PASSING THE BALL

In Soccer, passing the ball to other players, especially within the D-line characterizes coordination, cooperation and the desire to win collectively, sometimes even at the cost of personal excellence.

A player is often posed with a choice between proving his brilliance and contributing to the team. When one does make such sacrifice on a personal front, he or she may not realize that he may have lost many future opportunities to score. But the winning team recognizes this act and offers chances to progress in future matches.

This is the picture of the Mahabharata.

Bhima and Arjuna represent the act of passing the ball of victory at a crucial moment. They perform most remarkably but Yudhishthira is offered the credit. He takes the glory, and Bhima and Arjuna take the subordinate position.

In the Kauravas’ team, each one battled only for personal excellence. Bhishma fought only to protect the vow he took before his father. Drona fought to avenge Drupada. Karna fought to prove his superiority over Arjuna. And above everyone, Duryodhana fought to acquire the throne, not to establish good governance but only for the position of the king. They were all greatly accomplished players but played the ball within their own proximity, not seeing the rest of the field. They did play some excellent game but only with the desire of improving their own score, against the team’s. Karna refused to pass the ball to Bhishma because he wanted all the glory  for himself. Kauravas played with one player less, karna, till Bhisma fell,  karna would not play and perform.

Kauravas were sure to be defeated owing to the bad coaching of Shakuni. Krishna, on the other hand, with His excellent track record of great coaching, made the Pandavas win because they acquired the technique of passing the ball of glory, giving credit to the next player.

Let us all play such a game in life. With Krishna’s coaching, we will certainly be in the winning team where having personal excellence or not becomes immaterial.

BY MISTAKE

Quite a few mistakes are accidental and very small when committed. But the result of the mistakes are beyond our control.

Making small mistakes are supposed to give minuscule reaction by the law of action and reaction, but the timing and the place can change the story altogether. A Small mistake may even lead to life time regret, suffering or violent war.

Ambalika closed her eyes for a moment and Dhrithrasthra was born, blind, making him suffer for life. Ambalika could not forgive herself.

Kunti's curiosity for testing the boon given by Durvasa was quite natural, couldn’t even be considered a mistake. But that curiosity lead to invoking someone as great as Surya. The result was a painful life of separation from her son Karna,where she could see and hear him only from a distance and eventually had to bear his loss. Karna developed hatred towards his own brothers. Kunti had to silently witness this painful reality till his death and even beyond. 

Gandhari, devoted, loyal, chaste and Dharmik,made a small mistake of being a little envious of Kunti, when she heard the news of Yudhisthira's birth. In the spur of the moment, she struck her belly and eventually gave birth to the personification of envy towards Pandavas, which finally culminated in a huge massacre.

Mahabharata exposes us to the realities of life beyond our own imaginary expectations.  Certainly, ‘to err is human and forgive is divine’, but in between the human error and forgiveness of the divine there is a portion of our life to be lived, the reaction stage. When an individual accepts committing mistakes with honesty, he or she will get the power to transcend the effect of the mistake, as was the case for Kunti.

Unfortunately, Gandhari made another mistake, a small one, but having a lasting impact. When she lost all of her sons in the battle, she went through intense suffering, and she vented out her pain by spelling a curse on Krishna, causing the death of theYadus through fratricidal war. Of course, one may think that the dynasty had to be vanquished somehow or the other, but her mistake caused her to bear the burden of becoming responsible for it. 

Therefore, mistakes will be made by us, but what kind? That is the question! Those which give small reaction, or perpetual suffering, or the ability to transcend the reactions?

BUILD OR BREAK

From a linear perspective, building and breaking are opposite to each other but from a cyclical perspective, they become harmonious. Breaking leads to building, which in turn leads to breaking and so on.

Both, the linear and cyclical perspectives have their respective roles. The maturity of a wholesome person can be determined by his judgement of which one to use when.

The Mahabharata deals with both these perspectives of building and breaking, making life beautiful.

What Dhritharashthra had to see through a linear perspective, he saw through the cyclical. When someone would suggest him to discipline  Duryodhana and set things right, he would reply using the cyclical approach saying, "nothing can be done because it is beyond our efforts" and call it destiny. Even when it was evident that his son was not supposed to be king, he actively schemed against the Pandavas to destroy them.

