Yesterday happened to be the first day of 10-days Gita Jnana Yagna by Swami Sandeep Chaithanya. Contrary to my expectations, Swamiji arrived in time. After some really good inspiring inauguration speeches, the proceedings stated. Of the inauguration speeches, what attracted me was speech by Mr. Alexander. He himself said that we may wonder what a Christian would be doing in a Gita discourse, but he rightly justified his presence aptly quoting verses in Sanskrit from various scriptures. No, it never seemed a mugged up speech at any point of time. He really had a point; not only he but all speakers when they said Gita helps you to look into yourself, cleanse yourself and channel your life to moksha. They were also right when they said Gita never asks you to abandon your samsarik life but live it with a sense of detachment; i.e. to be a sanyasi, to attain moksha you need not be a bachelor, you need not wear saffron – all you need is a to live with love but also with a sense of detachment
I was really thrilled to see Swaniji in person, the same person whose discourses I heard on Doordarshan and was inspired to read Gita. His style is something unique and engrossing – taking instances from our day to day life and through various stories – he is a champion speaker.
To recollect what Swamiji said yesterday:
The Bhagavad Gita is not an independent work of literature but is part of the epic Mahabharata written by Ved Vyasa, and then locus of the story is the war and more importantly The Gita. This war is not a mere political war between two families to get hold of the land that they are rightly entitled to, but is a symbolic representation of the war within us. Yes it is a war between the right and the wrong and hence is a war within us as well – to tread the path of righteousness or wrong. Very aptly, Ved Vyasa has plotted the entire war in Kurukshetram (kshetram meaning body).
The war is narrated through Sanjaya. Sanjaya after seeing 10 days war comes and tells the proceedings to Dritharashtra. In a never precedent way and in a way that would never be seen in future, once the armies were arranged on either side, Yudishtir, the eldest of Pandavas, walks down to the side of Kauravas taking all there by surprise. All his younger brothers – Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva ask him the reason but he keeps walking. They turn to Krishna, but the Lord asks them to wait and watch. Yudishtir walks literally into enemy camp with no arms, totally sanitized.
Yudishtir first walks upto Beeshma, the great grandfather (not exactly a grandfather, but yes of course by age) of the Kuru dynasty. He bows before him and Beeshma says, “I would have cursed you, had not you come to me”. After blessing his great grandson, Yudishtir asks him, “Kindly tell me how we can kill you?” Beeshma replies “It is not possible for anyone else to kill me. Only I can decide when I want to die. So it is futile to think about that”. Then he walks towards Dronacharya, his Guru. Does the same exercise there and gets the same reply as well. On further insistence, he gets a reply “If you bring me to a situation where I would not fight anymore, I would put my arms down, and then you can kill me”. The great guru has disclosed the secret and this is one allegation we make against Krishna. We say Krishna asked to mask the death of an elephant “Ashwathama” as Drona’s son’s death who also happened to be called as Ashwathama so that Drona would put his arms down and Pandavas can kill him. More light on this episode shall come from Swamiji himself, I believe.
In between, Krishna walks upto Karna.
It may be remembered that Krishna had met Karna on his way back from the “peace” talk at Hastinapura court. Krishna knew that Karna was Kunti’s first son and hence Pandavas elder brother. Krishna had asked Karna to join the Pandavas and wage war against Kauravas, but Karna insisted to fight for Duryodhana in name of friendship. Karna should also have known that for the righteous to win, the war was essential and if Pandavas know that Karna was their elder brother the war would never have happened. Same should be the case with Krishna as well, else why he never disclosed the same to Pandavas?
At the warfront, Krishna asks Karna “Heard that you would not fight till Beeshma leads the army, then why don’t you fight from Pandavas side till Beeshma falls?” but the reply was the same.
By this time, Yudishtir comes back visiting all elders and announces “If there is anyone among Kauravas who would like to join us and fight Kauravas, they are welcome” – an invitation targeting Yuyutsu – who in their childhood had tipped that Bheema was poisoned and dumped into river by his elder brother, Duryodhana.
Analyzing the story till here, Pandavas represent the righteousness in us and Kauravas the wrongs. And life is nothing but a big war of this righteousness against the evil with in us. Thinking more into this, we also find that in the task of overpowering the evil in us, the easiest should be to overcome the tendency to pick a fight, from the incident where Yuyutsu (meaning “Yudh keliye yutsukh” or “charged upto fight”) joins the Pandavas. Futher thinking into this, the seed for the war in us is nothing but us. How? Let us analyze the seed for the Mahabharata war.
Mahabharata war’s seeds were sown when Duryodhana visits the palace at Indraprastha (built for Pandavas by Mayan after buring down Kandavaprastha, place given to Pandavas by Dritharashtra). The palace was nothing but a showoff by Pandavas. It was a place where exactly your indriyas could be fooled – where it seemed was a pool of water it was actually land and where it seemed land was actually water. And Duryodhana fell into a pool of water when he stepped into it thinking it is land. And Draupadi, the queen of Indraprastha, who should have actually lent a helping hand to Duryodhana (“aditi dhevo bava”, moreover he was elder to her and also elder to Pandavas even) , laughs at his plight and cries out loud “Son of a blind mad (Dritharashtra) is blind as well”. It is said that when Duryodhana fell even his dress got loosened and he was semi-nude. This actually triggers the anger in Duryodhana and he pledges to do same to Draupadi and rest is history.
