FRIENDSHIP EXPLAINED

After the death of Dushasana, at the hands of Bhima, Ashwathama, approached Duryodhana, and pleaded him to make peace with the Pandavas .  His logic was that by becoming friends with the Pandavas both parties could live happily as he thought that the Pandavas would certainly forego the war on becoming friends. To convince Duryodhana, he explained the four kinds of friends.

First kind of a friend is a natural friend, without any reason.

Second kind of friend is one who becomes a friend by truce.

Third kind of friend is one who makes a friend by purchasing friendship.

Fourth kind of friend is one who on being influenced by the power of a person, wants to be the friend of such a personality.

Ashwathama continued, “ since you are born in the same family you can be natural friends, and you could also have truce with them and save the remaining Kuru clan.  Ashwathama was convinced that the Pandavas would agree to the truce. He was convinced that even Krishna would be happy and the difficult Bhima would follow the superior Yudhisthira.”

Duryodhana heard and took a deep breath and concluded that it was not possible. He said "after seeing how Dushasana was killed, it will be an insult to Karna, who is capable of killing Arjuna to make a truce,  so there is no question of friendship with the Pandavas."

We see here that Duryodhana had lost the qualification to befriend any one. He was looking to kill the very people whom Ashwathama was asking him to befriend. He had forgotten the crime he had committed he simply remembered the death of Dushasana at the hands of Bhima.

It shows that friendship is not one sided, even though Ashwathama told Duryodhana how there was a chance and facility to be friends with the Pandavas . Duryodhana proved that he could not reciprocate with the magnanimous Pandavas and preferred to die than to live for a good cause.

Eventually Duryodhana along with his life lost everything.

Friendship requires an effort from both the sides or else we lose friends and life both.

SUPERFICIAL SOLUTIONS= SUPER PROBLEMS.

Time is limitless, but we see time from a limited perspective. When we see time from the present need, then our ideas for solving problems have a short life.  The problems do not just die, solutions do die after the short life, but the very solutions come back to us as a new problem and haunt us for a long time. 

When we honestly see then we are able see the reality of modern life. It has made life easy on the physical platform, but mental problems are becoming very complicated. We have easy food, but complex diseases. We have  great tools for communication but what are we communicating? That which turns into a big miscommunication? We have devised a system to save the mother who has a difficult pregnancy, by smoothly removing the baby from the womb, but we have killed billions of babies since the system was developed.  We have greater efficiency in reaching the most difficult of places, but what are we doing with the places where we are reaching?  

Modern man is fully busy in bashing the old and traditional life style without even studying it honestly and with some kindness. Modern man has caused great damage to Mother earth. For him mother earth has become a mass of land for him to use and abuse. Rivers outside our residential quarters are drying up or flowing with less water and more chemical. 

Therefore Dharma teaches us how to see problems, otherwise our vision causes further problems.

My understanding is not the reference point it says neither its my time, nor my land, but Dharma is the reference point.  Dharma teaches us to see from three levels of time zone, past, present, and future.  Dharma teaches us to see beyond this world, Dharma teaches us to see beyond this life.  

With Dharma being our reference, we can deal with adharma in a very dharmik way.  This is the beauty of the Gita, which is the knowledge bank. 

 It is teaching us to learn the art of seeing the wrong thing with right perspective. 

HOW OR WHY

The Dharmik concepts teach us to see things from the “why perspective,” rather than from the “how perspective.”  “How perspectives,” give rise to a technical and flat understanding of how systematically things are working. They are very fact oriented.  For eg:- the working of a machine is categorically explained, or the methods of road building are simple facts. 

“Why perspectives,” open up many avenues, they are not flat but are multi dimensional. The same situation or the same concepts are seen from different perspectives. Different perspectives are the result of our influences and our intentions.  For eg;- one may see Arjuna’s non willingness to fight and Krishna’s convincing him to fight from so many perspectives. Some people who are violently motivated could claim Gita Champion’s violence, some may say Gita is a book of unnecessary violence. Some others may claim it is  symbolic- there could not have a been war, it was internal struggle. Other say Gita has nothing to do with war, rather it was about telling Arjuna to do and act according to his Sva Dharma.  Same action but seen from so many different angles. 