It was conscious avoidance on the part of the blind king to justify his meanness using wrong perspectives at wrong times in wrong situations.

The linear perspective is action oriented and the cyclical perspective is philosophical. One must use the linear perspective for our present and the cyclical to see our past and reflect upon it. This implies that the linear perspective is meant for that which can be changed and the cyclical perspective is meant for that which can't be changed, and must be accepted.

The blind king tried challenging the unchangeable - the destiny of any of his sons of not being crowned as king and wanted to interfere with the unchangeable destiny of Yudhishthira becoming the King of Hastinapura.

Therefore, the Gita harmonises destiny and action. The reflective Arjuna sees things from a cyclical perspective and the active Arjuna sees things from a linear perspective. In this way, he is an ideal example of a perfectly practical person for the betterment of this world. And by being cyclical, he becomes philosophical and further worldly in his approach. 

Whether our approach is cyclical or linear based on the situation is what will decide our destination. 

DUTY FREE DESIRE BOUND

Clashing for survival is the instinct of every living being, be it human, nonhuman or bacteria.

But when clashes take place amongst those who have abundant resources, but want some specific position and power, it gives rise to organized war.

Kauravas and Pandavas had plenty; to live and let others live for many generations.  But it was one of the most gruesome battles ever, when people with plenty clashed for some specific needs and desires. Unfortunately, the need of the Pandavas and the desire of the Kurus were the same, the kingship of Hastinspura.  

As for Yudhisthira, it was ordained, by destiny, by the rule of Manu and by his own qualification that he had to perform the duty of being the king of Hastinapura. As for Duryodhana, he could have remained a regent prince under Yudhisthira, and cooperatively lived happily and become as famous as Yudhisthira, without the tag of being a king. Just like Bhishma and Vidura, who were very influential, famous and well respected by one and all, and forever.

But Duryodhana was bound by specific desires, for the grant of which he was neither entitled nor qualified, while the same was forcefully awarded to Yudhisthira by the very dint of his duty, even if it meant an ugly war with Duryodhana.  Although Yudhsthira was willing to live with a mere five villages, the Lord of everything including destiny, Krishna,  steered the course of action for Pandavas by making them face the realities of their life that they were bound by Duty, which eventually made them free of their reaction. Not engaging in one's duty under the pretext of practicing higher principles of life, i.e. giving up all attachment including one's duty may sound very profound, but it's not beneficial for the future legacy.  The Pandavas' freedom was to be bound by duty, which meant to fight with their very cousin Duryodhana, a person who was bound by desires.
Thus, the war was a clash between the duty-bound and the desire-bound. Duty bound people have to perform on all levels. Later, Yudhishthira did reach a stage where he displayed the ability to be freed from his duty of being a king, but, at the right time, not with an external war, but an internal stability, and he went on to the next level of duty, which was to proceed towards the Himalayas to become ready to cast off his body with complete satisfaction. His brothers followed suit.  This was quite unlike Duryodhana, who was desire bound. He died a miserable death, not only on the physical level, but also on the emotional and spiritual level.

Are we desire bound or duty bound? There's a war within! Let's decide from which side of the army we want to fight. We are bound either way, but we have the power to free ourselves on one hand and to be bound further, on the other.

CONVENIENTLY INCONVENIENT

The golden deer Marica had dark intelligence. He tried to communicate to his nephew Ravana, to stop his nefarious activity of kidnapping Sita, though Ravana stood undeterred. Marica was given two choices by Ravana, to get killed, either in the hands of Rama or by Ravana himself.

After some contemplation, Marica decided to execute the order of Ravana, to help him kidnap Sita. He knew he would be delivered from worldly existence if he got killed in the hands of Rama.

When one becomes self conscious, one cannot neglect to also consider its consequences in the present worldly situation. Marica was selfish, spiritually…. but at the cost of causing so much inconvenience to the very person from whom he was expecting freedom from worldliness.

Leadership is also is like Marica's predicament. A leader has great scope of climbing the ladder of success n promotion, but it's at the cost of stopting the growth of so many other individuals, who are the very people who caused the leader's growth in the first place, and that very growth can eventually put them in trouble.  Do we want this kind of growth, and is it really a growth?  It is short lived materially, what to speak of morally.

