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The meditation techniques included in this book are to bepracticed only after personal instructions by an ordainedteacher of Life Bliss Foundation (LBF). If some one triesthese techniques without prior participation in the meditationprograms of LBF, they shall be doing so entirely at theirown risk; neither the author nor LBF shall be responsiblefor the consequences of their actions.

Published byLife Bliss Foundation

Copyright© 2008Second Edition: July 2008

ISBN 13:978-1-934364-18-5 ISBN 10: 1-934364-18-5

All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted by any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,without written permission of the publisher. In theevent that you use any of the information in this bookfor yourself, the author and the publisher assume noresponsibility for your actions.

All proceeds from the sale of this book go towardssupporting charitable activities.

Printed in India by WQ Judge Press, Bangalore.Ph.: +91 +80 22211168

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Life will always be a mix of the good and the bad,the divine and the devil. Choosing one over the other

does not help. We need to go beyond both!

- Shastras, Stotras, Sutras

Discourses delivered to Swamis and Ananda Samajisof the Nithyananda Order all over the world

Bhagavad Gi ta Demystified

CHAPTER 1

N i t h y a n a n d a

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CONTENTS

1. Bhagavad Gita: A Background 7

2. Introduction 15

3. Beyond Scriptures 19

4. Planet Earth is a battlefield 74

5. Ego Needs Support 91

6. War Begins 109

7. Arjuna Falters 121

8. Intelligence Questions 138

9. Arjuna's Dilemma 152

10. Rigors of Conditioning 168

11. Good Men Do Not Kill 184

12. The Plot Thickens 198

13. Breakdown 212

14. Scientific Research on Bhagavad Gita 222

15. Kuru Family Tree 224

16. Glossary of Key Characters 225

17. Meaning of Selected Sanskrit Words 227

18. Invocation Verses 240

19. Verses of Gita Chapter 1 241

20. About Paramahamsa Nithyananda 267

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BhagavadGita:A Background

Bhagavad Gita is a sacred scriptureof the Vedic culture. As with allscriptures, it was knowledge that wastransmitted verbally. It was called srutiin Sanskrit, meaning something that isheard.

Gita, as Bhagavad Gita is generallycalled, translates literally from Sanskritas the ‘Sacred Song’. Unlike the Vedaand Upanishad, which are self-standingexpressions, Gita is written into theHindu epic Mahabharata, called apurana, an ancient tale. It is part of astory, so to speak.

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As a scripture, Gita is part of the ancient knowledgebase of Vedic tradition, which is the expression of theexperiences of great sages.

Veda and Upanishad, the foundation of sruti literature,arose through the insight and awareness of these greatsages when they went into a no-mind state. These are asold as humanity and the first and truest expressions in thejourney of man’s search for truth.

Unlike the Vedas, which were internalized by the greatsages, or the Upanishads, which were the teachings ofthese great sages, Gita is part of a story narrated byVyasa, one of these great sages. It is narrated as thedirect expression of the Divine.

No other epic, or part of an epic, has the special statusof the Gita. As a consequence of the presence of Gita, theMahabharata epic itself is considered a sacred Hinduscripture. Gita arose from the super consciousness ofKrishna, the Supreme God, and is therefore considered ascripture.

Mahabharata, literally the Great Bharata, is a narrationabout the nation and civilization, which is now known asIndia. It was then a nation ruled by King Bharata and hisdescendants. The story of this epic is about two warringclans, Kauravas and Pandavas, closely related to oneanother. Dhritharashtra, the blind King of Hastinapuraand father of the 100 Kaurava brothers was the brother ofPandu, whose children were the five Pandava princes. Itis a tale of strife between cousins.

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Pandu was the King of Hastinapura. A sage cursed himthat he would die if he ever entered into physicalrelationship with his wives. He therefore had no children.Vyasa says that all the five Pandava children were born totheir mothers Kunti and Madri through the blessing ofdivine beings. Pandu handed over the kingdom and hischildren to his blind brother Dhritharashtra and retired tomeditate in the forest.

Kunti had received a boon when she was still a youngunmarried adolescent, that she could summon any divinepower at will to father a child. Before she married, shetested her boon. The Sun God Surya appeared before her.Karna was born to her as a result. In fear of socialreprisals, she cast the newborn away in a river.Yudhishtra, Bhima, and Arjuna were born to Kunti afterher marriage by invocation of her powers, and the twinsNakula and Sahadeva were born to Madri, the secondwife of Pandu.

Yudhishtra was born to Kunti as a result of her beingblessed by Yama, the God of death and justice, Bhima byVayu, the God of wind, and Arjuna by Indra, God of alldivine beings. Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngestPandava twins were born to Madri, through the divineAshwini twins.

Dhritharashtra had a hundred sons through his wifeGandhari. The eldest of these Kaurava princes wasDuryodhana. Duryodhana felt no love for his fivePandava cousins. He made many unsuccessful attempts,along with his brother Dushashana, to kill the Pandavabrothers. Kunti’s eldest son Karna, whom she had cast

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away at birth, was brought up by a chariot driver in thepalace and by a strange twist of fate joined hands withDuryodhana.

Dhritharashtra gave Yudhishtra one half of the KuruKingdom on his coming of age, since the Pandava Princewas the rightful heir to the throne that his father Panduhad vacated. Yudhishtra ruled from his new capitalIndraprastha, along with his brothers Bhima, Arjuna,Nakula and Sahadeva. Arjuna won the hand of PrincessDraupadi, daughter of the King of Panchala, in aswayamwara, a marital contest in which princes fought forthe hand of a fair damsel. In fulfilment of their motherKunti’s desire that the brothers would share everythingequally, Draupadi became the wife of all five Pandavabrothers.

Duryodhana persuaded Yudhishtra to join a gamblingsession, where his cunning uncle Sakuni defeated thePandava King. Yudhishtra lost all that he owned - hiskingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself, toDuryodhana. Dushashana shamed Draupadi in public bytrying to disrobe her. The Pandava brothers andDraupadi were forced to go into exile for 14 years, withthe condition that in the last year they should liveincognito.

At the end of the 14 years, the Pandava brothers triedto reclaim their kingdom. In this effort they were helpedby Krishna, the King of the Yadava clan, who isconsidered the eighth divine reincarnation of Vishnu.However, Duryodhana refused to yield even aneedlepoint of land, and as a result, the Great War, the

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War of Mahabharata ensued. In this war, various rulers ofthe entire nation that is modern India aligned with one orthe other of these two clans, the Kauravas or thePandavas.

Krishna offered to join with either of the two clans. Hesaid, ‘One of you may have me unarmed. I will not takeany part in the battle. The other may have my entireYadava army.’ The first offer was made to Duryodhana,who predictably chose the large and well-armed Yadavaarmy, in preference to the unarmed Krishna. Arjunajoyfully and gratefully chose his friend and mentorKrishna to be his unarmed charioteer!

The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukshetra,now in the state of Haryana in modern day India. All theKings and Princes were related to one another, and wereoften on opposite sides. Facing the Kaurava army and hisfriends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome byremorse and guilt, and wanted to walk away from thebattle.

Krishna’s dialogue with Arjuna on the battlefield ofKurukshetra is the content of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishnapersuaded Arjuna to take up arms and vanquish hisenemies. ‘They are already dead,’ says Krishna, ‘all thosewho are facing you have been already killed by Me. Goahead and do what you have to do. That is your duty.Do not worry about the outcome. Leave that to Me.’

The Gita is the ultimate practical teaching on the innerscience of spirituality. It is not as some scholars

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incorrectly claim, a promotion of violence. It is about theimpermanence of the mind, body, and the need todestroy the mind, ego and logic.

Sanjaya, King Dhritharashtra’s charioteer, presents Gitain eighteen chapters to the blind king. All the KauravaPrinces as well as all their commanders such as Bhishma,Drona and Karna were killed in battle. The five Pandavabrothers survived as winners and became the rulers of thecombined kingdom.

This dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna is a dialoguebetween man and God or nara and Narayana as they aretermed in Sanskrit. Arjuna’s questions and doubts arethose of each one of us. The answers of the Divine,Krishna, transcend time and space. Krishna’s message is asvalid today as it was on that fateful battlefield somethousands of years ago.

Nithyananda explains the inner metaphorical meaningof Mahabharata thus:

‘The Great War of Mahabharata is the fight betweenthe positive and negative thoughts of the mind, called thesamskaras. Positive thoughts are the Pandava princes andthe negative thoughts are the Kaurava princes.Kurukshetra or the battlefield is the body. Arjuna is theindividual consciousness and Krishna is the enlightenedMaster.

The various commanders who led the Kaurava armyrepresent the major blocks that the individualconsciousness faces in its journey to enlightenment.

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Bhishma represents parental and societal conditioning.Drona represents the conditioning from teachers whoprovide knowledge including spiritual guidance. Karnarepresents the restrictive influence of good deeds such ascharity and compassion, and finally Duryodhanarepresents the ego, which is the last to fall.

Parental and societal conditionings have to be overcomeby rebelling against conventions. This is why traditionallythose seeking the path of enlightenment are required torenounce the world as sannyasin and move away fromcivilization. This conditioning does not die as long as thebody lives, but its influence drops.

Drona represents all the knowledge one imbibes andthe teachers one encounters, who stop short of being toable to take us through to the ultimate flowering ofenlightenment. It is difficult to give them up since onefeels grateful to them. This is where the enlightenedmaster steps in and guides us.

Karna is the repository of all good deeds and it is hisgood deeds that stand in the way of his ownenlightenment. Krishna has to take the load of Karna’spunya, his meritorious deeds, before he could beliberated. The enlightened Master guides one to dropone’s attachment to good deeds arising out of what areperceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions.He also shows us that the quest for and experience ofenlightenment is the ultimate act of compassion that onecan offer to the world.

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Finally one reaches Duryodhana, one’s ego, the mostdifficult to conquer. One needs the full help of the Masterhere. It is subtle work and even the Master’s help maynot be obvious, since at this point, sometimes the egomakes one disconnect from the Master as well.

The Great War was between one hundred eightymillion people - one hundred ten million on the Kauravaside representing our negative samskaras – storedmemories - and seventy million on the Pandava siderepresenting our positive samskaras – stored memories -and it lasted eighteen days and nights. The numbereighteen has a great mystical significance. It essentiallysignifies our ten senses that are made up of gnanendriya -the five senses of perception like taste, sight, smell,hearing and touch, and karmendriya - the five sensesinitiating action like speech, bodily movements etc.,added to our eight kinds of thoughts like lust, greed etc.All eighteen need to be dropped for Self-realization.

Mahabharata is not just an epic story. It is not merelythe fight between good and evil. It is the dissolution ofboth positive and negative samskaras that reside in ourbody-mind system, which must happen for the ultimateliberation. It is a tale of the process of enlightenment.

Mahabharata is a living legend. Bhagavad Gita is themanual for enlightenment.

Like Arjuna many thousand years ago, you are here ina dialogue with a living enlightened Master in this book.This is a tremendous opportunity to resolve all questionsand clear all doubts with the Master’s words.

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IntroductionIn this series, a young enlightened

Master, Paramahamsa Nithyanandacomments on the Bhagavad Gita.

Many hundreds of commentaries ofthe Gita have been written over theyears. The earliest commentaries wereby the great spiritual masters such asSankara, Ramanuja and Madhva, somethousand years ago. In recent times,great masters such as RamakrishnaParamahamsa and Ramana Maharishihave spoken from the Gita extensively.Many others have written volumes onthis great scripture.

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Nithyananda’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita isnot just a literary translation and a simple explanation ofthat translation. He takes the reader through a worldtour while talking about each verse. It is believed thateach verse of the Gita has seven levels of meaning. Whatis commonly rendered is the first level meaning. Here, anenlightened master takes us beyond the common into theuncommon, with equal ease and simplicity.

To read Nithyananda’s commentary on the Gita is toobtain an insight that is rare. It is not mere reading; it isan experience; it is a meditation.

Sankara, the great master philosopher said:

‘A little reading of the Gita, a drop of Ganga water todrink, remembering Krishna once in a while, all this willensure that you have no problems with the God ofDeath.’

Editors of these volumes of Bhagavad Gita haveexpanded upon the original discourses delivered byNithyananda through further discussions with Him. Forease of understanding for English speaking readers, andto cater to their academic interest, the original Sanskritverses in their English translation have been included asan appendix in this book.

This reading is meant to help every individual in dailylife as well as in the endeavour to realize the UltimateTruth. It creates every possibility to attain nithyananda,eternal bliss!

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Swami Picture

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Beyond ScripturesThere are millions of spiritual scriptures and

millions of books on planet Earth. Fromtime immemorial, human beings havecreated spiritual scriptures and stillcontinue to create spiritual books. TheBhagavad Gita is incomparable. Wecannot compare this book with any otherbecause no other book has penetratedhuman consciousness so deeply. No otherbook has contributed to the preparationof so many enlightened beings on planetEarth like the Bhagavad Gita. No otherbook is a complete encyclopedia ofspirituality. The Bhagavad Gita is theunabridged dictionary and encyclopediaof spirituality.

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Spiritual scriptures can be classified into threecategories. First we have shastra: shastra give clarity aboutthe aim of life, the goal of human life. They teach us howto live life, the purpose of life, and the goal of life. Theygive intellectual understanding about the ultimate truth ofman and God.

Sastras logically and intellectually answer all majorquestions. Through them, we can be logically convinced tofollow the ultimate path. Sastras guide us in life. Thesebooks give us regulations, do’s and don’ts, what shouldbe done and what should not be done.

