Symbolism of Mahabharata

Using Gita and Mahabharata , we would discuss the means to purify our mind.

  Mahabharata is a war between good and evil. The concepts of good and evil is often debated. it is difficult to swallow when spiritual masters  tell us that good and evil are concepts of the mind. There isn't good and bad and evil and it all exists in our thinking. This is  true when you understand the fundamental fact that thoughts in our mind that liberates our mind to get peace are "Good" or "Positive" thoughts. Those thoughts  in us that strengthens  the "Ego" and chains the mind in a prison, disconnecting the mind and the body co-ordination and bringing suffering both at the mental and physical states are "Bad" or "Negative" thoughts. Both these thoughts exists in our mind always. What thoughts that we allow to grow in our minds determines the health of mind and body. There is always conflict between these two types of thoughts. Do we want freedom of mind or slavery of Ego is the choice we can exercise. The liberation of the mind from the prison of the Ego is  core teaching of Gita.

          The various positive and negative tendencies in our mind are the different characters in the story of Mahabharata which makes enjoyable to read and assimilate in our daily lives. The Mahabharata war is the war between the positive and negative thoughts in our minds. The  negative thoughts strengthen the Ego and positive thoughts strengthen our "Self" or "Spirit".

Spiritual Practices lights the path of Self-enquiry

            Spiritual practices are meant to cultivate more positive thoughts in the mind and strengthen our Self or Spirit as opposed to strengthen the Ego. This approach brings about inner purification which lights up the path of Self-enquiry. Being Spiritual is different  from being religious where a religious has a concept of God as a person. In spirituality, an individual is keen in using his body, mind  and intellect to understand the mystery of his life. From solving his physical and mental problems he evolves to a higher awareness state. This higher awareness state is the state of freedom.

         This is the fundamental question everyone ask when they are struck in the whirlpool of the mind games. It is wise to do these practices while we are young because at that state the mind and Ego is less complex. At an adult stage also it is possible, provided if we exert a little more effort. In the next section we will be reading about the the real intention of spiritual practice. To make it clear, we are doing this approach to free the mind from the clutches of Ego and overcome suffering is life and attain peace. This is called in different traditions as Self-Realization, Moksha, Nirvana, Liberation etc.

       To understand the practical aspect of freeing the mind from Ego , we use a different approach of  viewing Gita. Though Gita was given by Krishna on the first day of Mahabharata war, the 18 chapters of Gita and 18 days of Mahabharata war are  interconnected. We will see how every day of Mahabharata war is a reflection of our own mental conflict which is not different that of  Arjuna's own inner conflict.  We will understand  how step by step Krishna clarifies Arjuna through 18 chapters of Gita which we can achieve by practicing  18 simple exercises , one per week. 

              Through these 18 simple exercises  every day we ultimately  purify our body , mind and intellect.  Impurities of our body, mind and intellect  is like a screen that prevents us to know our Self or Consciousness or Atma or God or Peace .  Only through purification we can transcend to Consciousness (Self). 

Let us first practice for a week an introductory mental exercise for a week and then go to the first chapter of gita

Acceptance - an Introductory Exercise

           If you have not read about acceptance as a means of stress reduction and mind detoxification, please  click here to read  in health section before continuing to read this section.

What prevents us from realizing our talents?. Why is that we do not achieve what we desire?. Why I am not happy like others?. These are the questions that many of us ask ourselves. We often justify that others or situations in life are the cause for our failures and unhappiness. Here is one simple but most powerful exercise that alone will help you  not only success but also  happiness and content in life. This exercise might sound contradictory and seems difficult to practice that you have done like learning swimming or driving a car. But the more you practice, the better you feel and offers endless opportunity  to realize our potential. 

This magical exercise is Acceptance. Acceptance is about letting go of unrealistic expectations, large and small.  It’s about coming to terms with reality no matter how unfair or unpleasant it may be.  Acceptance is what we do when we acknowledge that no matter how hard we try, we can’t control everything, people or situations in life.

However acceptance does not means accepting failure and to give up trying or a do not care attitude. Here we are doing this mental exercise  to free our mind from stress of brooding over a fact or event that is unpleasant for us.

How can acceptance be practiced?

We react internally and externally to an unpleasant  situation or to an unacceptable person's behavior. There are two means of reacting to such situations. One is emotionally and the other way is with intelligence. Emotions work on the basis of one fact, our likes and our dislikes.