Ultimately, Marica's name goes down in history, the history of infamy, for having a miscalculated intelligence, not for being delivered from a demon body.

Jatayu, on other hand, was an ugly bird externally, but he was master strategic.

 On an intellectual level, he made the best use of a bad bargain, his old and useless body destined to die, by giving a fight to Ravana, till death, for a cause which would be fondly remembered forever.

On a practical level, he became Rama's detective, and helped create strategy against Ravana to rescue mother Sita, causing much help to Rama.

On a social level, he became famous, for setting the right example.

On a spiritual level, he was awarded eternal liberation.

Thus, Jatayu chose Temporary Inconvenience for Permanent Convenience, both, to himself and to those who derive meaningful lessons from Ramayana.

Marica's life is temporary benefit centered. Jatayu's life is wholesome benefit centered.

There are no ‘Isolated Profits'. They are either integrated, or else we must pay a high interest rate for taking the wrong step.

Look for the right profit and invest!
 

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION

Effective Communication is not language centric, it is effect centric. If language is the actual reason(criterion)(cause) for effective communication, then modern society has made great progress in this field, with all its sophisticated gadgets. But if we peek into the reality, we see that there is much lack of understanding, rather more of misunderstanding.

In Ramayana, Jatayu is famous for exemplifying the quality of complete dedication. There is another jewel of a quality in the character of Jatayu which is less known! The quality of (effective )communication! Which gave another helpful twist to the story of Ramayana, the twist which eventually fulfilled the desire of the gods to kill Ravana, the personification of adharma.

Jatayu was a bird, but he spoke and the language of the heart. His communication with Mother Sita was perfect, by hearing and understanding from Her about Her difficulties. He communicated to Ravana, his own intolerance of Ravana’s wrongdoings, by his action of fighting against him to defend mother Sita. He communicated with Lord Rama effectively, making Him understand his pure intentions to save mother Sita and  Her whereabouts.

In Mahabharata we see, the great chariot driver Salya and great archer Karna. They had such a misunderstanding amongst them when Salya told Karna to aim his arrow at the chest of Arjuna instead of aiming it at his head(neck). Karna had an argument with Salya and finally shot his arrow towards Arjuna’s head  Krishna, when He saw Karna’s arrow coming towards Arjuna, He pressed the chariot with His foot, and immediately all the horses responded. At once, they bent down and sat on their knees. This saved Arjuna’s life. 

Thus we learn that two men, with all their sophistication, could not communicate well. On the other hand, Krishna was able to communicate even with His foot, and the horses too, could perfectly understand what Krishna wanted them to do.

The Horses were better communicators and Jatayu was profound in his communication. On the other hand, human beings, with their so called royalty and modernity, make tons of mistakes in communicating, creating an effect of an avalanche of conflicts.

The art of communication lies in the Positive effect it creates, which is the heart of communication. Language is merely one of its tools. 

 Are we equipped to communicate, either with language or with whatever tool it takes to communicate, so that it creates harmony and coordination?

CYCLE OF CREATION

Perpetual existence, sustenance and destruction are the fundamental phenomena of nature’s law. There is no other way to understand the operation of the universe. We see and experience this drama on both, macro and micro levels.

Together, these three aspects of nature’s law show us that every new thing that is created must go through the other two phases eventually. For instance, a flower appears, stays for some time and unfailingly passes away, only to be re-born in another form, continuing to be a part of this cycle forever.

Every new solution has an inherent new question. And every answered question goes on to raise further questions. This is the drama of life. But if we attempt to stop acting and respond to it with an attitude of inaction, it will lead to adharma. On the road of life, the driver cannot afford to stop.  Because it is safe not to drive,  Driver means he has to be on the road. He must stop only to rejuvenate himself and get back on the track and resume the steering.

When we see life in this perspective, driving becomes a duty, not a mere joy ride or a deadly boring task. The Mahabharata teaches us by many examples that we must not stop fighting. Only in fighting, one experiences contentment; because that is how life is designed.