There are many examples. The Ten Commandments aresastras. The sruti and smriti of Hindu religion, the sacredscriptures such as the Veda and Upanishad, and theguidelines such as the Manusmriti and epics such asRamayana, are sastras. The Bible, Koran, Dhammapada ofBuddha, Zend Avesta of Zoroaster, and Jewish Kabbalahare sastras.

A second category of literature is stotra. It is theexpression of someone who has realized the ultimatetruth; a person who has had the glimpse of the divinelove. When such a person expresses his joy, this expressionis stotra.

When we worship and surrender ourselves to thedivine, this form of expression is stotra. The literaturefrom the heart is a stotra; literature from the head is asastra.

A third type of literature called sutra gives ustechniques to realize that state of uniting with the divine.

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Sastras gives us intellectual understanding, stotra givesemotional feeling, sutra gives the being level experience.

Sastras are like signboards, intellectual scriptures thatexplain the basics of life. Stotras help us surrender to thedivine. The glory of the divine is expounded by thestotras. Sutras give us techniques to achieve devotion orenlightenment.

Sastras alone cannot lead us to enlightenment, althoughit can be a good support; it can take us to an enlightenedmaster. Until that point, it is a great help. Stotra is spokenfrom the level of emotion, feeling. When we have a deepfeeling, we just express it. It just flows through us. Ourwhole being is flowing; that is stotra. Sutra means thetechnique that helps us achieve the goal of the sastra andthe goal of the stotra.

Goal of sastra is atman, divinity within; goal of stotra isGod. Of course, both are one and the same, but theyhave two different paths.

People who are intellectually oriented, who arecentered on logic, analysis and calculation need sastras,intellectual scriptures. They do not do anything unlessthey are intellectually convinced, unless they are clearabout the whole thing. We cannot say that because ofthis attitude, they should not seek spirituality. However,there are many scriptures that say, ‘Don’t come inside ifyou don’t have faith.’

Let me tell you, we should look at man with morecompassion. We can’t put faith as the main criteria toenter into spirituality. If we put faith as the first criterion,

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we are refusing to give spirituality to almost 90% ofhumanity. For most people it is not easy to believeanything immediately. Faith may not be instantaneous.

We cannot just believe, especially in modern days.Words like belief and faith have limited relevance. Thesewords are outdated. They no longer have the meaningthey had ages ago. These words are totally out of ourlives. We can’t say that only the person who believes, theone who has faith, can come for spirituality. Spiritualityshould be open to every being. We should create asystem through which we can reach every individual.

Our Vedic seers created sastras to give us intellectualunderstanding. They logically teach us the path, the goal,and why we are asked to do all these things and why weneed spirituality. All these major questions are answeredlogically and intellectually in sastras. The conclusions aregiven to us.

We need to understand a few things about sastra.Sastras completely take away our doubts. Doubt is a devil.Once a doubt enters our mind, we can’t sleep, we can’trest until we clear it. Sastras help us get rid of thesedoubts intellectually.

One thing we should understand about intellectualclarity is that unless we have complete intellectual clarity,our belief will be a pseudo belief. Please be very clear,anyone can shake our faith. Our faith does not have astrong base. Our faith is almost like a building without afoundation. If we build without a foundation, what willhappen to the building? It will collapse. The same willhappen to us, if we don’t have the base of sastras.

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A person asked the great master Vivekananda, ‘Master,what is the importance of Veda and why should we studythe scriptures?’

Vivekananda said, ‘If you study the scriptures, all yourfaith and sincerity will become so strong that nobody willbe able to shake you.’

Otherwise, any fool can tell us that what we are doingis superstitious and we can start thinking, ‘Am I reallydoing superstitious things? Am I really following the rightthings? What am I doing?’ We will start having doubtsabout ourselves. We won’t believe our faith.

Every human being should understand that we don’tbelieve our belief. We may think we believe insomething; we may think we have faith, but our faith orbelief is not deep enough. It does not take us anywhereunless we have the foundation of intellectual conviction.Unless we have the deep foundation of sastra, we will notbe able to believe in anything.

Please be very clear, even our emotions are not sodeep. We think we have love, we think we believe. I seeall types of people who say what they think they believe.One man said, ‘Oh! Master, I love the whole world.’Again and again, I tell people that to love the world iseasy, but to love your wife is very difficult!

That is why we are stuck. To love the whole world isvery easy. We can always say Vasudeva Kutumbaha - theworld is my family. We say, ‘Master, I feel that the wholeworld is like my family.’ The problem is that we are not

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in tune with our own family. We think we love, but wedon’t really love. Our emotions are not deep; our faith isnot deep. This is because we don’t have the intellectualconviction.

If we do not have the intellectual conviction and haveonly faith, our faith can be shaken by anybody. Just oneperson is enough to break our faith. We can be totallyshaken. Sastra, the intellectual understanding, gives a baseso that all our convictions, all our faith, all our belief canenter into our being and start working.

Bhakti, devotion, is just an alchemy process. It is as if atouchstone has touched us. Ramakrishna says beautifully,‘If a touchstone touches any metal it becomes gold; just atouch of the stone is enough for any metal to beconverted into gold.’

Bhakti is a touchstone. The moment bhakti or devotiontouches us, we become God, we become divine. Theproblem is, we never allow devotion to touch us; wenever allow devotion to work on us; we never allowdevotion to penetrate our being.

We think we want God, but we are continuouslyafraid of the divine. We may think we want the divine,but as long as it is superficial, as long as it is under ourcontrol, things go well. The moment the devotion entersour being, and starts the process, we say, ‘No, no, notthat much. This is enough! I think that is too much forme!’

We stop at a certain point; our faith is pseudo faith.

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A small story:

One guy lived throughout his life as an atheist. Oneday he fell from a cliff and was hanging on to a smallbranch. Slowly, the branch also started giving way.The man started shouting, ‘Oh God! I never believedin you, but now I do. Please save me! Please saveme, now that I believe in you.’

A booming voice from heaven said, ‘Oh my son,don’t worry. I will save you. Just let go of thebranch! Let go of the branch and I will save you.’

Immediately the man responded, ‘Is there anybodyelse out there who can save me?’

Our faith is just a facade. Is there anybody else whocan save me? God is only one of the many choices for us.

If there is no good movie on television, then we go tothe temple. If we don’t have any other commitment, anyother party on a particular day, we go to the temple.God is only one more choice in our lives. Till we have anintellectual conviction about life, God is just one morechoice; spirituality is just one more choice. We just choose.It is just one more shop like Wal-Mart and K Mart; it isSpiritual Mart; we decide which shop we should enter. Itis just one more shop, nothing more than that. The basicneed for life is intellectual conviction.

One man was praying to Lord Vishnu.

‘Oh Lord, please give me a million dollars. If yougive me one million dollars, I will put 200,000 dollars

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in your donation box. If you don’t believe me, pleasededuct 200,000 dollars and give me the balance of800,000 dollars. That will also do!’

Our faith is only this much; our spirituality is just agame. As long as things go well according to our chosenroute, God is great. I have seen people who pass examsand break coconuts in front of Ganesha temples, but ifthey fail, they break Ganesha idols!

If they pass in their exams, they break coconuts forGod Ganesha and if they fail they break Ganesha himself!

Our faith is very pseudo. If it is not life transforming.We do not allow devotion to work on us. A beautifulverse in the scriptures of Vedanta says: to clear yourintellect, you must break your intellect; you must openyour intellect; you must have a clear intellectualunderstanding about life, about spirituality, abouteverything. Sastras give us that intellectual clarity, thatintellectual understanding.

All the great devotees, great bhaktas like Chaitanya,Ramanuja and Madhva had a strong intellectual base.Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a great nayaika philosopher.Nayaika means logic; he was a great philosopher of logic.Once you reach that height, those peaks of logic, onlythen you fall into the valley of love; only then you arequalified to fall in love. Unless you reach the heights oflogic, you are not qualified to fall into the valley of love.All great masters and great devotees who reach the peakof intellect have a strong sastra base.

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Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Ramanuja, Madhva, all thesegreat masters of devotion, had a strong intellectual basein the first category of scriptures, sastra.

Next are the stotras. Stotra means expressing ourexperience, love or devotion to our Master or God.Expressing our deep love is stotra. We stand in front ofthe Divine, feel the energy of the Lord and express ouremotions.

Many people ask, ‘Master, why does Hinduism haveidol worship?’ Hinduism does not have idol worship. Wedon’t worship the idol. We worship through the idol.When we stand in front of the idol, do we say, ‘Ohstone! Give me a boon. Oh stone! Please give me. Ohstone! Please save me?’

No! We say, ‘Oh God, please save me. Oh Lord!Please save me, Oh Master! Please save me.’ We don’tworship the idol. We worship through the idol. So we arenot doing idol worship. We worship through the idol. InVaishnavism, the devotional or bhakti stream of Hinduism,there is a beautiful word archaavataara. This means the idolworshiped in the temple is the incarnation of God.

Archaavataara means incarnation of God. The idol is notjust a stone. Incarnation means the divine descending onplanet Earth, just like the ten incarnations, the dasavatara ofVishnu. All these idols are like these ten incarnations. Justlike these incarnations, the stone, the idol that we worshipis called archaavataara. We relate to the Divine through thevigraha, the idol, and through the moorthi, the image.

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When we stand in front of the idol and pour our heartout, this expression is stotra. All the songs written bygreat devotees - the Alvars, Nayanmars, Meera andChaitanya - are stotras.

People ask me, ‘Master, sometimes I don’t feel likechanting these stotras. Should I do it mechanically even if Idon’t like doing it?’

I say, ‘Do it. You may feel it is a mechanical exercisefor one or two days. However, it will become your beingonce you start enjoying the meaning and experiencingwhat you express. It will become your feeling.’ Whenyou express your heart, it becomes stotra.

Next is sutra. Sutra gives us the technique to reachenlightenment. Shastra is from the intellectual level. Stotrais from the emotional level. And Sutra is from the beinglevel.

There are three kinds of human beings: head oriented,heart oriented and being oriented. To fulfill everyone, ourenlightened sages have created three kinds of literature -shastra, stotra and sutra. Bhagavad Gita is the only bookthat is shastra, stotra and sutra. In the Bhagavad Gita, allthree are combined together, with something more!

Gita is shastra; it gives a clear intellectual understandingabout life, atman as well as the do’s and don’ts, rules andregulations. I have not seen any other book explain theseconcepts so deeply.

Just explaining do’s and don’ts will not help. Givingthe intellectual reason as to why it should be done or not

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be done is necessary. Many books talk about how manytimes you can marry or whether you can marry at all.Many literatures lay down all these rules, but give nounderstanding. Very few books give reasons why weshould or should not do something. Gita is the only bookI know that gives a strong intellectual base, intellectualclarity and understanding to what it says we should do.

No other religion has as many scriptures as Hinduism.Within the Vedic literature, our masters have chosen threebooks called ‘Prasthanathreya’. These books are the ultimateauthorities in spirituality. One is Brahmasutra, second isUpanishad and the third is the Bhagavad Gita.

Veda Vyasa, an enlightened master, wroteBrahmasutra. Many enlightened masters taught what isknown as Upanishads. However, Gita is directly from God,from a poornavataar - perfect incarnation, Krishna. Amongthe incarnations, Krishna is considered poorna, complete, afull incarnation.

Why is Krishna considered a poornavataar? Why can’t hebe just one more incarnation? Why is Krishna consideredthe only perfect incarnation? First understand whyincarnations come to planet Earth.

Ramakrishna recounts beautifully: there was abeautiful paradise with many trees and varieties offlowers and fruits. Three friends were walking nearthis paradise that had a big wall around it. One ofthem climbed the wall and peeped inside.

He cried out, ‘Oh my God! Such a beautifulparadise.’ He jumped into the garden and started

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enjoying the fruits. The second man climbed the walland saw the garden. He too felt it was beautiful, buthe had a little bit of courtesy. He turned and said tothe third man who was below, ‘Dear friend, there is abeautiful paradise below. Come, I am going in.’Saying this, he jumped over and started enjoying thefruits.

The third man climbed the wall and saw theparadise. He saw his two friends and understood thelevel of joy and bliss that they were enjoying. Thenhe said to himself, ‘Let me go down and tell all thepeople about this beautiful paradise. I will bring themall to enjoy this garden.’

An incarnation is someone who comes down to tell hisfellow men about the blissful place that he experienced.The man who descends from the Divine to express thebliss of that divinity is an incarnation. The person whoreturns to planet Earth to tell you about divinity and tomake you realize what he has experienced, is anincarnation.

A scientist is a person who creates a formula tounderstand things of the outer world. For example,Newton saw the apple falling from the tree. Suddenlysome understanding came to him, ‘Why is this falling?What is happening? Why shouldn’t it go up? Why is itcoming down?’ Newton glimpsed the truth at thatmoment. He analyzed and created a formula so thateverybody could understand what happens when objectsfall. Newton created a formula, the theory of gravity. Ascientist is a person who creates a formula for the outerworld.

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In the same way, an enlightened spiritual master is aperson who creates a formula to reproduce his innerworld experiences. Scientists create formulae for the outerworld, whereas a master creates a formula to recreate theexperience of the inner world. Meditation techniques arethese formulae.

An incarnation is a person who can directly give theexperience without even using the formula! All these greatincarnations come down to planet Earth to make peoplerealize that they are divine, that they are God, to tellpeople that the other side is beautiful. ‘There’s a very bigparadise. Come let us go and enjoy. Come join me,’ theysay.

Incarnation is a person who has descended to teachdivinity to the world. Why is Krishna poornavataar? He hasall the qualities needed to push human beings to divinity.The person who can push human beings to divinity iscalled jagat guru – the guru who awakens. He is theteacher, the master of the whole universe.