 Why is what makes life more dynamic, and thoughtful.  It creates enlightenment through the path of despondency, dependency and  dialogue with the divinity. The churning of our confusion can be dealt with submission in hearing from the right source, which brings us to the path of understanding. We need to discuss, and dive deep into seeing the closest right perspectives. Therefore those who are Tapasvis and sadhakas can undertake this path of facilitating and upgrading of our consciousness.The enlightened people make sense out of their experiences in life, by showing that life is not about black and white. It's not about seeing from one perspective, but to understand and apply the right perspective, meaning the perspective that is most beneficial for our over all growth.

The Kauravas were working, scheming and figuring out how to get the kingdom, their "why "was dormant. Pandavas were trying to go deeper and studying "why" to acquire the kingdom. 

In their why, "how" became meaningful and skillful.

WAR AND PEACE

A part of understanding life is to understand death. One can experience life, but one cannot experience death. This is what we commonly believe, but within life there is a fear of death,which every one feels. Where has this fear of death come from? Our Dharmik sastras say, “Death exists in life. With life existing simultaneously we start dying slowly, every day bringing us closer to death, we also come closer by one day to our new life." This is the beauty of life. It has hope in fear, and warning in growth or prosperity.  When we study beyond one life, we study this wonderful phenomena of opposites  existing in any situation or any thing.  

Being excited about life is one sided, and being in anxiety about life is also one sided. Excitement and anxiety are simultaneously co-existing. Similarly all opposite things co-exist simultaneously, this is the view of the Vedanta.

Similarly peace, is not independently possible. It is a bitter reality, peace cannot be pure, it can only be achieved by fighting for it, sounds ridiculous? We can see the history of the world. No one has achieved peace by peace, or by inaction, or silence.  Whatever peace we can have in this world was achieved by violence. This is the reality. The Mahabharata or The Ramayana explicitly remind us of this reality by their practical narration.

Krishna the supreme, shows us that if you are  vying for peace, the other party who will always exist, will try to take advantage of your peace. Yudhisthira took a vow to have peace with his uncle Dhrithrasthra and to avoid all conflict. Dhritharasthra took advantage of that vow and invited Yudhisthira for the gambling match. Yudhisthira after completing the exile asked for a bare minimum five villages, as kingdom  to administrate, Duryodhana refused. How can you allow such a thug to rule?  The mentality of Duryodhana is the mentality of war against peace, so how can peace ever exist?  Without confrontation peace will be non existent.  So Krishna asked Arjuna to help establish the order of nature, “balance.”  adharama means imbalance. 

Only war is brutal, only peace, is unreal, peace can exist after we  fight the brutal war, the judicious war,  the limited war.  In this way life will always go on.  Do we agree? 

Peace be for every one, but are  we ready for the battle?

DO IT RIGHT?

The different decisions in life are taken based upon different considerations, but it all begins on the very gross platform food, shelter and clothing.  Beyond these basic needs men start thinking about philosophy. 

The system around us in this time and age is so arranged that consciously or unconsciously we struggle for these things. If we get  them then we increase the style of doing the same thing.  In other words the same food, shelter and clothing, with a brand attached to it. Over come starvation or show off the branded product. Philosophy stays way behind, obscured and foggy.

When life is led for collecting branded stuff, we become slowly suffocated in the web of complex life style. This is  anti spirit. Relationships are used for practical utility rather than using practicality for enhancing relationship.  Similarly religion becomes utility friendly rather than our most important necessities.

Interestingly, in the Mahabharata, one of the vicious consultants  who was invited by Dhrithrasthtra, after seeing the growth of the Pandavas was Kanika. He advised the King to do away with the atheistic people in the administration.  One may wonder then what is the difference between good advice and bad advice if Kanika was asking to do away with  the atheistic people?  The difference between the evil Kanika and the Dharmik Vidura who was the  advisor to the Pandavas, is that Kanika was using theism as a means to be selfish, and the Pandavas  were using theism to grow  and  for no other purpose other than doing the right things.  Therefore it is said, “ one is to do things rightly, and the other is to do right things."  

Kauravas were expert in doing things right, and Pandavas were working hard to do the right things.  Kauravas had become expert administrators, doing things rightly, but were they doing right things?

It is easier to do what is easy and nice but it is more difficult to do what is right and good.  It is easier to use right things for wrong reasons, but it is meaningful to use right things for right reasons. 

