YUDHISTHIRA'S INTEGRAL ANSWER

The questions raised by Yaksha, the disguised the father of Yudhisthira are intriguing and Yudhisthira's answers are deeply integrated.
Yaksha asked, " What is the most  laudable thing?
What is the most valuable of all his possessions? 
What is the best of all gains? 
And what is the best of all kinds of happiness?"
Yudhisthira answered; " the most laudable thing is skill,
the best of all possessions is knowledge,
the best of all gain is health
and contentment is the best of all kinds of happiness. "
Basically the questions cover  many facets to life.  For some one who is not mature and not having an integral approach to life would give contradictory answers , but Yudhisthira's answer was fully integrated and there was no contradiction in the answer
We need skill, but not at the cost of knowledge and health. One may have knowledge and health but what about contentment?
One cannot say a poor man is content. Either he is lying or he is lazy or he is a useless bum.
If none of the above  then he could be a highly evolved self realized yogi.  Now none of these category of people  are relevant to ordinary folks, the bums are a burden , liars are socially and morally corrupt, the lazy ones  are demotivating and the yogi is fascinating but cannot be emulated.  So Yudhisthira's answer is relevant  for the most of the people who are active in this world doing their duties and trying to harmonize skill, health, wisdom and happiness.  If they are successful they are yogis in their own  might .
Yoga is the science of integrating from ordinary to divine,  connecting  human to  God and  harmonizing the practical and the ideal.  
For the ordinary people these were apparently different questions but for some one like Yudhisthira who saw things in harmony it was easy to see harmony in the questions and what to speak of the answer.
Hence Yudhsthira's approach is the real and practical  approach to life as compared to the yogis who are lost in  their own bliss.

NEUTRALITY IS DEATH

There was one person who was rejected by both the parties  in the battle of Kurukshetra --Rukmi, the brother of Rukmini.
He approached the Pandavas first. He boasted about his power as if he was  going to finish all the Kurus but the Pandavas were not impressed.They conveyed to him that they did not need his services .
Rukmi in an upset frame of mind approached Duryodhana.
The fearless and boastful Duryodhana was not impressed with Rukmi. Once again Rukmi was rejected and he was  forced to be a neutral party.
Balarama, the Lord of the Yadus, had sympathy for Duryodhana and he too avoided the war .He did not wish to upset his dear brother Sri Krishna by being on the side of Duryodhana and hence he went on a pilgrimage.
On the last day of the battle when the final onslaught between Bhima and Duryodhana was about to start the great Yadava Balarama appeared.
He was about to witness a battle amongst two of his students who had turned into enemies for life.
They were on the verge of deciding their own fate and the future of Hastinapura.
Bhima was strong and powerful , Duryodhana was skilful and fierce.  Bhima struck Duryodhana below the belt and broke the rule of mace fighting.
Balarama was furious and was about to strike, Sri Krishna hastily  intervened reminding Balarama of his resolve to be neutral.
Sri Balarama was forced to take sides and this is life. 
People say they are neutral and hence speak indecisive language which indicates that their loyalty and conviction is on neither side .
However in certain situations their inner feeling manifests and they take sides.
Sri Krishna had made it clear that he would not fight but he would chose or be on the side of dharma.
In fact he  had given the choice to Arjuna to choose between him and his army. Arjuna was happy chosing Krishna and Duryodhana was happy with the army. 
Therefore taking sides is important.
in fact life challenges us to take decisions.
Neutrality also makes us take sides eventually and at times back fires because it is abrupt.
Making a conscious choice of taking sides and sticking for life with that choice is reality.
Whose side are we on ?
Certainly on the side of dharma and those who represent it. 

QUALIFICATION OR RECOMMENDATION

When the  Pandavas completed their 12 years of exile and one year of incognito they were discussing the future course of action .

The assembled members after deep deliberation decided to send a very qualified person in the assembly of the kurus on behalf of Pandavas, to get back their kingdom. Draupada maharaja found a person who could fit the qualification to deal with the Kurus in an effective manner.   Mahabharata describes the person who is actually qualified to handle the challenging situations.

