the war scene. Bhagavad Gita was instructed by Krishna before the beginning of the war. But the way it is recorded in Mahabharatam, it is narrated by Sanjaya to Dhritarashtra and that too on the tenth day of the war when Bhīshma was made to fall from the chariot. Unable to control his mind, Sanjaya runs to the blind King Dhritarashtra announces the event, then Dhritarashtra gets extremely upset, he has a number of doubts and anxieties.

He says, “I will not be able to listen to your war narrations unless my mind gains some kind of a strength and a composure. Because I know, this is a story of my sons falling one after the other. Nevertheless a question arises. “Pandavas are so good, nice and righteous. Did they not have any feelings or resistance in the matter of fighting against the grandfather and making him fall piteously like this? I am tempted to wonder whether this point ever occurred to the Pandavas, particularly Arjuna, and if so whether the doubts and resistance were raised. Krishna is of course there. He is one who will be able to receive any such submissions and offer clarity and strength. So was there any ethical or moral exchange that took place in the Mahabharata, in the battlefield of Kurukshetra before the commencement of the war? Did anything ethically transpire before the actual war began?” This is the implication of the first word.

“What did my sons and the Pāndu putrās do in the battlefield?” It is very clear that they fought. Then why should Dhritarashtra again enquire, what did they do? What was their behavior? Was the war started all of a sudden? Was there no resistance in the mind of Pandavas, they are after all good and noble people. This is not a fight with sole enemies; this is a fight against the grandfather who is the commander-in-chief and Drona close to him. An unprecedented war with very respectable people, between whom no enmity ever prevails. So, there must have been a moral and an ethical riddle that transpired in the battlefield. How was it presented, felt and how was it resolved?"

So, I am building up the entire Mahabharata story, the development, and I have come to the day just before the actual commencement of the war. The night previous to, Duryodhana felt like sending Ulūka as a messenger. Earlier Krishna came as a messenger of peace. Now Duryodhana sends Ulūka not as a messenger of peace, as a messenger to provoke tease, taunt, torment and instigate Pandavas. Ulūka goes and delivers the message of Duryodhana to everyone, Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhishtira and all the rest. He is recounting whatever took place in the game of dice and whatever transpired after the event. What all Bhima uttered in the way of a promise. ‘I will kill Duhshasana, I will drink his blood.’What did Draupadi say? ‘I will not tie my hair till my husband with the bloodful hand comes and ties it for me after killing Dushasana.’ So he is reminding one after the other all these promises and statements made by them and he challenges them, “Promises are easily made, they cannot be fulfilled. You are all cowards. You can make utterances in vain. But the real Kshatriya will show his valor, his might and it is to be shown in the battlefield. Come and prove your words. You will find that all of them are lying as corpses in the battlefield. Krishna, you are no good at all. You are a tiny person. Somehow or the other you have become famous. That’s all. It is easy to say and show vishvarūpa in a sabhāgriha. But your vishvarūpa should be shown and demonstrated in the battlefield when there are people in front of you fully equipped and armed. Show your Vishvarūpa and resist them. You will fall dead. Come!”

In this way, he had sent a number of taunting messages. I am reading them and I am wondering, I am very contemplative and imaginary also, why is Veda Vyasa writing all these things? What is the reason? Duryodhana on the one hand will have sufficient enthusiasm, energy, drive and a feeling of strength only when such words are spoken. Fight is something to physically take place using bow and arrows, sword etc. but where from will one get the inspiration to do so? So he is sending a message taunting them. Taunting them is less important but finding the enthusiasm for war is the first factor. So by sending this message, his commitment, his fervor, his perseverance gets enhanced and by these deliveries Pandavas are going to be more and more exhorted. They had always the unwillingness to fight and pick up a quarrel with the relatives.

So, every one of them is giving a reply. Arjuna says, “Fight the war and fight it yourselves keeping adult soldiers in front. Don’t keep elderly and respectable people before me and bring young children. Fight if you can only yourselves and all the adult people fighters before us. Don’t do this.” Yudhishtira finally says, “We never wanted to have a fight with our own people. Our relationship with Dhritarashtra was alone responsible for this lingering quarrel. Otherwise there would have been no quarrel at all. The whole thing would have been settled long, long back. Because Dhritarashtra, our parental brother, is there to whom we have a loyalty and a wedded-ness, we had to bear all these things because ultimately he was giving consent and approval to whatever Duryodhana did. I asked for five villages so that this bloodshed can be avoided.” Again in the mind of Yudhishtira a note of peaceful co-existence arises. So this message through Ulūka finally gives the green signal, it gives a kind of a last minute compulsion, persuasion, to some extent instigation for the Pandava group to fight. Just imagine, this is human nature. 