When we says some one is "Emotional" it means he is reacting based on his or her likes and dislikes. Emotions are not wrong. Emotions are needed to express the degree of our feelings. We express through our emotions only the degree of our pain and based on that A doctor decides the dosage of the pain medication.  So there is nothing wrong expressing emotions. What is hurting is the strong likes and dislikes we express which may not be in reality correct.

Intelligence is the fact giver or the reality projector. Intelligence throws light on the true nature of things. The true nature of things whether likeable or dislikable for us is the fact or reality of it.  Understanding the "Reality" of a person or the nature of the situation is Intelligence. 

Expressing our emotions to the reality of the facts is the correct approach  as taught by Krishna to Arjuna in Gita. When Arjuna hesitated to fight the war based on his likes and dislikes, Krishna taught him to react to the situation based on Intelligence. This is the essence of Gita.

There is nothing wrong in expressing our emotions, but you as the subject should express it with understanding of the true nature of the  object. This will leave the subject less agitated through the process of reaction and also after the reaction process.

If we react with emotion based on our strong like and dislikes, we waste time and energy brooding and complaining over it and inturn causing stress to ourselves.

Process: Acceptance means instead of reacting emotionally (that it displeases us) react with intelligence. That is first accept the reality of the fact is that  the event is happening in front of me or to me or against me. It is not agreeable to me or unpleasant to me. Instead of reacting out my un-acceptance (dislike), I think what is the best to do to handle the current condition and also think the ways to avoid that in future. Most importantly how can I transform myself to think more intelligently. This Self-Transforming attitude strengths not only Intelligence but also Awareness.

Acceptance does not mean that you accept the situation or the person's bad behavior is correct. Acceptance is for your mind only to accept the reality of the event and the person. Changing the event and person is only secondary possibility of the future. The person may change or may not. The situation may change or may not,. Both are not in your control.  You understand the Truth that at  present moment change can happen only to you.  This is acceptance. This relieves your mind from the Person's  behavior and also the unpleasant  nature of the situation.

     This understanding of another person as oneself is Compassion.    By this approach you bring slow transformation in the other person also. But change should begin from you and cannot expect the change from the other person. Without your inner transformation you cannot expect a change in another person. This non-acceptance is the reason for fight and war.  With this acceptance and inner transformation make the the other person also understand how his or her behavior is inappropriate. This will take time. 

Do not judge that the other person will not change. Give chances for the other person to change. This creates the quality of patience in you. Reflect upon yourself how much time you take to change an inappropriate behavior in yourself. Show that same compassion to others. This will blossom into unconditional Love.

Why do not we think or use our intelligence?. Because we rarely accept the reality of the person or situation. We only agitate our mind constantly thinking that this should not have happened or the person should not have behaved in such a way. This constant thinking of our dis-pleasure is the key point to be avoided. that cud-chewing mind is what gives us stress and agitation. You can let go of the cud-chewing (brooding over the incident again and again for years) only if you develop the acceptance attitude. This indirectly gives way for forgiveness a stress-curing medicine. Acceptance is the first step towards forgiveness. You cannot forgive a person or a situation with acceptance. Forgiveness is for your own benefit, to free your mind from the cud-chewing activity of the mind.  Ego grows through the cud-chewing activity of the mind.

Ego and acceptance

      Ego cannot accept a person (behavior attitude) or a situations or events in life. Non-acceptance is Ego's nature and also a means through which it gets its food to gain strength. The moment we accept any person or situation we see that the Ego's energy is drained. As soon as we accept a person or situation,  we find that the Ego loses it's heroic acts in our life's drama. Ego does not allow us to accept anything. It always blames others for all the problems. By blaming others,  Ego  has bright chances to get hold of the mind to either brood over the past or be anxious of the past. Acceptance brings out awareness to the present moment, while Ego does want to graze on past memories or worry and fear about future.

  The intention of the acceptance practice is to confront our Ego. We take it for granted that we are this mind and Ego without  being aware of our true Self. This practice would allow us to be pay more attention (awareness) to our Ego. As soon as we accept someone or an event or action, the Ego would storm in us. Be aware the Ego would smell danger and would hide out for a while then it will strike us back with full vigor.

This exercise is just to be aware of our Ego. Only if we are aware of our enemy's strength and weakness we can win a war. So start to practice acceptance and immediately pay attention to the way our Ego acts. We might have a dispute or disagreement  with our partner, family member or with some at work or a shopping mall. Immediately chant the mantra "Accept".   We can witness the war movie unfolding in our minds.