An ideal king or a leader is not one who works for us. Instead, he works in a way that we find our calling and work for ourselves. He is a good fighter in life, being in the helm of affairs. Otherwise, a deluded citizen would only reach a stage of dreaming to believe that he can move everything without  the citizen really doing anything. Such citizens are easily deceived by  foolish and cunning leaders.

In the Mahabharata, we see that Krishna inspired the Pandavas in such a way that they could work for themselves, put in their cent percent efforts with an endeavour that attracted the grace of God and brought them victory.    And they perpetually fought for Dharma and passed on the legacy to the next king, who would similarly continue this battle of life and the legacy. But when this legacy halts, adharma becames more prominent and emerges victorious. And it stay until someone comes to fight the great battle to push adharma as far as possible. The greatness of a leader does not lie in him changing everything for us; instead he changes the phenomenon of no one taking the lead to inspire so that everyone or at least a sizable portion of the population becomes responsible and performs his or her duty.

A large number of parents become dutiful and their kids respond appropriately, the teachers teach compassionately and the students take to education seriously, the responsible citizens pay tax and the government servants work effectively, etc. In this way, the cycle of life continues to roll forever.   Of course this is an ideal situation, when the ideal situation is followed to large extent it is called as Dharma Rajya or Rama Rajya, when it is not followed then it is kali yuga.  But  at no point of time it will be pure black and white.  Even in the  most difficult situation one can practice the Dharma cycle, as Vibhishana did it in Lanka or as Hanumana did it in Kishikinda.

We must choose what we want to be – a part of this organic execution or an obstacle, making it inorganic and invoking the anger of dharma, the laws of nature.

being a part of moving wheel of life dharma follower, and causing harm to this moving healthy wheel of life is the soldier of adharma and they will clash forever.  we are part of either one of the side, broker of the wheel or the mover of the wheel.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND INNER STRUCTURE

One student from the Western world came to India and so was her observation…. “India’s infrastructure is very incoherent, buildings are not orderly, and every design is different from the other. In the western world houses, buildings are very coherently built, there is orderliness.”  She did not stop at this, she continued, “but I think Indian homes are coherent from within, there are cordial relationships, families are built nicely, and father, mother, children and other relatives are staying in these houses all together. But in the western world, the families are broken, parents are not staying together(separated), kids are in their own world.”

Infrastructure is good but inner structure is broken—that is west.

Inner structure is good but infrastructure is improper – that is India.  Of course, India too is catching up fast with its western counterpart in becoming weak from within. It is in a most precarious condition indeed!

Vedic leadership talks about the coordination between the inner and outer infrastructure, lack of which leads to continuous conflict. In the proper system,

Individual strength increases collective strength and collective strength in turn, helps the weak individual to grow.

Decentralized leadership helps people grow internally and centralized leadership helps the infrastructure grow.

Decentralized leadership consisted of Parents, Teachers and village heads. The king, ministers and the army were the centralized leaders.

 Morality was individual responsibility, and legality was the king’s responsibility. 

Morality would help grow internally and legality would help grow externally. 

This is the system which our Vedic scriptures and traditional leaders teach us. Therefore, India was economically strong, even up to the 18^th century. Because Laxmi (Represents wealth) with Narayana is very auspicious.  Laxmi is prosperity and with Narayana it is Dharmik.

So let us find a leader who tries to create such a system of leadership!

SHE DESCENDS

The very sound and name of ‘Ganga’ offers a feeling of serenity, satisfaction of the inner surroundings and the eternality of life. And watching the Ganges is another experience. She descends from the Himalayas gushing down, breaking all the barriers, moving swiftly towards her desired destination. It seems like she merges into the ocean just because she has to but is that all she does? There’s a lot more to Ganga than just that. Only by material measures, she immensely contributes to purifying the land, assuring prosperity in and around her. What to speak of the spiritual and cultural gifts she forever offers to all.Gaga denotes eternal life and action with purpose. What is her story? How she came is important but why she came tenders a life-changing understanding, and here she is, coming to us.Bhagiratha brought Ganga down to the earthly realm to free his ancestors, who were stagnated as burnt ashes. Stagnancy indicates death and movement implies life. The Ganga represents continuous progress, while King  Sagara’s children  were burned to ashes owing to their own mistakes, representing stagnancy. In trying to deliver his family from this predicament, King Sagara even lost a few of his descendents. But Bhagiratha was eventually successful.His agenda of freeing his family tree in due course became the legacy of Ganga’s continuous flow; and it still continues to benefit millions of people. Movement of life is dynamic; it creates lasting culture. It is constructive and organically expansive.Life is a clash between stagnancy and movement, rotten and fresh, cooperation and conflict, and transparency and duplicitous. And those who represent Bhagiratha create lasting legacy of the unhindered flow of life.Similarly in Governance,  flow represents progress.  stagnancy represents obstruction, lack of initiatives. Bhagirathas are always required to cheer the flow of life, while overcoming all obstacles.  and creates continues service to God and saintly people. 