Look around the modern civilisation. It has become expert in doing things rightly, but for the wrong reasons.  So it is important to do things rightly , but to do rights things is more important. This was the difference between the Pandavas and the Kauravas.  The Kurus wanted branded stuff and the Pandavas wanted Dharmik activities.

Pandavas and the  Kauravas were great warriors but the purpose of fighting was completely different. The people who did things rightly lost it all. The people who did right things suffered, were ostracised for some time, lost everything for some time, but they never stopped doing right things.

 So it was a war between those were good at doing things, and those who always struggled to do good things. 

NISACARA, KUMBHAKARNA, MARICHA OR GUDAKESHA?

The Nisacara is one who lives a life of night out, moving about wandering for the sake of partying, and enjoying.  

Kumbhakarna represents quality of endless sleep. Non discriminative and desensitized to the needs of himself and others.

Marica is one who takes the shape of a deer in  the Ramayana. It is a typical example of those people who are fearful of everything, looking here and there for safety, even though their life is full of safety physically, but their belief system is to see danger every where they move about.

Gudakesha is one who is alert every time and every where. This is Arjuna’s character.

Nisacara are sensual therefore cannot see beyond themselves. 

Kumbhakarna are in the mode of tamo, inactive and lazy and a burden to those who maintain them. They are  not dependable Waking them up is  a huge project in itself.  

Maricas  are so restless and fearful that they never execute anything tangible, their decisions are always in the wrong direction. In the Ramamayana Marica preferred dying at the hands of Rama instead of Ravana but he failed to recognize, that, he was adding burden to Lord Rama, by being an instrument in the kidnapping of mother Sita.

Gudakeshas  are alert and active, for themselves and for others, they are society conscious , and therefore they are beneficial to others.

They are focused and broad minded,  flexible but not restless. Alert but not nisacara, can sleep but not like Kumbhakarna, and nor are they Marica, fearful and not following the order Dharma. 

We want  Gudakesha like Arjunas, who can fight all the Nisacaras , Kumbhakarnas, and Maricas of the world to create lasting peace and prosperity.

WHO ARE YOU FOLLOWING ?

We change the direction of our life based on some influence. These influences could be one or multiple, but they have the power to change the direction of our life. 

Arjuna was determined to whip the wrong doers on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, and he was waiting for this moment for more than 14 years. A little influence was about to change his decision. He was willing to give up his decision of fighting.  He saw all his relatives, specially Bhishma and Drona.  and he told Krishna, “ I find no reason to fight, I see only an opposite result  from this war, I shall not fight,” Arjuna  kept his bow in the chariot and was ready to move to the forest and  live life as a beggar.  What an influence, just seeing one’s relative, everything and every decision completely changed?

Krishna, did not do anything to change Arjuna's decision, but moved his lips, saturated with unlimited wisdom and compassion. And what a change, what an influence he created! He created a revolution and those words are still creating a revolution. This is the influence of the “Bhagavad gita.”  

What is this Bhagavad Gita, which had and the power to change Arjuna’s determined decision?

 It is a treatise of changeless and timeless wisdom, but applied according to the changing times.  Therefore any one who comes in contact with this knowledge will be made to think and change the direction of his life. The Gita does not change us, rather,  the Gita is like a good professor, who instigates us to ponder, think reflect, and decide with clarity about the choice of our decisions. 

It is Dharma-centric, not person centric, coming from supreme person. The concepts are universal and personal.  Hence it is relevant from a person’s point of view as well as from a global point of view. 

When, Einstein, became humbled, realizing the depth and complexity of an atom, he started looking for something metaphysical. One of the most influential book which satisfied his search for metaphysical knowledge, was the Bhagavad-Gita.  

 The Bhagvad  Gita has deep logical and clear concepts. The concepts are as deep as a mine and what you get out of it is no less than gold or diamond. Krishna’s clarity of thought to a confused Arjuna is simply amazing and applicable. 

People who have not read the Gita make an issue about it,  and those who read and apply the Bhagvad Gita also make an issue about it but the issue is beneficial and globally friendly.  

‘Why not read and make an issue in a positive direction? 

THE ATOM AND THE CELL

The atom is the smallest physical particle, having the most complex system of mechanism, therefore, the Upanishad says, “ every unit  emanating from the complete, is complete in itself. " The atom has fascinated those who have studied it and experienced it. Scientists have been humbled to see the depth of an atom.

A cell is a living micro organism living within this body.  A small cell can turn into huge living entity. Simply thinking about it brings goose bumps.It is another fascinating complexity of creation. 