       Acceptance is the key to open the spiritual mastering of our mind. Practicing this brings amazing results. It is simple but very powerful in opening doors to the mystery of our mind and Self. This is the easiest means to purify the mind. It brings peace, patience and wisdom in us. It opens the doors of our inner light.  With this one practice all good qualities will get into our personality.

      There is an  amusing story about a scientist (Isaac Newton?)  He was a great cat lover and every time the cat needed to got out it would come to him and do "Meow! Meow! Meow!". The cat's behavior did not bother him until the cat gave birth to four kittens when the frequency of going out and in became more. So Newton called for a carpenter to cut  one big hole and four smaller holes in the  door so that the big cat would go in the big hole and the kittens in the smaller holes. The surprised carpenter asked whether he was talking to a world renowned scientist who  could not realize a simple fact that the kittens could have easily used their mother’s ‘pet door’.

      Acceptance is like a pet door through which all good qualities would get into us. So far with acceptance you understand that you get less stress, develop compassion, patience, forgiveness and unconditional Love. Last but the least, you become more aware of your Ego, transcend it and realize your own true nature, Consciousness.

This is the chapter describing Arjuna's sorrow. First we will see what happens in the first day of the Mahabharata war. Equally we will discuss the symbolism of Mahabharat or Mahabharatham.

         The two armies of Pandavas and kav-ravas met in the battle field. Arjuna asked Krishna to stop the chariot between the armies so that he could take a close look at the warriors with whom he had to contend. When Krishna placed the chariot between the two armies, Arjuna  saw his grandfathers, uncles, teachers, brothers, sons, dear friends and relatives in the enemy's side.  He was suddenly overcome with grief and deep sorrow filled his heart. He took his head in his hands while the body shivered with anguish and so left the weapons slip out of his hands.  Tears filled his eyes and so sat down on the chariot.

        He said to Krishna, "Looking at the honoured elders and teachers of mine, who are eager for battle against us. I am being weakened in my heart of what use will be any kingdom or wealth obtained by killing them? What enjoyment can one find in the kingdom of the world, which is smeared with the blood of one’s close relatives, sons, friend, teachers etc? I would rather be killed by the sons of Dhritarastra than laying my hands on them. I do not want to fight. It is a great sin to kill my teachers and relatives. If I kill them, family traditions will perish.  The slayer of the families will go to hell .  Arjuna was overwhelmed with grief. He threw away his bow and arrows and sank down on the seat of the chariot.

First day of Mahabharata war

        The two paternal cousin brother familes (Pandavas and Kav-ravas) with their allies stood in the battle field in Kururshetra to fight.  When Arjuna took a glance at the enemy, he saw his own relatives and became emotionally disturbed. Arjuna expressed his grief to Krishna  who was  his own maternal cousin, brother-in-law, friend as well his charioteer. Arjuna was reluctant to fight his relatives even though they had caused immense trouble in his life. Krishna cleared Arjuna's doubts and dilemma and made him to fight the war. What he spoke is what we now read as Bhagavad Gita.

           Before the two armies signaled for attacking each other,  an interesting incident happened. Yudhistra ,the eldest Pandava announced that whomsoever want to change sides of the armies can do it right then. Surprisingly, Yuyutsu,  one of the 100 sons in the kav-ravas left his side and joined the Pandavas. Duryodhana was furious with his younger brother Yuyutsu and screamed at him as a coward and a betrayer. Then began the war.

Practice for Gita Chapter -1

Enthusiasm

Exercise -1 of chapter one

1. Maintaining the enthusiasm to practice all exercises

           It is a very beautiful symbolism connected with  Yuyutsu leaving his 99 brothers and joining his five cousins. Yuyutsu in sanskrit means enthusiasm or willingness. Now this means that to fight the war against our Ego we need willingness or enthusiasm till we succeed.

         The enthusiasm (Yuyutsu) is the brother of Ego (Duryodhan). The ego has enthusiasm to do and accomplish things through good or bad actions.  Throughout the Sakthi Gita we are clear that we are witnessing the Mahabharata is still occurring in every one of minds.

       Like Dur-yodhan getting angry at his brother Yuyutsu changing side to his enemy, so would the Ego be angry at the enthusiasm we get to do the sakthi gita practices. You would see that the enthusiasm you had initially to do the practice slowly dies away day after day.