A question arises here. Everyone is speaking with very vehement argument. Duryodhana does not lack it. He gives argument for everything. Every statement made is supported by argument. And the other side also has argument. In arguments nothing is less sharp, everything is very, very penetrating. So a question arises. What kind of a propriety in argument is the right one? Apart from the words we are using, is there any subtle invisible power called divinity or called propriety, call it ethics, call it morality, call it spirituality, is there anything like that? This is what Mahabharata is clearly illustrating.

Yato dharmah tato jayah

Where there is Dharma, the intrinsic propriety, there alone there is victory. So by all these conversations you find, how the intelligence of man can be activated and it activates the mind and this activation can be from any side and for any purpose. The evil people have their arguments; the virtuous people have their arguments. Now which argument is the right one and which is the stealthy one or improper one is a very, very crucial point.

Everybody has got a great, great appreciation for Karna. Many people come up with Karna’s integrity, I mean Karna’s kindness. Yesterday I was telling ‘M’ and ‘A’ that any kind of a sympathy or noble virtue you have in an immoderate measure, it is always mischievous and destructive. Karna was having an emotional excellence as a result of which he was gloating over his consideration, sympathy and the others. But what was this sympathy for? Where was he truthful? Who asked him to go to the place where Pandavas were proving their fight and excellence? There itself he says, “I want to have a duel, a personal duel with Arjuna.” What is the reason? If Karna wants to be great, it cannot be out of a competition or a jealously towards an individual. You must have a noble objective. That noble objective should be standing on its own ground. It cannot be on a personal whim or a fancy or a hatred or an intolerance. Why did he want to fight with Arjuna? Then Kripacharya interferes and then says that, “Karna, before fighting, you announce your identity. You announce your heredity.” Generally the rājaputras will fight only with rājaputras. After you announce your identity, it is for Arjuna to decide whether he will fight with you or not.” Then Karna was baffled. He said, “I am Radheya. I am called Sūtaputra. I am brought up by these people.”

He goes to Parashurama to learn further. Drona said, “I will not give you Brahmastra.” Brahmastra is generally given only to a Brahmana or a qualified and mature Kshatriya because it has got tremendous power. Then he goes to Parashurama and then says, “I belong to the Bhārghava dynasty.” And then he wanted to learn. He did not belong to Bhārghava dynasty and Karna had an argument. What is that argument? “Guru is equivalent to a father. So I have accepted you as my Guru. Therefore you are my father. And therefore I said, I belong to the Bhārghava dynasty.” This is, he was saying this when he was exposed that he was not a Brahmana, he could only be a Kshatriya. Then when Parashurama asked him, he reveals this with this argument. There also there is an argument. “Because you are my father I am born in that dynasty.” he says. Everywhere you will find this man is misbehaving. This is what Veda Vyasa wants to show.

There again he said, “I want to fight with Arjuna. That is why I wanted to have excellence from you. I am a Brahmana.” See, is there anything… Any kind of morality or ethics starts with a simple instruction, ‘Speak truth and avoid lies.’ All the Dharmic lessons commence from this basic statement. ‘Speak truth, have truth, be truthful, never be untruthful.’ Now this person goes and says that, “I am a Brahmana.” Why pickup unnecessary jealousy or enmity? If you want to do something good and great, understand that it is good and great and do it in a humble manner. Why should there be a competition or a jealousy coming for you to achieve an excellence? Your excellence should start on noble grounds and for noble purposes.

So ‘A’, I don’t know, perhaps ‘M’  also, both of them still feel, Karna, mm, very good. He was after all good. What good? I cannot understand. If you have sympathy and you want to cut your hand and you want to give, I cannot say that it is an adorable sympathy. These are all very crucial questions. It is morality alright. Virtues cannot be unjustified. Virtues cannot be destructive. Virtues cannot be such that it will always encourage and also strengthen the vicious people. So, I think we should understand all this. Perhaps in Mahabharata there is a full exposure of all the facets of morality, virtue, nobility, goodness, propriety and what not.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.