Anything connected to nature studied with a proper approach has the power to fascinate us. How it is created, how it works creates fascination.  But why it works, what is the goal, or who makes it?  These questions, when pondered and contemplated upon have the power to give some glimpses of reality, which in turn gives rise to gratitude. How gives rise to fascination, why gives rise to gratitude. With these two we grow to be refined entities.

In the Mahabharata, Vyasadeva dealt with the power of the atom and the cell.  He stopped the power of the Brahmastra from being released by Arjuna and Ashwatthama.

Vyasadeva warned both the warriors about  the power of  Brhamastra, the ultimate atomic explosion. By Vyasadev's grace it stopped the destruction of the universe, but it was further directed to the womb of Uttara by the reckless Ashwatthama. However Krishna saved the life of Pariksita in the womb, the last surviving member of the Pandavas.

Gandhari once lost her patience on hearing the news of Kunti giving birth to Yudhisthira. She struck her belly resulting in the     the lump of flesh out of her belly .Vyasadeva by his unlimited energy and power made that chunk of flesh which had come out of Gandhari's embryo on striking into 100 sons of Gandhari.  

The cell and the atom were used in a  constructive and helpful way. They helped each other grow.  of course latter it was misused by Duryodhana and his party.

Modern progress today is tampering with the atom and the cell. Atomic  energy is used to create destruction and very little is used for benefits. Similarly the cell which is fully grown is sometimes aborted brutally.  Or sometimes the cell is used to modify genetically, so that it will survive forever and in turn the man can continue to live forever.  But the same science is also using the atomic energy to destroy all that is created within fraction of a second.

 When there is a clash of the atom and the cell in an opposite direction, it is certain that some intervention of the good sense of Vyasadeva is needed for society and the human race to be protected and to flourish. Otherwise we will Ashwatthamas who will manipulate atomic energy, and cause the destruction of human race all shall perish.  

SYNTHETIC COMMUNITY

Community living is an integral part of human existence. When we study this concept of living in a group or a community, it brings out certain interesting phenomena.

If we study the ideal village depicted in the vedic scripture or a typical traditional Indian village we see that   it  was never an officially guarded community.
Protection was there but it was not  organized it was more trust and relationship based in the community. The community  had no borders, and no limitations.The village would slowly thin down in population as one went to the outskirts of the village and started  approaching the next village.

Modern guarded communities are synthetically designed.  They are infrastructure friendly, but the inner communities  are mostly non communicative.
Families are living for themselves and the relationship with the neighbours  is a very cautious one.  It is a guarded community but it cannot trust or reciprocate with the next door neighbor.To feel trust and safety, one is forced to appoint security guards and CC television. On the other hand in village communities trust and safety comes form protecting and helping each other, in a natural way.
It  is not done for mutual  benefit rather it is done as if everyone is an integral part of one’s own family.

Natural villages welcome us without officially having a reception.  Synthetic villages  have official receptions, where people  are welcomed  if they have an official  invitation, else they are put up simply for interrogation. Natural  villages   are spacious, one can park their bullock cart any where . One  can drink water or eat food in the villages  even if one is not invited.But in  synthetic communities  one needs   a specific invitation or one can eat at a canteen by paying money.
Synthetic communities  will not give us attention one  has to pay for it, whereas in  natural communities  attention is always present  in an affectionate way.

The Pandavas  were affectionate to each other, which was natural and harmonious. The kaurava relationship was bargain based.They had purchased everyone by money or power to be connected.  The Kauravas were affectionate for the sake of dealing  and the Pandavas were affectionate in their dealing.

Unfortunately our villages are becoming synthetic too, and our synthetic communities are getting an artificial village outlook, both are superficial and unreal.

Communities where people are primary and infrastructure  secondary  keep God, godliness and good people in the centre .

A spiritual realm is a natural village. Being there is  the essence of life, and learning that essence is the focus of our entire life.

PERSON OR PERCEPTS

An ordinary person requires a leader and some specific systems to grow.
He naturally lives a people centric life.  However a leader leads him, he follows with trust and confidence, keeping logic and reason far away from him. He does not have to work hard to keep logic and reason far away since he has not developed his logic and reason.