        Let us keep the enthusiasm to do the practice without giving it up. So the practice for next one week is to pay attention and maintain on our enthusiasm.  This exercise is important because you will notice that while doing our first introductory exercise of "Acceptance" , among the many tricks played by the Ego to destroy our practice, is to curb our willingness to fight. The Ego keeps us telling "I know all this so why should I practice this. I am powerful and so these type of small practices are meaningless to me".

        No wonder we would even drop doing these practices and that is the intention of the |Ego. The Ego wants every means to kill this war for freedom. So really be vigilant.

       Through this exercise we would get another view of Ego which will not allow us to undertake practice of Gita. These practices threatens Ego's power. It smells danger and like a dictator it will curb the revolting group. The exercise is pay attention on how our Ego play tricks to avoid this practices. It is fun to watch its  justifications for not pursuing these practices.

Practice the above exercise for a week and then proceed to chapter two.

Gita  Chapter -2

Sankhya Yoga (Analysis by dissecting)

        Sankhya means numbers or components or to analyze. When we encounter a problem we should dissect and know the components to resolve the problem. This Sankhya approach is used by Krishna to help Arjuna to understand his problem and so this chapter is known as Sankhya Yoga.

      In the first chapter Krishna listened to Arjuna's and only in chapter two Krishna talks and gives the essence of  Gita and the reality of life.  He tells Arjuna to accept the reality and the reality is that he is a king who duty is to fight war not out of greed of conquering but the duty  of fighting injustice.

Essence of Chpater-2

        Krishna told Arjuna that he is ignorant of the "Truth" about the real nature of all beings. Anything that is "Satyam" or Truth is not depended on any other thing for its existence.

        For example we do not attribute a shadow to be real, because the shadow does not have independent existence. It depends on an object and light for it to exists. In that case the light source or object is real and not the shadow.

       Similarly, Krishna says the physical body  is not real, because it does not have independent existence. Without the mind we do not feel the body. (Please think about this and enquire yourself and understand how far this fact is true). In sleep the Mind is not there and so we are not aware of the body.

      The next question, is this mind independent or does it depend on something else for its existence? We find that the mind depends on "Awareness" or "conditioned Consciousness". In deep sleep we are not aware of our body, mind and our intelligence. This does not mean we are dead. There is something alive and that aliveness principle is known as Awareness. This awareness is also present in the day time when we are awake. But we are not aware of the awareness because the body and mind awareness dominate it. We can know this Awareness while we are awake only through Meditation.

Mediation is a means to be aware of the Awareness while functions all the time when we are awake or sleeping. But there is another subtler aspect called Consciousness which is present even when we are living in a body or not. This is Consciousness.  (Please click to read the  details of Awareness and Consciousness in detail). 

    Krishna says every thing in this Universe,  from the smallest particle to the gigantic star does not exist independently or in other words depends on some thing gross or  subtle for its existence.  Since they cannot exist independently they cannot be called Real or Truth (click Creation link for details).

     Krishna says but there  is only one "Reality"  or "Truth" on which all the forms in the universe depend for its existence. This reality is known as the "Un-Conditioned Consciousness" or Brahman in Sanskrit. This Un-Conditioned Consciousness is independent and does not depend on anything else for its existence.

       This imperishable, un-manifested, unthinkable and unchangeable aspect, the "Un-Conditioned-Consciousness" ("Brahman")  is never subjected to birth and death.  It is unborn, eternal, changeless  and inexhaustible. It is not killed when the body is killed. Krishna says that this Aspect or Brahman slays not, nor is it slain. Weapons cut It not, fire burns It not, water wets It not, wind dries It not. .

Arjuna asked "What is this "Aspect of Un-Conditional Consciousness" or "Brahman" you are talking about Krishna,  which I cannot perceive?. How can I know whatever you are talking is true? How do I know about this imperishable, un-manifested, unthinkable and unchangeable "Brahman" or Un-Conditional Consciousness.

      Krishna answered to Arjuna that to know that your true Self is not this dying body but that imperishable, un-manifested, unthinkable and unchangeable "Brahman",   then you have to transcend the Ego which thinks itself as a perishable, thinking, changing object which is subjected to birth and death in this world.

     Arjuna curiously asked  what is the Ego that you are talking about and  how is it possible to transcend the Ego to know the imperishable, un-manifested, unthinkable and unchangeable "Brahman".