The invocation verse of the Bhagavad Gita says:

Vasudevasutam Devam Kamsachanura VardhanamDevaki Paramaanandam Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum

I salute you Lord Krishna, teacher to the world,son of Vasudeva and

Supreme bliss of Devaki, destroyer of Kamsa and Chanura.

The verse says that Krishna is the jagat guru. Jagat guruis a person who can help the whole world, all types ofhuman beings and from all levels. The universe is a placewith all types of human beings who are at all levels of

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experience and maturity. Krishna can help all kinds ofpeople from all levels to experience divinity, to reach theultimate, to realize the truth.

There are intellectual people, emotional people andpeople at the being level. Some incarnations, such asSankara, strongly appeal to intellectual people. Sankarasuits intellectual people. Buddha suits intellectual people.Intellectual people can easily relate to Buddha, but it isdifficult for emotional people to relate to Him. We can’timagine Buddha with a flute! We can’t imagine Buddhasinging and dancing. We can’t imagine Sankara singingand dancing. We can’t imagine Sankara doing raas-leela,cavorting with women like Krishna did.

Buddha and Sankara will appeal only to theintellectuals.

There are some incarnations for emotional people.Emotional people relate to Meera and ChaitanyaMahaprabhu who are always singing, dancing andcelebrating. An intellectual man can never understandMeera or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He can neverunderstand Aandal. He can see them dancing, but hecannot see for whom they are dancing. They can neverunderstand these incarnations.

People who are at the being level, centered ontheir being, find it difficult to relate with intellectualor emotional masters. They straightaway want theexperience. They are neither ready to analyze norready to believe. A person ready to analyze goes toshastra. A person ready to believe is drawn to stotra,

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but a person who wants a straight experience, instantcoffee, instant experience, can neither wait for shastranor stotra. He straightaway wants the technology, theapplied science. Shastras are like main theory, the basicscience. Stotras are like the marketing department,publicity. Sutras are applied science. They give straightanswers.

You still need to understand a bit about thismarketing department. A small story:

One guy reaches Yama Dharma’s court forjudgment. Yama is the God of Death and Justice.Yama says, ‘You have committed some sins and youalso have some merit. You are allowed to be inheaven and in hell. You have a choice. You can seeboth the places and choose which one you want.’

The guy says, ‘Alright, I will check out both placesand then decide.’

He went to hell first. The people were sobeautiful, dancing and singing. It had becomecompletely hi-tech. Computers were available. Internetwas available. They watched the news everyday.Everything was so new, air-conditioned, and peoplewere serving so many things. He wondered, ‘What isthis? What happened to hell?’

People in hell said, ‘All the techies are here. So wechanged the whole setup. Now we have updated thewhole system. It is no more like old times. Now,everything is new.’

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Then the man said, ‘Alright, let me go and seeheaven. There is a chance that some techies wouldhave gone there as well. There is a possibility.’

In heaven, he saw the same old saints with longbeards, sitting on clouds and singing, ’Hallelujah!Hallelujah!’ Nothing else; nothing new. It was thesame old heaven, nothing much is happening.

He went to Yama and said, ‘I think I will go tohell.’

Yama said, ‘Please be certain. You cannot changeyour mind. Are you sure?’

The guy said, ‘Yes, I will go to hell. It’s so cool!’

As soon as he decided, a door suddenly openedand he fell into hell. He was shocked! There was theconventional hell - people being tortured by devils. Itwas the traditional hell. He asked, ‘What ishappening? What is this? When I came half an hourago, hell was different. Now the whole thing haschanged.’

They all gathered around him and one of themsaid, ‘No, no, that was the promotional feature fromour marketing department! This is reality.’

Be very clear, sometimes we are caught in themarketing department. Don’t be caught in the marketingdepartment and when you do go to the marketingdepartment be clear about what is the truth and what isexaggerated. You need to analyze. Of course, when I say

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we go through the stotra, we need to understand it.Please be very clear, when we go through the Puranas,the epic stories, we need to understand the spirit of thePuranas. We need to understand the spirit.

There is a big difference between fact and truth.Purana, our epics, are truths. They are showing us,leading us to the truth. So while understanding stotras weshould understand the spirit of the stotras.

The next level people, the being level people, neitherwant shastra nor stotra; they straightaway want appliedscience, technology. For them Shiva, who created theVignana Bhairava Tantra, is the answer. All the greatmeditation techniques he delivered are for those peoplewho are being-oriented. Zen masters are ideal for thesekind of people. They will be able to relate well with Zenmasters. For the intellectual crowd, there is one kind ofincarnation, for the emotional crowd, there is anotherkind of incarnation, and for being level people, yetanother kind of master.

But Krishna can relate to people at all three levels. Ifyou are intellectual, He gives you the Gita, Gita Krishna.If you are emotional, you can have Radha Krishna. Hecan sing and dance; he can play; he can be naughty; hecan fulfill your emotional being; he can give you theultimate emotional fulfillment. At the being level, youstraightaway want the technology of enlightenment.Again, He offers the truth, Dhyana Yoga – path ofmeditation techniques - in the Gita.

Krishna is complete fulfillment. His very life is sutra!The very life of Krishna is a technique. Sutra means the

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technique that leads you to enlightenment. The bodylanguage of an enlightened person is sutra. Krishna is theperson whose body language straight away leads you toenlightenment. Understand that Rama will lead you todharma, righteousness. If you follow what Rama did, youwill have dharma, but with Krishna, you will straight awayhave moksha, liberation!

When we experience the being of Krishna, when weunderstand Krishna, His very being is a technique. Hisvery life is a technique. That is why there is a word inthe Bhagavatam called ‘leela dhyana’. Just remembering theleela, the playful pranks of Krishna, is dhyana, meditation.

No other incarnation is given the word leela dhyana. Noother incarnation is praised like this. Just rememberingHis acts is dhyana, meditation. Masters say thatremembering the acts of Krishna is meditation.

The great sages were once disturbed by thesinging and dancing of the gopikas (cowgirls whowere Krishna’s playmates). So they went to Krishna’sbirthplace, Vrindavan, to see what was happening.They just wanted to see for themselves.

They thought, ‘Why are the gopikas so happy andalways singing and dancing? We sages are sitting withclosed eyes trying to meditate with long faces andnothing is happening. Except the beard, nothing elseis growing. We have been meditating for a long time,but these gopikas are always happily singing anddancing! What is really happening in that place?’

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A small story within this story:

A guy was sitting on the riverbank trying tomeditate. He heard the sound of anklets. He openedhis eyes and saw a young woman walking towardsthe river to fetch some water. He asked, ‘What isthis? What kind of disturbance is this?’ Then he closedhis eyes and started meditating again.

The next day, at the same time, he heard thesound again. Unconsciously he opened his eyes, sawthe girl, and asked her, ‘What kind of disturbance areyou creating?’ Again, he closed his eyes and startedmeditating.

On the third day, he became anxious when theexact time came, and started waiting for the sound ofthe anklets!

Anyhow, the singing and dancing of the gopikasaround Krishna disturbed these sages. They wantedto know what was going on in Vrindavan. Theycame down to see the gopikas, but the gopikas did notreceive them properly, nor did they care to listen towhat the sages had to say. They were happy,completely fulfilled, and in total contentment in theirreminiscences with Krishna.

The sages asked, ‘What is this? We are great sages.We have come all the way to see you and you arenot even receiving us properly.’

One gopika asked, ‘Sages? Who are they?’

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‘We meditate on His feet in our heart,’ explainedone of the sages.

The gopika said, ‘Meditate on His feet? Come, wewill show you. We are playing with His entire form!You are meditating on Him. Why? Come, we willshow you how we are playing with Him. You sayyou are trying to remember Him. We are trying toforget Him! He is so much in our being. We areunable to forget Him. We are unable to do our work.He has completely filled up our inner space!’

Many people ask, ‘Master, should we remember you?Should we take you as our master?’

I tell them, ‘Never make that mistake. If I am going tohelp you, if I am your master, you will not be able toforget me! That is the real scale to know if I am yourmaster or not.’

If you must remember me with effort, then I am notyour master. Forget me. Carry on doing your work.Carry on with your life. If you must remember somethingconsciously, with effort, it is ugly. Only when you can’tforget, only then, devotion happens in you. These gopikassay, ‘We are unable to forget Him.’

Krishna appeals to the being level people. They arecontinually aspiring, seeking an experience straightaway.Just by His will, He can give that experience to them. Hecan give experience of enlightenment to Arjuna, by justshowing him His cosmic form, Vishwa Roopa Darshana!

Krishna shows that He is in everybody, that everybodyis in Him. Just by will, Krishna is able to give an experience

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of the Divine, eternal bliss, to Arjuna. Whether we areintellectually oriented, emotionally oriented or being leveloriented, we can find our fulfillment in Krishna.

Krishna can give us fulfillment. When intellect ripens,it becomes intelligence; when emotion ripens, it becomesdevotion; when our being ripens, we become enlightened.

All these three enlightenment modes - being, devotionand intelligence - express at their peak in Krishna. Hence,Krishna can fulfill every being. That is why He is calledjagat guru, Master of the whole universe.

One swami in India said to me, ‘I am jagat guru.’

I was surprised! I wondered, ‘What is this? It islike having a small hotel on the roadside and namingit the Sheraton!’

I asked him, ’Jagat guru? What do you mean bythat word? Do you know the qualifications of a Jagatguru?’

He said, ‘No, no, I have one disciple and his nameis Jagat. I am the guru for him, so I am called Jagatguru.’

So understand: Jagat guru does not mean just the guruof one person Jagat. Jagat guru leads the whole universeinto the Divine Consciousness!

Krishna is a Jagat guru.

To a person who is intellectually oriented, theUpanishad will appeal; the shastra will appeal; the BrahmaSutra will appeal.

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To a person who is emotionally oriented, the stotraswill appeal. The songs of Chaitanya, Meera and Tulsidaswill appeal.

For a person who is being level oriented, the VignanaBhairava Tantra or Patanjali Yoga Sutra will appeal.

Krishna appeals to every being.

He is for intellectual people, emotional people, beinglevel people, and something more. He has created keys toopen all the locks. He has created methods to givespiritual experience to the whole of humanity, to peoplewho have come, people who are here, and those yet tocome. He has created the technology even for the nextgenerations. He is Nithya Ananda – Eternal Bliss. Gita isthe Ultimate Scripture - shastra, stotra and sutra.

Krishna is beyond scriptures.

When Krishna says,

Weapons do not cleave, nor fire burns the Atman

Water does not wet it and wind does not dry it

When He talks about the basic truths of life andspirituality, it is shastra.

When Arjuna says,

‘Oh Lord, I bow down to you from the front, frombehind, from all sides;

You are infinitely mighty, pervading everything, youare the Ultimate.’

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Arjuna is doing the Stotra. Arjuna is praising the lord;he is expressing his devotion.

Whatever your thought is when you leave this body,absorbed in that thought, that alone you attain, Arjuna!

Here Krishna provides Arjuna the technique, the mostpowerful sutra that helps anyone attain what he wants to.

The Bhagavad Gita is the only scripture that combinesthe wisdom of shastra, the depth of feeling of stotra andthe practical reality of a sutra. It is a means toenlightenment for all, delivered by the Master of Masters.

In this first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, we seeArjuna, the most prolific fighter amongst the Pandavaprinces and the darling of all his teachers, winner ofDraupadi and the treasured friend of Krishna, in deepdilemma.

Years ago, a man called Arthur Koestler wrote anarticle about Communism titled ‘Yogi and the Commissar.’We do not know whether he had read the Gita, but hehad certainly captured Arjuna and his plight with his title.

Arjuna is both the Yogi and the Commissar. As a Yogi,he is deeply spiritual, centered within himself, and deeplyaware of his moral and ethical obligations. As theCommissar, Arjuna is the warrior, ready to avenge, readyto impose order and control; he is the archetypal Kshatriyaprince.

Only with enlightenment is it possible to continuouslyand consistently proceed with both these personalitieswithout faltering. Arjuna falters as he faces his enemies on

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the battlefield of the Great Mahabharata War. Hisdilemma unfolds.

Arjuna’s dilemma is such that he is now able to beneither a Yogi nor a Commissar.

He loses his detachment as a Yogi. In turn, he loses hiscourage as a Commissar.

He sees his enemies and identifies himself with them.In front of him are his mentors, family and friends. Theyare his extension, his lineage and his identity. He can nolonger pretend that he is the ultimate warrior, theCommissar, who can dispassionately dispatch them todeath.

Arjuna’s dilemma is the dilemma of humanity. It is aninternal conflict between what we perceive as our valuesystems and beliefs, and what we feel we can do. Ourvalue systems and beliefs are the samskaras that drive ourdecisions. The problem lies in the fact that these samskaraslie deep in our unconscious. We are not even aware ofthem.

Arjuna understood his kshatriya code of conduct verywell. This code demanded that he not turn down arighteous challenge to fight and gamble. However, hisdeep-rooted attachment to his clan and lineage provedstronger than what he considered to be his duties. Thesefeelings were far stronger than the codes of conduct.

Arjuna’s samskaras were primal. They related to survivalissues, identity issues. By killing clan members, he was ineffect destroying a part of himself. No code of conduct

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was worth that destruction. That was his dilemma.

All of us are caught in such a dilemma at one time oranother. We are taught to follow certain societal rules andregulations. As long as our basic desires are in tune withthese societal and religious rules and regulations, we haveno problems, no confusion, and no dilemma. However,our dilemmas start when what we seek and the path weneed to follow to achieve it, violate these rules andregulations.