On other hand a person who is reasonable and logical has problems  following a leader and he faces problems with simple faith and trust.  He considers  trust and loyalty to be unfounded and cultist.  So he starts pursuing knowledge by the method of speculation, or by personal endeavour.  His conclusions are fluid and flowing.
He never comes to specific and distinct conclusions. For such an independent and thoughtful person, people guiding him become  an obstacle for his abstract thinking. Therefore they shun becoming formal students of a teacher.

The first kind of people have a potential to be safe if the leader is genuine, if not then they are hijacked into a sectarian and violent response towards any one who  is even remotely anti to their leader.

The second  kind of people have the safety of not becoming hijacked, they continue to remain independent, intellectually. So there is no question of they being violent towards people, physically, but their problem is their critical thinking  that leads them to suspect even the transparent leaders who are worthy of the trust of their subordinates.They believe that   anything which is organized is dangerously cultist  and miss the opportunity of developing affectionate spirit towards others.

The first kind of people are localized, and the second  class of people are  spread in all directions having no clear direction in their own thought process.

Therefore the Gita combines the two. It plays the dynamics of being localized as well as spreading every where.It has the leader in Krishna, and also has the energy of Krishna, which is depicted in the 10th chapter of Gita.There is the same spark in the splendor and glory, as it is in the source of the splendor and the spark.  Krishna implores Arjuna to appreciate the power while knowing the powerful and vice versa.
Krishna is there and His glory is there. Glory is appreciated and Krishna is appreciated. This balance is the beauty of Vedanta.
Knowledge is there and the knowledgeable is there.
When common man acknowledges the leader and the quality of leadership, they can appreciate that the same leader whom they follow is possibly available inother places.  Similarly the intellectual people can perceive the perspectives, but with the little humility and trust they can perceive the perspective and also perceive the same in the person who is demonstrating.
Therefore Gita tells what dharma is.
As a concept it focuses on Krishna as the upholder and the maker of that Dharma. The leader is there and the leadership is there.
God is there and godlines is there.
The soul and the supersoul, the energy and  the energetic simultaneously exist .
Knowledge is there and an institution of knowledge, which is called the Paramapara system, Guru Sisya Paramapara is there .Guru and sisya are there keeping the flow of Knowledge between the two of  them.
Knowledge and the  process is the goal, and gratitude and service towards  the giver and the facilitator is the life of the process.

DO NOT HURT THE WIFE OF DRONA

When the Kuruksetra  war was almost over, Ashwthama with the intention of pleasing his friend and master, Duryodhana, promised to eliminate the entire family of the Pandavas.  He became ruthless and desensitised. He murdered everybody in their respective camps. Unfortunately all the sons of Draupadi were murdered along with her brothers, Shikhandi and Dhrashthadymna, Fortunately the Pandavas were saved .

 The Pandavas were shocked when they saw  that all of their family was wiped out . Bhima wanted to punish Ashwathama, and he caught him alive.  Draupadi even in this condition was sensitive . She made an observation that Drona’s wife was a widow. She requested the Pandavas not to kill Ashwathama and make her son-less. She said that she could understand the pain of being a mother whose sons were murdered  and she did not want a widow to undergo that pain so she prayed to the Pandavas to spare Ashwathama .

On the other hand,  when Gandhari saw Krishna after the war, she cursed Krishna, to lose all His family including the entire Yadava clan. She said, “Just like I had to bear the news  of death of my sons you too O Vasudeva will experience the pain of your family getting destroyed.”  Of course Krishna used this curse to eliminate the yadavas who had completed their purpose of being here in this world.  Krishna was looking for a right reason to move them to other worlds.

We see whether we are on the good side or the bad side, the world we live in does not discriminate in regards to what should happen to us on a physical level.  Draupadi was on the side of Dharma, aided by Krishna the supreme God. Gandhari was personally dharmik but was surrounded by relatives who had nothing to do with dharma, and she unfortunately, showed family affection which was right,  to stand by them for their bad deeds was adharma from her side.  She continued to manifest adharma by cursing and Draupadi continued to abide by dharma by requesting the Pandavas to forgive Ashwathama. 

Both suffered the same fate-  loss of their children, both lost all their children, but the response of both was different.  This is the beauty of life, we have  very little control over  what happens to us !! What we do with what happens to us is within our control, and this is the greatest gift of God.  

The choice of our responses, either Gandhari style or Draupadi style Is always our property. We can either  squander our response with a negative attitude or build it by keeping a  positive approach . This is also our prerogative.