Symbolism of Mahabharata

           It is the Ego feeling or  "I" thought that craves and the bottom line for addiction. All mental and physical problems stems from the "I" feeling.  The "I"  feeling instead of helping the body, ruthlessly rips off health of  the body.   "I" want to experience  spicy taste no matter my stomach hurts and develop ulcers.  "I" want to experience to "refresh" with coffee no matter if it dehydrates my body  and make my body cells suffer in thirst. "I" want to experience dull-mindedness  with alcohol  no matter if it hurts my  liver and all other body organs..

            The moment the Ego gets the mind to dance to its whims and tunes, the body is completely forgotten. But every time when we try these body damaging experiences some thing in us warns about the consequences and that is our intellect. The intellect is like a wise minister or counselor who is concerned about the welfare of the people and of the king . It will warn the blind's king attitude of dancing to the tunes of its Ego prince as dooming the kingdom, the body. Such a blind king will wake up only when the citizens wake up and revolt against the autocratic  rule of the king. As we had discussed earlier disease is an alarm of the dys-functioning of the mind affecting the body and requires immediate attention. So the waking up call of the citizens  is the disease alarm.

Peaceful kingdom

          How can maintain Peace always?. When the mind (king) rules the kingdom (body) sticking to  law and the advice of the ministers without the selfish attitude of pleasing his son, the Ego, there would be peace in the Kingdom.  A king (mind) who rules with his own inner strength and not being a puppet in the hands of his Egoistic son, would bring peaceful reign.

          The above kingdom is an ideal kingdom. But what if there is no peace, there is total confusion and no direction in life?  If there a way out? Can something be done for the blind king (mind) its own strength and bring peace to the kingdom? Yes and that is the purpose of this Sakthi Gita.  Gita is the essence of Mahabharata.  The above story of our mind and Ego is the theme of Mahabharata. Our inner conflict is the Mahabharata war. Reading this Sakthi Gita not only we regain our inner strength but also know our real nature which is not this body, this mind, the intellect or this ego. Our true nature is one and the same but called in different names in different traditions - Soul, Spirit, Atma, God, Consciousness, Peace, Being, Reality etc.

Healing diseases of the mind and the body.

       Through Sakthi-Gita, one can heal the diseases of the mind and the body. As you have read in the health section in Sakthi Foundation web page, stress in the mind is the root cause for all the diseases. At a subtle level, the stress in the mind is due to its inner conflicts. If we can distinctly see the Ego and through that we can overcome stress in the mind, addictive habits, inner conflicts, deep wounds of the mind and all negative tendencies of the mind. Purifying all these aspects of the mind one can heal diseases of the mind and the body. This approach is not a temporary solution but a long lasting approach to regain peace in us, at all levels.

         Before introducing this approach to public on internet , we and our friends tried it and got amazing results. Many of our friends told us that for the  first time they were able to understand how the Ego plays tricks in the minds. They viewed their own Ego curbing all their attempts to let free the mind from its prison and realize its own power. This approach is like an adventure or like watching a movie since we observe our own thoughts. Through this path we understand the mystery  of the mind.

Mahabharata and Gita

Mahabharata

The  Mahabharata composed by sage Vyasa tells the story of two sets of paternal first cousins.  It is the story of a blind King Drita-rastra (mind), whose eldest Son Duryo-dana,  is the symbol of Ego. According to the code of Indian law, the kingdom should not be ruled by a physically handicapped King.  Drita-rastra who is born blind had to give up the ruling power of the kingdom to his younger brother Pandu. Pandu is the symbolism of wisdom.  To Pandu  five sons are born (called Pandavas)  and to Drita-rastra 100 sons (called Kav-ravas). Pandu dies soon after his sons were born  and since his son being young, it was decided by the ministers that the blind king Drita-rastra assumes the throne until Pandu's  son was old enough to be the king. 

          Through the above story and the symbolism, we will understand that from our birth, the blind mind cannot rule our life but the wisdom in us. Since the wisdom has to strengthen through experience in life, we temporarily allow the blind mind to rule us. But having tasted power the mind not only want to give up the kingdom ,but tries to crown  its own son, the Ego. This is what we see in Mahabharata.