Everyone, without exception, has inbuilt guilt forviolating the commandments of religion and society. Thatis why Jesus said, ‘He amongst you, he who is withoutsin, let him cast the first stone.’ That guilt is sin. And wefear that unknown and unseen forces will rise against usto punish us for these violations. Desire versus guilt isour dilemma, always.

In almost all cases, if the desires are strong enough,desires win. Rules and regulations can wait, we say. Atworst, we can always work out some means of appeasingthese godly forces. After all, what are temples and priestsfor?

The truth is that society and religion encourage us tothink this way. They know that no one can be controlledone hundred percent.

‘Let us just put on speed breakers,’ they say. ‘Let uscontrol them through fear and greed. If they are good allthe time, that would be difficult. We shall be out ofbusiness. They can then deal directly with the unseenforces. That cannot be allowed. So let us install rules and

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regulations that cannot be observed for the most part.People will violate them; they will stumble. Let us thencatch them and control them through fear and greed,through the fear of God.’

Such is the genesis of religious guidelines and societalregulations. Some religions are based only on suchguidelines, without any intelligent and acceptablereasoning to support the regulations. It is almost asthough they are established so that we break them andfeel guilty. Once we feel guilty, we are caught.

In the spiritual sense, there is no such thing as sin.There is nothing that is totally good or bad. As the Taosays, good is mixed with bad; there can be no lightwithout darkness, or good without evil. When youbecome truly aware, you realize that there are no sins.

Whatever happens to us happens as a result of naturallaws. The realized ones flow with that realization. Whenone has compassion for humanity, when one feels forevery living being the same compassion that one feels foroneself, one can do no harm to another. There can be nosin. And therefore, there is no guilt either.

Arjuna’s progress on this path of self-discovery is thepath of the Bhagavad Gita. That can also be our path ifwe internalize the message of the Gita. When there is novariation between what we wish to do and what webelieve in, when we are aware of our samskaras and weact in total fulfillment of these samskaras in awareness, wehave no dilemma. We are in fulfillment.

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All of us are born with pre-existing desires; these arethe vasanas, the mental set up that the spirit within uscarries into our bodies with each new birth. These arealso called prarabdha karma, those desires that we choose tofulfill when we take a birth. They carry their own energyfor fulfillment in that lifetime.

The trouble is that the time between death and thenext birth is quick and painful. The body mind systemlapses into unconsciousness, a coma, as the energy leavesmatter (body). As the energy enters another piece ofmatter, another body mind, the memory of the prarabdhakarma is erased. When the spirit passes through the Causalenergy layer as it crosses the seven mind body energylayers at death, we lose memory of our unfulfilled desiresof that birth, the last thoughts, the vasanas and theprarabdha karma. Therefore, when we are reborn in anotherbody, we no longer remember why we were born orwith what desires and purpose we have chosen this birth!

That is the root cause of our dilemma.

Incarnations and enlightened beings choose a consciousbirth with full awareness of their reason for birth whenthey are born. They know what they are here for. Theyhave no confusion, no dilemma. Arjuna is not at thatstage, nor are most of us.

Fortunately, it is possible to become aware of ourprarabdha karma, our opening balance of desires. We canthen work towards its fulfillment during each life withoutaccumulating more karma (agamya karma) in this lifetime.Agamya karma is the ‘current account’ of desires that weaccumulate in this lifetime.

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By exhausting the prarabdha that we brought with usand by not accumulating more agamya, we lower theoverall ‘account’ of total karmas that we collect overmillions of births. This total account is called sanchita karma.

These karmas or unfulfilled desires are also referred toas samskaras, the engraved memories stored in ourunconscious, stirring up these desires. They are also calledvasanas or mindset, which in turn create the desires andstore them as memories. These three words can be usedinterchangeably for all practical purposes, although theydo have separate deeper meanings.

By understanding the nature and types of samskaras,vasanas and karmas that we carry over into this birth, wecan work towards their fulfillment. Then, our stock ofsamskaras diminishes.

The Life Bliss and Nithyananda Spurana Programs, theLevel 1 and Level 2 courses, address these karmas. In bothworkshops, participants learn about their samskaras, whatmotivates their behavior and how to dissolve thesekarmas. In a sense, we begin to understand our openingbalance of desires in this life, the karma we accumulateduring this lifetime and how to work upon and releasethem while alive.

This is also the process of Yoga that Krishna takesArjuna through in these eighteen chapters of theBhagavad Gita. These teachings are not meant for Arjunaalone. They are meant for us, so that we dissolve oursamskaras, resolve our dilemmas and experience theultimate truth.

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Q: Master, you mentioned that Mahabharata is ametaphor. Please elaborate.

If you know the story, I can elaborate on themetaphor. Since many may not have read this epic indetail, let me cover only a few important points.

The Mahabharata War lasted eighteen days. BhagavadGita was delivered as eighteen chapters. In the war therewere totally eighteen akshauhinis or divisions. The numbereighteen is a mystical number. Now let me give you thetheory of counting numbers. The more numbers you havestarted counting, the deeper the vengeance or logic whichhas developed in your system.

In ancient times, which we call the Age of Truth orSatya Yuga, people were able to count only to the numberthree. In the following age of Treta Yuga, people were ableto count up to seven. In the period that followed, DwaparaYuga, people were able to count to eight. When people startedcounting to nine, it was the Age of Strife, Kali Yuga, which welive in today! Keeping account of more than eight thoughts inyour memory space creates discomfort.

Ability to count more means that logic is able toadvance step-by-step and more thoughts are able to flow.If eight thoughts can flow from you towards the outerworld without any break, then you are materialistic; youare focused on the external world, the periphery.

Understand that if you are able to produce eightcontinuous thoughts without you being reminded to moveinwards, it means that you are materially focused, andthis leads you to depression. You will be in depression.

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Ability to have eight continuous thoughts without havingself-recovery, without self-healing thoughts intervening toremind you of your true nature, is the pathway to hell.

Whenever your ten senses, which are your gateways tothe external world, are added to the eight thoughts, youare in depression and you are in difficulty.

See, as long as you don’t add thoughts to yourhardware, your senses, you are okay. You don’t haveonly five senses as you think. You have ten senses. Thereare five senses of perception called gyanaendriya, and fivesenses of action called karmendriya. Your tongue when itengages in talk is being a karmendriya; when it does thetasting, it is a gyanaendriya.

There are five input and five output senses, totallymaking it ten senses. When your ten senses are added toyour mind, which can count to eight, you are indepression. Either you should not be able to count eightor all ten senses should not be active. If both arehappening you are in deep trouble.

All ten senses are not active in some animals; they aresaved. If your ten senses are active and you can count toeight, you are depressed. That is why the numbereighteen plays a major role. To get enlightened you haveto break from these eighteen things.

What happens when your mind can count to eight,when it can continuously go for eight externally focusedthoughts? When the mind touches the eyes, it createsmillions of thoughts related to the eyes. When it touchesthe nose, it creates millions of thoughts based on thenose. When it touches the tongue, it creates millions of

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thoughts related to the tongue. You are overwhelmed bythoughts and actions driven through these thoughts.

In the Mahabharata War, there were eighteen divisionscalled akshauhinis, which consisted of soldiers, elephants,horses and so on. Of these the Kaurava army had elevenand the Pandava army had seven divisions. Put together,these symbolically represent eighteen million thoughts.When thoughts are high, the larger number of thoughtswill be depression oriented. So, eleven million joined thenegative group – the Kauravas, and only seven millionwere self-healing thoughts, self-recovery thoughtsbelonging to the Pandavas.

Let me give a description of destructive thoughts andself-healing thoughts.

You receive a message that a thief entered your homeand took your money and valuables. Now this is a lossand destruction. The moment you hear this you think,‘Oh God, what will happen to me? Everything is lost;nothing is there.’ All kinds of depressive thoughts aregenerated. A depressive thought trend starts.

On the other hand, you can choose to respond withself-healing thoughts also. For example, you may think,‘Alright, even if I lose, it does not matter, I can alwaysearn more. Even if I have ten times more wealth, what isthe point? I am going to leave all that one day and die.’

The person who has renounced everything enjoyseverything! Understand that.

Such thoughts are self-healing thoughts. You shouldhave had some click with these self-healing thoughts, by

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listening to a master or by you yourself contemplatingand experiencing it. There should have been an innerchange, a cognitive shift, a transformation, a psychologicalrevolution; these are what I mean by ‘clicks’.

The sudden and bright thoughts that you had whenyou heard a living master are clicks. You were actuallyinitiated when you got the click (Snaps his fingers). ‘Yes,what He says is right!’ you would have suddenly felt. Oryou yourself might have contemplated and got initiated,became self-illumined. An inner voice would have said,‘Yes, right!’ Those thoughts are self-healing thoughts.

So in the Mahabharata, the self-healing thoughts areseven million and the destructive thoughts are elevenmillion, and the fight starts!

Arjuna is the individual consciousness; he is oscillatingbetween what he sees as good and what he sees as bad.Your laziness to fight with the negative thoughts is tamas,inaction. You justify and say, ‘What is the need to fightwith all these negative thoughts? It is okay, let them rule.’Your body is the land for which the eleven million andseven million are fighting.

There were one hundred Kaurava brothers: onehundred negative entities. One hundred brothers meanthe cloning of one main thought into one hundred parts.Yes, it was cloning; the first cloning on planet Earth wasthat of the Kauravas!

Who are the five Pandavas? They are the sons ofnature, born of immaculate conception: one from Yama,God of Death; one from Indra, God of the Heavenly

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Beings; one from Vayu, God of Wind; and two, Nakulaand Sahadeva from the Ashwini Putras, Divine Beings.All the Pandavas are sons of nature.

Sons of nature will always be self-healing thoughts,and the cloning of negative thoughts will always bedepressing and destructive.

Duryodhana is possessiveness. Sakuni, Duryodhana’suncle, is the energy that fans possessiveness and exploitsit! Sakuni is cunningness. All these fellows gather togetherwith the help of eleven million self-destructive thoughts.The problem is that Arjuna, the individual consciousness,at the time of fighting the negative thoughts, goes intodepression. He says, ‘God! I have done so many sins andI have so many negative thoughts. When will I conquerand exhaust them?’

That is when a master, a Krishna, is needed to say,‘Don’t bother. These thoughts do not have life. They areall unconnected, random, illogical and meaningless.’ Yournegative thoughts do not have power over you once youunderstand that they are meaningless and unconnected.Once you distance yourself from them, once you un-clutchfrom them, they become powerless!

This is the truth you need to learn. That is the essenceof the Gita. If you have done the Nithyanandam courseand know the Mahabharata story, you can understand thewhole scene. On one side, there are eleven millionnegative thoughts. Naturally when an individualconsciousness sees eleven million negative thoughts, hethinks, ‘How can I ever become enlightened? When and

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how will I get all these guys out of me? And what is theneed anyway? After all I am a householder. It’s okay.Let them be there as they are. I have responsibilities; Ihave duties. Why should I kill all these thoughts? I cannotleave my people. I cannot give up my possessions.’ Youare simply unable to muster the courage. Not only that,you will ascribe your cowardice as a commitment toparents or family.

See, a real commitment will never have a contradictionor conflict. But whenever a master tells you to dosomething and you say you have a commitment, you aresimply justifying only your laziness. It is purely becauseof your laziness and inaction that you justify. You are inthe same place as Arjuna is before the war. That is whythe first chapter of Gita is called ‘arjuna vishaadha yoga,’Arjuna’s Depression.

The arrows that Arjuna releases when he followsKrishna’s advice are thoughts he is un-clutching from anddisengaging. Every time you un-clutch from a thought,you have released one arrow! One thought has left you!One guy is down!

Arjuna justifies his cowardice as compassion. Heexpresses his cowardice as compassion. He falls intodepression and confusion. When you are depressed, yousay, ‘No, this is not possible; why should I then act?’That is the time you need the master who will tell you,‘No, it is possible. You must finish it off!’

Why are Bhishma, Drona, the great teachers and elderson the negative side of the war? This is important to

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understand. Sometimes some self-healing thoughts getsurrounded by negative thoughts and support negativethoughts.

Let me give some examples, though some of them mayhurt some of your feelings.

Some techniques would have helped you to grow inthe past. However, they will not be helping you to growanymore. When such techniques continue to influence you,you need to fight them. They are the Bhishmas andDronas who stand as part of the negative thoughts in thewar.

For example, you are with a guru, and you practicesome techniques or follow some system of belief withhim. After some time, the guru’s teaching does not helpyou to grow further. But just because he did somethinggood for you in the past, you stick to him. You areunable to go or grow beyond him. Such attitudes orthoughts are the Bhishmas and Dronas. They are just asdangerous as Duryodhana and Dushashana!

Understand: they are equally dangerous likeDuryodhana and Dushashana.

Who is Bhishma? He is the embodiment of yourparents and elders. He symbolizes all your pastconditioning. The moment you try to un-clutch from yourmind, the first one who comes up is Bhishma. He is yourconditioning; he is your embedded memory bank. He isBhishma Pitamaha, the great father; he stands up in frontof you first. That is why Bhishma came to the war first,with his big, fresh, eleven million strong army: elevenmillion thoughts!

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So Bhishma is your parental conditioning and thesocietal conditioning from a young age. He is whateveryou respect as your elders.