"Drupada said, 'Of all the beings those who are endowed with life are superior. Of all living beings those who are endowed with intelligence are superior. Of the intelligent creatures men are superior.
Of the men the twice-born( those who have duly imitated based on their qualification )  are superior.
Of the twice-born, students of the Veda(not simply bookish but over all knowledge of dharma ) are superior.
Of students of the Veda those of cultured understanding are superior.
Of cultured men practical persons are superior.
And finally, of practical men those knowing the Supreme Being are superior.
You, it seems to me, are at the very top of those that are of cultured understanding.

Qualification is not inherited automatically but one has to earn it by one's own endeavour and God's grace. Goodness is not a noun it is a verb. In Sanskrita it is called  'kriya pada.'  It is action centric and not appointment centric.  It's not a position it's a journey while fighting with one's limitations. 
Draupada did not choose him primarily because he was recommended by some friendly relatives rather the Brahmana had proved his qualification by constantly upgrading his skills values and character. 
Choosing is not appointing it is empowering the person to walk the journey  in life of leadership.
Does it make sense?

RELIGION, RACE AND SPIRITUALITY

When we study the history of humans in this world, we find that three  components have always existed. One is religion, the other is race and the third is spirituality.
Religion is superficial in one sense as people can convert, reconvert and and can give up their connections to join religion. Most of the time it takes strategy, imposition and bribing to make people religious.

With regards to race and natural identity, it is deeper than religious identity.  Europe became a christian country but their racial identity remains unchanged.. The Germans  have trouble with the English and the English with the French. One continent, one currency one religion but racism keeps them apart from each other. Racism supersedes their religion.Their white body too can't unite them. Racism gives a strong identity. A frenchman was narrating an incident about how most of the young French have stopped attending church only the old are visiting and with lack of clergy the church in France  once had to call an African priest to conduct the sermons.The power of  racism in the old French was so high that they decided to quit the church rather than the race.

Race has connection to ego, religion has connection to belief. Belief can be challenged and race can be covered artificially but to give up is almost impossible as long as one is not evolved spiritually. Till then race will keep sticking  out its face all the time.

How is spirituality different from religion and race?
Spirituality is the journey of the living entity beyond the identity of body and belief. It's the constitutional nature of a living being to be eternally existing, blissful and full of knowledge or wisdom. It transcends everything, while using race and religion but never gets entangled in the superficialities of it. The Dharmik scriptures give a universal definition of God saying that "God is one from whom everything emanate and is  full within himself. He is the master of everything. " We do not serve him out of any imposition  rather we serve him because it is benficial to us .

Hence spirituality and healthy identity with scientific rituals need to be harmonised according to our  situations and implemented so that our eternal identity is established.

PROPAGANDA RIGHT OR WRONG?

It is said  that when a lie is spoken repeatedly for a long time loudly it takes the conviction of truth in the heart of those who listen to it.
This is called propaganda. Those who make such propaganda are not interested in debating their conviction with others specially with those who have contrary views. They are happy in getting gullible and simple folks to their clan.

This was the sad story even in the Ramayana when mother Sita was sent  to  the forest. She had proved her purity not because she was asked  to but because she wanted to show her purity when she met Sri Rama the first time after the kidnapping by Ravana. This was done in the presence of the citizens of Lanka and the soldiers of Sugriva.

The citizens of Ayodhya, had heard the entire story from many people. The exploits of Sri Rama became their  enlightenment and entertainment. Affection for the life and soul of Sri Rama and his counterpart Sita increased manifold upon hearing these stories. Unfortunately the propaganda of doubting her purity was spreading, how and why no one knew.  The propoganda was completely false but it made a great impact on the citizens of Ayodhaya. They were questioning the integrity of Sita and Sri Rama, even though they loved and respected them .
The questioning became the talk of the town!!
This became the turning point of the Ramayana. Sri Rama was forced to take the decision of sending  mother Sita out of Ayodhaya to the ashrama of Valmiki muni. Unfortunately the citizens did not connect the danger dots which were clashing with each other, the love for Sita Rama ,their talks of her purity and the consequent ouster of Sita from Ayodhya.
Their freedom of speech took the very life away from Ayodhya.