           The power thirsty blind King Drit-rastra did not want to  now give up kingdom to his brother's Son.  He wanted to crown his own Son Duryodana as the king instead of giving back the kingdom to the most deserving brother's son Yud-istra. These developments lead the two sets of paternal cousins to  became bitter rivals, and opposed each other in war for possession of the ancestral kingdom. In Mahabharatadays India was called as  Bhaarat with its capital Hastinapur. Hastinapur  is still current  India's Capital with the new name Delhi.

               Knowing the developing rivalry, the great grandfather ,Bhisma divides the kingdom into two and allows one portion of it to be ruled by Pandavas. Duryodhana  however behaved viciously and brutally toward the Pandavas in many ways. With the intention of getting back the partitioned kingdom, he invited  the eldest Pandava, Yud-istra  in a game of dice:   Treacherously they win not only the kingdom but also wins all the five brothers and their common wife Draupadi. After they won the game of dice, the Kavravas (100 sons of Drita-rastra)  humiliated all the Pandavas and physically abused Draupadi and  drove the Pandava party into the wilderness for twelve years, and the twelve years had to be followed by the Pandavas' living somewhere in society, in disguise, without being discovered for one more year. If they are spotted then they have to repeat the exile of 12years and one year of disguise again.

         The Pandavas fulfilled their part of that bargain, but the villainous leader of the Drita-rashtra party, Duryodhana , was unwilling to restore the Pandavas to their half of the kingdom when the thirteen years had expired. Both sides then called upon their many allies and two large armies arrayed themselves on the battle field.

           The most dramatic figure of the entire Mahabharata, however, is Krishna,  who with great personality protects Law, performs Good Deeds and Right conduct. Krishna is not only  cousin  to the Pandavas (sons of Pandu) but also the brother-in-law of Arjuna , the third Pandava, and served as Arjuna's mentor and charioteer in the great war.

           Much of the action in the Mahabharata is accompanied by discussion and debate among various interested parties, and the most famous sermon of all time, Krishna  ethical lecture and demonstration of his divinity to his charge Arjuna (the justly famous Bhagavad Gita  occurred in the Mahabharata just prior to the commencement of the hostilities of the war. The war was fought 18 days and finally the Pandavas won killing Duryodhana.

Though there are lives of  thousands of kings , why was Mahabharta, a great epic was composed on the kings of Kuru , Pandu and Yadava dynasty?. This is because their lives still continue to inspire lives of not only ruling class but down to every human being on Earth. Mahabharata is the biggest book ever written which includes all branches of life.      

                Mahabharata is a powerful and amazing text that inspires awe and wonder about  cosmos and humanity. The Mahabharata and the war is not a fictional story but a historical event. But the author of the epic used the real incident and weaved  symbolic images to reflect our own inner conflicts. Using these images if we dive deep into our inner self, we will be able to appreciate the mystery of our own mind and life. Through this epic we will be left with no unanswered question.

The 100 sons

    We already discussed that the eldest son of the blind son Drita-rashtra is Dur-yodhana, who symbolize the Ego. To the blind king who symbolize the blind mind marries Gandhari. She out of emotionally love  to her blind husband , ties a bandage on her  eyes. Thus Gandhari symbolize the blind intellect  following the  blind mind. This blind mind and blind intellect breeds many desires through ten sense organs. Five are senses of knowledge or perception the eyes, nose, ears, tongue and skin (Gnanendriyas). The other five are the senses of action-mouth, hands, feet, genital organ and anus (Karmendriyas). There are 10 directions north, south, west, east, north east, south east, south west and northwest and up and down.

           When the mind and intellect run blindly in all 10 directions and functions through 10 sense organs , give rise to hundred (10 x 10 = 100) propensities, desires, thoughts, ambitions, expectations and dreams. These are the children of the mind and symbolized as the 100 sons in Mahabharata. The eldest of these thought is Dur-yodhana which means the one whom it is difficult to fight. "Duh" means difficulty, "yodh" means to fight and represents the Ego , which is difficult to fight or indomitable. The second son and brother to Dur-yodha is Dus-asana , the name means one who is difficult to control.