So basically what led to war is the ill feeling of Druapadi, the way she behaved to Duryodana. It might be noted he is called as Suyodhana as well and may be it was at this moment that Suyodhana became Duryodhana. I will add more to this later, now stopping for lack of time
I was really thrilled to see Swaniji in person, the same person whose discourses I heard on Doordarshan and was inspired to read Gita. His style is something unique and engrossing – taking instances from our day to day life and through various stories – he is a champion speaker.
To recollect what Swamiji said yesterday:
The Bhagavad Gita is not an independent work of literature but is part of the epic Mahabharata written by Ved Vyasa, and then locus of the story is the war and more importantly The Gita. This war is not a mere political war between two families to get hold of the land that they are rightly entitled to, but is a symbolic representation of the war within us. Yes it is a war between the right and the wrong and hence is a war within us as well – to tread the path of righteousness or wrong. Very aptly, Ved Vyasa has plotted the entire war in Kurukshetram (kshetram meaning body).
The war is narrated through Sanjaya. Sanjaya after seeing 10 days war comes and tells the proceedings to Dritharashtra. In a never precedent way and in a way that would never be seen in future, once the armies were arranged on either side, Yudishtir, the eldest of Pandavas, walks down to the side of Kauravas taking all there by surprise. All his younger brothers – Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva ask him the reason but he keeps walking. They turn to Krishna, but the Lord asks them to wait and watch. Yudishtir walks literally into enemy camp with no arms, totally sanitized.
Yudishtir first walks upto Beeshma, the great grandfather (not exactly a grandfather, but yes of course by age) of the Kuru dynasty. He bows before him and Beeshma says, “I would have cursed you, had not you come to me”. After blessing his great grandson, Yudishtir asks him, “Kindly tell me how we can kill you?” Beeshma replies “It is not possible for anyone else to kill me. Only I can decide when I want to die. So it is futile to think about that”. Then he walks towards Dronacharya, his Guru. Does the same exercise there and gets the same reply as well. On further insistence, he gets a reply “If you bring me to a situation where I would not fight anymore, I would put my arms down, and then you can kill me”. The great guru has disclosed the secret and this is one allegation we make against Krishna. We say Krishna asked to mask the death of an elephant “Ashwathama” as Drona’s son’s death who also happened to be called as Ashwathama so that Drona would put his arms down and Pandavas can kill him. More light on this episode shall come from Swamiji himself, I believe.
In between, Krishna walks upto Karna.
It may be remembered that Krishna had met Karna on his way back from the “peace” talk at Hastinapura court. Krishna knew that Karna was Kunti’s first son and hence Pandavas elder brother. Krishna had asked Karna to join the Pandavas and wage war against Kauravas, but Karna insisted to fight for Duryodhana in name of friendship. Karna should also have known that for the righteous to win, the war was essential and if Pandavas know that Karna was their elder brother the war would never have happened. Same should be the case with Krishna as well, else why he never disclosed the same to Pandavas?
At the warfront, Krishna asks Karna “Heard that you would not fight till Beeshma leads the army, then why don’t you fight from Pandavas side till Beeshma falls?” but the reply was the same.
By this time, Yudishtir comes back visiting all elders and announces “If there is anyone among Kauravas who would like to join us and fight Kauravas, they are welcome” – an invitation targeting Yuyutsu – who in their childhood had tipped that Bheema was poisoned and dumped into river by his elder brother, Duryodhana.
Analyzing the story till here, Pandavas represent the righteousness in us and Kauravas the wrongs. And life is nothing but a big war of this righteousness against the evil with in us. Thinking more into this, we also find that in the task of overpowering the evil in us, the easiest should be to overcome the tendency to pick a fight, from the incident where Yuyutsu (meaning “Yudh keliye yutsukh” or “charged upto fight”) joins the Pandavas. Futher thinking into this, the seed for the war in us is nothing but us. How? Let us analyze the seed for the Mahabharata war.
Mahabharata war’s seeds were sown when Duryodhana visits the palace at Indraprastha (built for Pandavas by Mayan after buring down Kandavaprastha, place given to Pandavas by Dritharashtra). The palace was nothing but a showoff by Pandavas. It was a place where exactly your indriyas could be fooled – where it seemed was a pool of water it was actually land and where it seemed land was actually water. And Duryodhana fell into a pool of water when he stepped into it thinking it is land. And Draupadi, the queen of Indraprastha, who should have actually lent a helping hand to Duryodhana (“aditi dhevo bava”, moreover he was elder to her and also elder to Pandavas even) , laughs at his plight and cries out loud “Son of a blind mad (Dritharashtra) is blind as well”. It is said that when Duryodhana fell even his dress got loosened and he was semi-nude. This actually triggers the anger in Duryodhana and he pledges to do same to Draupadi and rest is history.
So basically what led to war is the ill feeling of Druapadi, the way she behaved to Duryodana. It might be noted he is called as Suyodhana as well and may be it was at this moment that Suyodhana became Duryodhana. I will add more to this later, now stopping for lack of time
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