Similarly in this world we do not realize the power of propaganda, which happens just because it is fun, or has an element of creating unnecessary controversy to create unrest or with the intention of breaking the civilization for the sake of creating a rift.

Hence the sin of propaganda has no alternative but to find and speak the truth as strongly as possible, as loudly as possible ,and as articulately as possible. 
Sri Valmiki maharshi taught both the sons of Sri Sita and Rama, the ultimate truth of the beautiful poetry of Sri Sita Rama’s life.This melted the hearts of the citizens and of Sri Rama who had never questioned the character of Sita. But it was  too late and Sita had ended her journey.

The interesting thing is that propaganda is disastrous, causes pain and never gives fulfillment.  Some elements in India are creating  propaganda to break this land, but look around the broken parts of Bharat like Pakistan and Bangladesh. Everyone is suffering immensely.  Division causes pain to everyone, because it is artificial, but diversity in spite of its challenges is beautiful.
Do we want diversity or do we want division caused by the venom of hate.
Stand for diversity and fight against division.
This is the foundational principle of bharatiya culture.

GOD JEALOUS?

The world  comprises of multifaceted people, thinking, feeling, communicating, acting and translating their experiences in their own unique way.This reality is  difficult to change. Any amount of force, imposition or legalisation to create uniformity will only bring division and conflict.

The Dharmik scriptures repeatedly display this, not as a divisive force but as a diverse force. Variety is nature's speciality, where in men of wisdom are able to harmonise this variety seamlessly .

In the Gita, Sri Krishna talks to Arjuna describing the multifarious worshippers, who they worship and their destination.
Unlike the abhramic culture which condemns anything that is not   confirming to its ideology.    What the Bhagvad Gita says is accomdating.  Krishna is not an autocratic God.

We see that in diversity Krishna can unite and coexist with less or little conflict and violence.
Sri Krishna wants people to be connected with dharma either directly or indirectly. Directly  by worshiping him and seeing him in everything that people do. Indirectly by worshiping devas or his energy  and moving and evolving in life.
The Vedas do not describe the supreme Brahman as being a jealous lover. He is supreme and he lovingly accepts the position of being limited to experience our relationship and gives experience of allowing relationship to all.

The supreme God gives supreme independence to his Jiva to choose and grow harmoniously and no one has the right to take this independence away.

Does it makes sense?  If yes then use the independence  rather than abusing it. When we use our independence  in this manner we experience the power of being supremely independent even whilst handling diverse individuals who are worshipping the Brahman who has offered us this greatest gift.

KURUKSHETRA EXISTS !

Kurukshetra the town is a reality which can be experienced by all of us. But Kurukshetra the battle field of Mahabharata, how can we believe, feel or experience?

Kurukshetra of Mahabharata is an eternal reality .Our experiences of life lead us to make an attempt to understand the freshness in the dilemma experienced by Arjuna.
The over all structure of Mahabharata is the representation of a continuum of conflict in the heart of a sincere Dharmik person.
The conflict always being to fight the war or to do away with it ?
In fighting one may become a stimulus to causing pain to one's dear and near one's like grand father Bhisma and Drona. In not fighting one may cause perpetual violence to the civilization for a long time .
This confusion of Dharmik Arjuna is the central theme of the Gita and many Dharmik characters of Mahabharata. The conflict being  in the process to be used to eliminate the non dharmik characters.

The  non dharmik have no conflict. They have clarity of what action to perform and why to perform.
They are selfish and want success at any cost.They know the rules of the game.The Dharmik person has clarity in what he wants but he experirnces conflict in how to achieve what he wants.
He wants dharma to flourish but he is cornered in regards to how to achieve it. This is an eternal dilemma for the good people.