After parental conditioning, comes the person who gaveyou the spiritual fire. Whoever it was who raised yourfrequency by a few levels, will come: Drona! Who isDrona? Drona taught Arjuna the art of archery. He wasthe initial level guru who gave Arjuna the inspiration.Drona taught logic, spiritual enquiry to Arjuna. All theintellectual material that you have read so far that keepsyou away from an enlightened master, is what Dronastands for. After some time, he himself may become theobstruction to your growth. When Arjuna is with theultimate master, Krishna, even this initial level guru is anenemy. He is just as dangerous as Sakuni andDuryodhana. He is equally dangerous!

After Drona, your charitable attitude will surface andstand as your enemy in your progress. This is Karna.Who is Karna? He is the embodiment of charity. Thereare people who are caught in creating the wealth machinejust to do charity. Understand that this is also anundesirable attitude. Many people think, ‘I will makemoney and give to charity.’ Understand, they are caughtunder the disguise of charity! They will never becomeenlightened! They need to move on beyond their so-called idea of charity, only then will they attainenlightenment.

You can be a Karna and feel good, but that does notmean you will become enlightened. No! However, if inthe last few moments of your life, you gave away

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something to an enlightened master, like Karna whohanded everything over to Krishna, then there is apossibility of enlightenment for you.

Now… I have promoted my game! Giving money to anenlightened master will give enlightenment! (Laughsuproariously…audience applauds). That is what Krishna says;that is what the story says.

What does this mean? The master takes away all yourpossessions and attachments. Krishna did not become richby taking things from Karna. Understand this veryclearly. Can you say Krishna became rich by taking thingsfrom Karna? No! The master accepting something fromyou is not for him to become rich, but to liberate you fromsomething in which you are caught.

Karna was not able to die. The God of Death who isalso the god of Justice was not allowing him to diebecause of the merits he had obtained and carried onaccount of his charity. That was why Krishna was unableto liberate Karna until He said, ‘Give me all your gooddeeds.’ Karna gave away all the merits to Krishna andbecame liberated that very moment.

That is why we call it Karna moksha, not Karna vadha:Karna’s liberation not Karna’s destruction. For the evilones like Kamsa, it is Kamsa vadha, destruction; but forKarna, it is Karna moksha, liberation.

Once you surpass Karna or compassion, yourunguarded and pure ego will come and stand for thefinal fight: symbolized by Duryodhana in the war. And of

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course. Krishna plays the master game and slaysDuryodhana as well.

Only after all these traits in you are gone, will you seeenlightenment. Both positivism and negativity must diebefore enlightenment. The mind load has to reduce andthoughts have to reduce to zero. That is the way theMahabharata unravels. That is the way the wholeMahabharata opens up.

Your negative thoughts never oppose you directly.They never come and stand in front of you without apositive front. They can never justify themselves as theyare. They need a positive front to impose themselvesupon you. The eleven million depressive thoughts will notattack you without support of a Bhishma, Drona or Karna.These three are the positive fronts – parental conditioning,your teacher and your compassion.

So beware of the Bhishmas, Dronas and Karnas. If youovercome them, you are enlightened! If you arehypnotized, or lose confidence seeing them, you are lost.You are Arjuna, gone into depression!

Now, who are Arjuna’s assistants in the war?Yudhishtra, or Dharma, signifies morality. Even whileyou are un-clutching, you must have Dharma as the base.Just because you are un-clutching, you should not startstraightaway womanizing or using drugs. You will tend tothink, ‘After all I am un-clutched, then let me start doingthese things.’ No! That will not work. Dharma must bethe base.

The next assistant is Bhima, courage. Courage of the

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individual consciousness is Bhima. Un-clutch with strengthand courage. Decide, ‘Whatever happens, I am going toun-clutch. I may have knee pain, I may have back pain, Imay have any pain, still I will un-clutch.’ And what is un-clutching? It is Arjuna wielding the arrow to slay thenegative thoughts. That courage is Bhima.

Who is Sahadeva? Sahadeva is the knowledge ofenlightened masters gained by reading books andbiographies about enlightened masters. Sahadeva givesyou tips from enlightened masters. Your Sahadeva is yourembodiment of knowledge. Sahadeva’s brother is Nakula.Nakula is the science of keeping your body strong tillyou become enlightened. So there is a need formaintenance of health through yoga and varioustechniques till you become enlightened.

These are the ones you need as assistants. Above all ofthem is the person driving your chariot – your friend,guide, philosopher and master, Krishna.

Now, when you start the war, eleven million arestanding in front of you. All the conditioning, teachers,parents and elders are standing in front of you. Thosewho were teaching you what you should and should notdo from day one are standing in front of you. And next,who is standing? The person who gave you spiritualinspiration in your life. Third, all your charitable attitudesare standing in front of you. What will you do now? Notonly that, Sakuni, Duryodhana, all these negative fellowsare hiding behind these persons as well; they are not inthe forefront. They confront through positivism so youmay be put into illusion.

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Now the war starts and you see the whole armyarrayed against you. You think, ‘Oh, God! Eleven millionof them; what will I do?’ You turn to Krishna and say,‘Krishna, I don’t need to do anything of this sort. No! Idon’t feel like fighting. Say whatever you want but I amleaving now. I am going to disappear from here. Even ifI have to beg and eat, it is alright, but I don’t want to bein this drama. No!’

Krishna says, ‘Fool! Whether you kill these elevenmillion thoughts or not, it is of no consequence. Theyanyway have no life; they are dead already!’

Krishna says, ‘Whether you kill them or not, they aredead already! You just take your arrow and act as if youare killing them! Just un-clutch a few times. They areactually not there! It is just your fear that is giving powerto these eleven million thoughts (people).’

Arjuna never bothered to look at the seven millionpeople standing behind him: the self-healing thoughts.Arjuna never bothered to see that. That is why I tellpeople, ‘You clutch only to the negativity and suffer; youdo not clutch to the positivism and experience bliss. Thefirst step you need to do is clutch to the positivism.’

Even after all these teachings, you remain unconvinced.Then finally, the master gives you energy darshan – heshows His vishwaroopa darshan (His cosmic energy form) toyou. He says, ‘Alright you fool, you are unable tointellectually understand what I say. Now see who istalking to you about these things,’ He then reveals Hiscosmic form to you. Then you get shaken up! You say,

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‘Oh, God…!’ You see that the master is the embodimentof all the positive and negative perceptions and beyondeverything as well. He is everything and He is beyondeverything. His cosmic form, the vishwaroopa, is theultimate experience.

You then get the courage, ‘After all, I will not be lost.’You get courage and take your gandiva, the bow ofArjuna. Understand this important Sanskrit word:gandiva. It means ‘something that cannot be taken awayfrom you’. Un-clutching is a technique that can never betaken away from you! It is said that Arjuna’s bow andarrow were such that his quiver of arrows could never beexhausted. He was a born archer. Any mantra (powerfulchant) can be taken away from you. But the technique ofun-clutching can never be taken away from you because itis your very nature. All you need to do is un-clutch, un-clutch and un-clutch.

Suddenly in ten days, Bhishma dies. All yourconditioning disappears. All the parental influencedisappears and along with that, a few million thoughtsdisappear. It was Sikandi who killed Bhishma. Understandwho Sikandi was. He was a transsexual. See, the first andbasic parental conditioning that enters your system is theteaching that you are either a male or a female. You aremade to be very strongly associated with a particulargender. In reality, you have both male and femaleenergies in you, but parental conditioning does notencourage this idea. Sikandi was a rebel, who did notaccept parental conditioning. Symbolically he is brought into kill Bhishma! No one else can conquer Bhishma.Gender differentiation such as male or female is the first

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societal conditioning. Becoming gay or transsexual is therebellion against that basic conditioning. Being a littlecrazy is good at certain times. The attitude of saying ‘No’is good to overcome parental conditioning. That is whyin India you must leave home in order to break yoursocietal conditioning and seek enlightenment. After youhave conquered Bhishma, your parental and societalconditioning, you have to drop the attitude of Sikandi;you have to drop Sikandi, because he will not workagainst Drona, the next in line to be killed !

Removal of parental conditioning is a big success.Now, understand that parental conditioning will neverdie completely because the language that you learned willnever die till you leave the body. That is why Bhishmawas never dead. He was lying in a corner; on a bed ofarrows, inactive, that’s all. He cannot attack you anymore. He will just be lying in one corner. You movebeyond the influence of parental conditioning.

So the thoughts attacking you from parentalconditioning lose power and lie incapacitated in onecorner. This inner chattering and genetic structure of yourparents will be on you until you leave the body. But theywill not have the negative influence they once had. This iswhat the incapacitated body of Bhishma represents.

Once the Mahabharata War is over, all the Pandavas,the good thoughts, ask Bhishma who was lying on thebed of arrows to bless their coronation. Bhishmabeautifully teaches them how to rule the country.

Draupadi, the common wife of Pandavas, is unable tobear this. She says to Bhishma, ‘Father, please keep quiet.

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I feel so dirty listening to your words. You talk aboutnoble things, but what happened when my sari was beingripped off and I was abused in public? What happened toyour dharma, your moral code? Come on, answer me!’

Bhishma says, ‘At that time, I was unable to talk. I didnot have intelligence because I ate the food ofDuryodhana. I committed ashraya dosha, the sin ofconsuming impure food.’

Whoever pays you or paves your way in life, theirquality will become your quality. Blessed are those whowork under enlightened masters! Blessed are those forwhom the boss is an enlightened master. Whoever paysyou, their quality will enter into your head and becomeyours. Whether you believe it or not, unconsciously, youimbibe their quality. Bhishma says, ‘I ate Duryodhana’sfood. I committed ashraya dosha, the sin of taking foodfrom an impure person. So, my intelligence never workedat that time. But now, because of Arjuna’s arrows,because the individual consciousness has showered somany arrows of un-clutching on me, all my impure bloodhas gone!’

If you constantly un-clutch from parental conditioning,thoughts that enrich parental conditioning start to leaveyou. Then, Dharma, righteous awareness, emerges fromyour parental conditioning. Parental conditioning can putyou in depression if you are constantly influenced by thenegative thoughts that it generally brings with it. Instead,if you constantly un-clutch from it, the same parentalconditioning can help you maintain your dharma; it willteach you dharma! That is the story of Bhishma.

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Bhishma is parental conditioning. He says, ‘All thenegative blood generated by impure food has left mybody and that is why now, I can tell you what to do andwhat not to do.’ Parental conditioning will be available toguide and help you only by the tenth day of continuouslyun-clutching (tenth day of the Mahabharata war). It isonly then that it will lose its negativity.

Once you overcome parental conditioning, your book-based spiritual knowledge surfaces next for you to fight!This is logical knowledge acquired through education. Itis the intellectual stuff about spirituality that has notbecome a direct experience for you. It is still at theintellectual level. It becomes the reason that is stoppingyou from surrendering to an enlightened master. You arecaught in educational conditioning. In this stage, you arecaught in the character Drona (Arjuna’s teacher) in the war!

People who have gained some spiritual knowledgethrough teachers or books, are unable to surrender to aliving master because their previous teacher, in the formof the spiritual knowledge acquired so far, stands in frontof them blocking the path to liberation. That is Drona.

Let me recapitulate now.

The number eighteen is a mystical number. You cannotcount more than eight with logic. In Satya Yuga, the firstquarter of Time, you could only up to three; in TretaYuga, the second quarter of Time, you could count onlyup to seven; in Dwapara Yuga, the third quarter of Time,you could count up to eight; in Kali Yuga, the fourthquarter of Time, you started counting more than ten.Depression is sure to result if you have more than eight

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thoughts without going into your self-healing mode toremind you of your true nature.

When the ten senses of perception and action,gyanaendriya and karmendriya, are added to the eightthoughts of the mind, it leads to depression. Either youshould not count up to eight thoughts or your sensesshould not be active. Each sense creates millions ofthoughts. You need to break from this eighteen in orderto be enlightened.

The reference to eighteen million soldiers in theMahabharata war is to the eighteen million thoughts inyour system; eleven million on the negative side, andseven million self-healing ones. The moment you hearabout a financial loss, you are depressed. It is negative.On the other hand, it is self-healing if you think, ‘It doesnot matter,’ and you let go. This attitude arises either asa click from a living master or as a self illumined healingthought.

Arjuna represents the individual consciousness.Laziness to fight with negative thoughts is what is calledtamas – our attitude that delays our own enlightenment.The body is the land for which the fight is going onbetween the negative and positive thoughts. One hundredbrothers are cloned as one negative thought, theKauravas. The Pandavas are sons of nature, from Yama,Indra, Vayu and Ashwini Kumaras. The sons of natureare always self-healing; the cloned ones are destructive.

Duryodhana is ego and possessiveness. Sakuni iscunningness. When Arjuna wonders how he can cope withthese negative thoughts, he gives up in depression. He

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needs an enlightened master who tells him to un-clutch.Arjuna instead of owning up to his own cowardice,blames his parents, spouse and children. He justifies histamas. That is Arjuna’s vishada: his dilemma anddepression. He tries to justify cowardice as compassion;compassion towards his fellow beings who are actuallynegative influences. Each arrow that Arjuna shoots is oneact of un-clutching from the negative thoughts.

Why are Bhishma and Drona, a parent and a teacher,on the negative side? Self-healing thoughts can turnnegative when they are surrounded by negative thoughts.If you are caught in something that has helped you growin the past, but over time loses the ability to teach youmore, you get stuck in it not knowing how to go past it.That is what Drona and Bhishma represent. They are asdangerous as Duryodhana and Dushashana who arereadily seen as evil. Drona taught archery and inspiredArjuna but in front of Krishna, Drona also is an enemy.