Pandavas - The Five

      Pandu was the younger brother of the blind king Drita-rastra. Pandu represents wisdom (represented by white color). But this wisdom matures with experience and hence gives the ruling power to the blind mind, until the children of wisdom are ready. Pandu's wife is kunti, which means to invoke. She invokes powerful inspiration of nature and bears children. The first child is Yudhi-stra. Yudhi means in the battle, sthira means tranquil or undisturbed. Yudhi-stra is the symbol of peace and the  sky element of Pancha Bhootas. Sky is the bridge of transcendence to the conscious state and  represented as throat chakra.

        Peace should be the ruler of us. But the Ego demands that it should be the take control over. This fight for the throne is Mahabharata war. In the war, Bhima the second son of the Pandavas who  killed all 99 sons of Drita-rastra. Bhima represents the life force or breath, the Air element in Pancha Bhoota.  Bhima is the breath that brings the awareness of "Oneness". The ignorance of duality dissolves in the purity of  "Love" and is represented as heart chakra.

       Arjuna the third represents fire element. Rajju means rope or bondage and na means no. This represents that we are really not bonded, but free. Arjuna represents the liberating thoughts in us and brings peace. Arjuna is the enquiring mind. The enquiring mind burns like fire and destroys the darkness of ignorance. This burning fire is what needs to be given direction and that is why out of the five brothers Arjuna was taught Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna represents the mastering the "Heat or Power" of senses symbolized as the navel chakra.

       Na-kula , na means no and kula is bank of a river or shore. Nakula means boundless or endless flow of water. He represents the flowing energy of desires, the energy to reproduce. Water is the element of nature that sustains life and reproduction. This sexual energy should be directed for our higher evolution towards peace.

      Sahadeva is the youngest of the Pandavas. He represents the Earth element, the solidness (reality)  of manifestation. Earth is the discriminating element, the food factor. It is through enquiry of real and unreal that drives us to seek wisdom. Earth is the foundation of "enquiry".

Nakula and Sahadeva are twins and is interesting to know their symbolism. Nakula represents the sexual energy that produce life and Sahadeva represents the enquiring attitude. According to Vedas,  life began when the cosmic consciousness wanted to know itself. Hence Life (Sahadeva) and knowing (Sahadeva) are twins.

Symbolism Of Krishna

The blind mind Drita-rastra created many desires, the kav-ravas. The knowledge, Pandu, created five qualities (pandavas) that bring peace. There is a constant struggle between these two groups from their childhood. The Ego (Dur-yodhan) hates Bhima the second Pandava who represents the vision of non-duality or "oneness". Ego tries to see only duality or separation  in this whole world. Love sees everything as one and this "Love" is very strong and can only defeat Ego. This vision of non-duality alone can kill all the 99 sons (out of 100). One son Yuyutsu joins Pandavas when the war begins. We will see what Yuyutsu represents in the first chapter.

        In our  inner conflict when we lose peace, it is the aspect of  knowledge in us that is confused needs clarity. This aspect in us that seeks teaching represents Arjuna. As we already discussed Arjuna represents bondage it seeks freedom to attain the kingdom of Peace. It seeks Krishna the manifestation of pure Consciousness.  Consciousness is often confused with awareness. Awareness is the phenomenon of brain while Consciousness is not. Consciousness is the "being" of every form and formless in this universe. The reflection of that Consciousness  is awareness (see more detailed explanation in the book "Journey to the Source decoding matrix trilogy) .

       We seek for clarity a teacher, a Guru. What we seek outside is already in us. The external teacher helps us to seek our internal teacher Krishna, the pure consciousness. The dialogue between the Krishna and Arjuna is Bhagavad Gita.

       Krishna is the cousin and brother -in-law of Arjuna and interestingly Krishna is the father-in-law of Dur-yodhan's daughter, that is , Krishna's son married Dur-yodhan's daughter lakshmana. So krishna is related to both the positive and negative groups of  brothers. This is why Indian God's are represented with three faces. The two faces on the sides represents the pair of opposites of the same body. This explains that both positive and negatives qualities resides in us. What dominates in us determines the final out come.