KRISHNA OR SHANKUNI

In the Gita, Krishna says, “Amongst the gamblers, I’m the greatest cheat”. The pacifists become thoroughly disturbed on hearing that the Mahabharata encourages ‘tit for tat’. How is it that someone as powerful as Krishna had to play foul with the Kauravas? Why should He give up His rules? Rules are rules; they must not be changed. And whoever violates them for any reason is a culprit. To punish a culprit takes some violence but that itself is also a crime. So we retain our ground, unchangeable and firm.

The laws of Nature are certainly unchangeable. Change creates nuisance. The problem is someone  or the other must deal with anarchy or power or injustice or inequality or disease or criminals and so on. But nobody wants to deal with these and thus the exploiters are flourishing.  It is more foolish to believe that the bad will turn good by the power of time. In eternal time, neither you nor we have experienced ‘change’ in the criminals by doing nothing against them.  The pacifists may quote a few isolated incidents in attempt to prove their point, of course the isolated one itself.  But the reality is something very different from that.

It takes greater honesty in an honest person to do what is right against those who are wrong. A cheat is persistent in his habit; he is used, bound and consumed by his habit. So any good counsel will certainly fall on deaf ears. But the honest man may take to cheating sometimes, not to be one amongst them, but to free the man of his obstinate habit.

All over Mahabharata, we see Krishna adopting this method, not because He was habituated to manipulate. It was His habit to do good, to bring good, to create the legacy of good. On the other hand, Shakuni was the master of  all deception.   So how does one bargain?  Krishna’s bargain was ‘cheat the cheater’ – His last resort. And He did this only in order to establish the cheerful leader who lives by Nature’s law and creates legacy of doing the the needful for those who are truly needy.

FLYING HIGH OR FIE ON THEM

In Ramayana, Jatayu personifies opposition to oppression and abuse

When he saw Ravana, the king of demons, abducting Sita, he swooned into action. He was much inferior to Ravana in physical strength and he knew it, but that didn't obstruct his resistance to ruthless Ravana. 

When Adharma is openly demonstrated by demons like Ravana, it becomes impossible for the dharmikly  sensitive people to remain mute spectators, act helplessly, intellectually convince oneself of being much weaker in stopping the aggressor or only pray for peace and well being.
Jayatu first requested, then instructed and when neither worked, he induced Ravana to fight him, despite knowing that it would result in his own brutal death. 

For Jatayu, not doing what he did was a worse form of adharma than what Ravana did. Being sensitively conscious of dharma, Jatayu preferred to externally die battling Ravana in pursuit of saving mother Sita, than bearing a lifelong internal battle with his conscience and die repeated deaths.

Eventually, Jatayu did fight Ravana till death and reserved his last breath to give crucial information of Sita's whereabouts to Rama, before he peacefully rested in the lap of Rama.
Jatayu could not avoid the battle so he chose the one he knew was dharmik, and avoided battle would prick him with guilt for the rest of his life.
We have the choice to actively resist abuse or be silent like the great Bhishma, Drona and Krpa, who  did nothing when Draupadi was abused, and eventually got killed by the very shame of their  action. 

Jatayu was a seemingly ordinary bird but soared very high in the estimation of God and Godly people. All those who witnessed Draupadi's public humiliation were greatly powerful by all measures, but their wings of dharma were cut off.  because they did not resist.  And  sure enough they fell flat. 

Therefore, what counts is not what we are, but what we make of what we are.