Next in the war to confront Arjuna is Karna whorepresents charity for selfish purposes based on materialends. He could not become enlightened through ‘noble’acts. He became liberated only when he gave everythingto enlightened master Krishna. The master takes whatyou give in order to liberate you. Karna’s good deedsstand in the way of his own enlightenment. Krishnaasked for them and liberated him! That is why, it is Karnamoksha, liberation, and not Karna vadha, destruction.

Bhishma is the embodiment of conditioning due toparents and elders. The first thing to come up when youtry to un-clutch is your early years of conditioning. That iswhy Bhishma comes up as the first commander in the

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war. After him comes Drona, the first teacher. AfterDrona was the charitable attitude, Karna. After Karna wasthe ego in the form of Duryodhana. This is how theleadership of Kauravas opens up. Negative thoughtscannot stand by themselves. They need the support ofBhishma, Drona and Karna.

Dharma is the morality we must hold on to even if weare un-clutched. We cannot slip into immoral activities.There were several people who come to support Arjunain the war. Bhima is courage. Sahadeva is theembodiment of knowledge. Nakula has techniques to keepour bodies alive through Yoga, etc. These are all Arjuna’ssupporters.

Finally, he who drives the chariot for Arjuna is themaster, Krishna.

Your elders and teachers stand in front of you andprevent you from un-clutching. Your good deeds and egoalso stand in front of you. All the negativities are hidingbehind these elders and good deeds. So you say, ‘I don’twant to fight; I would rather beg and live, but I don’twant to fight.’ Krishna tells Arjuna that these thoughtsare dead anyway, and to just shoot an arrow and act as ifthey need to die. If you are still not convinced withKrishna’s words, He gives you darshan, His cosmic vision.The master shows himself as all positive and negativethoughts and beyond.

Gandiva is the tool that cannot be taken away fromone’s possession. Arjuna’s un-clutching is represented byhis gandiva. It means that the un-clutching techniquecannot be taken away from you because it is your verynature.

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After ten days, parental conditioning becomes nonfunctional. It will never die, but it can be made inactive.This is what is Bhishma lying on a bed of arrows,incapacitated. The Mahabharata war is over and Bhishmais lying on an arrow bed. Bhishma teaches the Pandavashow to rule the country. Draupadi says, ‘Why don’t youkeep quiet? What happened to all your righteousnesswhen I was attempted to be disrobed in public?’

Bhishma says, ‘I could not talk then. I wasoverwhelmed by negative thoughts. I was eatingDuryodhana’s food. Therefore, I could not thinkpositively. I was overwhelmed by ashraya dosha, the sin ofimpure food. Arjuna’s arrows removed all the impureblood from me. Now I can think intelligently.’

Parental conditioning can make you depressed. If youun-clutch from it, it can guide you like how Bhishma did,and lead you into righteous awareness.

These are the metaphors of Mahabharata.

The master creates the war within the disciple so thathe can conquer his own negativity. Until that war isstarted you live in hiding, ajnanavasa, without yourrightful kingdom, which is enlightenment!

Q: Master, what is the relationship between enlightenmentand personality development?

Enlightenment is not about developing yourpersonality; it is about dropping your personality. What ispersonality development? A bunch of thoughts thatprovide clicks, or shifts in our thought pattern, so that

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our so-called problems disappear. Those ‘self-help’thoughts will be alive only for a few days. Visualizationand positive thinking hold power only for a few days.These may provide temporary development but never apermanent solution. Only an enlightened master cancontinuously provide clicks and initiations to solve yourproblems. Not only that, a master continues to supportyou even after the clicks stop working.

A person who solves your problems even when theclicks stop working is an enlightened person.

Any book with a click will be a best seller. However,providing clicks with promises that work only in the shortterm is destructive. When the clicks stop working, peoplesuspect themselves to be inadequate. They don’t suspectthe person who provided the clicks. They considerthemselves to be at fault and to be failures.

This is the real danger of swallowing materialprovided by unenlightened people, dressed in the garb ofSelf-help gurus. You fall into the danger of suspectingyour own capability. The struggle to make an unworkableclick function as a transformation technique becomes arigorous practice, a sadhana. This is one sadhana thatcannot succeed.

Q: Master, what is needed to go beyond Drona, Karnaand finally Duryodhana?

Drona’s killing required the involvement of four people- Arjuna who represents the Individual Consciousness;Krishna who represents the Universal Consciousness;Yudhishtra who represents morality; Drona who

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represents the teacher who stands in your way toenlightenment. The moral code of not acting against theteacher has to be dropped in order to go beyond theteacher. Here, the master takes charge of the situation. Heabsolves Arjuna and Yudhishtra of their guilt. UnlessDrona falls, you cannot be enlightened. The strategy thatKrishna employs to kill Drona is: Do not tell a lie, but twistthe truth enough to make it work.

Understand, for me to tell you to drop your earlierbondages like your teacher, I must trust your individualconsciousness so that you will not apply the same thingon me! It is a subtle game. This cannot be done verbally.Krishna tells Bhima to kill an elephant called Ashwattama.Ashwattama is also the name of Drona’s son, who iseverything to him. Krishna tells Yudhishtra, ‘Announcethat an elephant named Ashwattama died in the war.’When Yudhishtra says ‘The elephant named Ashwattamahas died,’ Krishna simultaneously blows his conch so thatDrona does not hear the word ‘elephant’. He only hears‘Ashwattama has died.’ Drona lays down his weapons ingrief and gets killed.

It is possible that Drona could have been anenlightened teacher. However, even with an enlightenedmaster, one may not progress towards enlightenmentunder his guidance and may need another master. So onemust go beyond Drona. Your morality has to agree todrop Drona. Here you cross morality, society’s moralcodes for the sake of your ultimate master andenlightenment. Drona must fall.

Next is Karna, who is good, compassionate andcharitable. He is goodness, satva. You think the external

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world and people are real and so you show compassion.But this premise is not true. The external world outsideand around you is not real as you think. You think thatthe ‘seer’ and the objects seen are different. The shift backand forth between the seer and what is seen is theprocess of seeing. The person who drops this shift is theone who has renounced. The shift stops, renunciationresults and enlightenment occurs. The seer dissolves outof devotion, and only the seen remains andenlightenment, the seeing, happens.

You have to remove the weapons of compassion, suchas the internal struggle with questions like, ‘Is itreasonable to work for my own enlightenment whilemillions of people are starving out there?’ This is amanifestation of what you perceive to be compassion. Ifthis is your dilemma, then you are stuck on thefourteenth day of the Mahabharata War when Karnaconfronted Arjuna.

Because of Karna’s compassionate deeds, all the arrowsshowered on him by Arjuna become flowers. When youare stuck in compassion, you cannot be directly killed.You are said to be in the space of heaven. But it is stillnot the enlightened space! A person may live a good,charitable and noble life and yet not be enlightened. Theycontinue to live under the burden of engraved memories.Zen masters say that even if an enlightened being kills, hecauses only good through it; whereas with anunenlightened being, even if he does good, he may causeharm. If this truth is understood, then one will notquestion Krishna’s actions in the War.

Krishna renders the sattvic quality of compassion

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harmless. Salya, Karna’s charioteer, represents spontaneity.Compassion is always driven by spontaneity. Compassionhappens only when spontaneity is there. Krishna createstrouble between spontaneity and compassion. Heseparates Karna and Salya – compassion and spontaneity.

Goodness is the brother of Nature, but it is standing inthe way of Realization. So the master says, ‘Finish thisgoodness. You cannot be stuck with compassion; even thatis an attachment.’ The Gita is like doing the workshopsNithyananda Spurana Program or the Atma SpuranaProgram. Overcoming Bhishma is on par with becomingan ashramite (living within a spiritual community and un-clutching from parental conditioning) - the first step indropping your bondages. Going past Drona is like takingsanyas - renouncing all attachments. Going past Karna islike living enlightenment and dropping even what wetraditionally consider as ‘being good’. Arjuna had to gopast his elder brother Yudhishtra, who was goodnesspersonified.

Finally you face your unguarded ego. You come face toface with yourself. Suddenly, you find that you do notwant to stay with the master anymore. You feeldisconnected from him. When you are at this stage, youare facing Duryodhana in the war. You cannot do much tobreak Duryodhana. The individual consciousness cannot doanything with the ego. Then, how can you fight and win?

This is when you need the complete protection of themaster. When the last fight between you and your egotakes place, even the master cannot work directly on you.He has to wait until the ego is tired. When people saythey feel disconnected, I talk and talk and tire their

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intellect and ego. Suddenly the ego falls andenlightenment happens!

After he falls, the blood of Duryodhana, the ego,becomes nectar, amrita. That is why Draupadi applies it toher hair and ties her hair up thus fulfilling a vow that shehad taken up. Without the ego, your logic can become anaid to teaching and preaching without ensnaring you.Without the ego, you can take guidance from parentalconditioning without being influenced by it. You will findthat the parental conditioning has lost its negativity andonly the righteous qualities in it remain. Then you cantake tips from your parents as to how to rule as well ashow to lead your life.

Q: Master, how do we differentiate between Drona andSahadeva?

Drona stands against you if you do not agree withhim. Sahadeva supports you even if you do not agreewith him. That is the difference!

Sahadeva was a master of astrology. Duryodhanagoes to Sahadeva to fix an auspicious date to startthe war. Sahadeva obliges and gives him the date, anew moon day. This means that if Duryodhana startsthe war on this date, he will be victorious. Krishna istroubled since He knows that what Sahadeva sayswill come true. To change the course of the situation,Krishna offers a traditional ancestral offering on theday before the new moon, instead of on the newmoon day itself. The sun and moon are shocked. They

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come running together to Krishna to find out why Heappears to be going against tradition.

Krishna asks them, ‘What is the definition for thenew moon day?’

They respond saying, ‘It is the time when the sunand moon meet.’

Krishna says, ‘Are not the two of you meetingnow? So this is new moon day!’

Thanks to Krishna’s intervention, the war started oneday in advance - the day before new moon, andDuryodhana was defeated.

Sahadeva was not bothered about whether Duryodhanawas victorious or was defeated. He considered it hisresponsibility to give him the right guidance. That is hisspecialty.

I know that some disciples may go against me. Still Iteach them and allow them in my ashram. I work on thepossibility that they may benefit and transform. Dronawill never do such a thing. That is the difference betweenSahadeva and Drona.

Q: Master, what do Kunti and Draupadi represent?

Kunti, mother of the five Pandavas, is innocent. She isthe mother of individual consciousness (Arjuna). Sheprovides a body into which the individual consciousnesscan land. She has no other role.

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Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas, is maya or illusion.Maya is the non-reality that is perceived as reality, andwhich can bind you as well as liberate you. Until she iswounded, Draupadi will bind you. If she is wounded shewill work on individual consciousness to liberate you. Thevery home you are in may drive you to enlightenmentwhen all the juice of life is lost. She is the sister of anenlightened master, a subtle character. She can bind youor enlighten you. This is the meaning of her vastraharana,her disrobing, which is a turning point in Mahabharata.

Q: Master, what are the roles of Vidhura andBalarama?

Vidhura and Balarama are enlightened mystics whocannot help anyone. They disappear once the war begins.

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Planet Earth is a battlefield

1.1Dhritarashtra said:

Sanjaya,

What are my sons and the sons ofPandu up to,

On this holy land of Kurukshetra,eager and raring to fight?

1.2 Sanjaya, said:

Sire,

Seeing the Pandava army in fullformation,

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Duryodhana approaches his teacher, saying:

1.3 My teacher,

Look at the great army of the sons of Pandu,

Expertly arranged by your intelligent disciple, the sonof Drupada,

1.4, 1.5, 1.6 Many are the heroes and mighty archersequal to Bhima and Arjuna in war;

Yuyudhana, Viraata, and the great warrior Drupada,Dhristaketu,

Cekitaana, and the heroic King of Kaashi;

Also Purujit, Kuntibhoja, and the great man Saibya; thevaliant Yudhaamanyu,

The formidable Uttamauja, the son of Subhadra, andthe sons of Draupadi, all great warriors.

1.7 Best of the Brahmanas, let me tell you about thepowerful leaders who command my army, so that youknow.

It is significant that the opening statement of this greatscripture was from a blind man. He not only had lost thepower of sight, but also the power of insight, the wisdomto distinguish between right and wrong.

Dhritarashtra’s brother Pandu handed over his throneto him as well as the care of his five children. From thepoint of view of any righteous person, these five Pandava

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princes were Dhritarashtra’s responsibility as well.However, the separation in Dhritarashtra’s mind wasclear when he said, ‘My sons and the sons of Pandu.’

‘What are they doing?’ he asked Sanjaya plaintively,‘these sons of mine, the hundred Kaurava princes, andthose five sons of Pandu, the Pandava princes.’ Heclaimed no ownership of the Pandava princes and noresponsibility or concern for their welfare. His concernwas for his own Kaurava sons.

Dhritarashtra’s attachment to his sons, especially thecrown prince Duryodhana, had blinded all his reasoning.Whatever his son did received his endorsement. Fromearly adolescence, Duryodhana had been plotting to killhis Pandava cousins. Although Dhritarashtra feignedignorance of his son’s evil deeds, he was aware of whathis son was up to.

Even when Duryodhana and his brother Dushassanawent to the extreme extent of disgracing Draupadi, wifeof the Pandava princes, by disrobing her in public at hiscourt, Dhritarashtra seemed powerless to act. WhenDuryodhana finally refused to give the Pandavas even aneedlepoint of land, still Dhritarashtra kept quiet,ensuring that blood would be shed.