     Before the war both Arjuna and Dur-yodhan seeks Krishna's help. Krishna gave two choices to them. One would be his army and other would be he himself without any fighting weapons.  Duryodhan thought what would be the use of a person without any weapons in the war and so demanded krishna's Army. While Arjuna wished that just the presence of Krishna alone is enough to win the war.  Since krishna vowed that he will not  use weapons to fight the war , he became the charioteer of Arjuna.

Materialism  vs Spiritualism

     It is very important to understand the above symbolism. Krishna's army represents materialistic possessions while krishna represents Spiritualism, the liberating force in us. Like Dur-yodhan our Ego thinks that it is materialistic possessions that brings peace in us. But we have to be wise like Arjuna in choosing Krishna, the guiding force that would give us freedom and the kingdom of peace in us. This does not mean that we should not have any materialistic possessions. They are needed only for our liberation like the fighting army of the Pandavas. |Krishna who taught Gita and Arjuna who received the teachings both were kings with al materialistic possessions. The point here is to live life with these possessions but be detached and only then we will have peace. Do not be confused with this statement. Through Gita we will understand the above.

        The above symbolism for religious people should mean that we should not ask God for materialistic needs but for God himself to gain peace in us. Unfortunately religious people spend their whole life in asking God for this and that without seeking knowledge to liberate ourselves from this wanting attitude of limitedness.

Concept of God

     We have used here the word "God" which according to religious people is a person sitting some were in the clouds creating this universe. But for a spiritual person , the Truth one discovers in the enquiry path is God (this God of a spiritual person is not a concept, not a person or an object). We will get back to the concept of God in  later chapters of Gita.

       It is very interesting to read this symbolism of Mahabharata and then reflecting those characters in our mind and finally using Gita to liberate ourselves.  In this Sakthi-Gita, we will discuss in parallel, events of the war in brief, the essence of each Gita chapter and how if it reflects our inner conflicts. End of each chapter we would also do a small mental exercise to help us free from these inner conflicts and be in peace.  We recommend to do each exercise, one per week. Again we like to repeat that without practicing Gita in our daily life, we will never get any benefit. Doing this weekly exercises for 18 weeks is the most simple and easy way to practice Gita and attain peace.

The very purpose of  practice is to experience what we know or pursue to know. Like theory and practice. No one would be satisfied with a theory without a practical application of it. The practical application is a validation of the theory. Here we do an enquiry about the mystery of our mind and finally seek freedom from its limitation and remain at peace. So the purpose of practice is to walk through the path of enquiry. Every exercise that we intend to do here are the steps of that enquiry. You yourself would know whether this enquiry was beneficial or not and for that very same reason you conduct it. Nothing here given is a belief system for you to swallow it, but for you to analyze and use it. This warrants then application of the mental exercises or mental  practices. You would understand the depth of the enquiry only when you practice it yourself.

Generally everyone reads Gita or attend Gita classes every day or once a week but seldom practice which means apply the teachings in one's life.  It is like reading a book on how to do swimming or cooking or drive a car and never practicing it. Without practicing we can intellectually appreciate the greatness of Gita but never experience the greatness of the teaching itself. Understanding from personal experience and experience of many spiritual seekers we here focus on  how to practice Bhagavad Gita in daily life. The end result of practice is inner purification.

            
Purification - the culmination of all practices

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. - Mahatma  Gandhi

Purpose of Purification

Aim of any spiritual practice is to purify the mind. Why should the mind be purified? The mind like the blind king allows his son Ego to rule the kingdom instead of allowing the wisdom to exercise its power. The mind does not entertain any enquiry that will put end to its hypocritical rule instead will allow only thoughts that supports Ego's whims and fancies. This should be understood clearly and only then we can understand the purpose of purification of the mind.  Purification is really then allowing an unbiased enquiry keeping out the Ego's interferences. This is symbolism of purification is Vidur in Mahabharata who is the prime minister of the blind king as well as his younger brother.