The good people  struggle to deal with the bad, fearing that  they may end up being bad themselves. They also know that if they don't deal with the bad people then more destruction and suffering will prevail.
Therefore Sri Krishna teaches them the art being good without becoming nasty and using diplomatic strategies to eliminate the bad.

This process causes a continuum of struggle of inner reflection and self analysis in the life of Dharmik people like the Pandavas. Eventually dharma prevails in their life with the  help of Sri Krishna.

Such Kurukshetra is an eternal reality for all of us. Why not learn the art of fighting the war from Kurukshetra ?The war between the physical  emotional and the intellectual conflict.
Does this not make Kurukshetra real for you and me forever?

BUILDING OR BREAKING

Breaking requires brutality without limits. Building or bringing people requires real valour, not the valour of sword but the valour of a large heart, deep thoughts, sharp intellect, fierce actions and the disposition of an innocent child. One may question whether such a combination exists in humanity?

The seeker of the ideal looks for these kind of people to worship, adore and emulate. They are folks of the swan club, the swan which is known for extracting milk from water.

The Ramayana consistently depicts this ideal amidst brutality.
Bharata had kingship on his platter offered  by the father, agreed by Sri Rama and conceived by Kaikeyi on the instigation of evil Manthara but he strived for the ideal and united all afflicted parties as one family. Ayodhya was united to bring back Sri Rama to their kingdom. 
Sri Hanumana had the choice to serve King Vali or the homeless Sugriva. He knew very well that Sugriva had little chance to reclaim the kingdom from Vali. In such a situation Hanumana did not desert Sugriva. He eventually united him with Sri Rama his family and citizens. 
What was Hanumanji's gain?  Complete satisfaction.

Jatayu tried to unite Sri Rama and Sita while instructing Ravana to have coherent thoughts and actions which were harmonious with the laws of nature .Jatayu failed in his life and success was out of his reach but satisfaction of doing the right thing? That became his reward for eternity.  He is ever glorified in the pages of Ramayana.

When citizens of Lanka experienced disaster caused by Sri Rama's army, they did not blame Sri Rama, but  blamed the cruel and insensitive  Surphankha for their ordeal. She was brutal in breaking for the satusfsction of her ego.

Similarly there are forces in this world who organise their life in ways to break families, societies and nations.  They may get success, but what about happiness?

Therefore it is pertinent to have the right vision .

DIVINITY IN DIVERSITY

The human mind experiences confusion in variety, but one who is elevated sees variety as the power of divinity manifesting every where. 
Sri Krishna in  the Bhagavad Gita says, "one who sees me in everything and everything in me, is never lost to me nor am I lost to him."

Seeing Brahman everywhere is not an artificial imposition on the mind or some  brain washed intelligence rather it is an experience of eternal and fundamental principles.  Therefore sanatana dharma and the laws of nature are synonymous. It is said that dharma is not man made.
It is experienced by sensitive human beings by the process of Yoga. 

The great Pandavas could not give up dharma, because dharma was every where for them to experience and perceive. Their conviction in dharma was internal and not based on the influence of an external bombardment by a teacher.
Teachers are great benedictions but not those teachers who teach  specific exams.They are tutors, they prepare us for exams.
Teachers facilitate and empower us to experience and translate experiences of life into wisdom and help create an ability to handle diverse experiences, thrive in them rather than being thwarted by them, to grow and to translate the confusing and conflicting diversity .

Duryodhana was leading a great life and was blind to the realities of life. He never expected his relatives to ever challenge him.
His mother was affectionate to him and his father was infatuated by him. His brothers were submissive and idolised him.The Pandavas came and shattered his world. He could not handle the different and non confirming experiences.This diverse relation incapacitated him .He wanted to destroy the Pandavas. 

The dharmik Pandavas were trained to be masters in handling diversity .   Duryodhana tried to destroy the Pandavas in many ways.

Duryodhana denied diversity and chose to be a part of the deadly and brutal colossal death of large people. Uniformity in brutal death. Pandavas continued experiencing diversity as they did from the beginning of their childhood till their final destination.