The sad part of the tale was that Dhritharashtra wasaware that he was following the path of evil and that itwould result in destruction of his clan. Yet he seemedpowerless to act otherwise. Dhritharashtra’s tale iscommon to humankind. Often, we follow wrong pathseven though we know it is wrong, almost as if under a

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hypnotic spell. We know that the result may not be in ourbest interests over the long term but we can’t stopourselves. The Gita, therefore, begins from this premise.

It is not merely the fight between good and evil. It isfar more than that. It is about our inner conflict in beingunable to do the right thing, not being courageousenough to stand for what is right. It is about the lack ofawareness, clarity and courage to follow the path ofrighteousness. It is a fight between good and evil withinus, not merely the good and evil outside of us. Krishna,the Superconscious, constantly looms over our being yetwe ignore this divine call within us, caught in the illusionthat what we choose to do instead will make us happy.

Dhritharashtra refers to Kurukshetra, the site of thiswar, as a holy land or place of righteousness,dharmakshetra. People ask, ‘how can a battlefield be called aholy land?’ If you study the history of humanity, you findit has always been a battlefield. Whether these wars weremorally guided or misguided is a judgmental argument.What is right for one need not be right for anotherperson.

Practically every century, if not every decade, therehave been battles in some part of the world. Almost allwere created out of the belief that one party was morallyright and the other wrong. In that sense, each battle wasfought to restore righteousness as believed by bothparties. So, in that sense every battlefield was a holy siteaccording to someone’s belief in restoring the highestvalues and belief systems.

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In the case of Dhritharashtra, he had an additionalreason. He implicitly recognized the divinity of Krishna,whose mere presence on this battlefield conferred upon itthe mantle of righteousness. Wherever Krishna was, thatwas where righteousness would prevail. Even in hisconfused state of thinking, there was enough clarity inDhritharashtra’s mind to acknowledge the supremacy ofKrishna. This revealed itself in his choice of words. It wasas if, at one level, Dhritharashtra knew that the fate ofhis Kaurava clan was sealed.

If Krishna was the epitome of righteousness, andKrishna was on the side of the Pandavas, how could thePandavas lose? The tragic fate of Dhritharashtra was thathe knew that the destruction of his clan was inevitable,and yet he was powerless to do anything about it.

Sanjaya was Dhritharashtra’s minister and charioteer.By the grace of sage Vyasa, Sanjaya was given the powerto see whatever was going on in the battlefield, so thathe could faithfully convey to his King Dhritharashtra andhis Queen Gandhari the tragic happenings therein. Histhird eye was opened, and not only could he see whatwas happening at a far away location, but he had thepower of intuition as well, to know what would unfold.

We are all blind in one sense or another, andDhritharashtra represents the majority of mankind in thisaspect. Blindness in this case is not only the physicalinability to see. It essentially represents the inability todiscriminate between right and wrong and the absenceof desire to want to distinguish between right andwrong.

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We can all be like Sanjaya, with our third eyes openinstead of being blind like Dhritharashtra. This is one ofthe messages of Gita. Becoming aware of our innerconflicts is the first step in opening the third eye, theenergy center located between the eyebrows.

Again, it is interesting the way Sanjaya started hisdescription of the proceedings.

Duryodhana was the crown prince, and for all practicalpurposes the king as well, since his father was both blindand powerless to stop him. Duryodhana saw the soldiersof the Pandava army arrayed in front of him. There weremany ways he could have responded to the sight. As theone person who single handedly instigated this war,Duryodhana could have gloated, so sure that he wouldvanquish his cousins. As a measure to reassure himselfand his army, Duryodhana could have roared out inanger and in defiance. Yet, after seeing the army hechose to walk across to his teacher and mentor, Drona,one of the commanders of the Kaurava army, to seek hisblessings.

As we shall see, the move was to ensure that anyblame for the outcome of the war fell on Drona’sshoulders. Duryodhana walking up to his mentor wasmore to hold him responsible than to seek reassurance orblessings.

This is how most people act when they go forwardwith a plan of action, knowing fully well that it is wrongand has serious consequences. They find something orsomeone else to blame. It is well understood that

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whatever follows will be unpleasant, and what triggeredit is their foolish actions. Yet, there is solace in the beliefthat they can lay the blame on someone else, howeverillogical it may be.

Duryodhana understood well the modern managementconcept of delegation. Like many managers today, hedelegated so that he could abdicate responsibility.

One man from the IT industry was telling me howthings work in his company. He said:

When a customer asks our big boss, the CEO, if we cancomplete a difficult project for them within a week, ourCEO first sends the request to the Divisional Manager,who then sends it down to a Project Manager, who inturn sends it to a team of programmers to study the cost.

When the project seems ambitious and not worth ourwhile, we at the programmer level tell our boss, theProject Manager, ‘It is impossible and foolish to take thison. There is no way we can do it in even a month.’

The Project Manager then tells the Divisional Manager,‘It is a difficult and expensive project and it cannot bedone within a fortnight.’

The Divisional Manager in turn tells the CEO, ‘It is ahuge challenge and with a lot of overtime it could bedone in a week.’

The CEO informs the customer, ‘Our Company willdeliver it in three days!’ - thereby making theprogramming team responsible for it.

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Delegation can work miracles, as long as the personwho delegates does not know what needs to be done!

Duryodhana was now exhibiting his mastery in thisfield of management. He was aware that there is no hopeto win the war. However, his greed for power andwealth blinded him to a point that he could not facereality. He wished to change reality so that he couldcontrol the outcome. He could not take responsibility forthe situation as it was, since he did not know how to. Allhe could do was turn to his mentors and tell them theywere responsible to ensure his success.

Duryodhana was blunt in his message to Drona on thebattlefield. Drona was not a typical warrior. He was abrahmana, a scholar, and learned his skills of archery andwarfare from his father, sage Bharadwaja. Drupada, theprince of Panchala, was a fellow disciple of Bharadwaja,and he had promised his childhood friend Drona part ofhis kingdom when he came to power. When Drona wasin serious financial problems and approached Drupada forhelp, Drupada insulted him and turned him away fromhis court. Drona became the teacher to the Pandava andKaurava princes. At the end of their training, hedemanded his fees as a teacher, his guru dakhsina, as wasthe tradition. Instead of anything material, he asked themto capture Drupada and bring the king to him. Of hisdisciples, only Arjuna was ready to do this. Arjuna did ashe was asked and brought Drupada as his prisoner ofwar to his guru Drona, as a gift.

Drona released Drupada and handed his kingdomback. Drupada was mortified at his capture and

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submission to Drona. He went into deep penance andsought a child who would kill Drona. Dhrishtadyumnawas born to Drupada as a result of this penance, and hebecame, ironically, a disciple of Drona along with thePandava and Kaurava princes. Though Drona was awareof this background of Dhrishtadyumna’s birth, he stillaccepted him as a disciple and trained him in warfare.Dhrishtadyumna became the Commander-in-Chief of thePandava army in this Great War, and Drona was one ofthe opposing Commanders of the Kaurava army.

Duryodhana pointedly referred to Drona’s lack offoresight in training his potential killer, who now led theopposing army. It was as though he was warning Dronanot to be so trusting again and not to go easy with theopponent, who was once his student. Duryodhana thenpointed out the other great Pandava warriors, such asBhima and Arjuna, who too were students of Drona, aswell as a number of other great warriors fighting for thePandavas.

Duryodhana then decided to explain to Drona aboutthe great warriors on the Kaurava side. Duryodhana wasno longer a disciple addressing his mentor. It was as ifDuryodhana had hired Drona as a mercenary to wage abattle for him. Duryodhana alternately berated Drona forhaving trained the opposing army warriors and thenpacified him by listing him at the head of his own greatwarriors.

Duryodhana was totally confused. He started offpraising the strength of the Pandava army. This was not

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because he genuinely wanted to, but mainly to point outto Drona the mistakes Duryodhana felt Drona hadcommitted.

At one level, as a kshatriya, Duryodhana did not haverespect for Drona, a brahmana scholar; he felt that abrahmana had no business to engage in warfare. However,knowing the skill of Drona as a warrior, Duryodhana hadno choice but to keep him on his side; it would havebeen too dangerous for Duryodhana if Drona were totake sides with the Pandava princes.

At another level, Duryodhana had no trust in Drona.He always felt that Drona was partial to the Pandavaprinces and that Arjuna was his favorite. Duryodhanaknew in his heart that given the choice, Drona would notsupport him. He knew that Drona had no respect forhim, and considered him to be in the wrong. He alsoknew that Drona held Krishna in great esteem and didnot believe that Duryodhana could succeed in this war.

Duryodhana was in deep inner conflict. He had noguilt feelings going to war against his brethren, as hedesperately wanted to keep the kingdom for himself anddid not believe that he would be safe as long as thePandava princes were alive. His problem was not one ofdoing right or wrong. Whatever he did was right,according to him. He was not a man given to deepthinking.

However, Duryodhana had no trust in many of thegreat warriors who had taken his side. He knew thatmany, especially Drona, Bhishma, and Kripa, who were

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also teachers to Pandava princes, did not want to fightthe Pandava army. He knew that they were compelledfrom a moral standpoint to fight for him, as their king,and not as directed by their consciousness. This was thesource of his conflict and uncertainty.

It was also strange that at the beginning of the warDuryodhana chose to go to Drona, and not Bhishma, hisgreat grandfather and Commander-in-Chief. It was as ifDuryodhana was afraid to say to Bhishma the things hehad said to Drona.

Drona was a mercenary, an employee to whomDuryodhana could talk abrasively. Bhishma, on the otherhand, was his great grandfather, the one who had givenup his chance to be king to fulfill his own father’s moralobligations, and to satisfy his father’s lust. There was noway that Duryodhana could have said the same words toBhishma at this stage of the war.

Duryodhana was not yet feeling desperate enoughabout the situation to confront Bhishma. At a later stagein the war when it became clearer that the Kaurava armywas in deep trouble, Duryodhana approached Bhishmaand blamed him for being partial to the Pandava princes.

Q: Master, you talked about people who are physicallyblind and people who see yet are still blinded byignorance. If a great king like Dhritharashtra could beblinded by his love for his son, how can ordinarymortals be any better?

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Dhritharashtra is a metaphor for the rest of humanityin the same way as the Mahabharata is a metaphor oflife. One can learn to cope with physical blindness,although with difficulty. One is aware of one’s blindnessand takes the necessary action to circumvent anylimitations imposed by this affliction.

Psychological blindness is far more difficult to copewith. Most of the time, you are not even aware that youare blind. There lies the problem. You can only look for asolution if you know that you have a problem. If you areunaware, you think you are normal and that all theproblems you face as a result are normal too.

Look around you. There are many examples that youcan see in real life. To many parents, their children can dono wrong, even when they are confronted with evidence.

A father once narrated a real life incident to me:

He borrowed money so that his intelligent soncould attend a top boarding school in India. Eventhough it was a financial burden, the father wanted toensure that his son was educated in the best schooland could mix with children of well-connected andrich parents.

The son also excelled in sports and was even acaptain for several teams. In his pre-final year atschool, the warden in the hostel caught him withdrugs and the young man was expelled. The fathertried his best to prevent the expelling, but could notsucceed. His son told him he was innocent, even

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though the warden and other children told the fatherthat his son had a drug related problem.

The boy was kept at home and went to a localschool. Again teachers reported to the parents thatthe boy kept bad company and that they should becareful. The son told his father a different story. Thefather believed the son and refused to take him forthe prescribed treatment.

Today this young man is over twenty-five yearsold, managed to barely scrape through college, andcannot stick to any job and a burden to the parents.He still has a drug problem, and yet the father findsit difficult to accept it and take him for treatment.

Is this an unusual incident? No, not at all. In manyhouseholds there are similar issues with a child where theparents find it impossible to face the reality of thesituation. Reality is too harsh and they prefer to hidebehind lies, often knowing that these are lies.

Why? Why are there so many Dhritharashtra amongstus? One prominent reason is that we employ denial toprotect our ego. Other people may know that the son is adrug addict, but once the father accepts it, it becomes apublicly acknowledged fact. Until then, even if the rest ofthe world talks about it, he can hide under a façade oflies and feel that all is well. Taking the child for treatmentis like accepting the problem, which will result in shameand the need to accept some measure of responsibility, asthe father sees it.

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Social acceptance is of paramount importance for mostpeople. If they lose that, they lose everything. Their entirelife depends upon recognition and acceptance. Peoplehave such a low opinion of themselves or place such alow value on their own judgments that they act uponwhat others say or think. They dance to other peoples’tunes.

In the epic Ramayana, it is said that Rama, the king ofAyodhya, suspected his wife Sita of infidelity, based uponone servant’s gossip. Because of this rumor, Sita wasasked to prove her innocence by entering a fire pit!

Of course, this may be just a story but surely even inthat age of more enlightened people, a great king, and anincarnation of Lord Vishnu, was portrayed as losing hismind just by listening to another person’s gossip.

From childhood we are trained and conditioned not tobelieve ourselves. We are forever told to do this or that,or more often not to do that or this. Children arerewarded if they obey and punished if they do not. Theydon’t have a choice. Only the most rebellious of childrenmay get away with what he or she chooses to do. Formost others it is better, simpler and safer just to conform.

This basic acceptance of what your parents and eldersdecide as right and wrong for you carries over into adultlife. Your role and path in life is defined for you as achild. You are given a manual of do’s and don’ts for life.This manual may be a list of ten, or one hundred or athousand commandments.

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This is the reason why most people are lifeless anddull. You are brought up… actually brought down fromchildhood, from the natural joy and curiosity of a child,to the dull state of an adult who can only live with thehelp of a manual. You are afraid to do anything that isnot in the manual. You are scared to do anything that isdifferent from what you are used to doing. You feel safeand secure only if you follow certain patterns.