       We cannot proceed in the enquiry path unless we are able to separate the chaff from the grain (the mind and the Ego). The mind can pursue the "Truth" only if it is detached from the Ego. As long as it is attached to the Ego, it can never trek the path of enquiry. Therefore all the Gita-exercises are meant to detach this Ego from the mind and this detachment is |PURIFICATION. Ego is the veil that covers the mind from seeing the truth in front of it. Ego is the cataract that prevents the mind from seeing the reality of life. It is this Ego that imprisons  us in the dark cell  of  sorrows.

    Purification is removing the husk from the grain. To eat the grain the husk has to be removed and so is to remove the Ego from the mind to seek peace. Without this purification we can never know peace and if even if we experience it will be only for only fleeting moments in life.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. —Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

There is only one goal, one target, one destination, one achievement  in all spiritual practice, and that is purification of mind. Religious practices also aim in purification of the Mind which  can only open the door to Self realization or God to be in God conscious state.

               It is a notion of many of us that doing penance, Meditation, chanting God's name (Japa) , observing fasting, rotating rosary beads, observing simple or body torturing rituals one can attain Self-Realization or Godhood.  But many are not able to achieve God or Self Realization in-spite of  many years of spiritual practice.

              Where is the problem?  Is it in the technique?  The fundamental problem lies in not understanding what  all these different practices are meant for. All spiritual practices are meant only for purifying our mind. Any spiritual practice that is done  without understanding the basic principle "Purification of the Mind" is a waste. One can enjoy few benefits out of the practice but not the ultimate goal. Example if fasting is not done without understanding the basic principle of mind purification, it will give benefits like weight loss or fat lost from the body. However if done with the intention of mind purification then both the body and the mind are purified. It is a pity that we keenly follow the advice of spiritual masters of any tradition but seldom realize what the advice is meant for.

             Without understanding the means, all attempts will be futile in achieving the goal. People switch over to different techniques and spiritual masters because they find fault in the technique or the master. The fault is in us when we do not attempt to purify the mind. Let me give a great experience from my own life that will help you to understand the simple truth that if we perform an action without understanding the purpose of the means to achieve the goal, all our actions bear no fruit but are left with frugal benefits.

 A real life incident

"If a man points at the moon, only an idiot looks at the finger”.  - Sufi quote

  My Aunt’s son, my cousin, was very poor in studies. My aunt requested me to teach the 12 year old boy every day one hour English subject.  On the first day  I asked my cousin to read a chapter from his English text book. To my surprise he was not able to read anything other than two words “The” and “And”. I was very upset and closed the book and as a joke asked him to read at least the name of the book. It was shocking to know that he could not even read the heading “English book for seventh grade”.  Though it looked like a punishment by commanding him to write 100 times the word  “English”, my  intention was to help him to at-least remember  the word “English”.

              After a few  hours later in the day, when I met him I gave him a piece of paper and asked to write the spelling of “English”. He wrote  the alphabet “E” and could not complete the rest. I was literally angry and was also surprised how he cannot remember the spelling of “English” even after writing it  100 times. I suspected that he did not write 100 times and so asked him to show his note boo. He had  literally obeyed my instructions by writing the word “English” 100 times.

               Now analyze this situation. My cousin though obeyed my instruction of writing 100 times "English", why was not he able to reproduce it?.  Is it lack of memory or concentration?. You would laugh at the way he accomplished the goal without understanding the purpose of performing the means.   Instead of writing down the word “E.N.G.L.I.S.H.....E.N.G.L.I.S.H......E.N.G.L.I.S.H......E.N.G.L.I.S.H” 100 times , he wrote E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E for 100 times and then N.N.N.N.N.N.N.N. for 100 times then G.G.G.G.G.G.G.G for 100 times, L.L.L.L.L.L.L. for 100 times and the rest of the alphabets 100 times.    He has completely misinterpreted my message to teach him. He has not understood the purpose of the  practice of writing 100 times. Even if he did write mechanically , he would have got it. Since he did not understand the very means of getting the knowledge, the act he  performed was useless. This is how in life we persist in repeating the tasks and end up in failures and never learn the mistakes.   Most of us do spiritual practices and rituals without understanding the intention behind it. Overtime then the rituals not only become meaningless but also degraded to mere superstitions.   When younger generation questions us about the rituals we are unable to answer them and instead we brand them as disobedient.