Some people will occupy the same place at the diningtable and eat throughout their life. They will shop at thesame places in their neighborhood. They will be proudthat they have only a few selected friends throughouttheir lives. Such people are already dead while they arestill living. If your actions and thoughts are so limited,and if this is what you think brings you comfort, thenwhat does this mean?

If we think deeply, it is a simple reflection of our owninsecurity. We are so afraid even to take the risk ofchanging our position at the dinner table, or adding toour circle of friends or considering a new routine. We arefrozen in time and space. Of course, this will give uscomfort; but this is the comfort of the dead. We becomelike buffaloes wallowing in the same spot in the mud,come what may. The buffalo is so conditioned that it willgo back to that same spot. It is an animal and follows itsinstincts, but what about us?

Our habit is, to establish ourselves in an identity andthen get bound by that identity. We dare not questionwho we really are. The role that we play and the positionthat we have assigned to ourselves, or whatever societyhas assigned to us, becomes the most important thing in

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our lives. To break that is to lose society’s respect. That istruly worse than death for many of us.

There are people who say that honor is more importantthan life; death over dishonor was a favorite motto ofsome kings. Does anyone stop to think about the meaningof honor? Who defines honor for you? Why is the lifeand joy of a daughter less important than the opinion ofsociety? Why does the character of a wife have to bedefined by what a passerby says?

Honor is the code that society lays down as part of itscontrol over us through fear and greed. It is a moralcode, a code of conscience, a code being imposed fromoutside. It is not a voice from your inner space. It is nota signal from your consciousness.

Be very clear, conscience is not consciousness.Conscience is a convenient anchor for you to hang feelingsof guilt upon. If you do not punish your daughter orwife because they seem to be violating your societal code,you would feel guilty. You justify your inhumanity byyour need to absolve yourself of societal guilt.

When we operate on this mode we operate underassumptions of some duty that we owe to life andsociety. Life does not expect us to fulfill any obligationson its behalf, but society does. There is no duty that weowe to anybody - to our spouses, sons and daughters,parents or anyone else. As long as we operate in a modeof being obligated, we behave in a business mode, on aconditional basis.

When we shift to unconditional relationships, there isno such thing as duty. When you do things out of deep

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awareness and without expectation of reward, the wordduty will leave you forever.

It is a responsibility that we have as human beings tobe compassionate towards others, and in that mode ofcompassion we can never be harmful to anyone ortolerate harm coming to another. When we operate out ofcompassion, we operate out of intelligence. When weoperate out of a need to fulfill some duty or moralobligation, we operate out of blinded intelligence. Weoperate without awareness.

That is what Dhritharashtra does here. In addition tobeing visually handicapped, he is also burdened by hisduty to his sons, especially his eldest. After all,Duryodhana is the crown prince and, as his father,Dhritharashtra feels he owes the prince his supportirrespective of what harm he causes.

Unfortunately for him, Dhritharashtra never transcendsthe role of dutiful love towards his son. IfDhritharashtra’s boundaries of compassion had extendedbeyond Duryodhana to cover others, such as the Pandavaprinces, this epic would have ended differently.

We too can have a different ending to our life’s storyif we expand the boundaries of our relationships withawareness. Our eyes will be truly opened. We will notonly see but we will see intelligently too

This attitude has nothing to do with one’s position inlife. It depends only on whether we allow ourselves to beblinded by ignorance by what we consider to be our dutybased on societal regulations or whether we act inawareness of our true responsibilities in life.

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Ego needs support

1.8 You, Bhishma, Karna, Krupa,Aswattama, Vikarna and the son ofSomadatta,

All always victorious in battle.

1.9 Many other heroes there are whoare prepared to lay down their lives formy sake; All well equipped withdifferent weapons, and well experiencedin warfare.

1.10 Our unlimited army is protectedby Grandfather Bhishma,

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Their limited army is protected by Bhima.

1.11 Now all of you, wherever you are positioned,

Promise full protection to Bhishma.

1.12 Bhishma, the mighty grandsire of the Kuru dynastyand Grandfather,

Then blew upon his conch loudly, roaring like a lionand Duryodhana was joyful.

Duryodhana was a coward by nature, suffering from adeep inferiority complex and a strong need for attention.He had always been threatened by the fact that hisPandava cousins were superior to him and his brothers.He was especially afraid of Arjuna and Bhima, who werephysically stronger and more skilled than him. Like allbullies through the ages, Duryodhana was only afraid ofbeing overpowered by someone whose physical powerwas greater than his own.

Duryodhana felt secure only when surrounded bycronies. His strength and valor arose from the feeling ofbeing supported by his clan and the army around him.On the positive side, Duryodhana was an extremelygenerous friend who gave his all for the sake of someonehe trusted. This quality had attracted strong men likeKarna to him who swore undying loyalty. Even thoughKarna knew that Arjuna was his own brother, all hecould say to his mother Kunti was that she would finallybe left with five sons, implying that one of her sons,either Arjuna or Karna, would perish in the war. Such was

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the loyalty that Duryodhana evoked in his friends.

Duryodhana now rightly went on to claim that therewere a number of people, who were great warriors, whowould willingly lay down their lives for him. Thesewarriors might have been aware that Duryodhana was animmoral person, but such was their commitment to himthat it did not matter.

Duryodhana then began to boost his own morale bysaying that the power of the Kaurava army led by theredoubtable Bhishma was immeasurable, whereas thePandava army with Bhima as one of the commanders waslimited in power. Duryodhana’s reference to Bhimaalongside Bhishma was due to the fear that he had, ofthe oath that Bhima had taken - to break Duryodhana’sthigh and drink his blood to avenge the insult toDraupadi. Duryodhana knew in his heart that this wouldhappen and the only factor that could prevent it wouldbe the protection of Bhishma.

Duryodhana then addressed the Kaurava armyexhorting them to support their Commander-in-ChiefBhishma. In response, Bhishma blew on his conch like alion, making Duryodhana joyful.

Bhishma was the first Kaurava Commander-in-Chiefand Duryodhana wanted to make sure that the entireKaurava army was committed to his leadership. In thepast, Duryodhana had not hidden his feelings thatBhishma was partial to the Pandavas. Now, however, thedie was cast, and Bhishma, the greatest warrior either

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side had known, was leading the Kaurava army.Duryodhana wanted to take no chances that his pasthatred towards Bhishma would affect his assembledsupporters.

In some ways Duryodhana had no choice. Though heknew that Bhishma, as well as Drona, would have gonewith the Pandava princes and Krishna had they not beenbound by their strong bonds of righteousness, he couldnot afford to antagonize them. In fact Karna, his dearestfriend and one of the greatest warriors on either sideequaled only by Arjuna, refused to fight in the war tillBhishma was leading the Kaurava army. Karna stepped inonly after Bhishma was mortally wounded on the tenthday of the war. Yet, Duryodhana had to accept Bhishma’sleadership as a choiceless option.

Bhishma had the great grandfather status to thePandava and Kaurava clan. Bhishma was born to Gangaas Devavrata. He was the only surviving son of eightsons that Ganga had given birth to. When his father KingShantanu wanted to marry Satyavati, a daughter of afisherman, Devavrata swore never to marry so that hisstepmother Satyavati’s children could have access to hisfather’s throne. Satyavati was the grandmother of bothPandu and Dhritharashtra. Bhishma was highly respectedfor his valor and sagacity. It is one of the great perceivedironies of Mahabharata that wise men like Bhishma andDrona chose to take on Duryodhana’s side, knowing fullywell that whatever path Duryodhana was following wasmorally incorrect.

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In the highest spiritual sense there is no moral right ormoral wrong. Everything is neutral. Bhishma and Dronawere not ordinary people. They were highly skilled in thescriptural truth. Moreover, they were fully aware thatKrishna was an incarnation, and the very fact thatKrishna sided with the Pandavas was a clear indication tothem as to how the war would unfold. As great warriorsthemselves, they had no fears about their own deaths;more importantly they had no guilt about what they hadembarked upon.

Men like Bhishma and Drona, as well as others such asKripacharya, trusted their awareness. Duryodhana wastheir prince and they were committed to him. They werenot concerned about the result of the war; to them it wasa certainty that Duryodhana would perish and theywould too, along with him. In fact, there is a point in thewar when Krishna was greatly angered at the rout thatBhishma was causing in the Pandava army and unhappyat the deferential way Arjuna was treating Bhishma.Krishna got down from Arjuna’s chariot that He wasdriving and advanced menacingly towards Bhishma.

Bhishma instantly laid down his arms, folded hishands in prayer to the advancing Krishna who washolding His sudarsana chakra, the divine discus weapon onHis finger, and greeted Him. ‘Lord, it will be the greatestblessing for me to die in Your hands.’

To these great warriors, dying on the battlefield wasthe duty of a kshatriya, a warrior. What was moreimportant to them was that they were rooted in the

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awareness of the present moment, carrying out theirduty. They weren’t concerned with the righteousness ofDuryodhana’s motives. Their awareness transcended themoral rights and wrongs established by society andreligion. They disapproved of Duryodhana’s insult of thePandava princes and Draupadi at the courts but did notprotest. They disapproved of Duryodhana’s instigation ofthis war and yet took up his side, knowing fully well thatwhat lay ahead was destruction.

This was not foolishness or resignation. This wassurrender to the inevitable, surrender to the divine. Atthe level of their consciousness, these great mastersallowed nature to take its own course, and allowedthemselves to be swept along in its tide.

To relax and allow whatever happens to happen is thesure sign of an evolved spirit. Ordinary human beingshave the freedom to think, act and choose. As a result,they think they are in control of their destinies. In a sensethey are; they make their decisions and act upon them.But it is their unconscious samskaras, the memories, valuesystems and beliefs that drive them into and through allthese decisions.

A cycle is created as the samskaras lead to certainactions and those actions in turn mould their mental setup and reinforce these samskaras. Yet, a human being hasthe choice to break out of this cycle and live in freedomfrom his samskaras.

It is our constant conflict with nature that leads to oursuffering. We believe that we act out of intelligence, when

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most of the time our actions are driven by instinct, theunconscious where the samskaras reside. The unconsciousoperates at much higher speeds and stores far more datathan our conscious mind. Typically, if the unconsciousmind is capable of storing and accessing 60 million imageswithin a short time, the conscious mind during the sameperiod can process 60 at best. The speed of theunconscious mind has been designed by nature to copewith life or death issues. Unfortunately, this system getsmisused for all other mundane issues as well.

If we learn to flow with nature, like the reeds in ariver as they say in Tao, we will always do the rightthing. We suffer when we resist nature and thereforelimit our options. There are two ways to live life. One isto accept the world and life as it is, what in Sanskrit istermed srishti drishti. The other way is to try to makecircumstances evolve according to our viewpoint, calleddrishti srishti.

The first attitude, one of acceptance, brings happiness;the second, one of resistance, brings suffering. No one canchange the world according to his viewpoint. It is anexercise doomed to failure.

In our lives, we cannot even change the attitude of ourneighbor or our spouse.

At best, we can transform ourselves, that’s all.

All talk about revolutionizing the world is just talk. Norevolution has ever succeeded in bringing about anysignificant, positive change. Revolutionaries who claim that

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they are against dictatorship become dictators themselves.That has always been history.

Ironically, an enlightened master has no such freedom.He is a faithful channel to the universal energy, Parasakti,the divine Existence. Every move and every thought is atthe behest of the divine. An enlightened being is beyondchoice. An enlightened being is in complete surrender tothe Divine.

The scale that is applied to ordinary humans cannotmeasure the motives and actions of an enlightened being.Their actions are taken in a no-mind, thoughtless statethat flows constantly in the present, with no expectationsof what may happen in the future and no regrets aboutwhat happened in the past. Their actions may seemimmoral or at least strange as perceived through the lensof the rules and regulations of society. But they arebeyond society.

Bhishma was of divine origin, the son of Ganga. Hehad the gift of living as long as he wanted and to diewhen he wanted. His integrity and morality were thestandard for his era. Yet Bhishma kept quiet whenDraupadi was disrobed and insulted. He did not actwhen Duryodhana denied the Pandava princes even apatch of land. He chose to fight for Duryodhana.

However, when Duryodhana requested him to lead theKaurava army, Bhishma told him that the Pandava princeswere as dear to him as Duryodhana was, and while hewould wage war against their army, he could not take

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their lives. This was the condition under which Bhishmaagreed to fight against the Pandava army onDuryodhana’s behalf.

Bhishma had repeatedly counseled Duryodhana againsthis evil deeds towards the Pandava princes andDuryodhana was aware of how Bhishma opposed his acts.Yet, in this instant, Bhishma’s compassion for Duryodhanaovercame his distaste for his actions and behavior.Bhishma understood the desperate fears running throughDuryodhana’s mind and felt the need to reassure him.

In response to these exaggerated claims ofDuryodhana, Bhishma blew his conch as a sign ofresounding affirmation of whatever had been said byDuryodhana. Sanjaya said that Bhishma’s conch soundedlike the roar of a lion, coming from the oldest and thebravest of all the warriors assembled on the battlefield. Itwas also an affirmation of Bhishma’s own support to theKaurava prince and the signal for the war to begin.Bhishma’s conch was a celebratory signal, seeking victory.

Q: Master, how can there be no right and wrong inwhat we do? Can we then do whatever we wish withoutfear? Need someone have no fear of the hereafter if one ispowerful enough to overcome societal authority?

At the highest spiritual level, at the level of Existence,right and wrong do not happen in the way we think.Nature does not follow our societal rules of right andwrong. This is why we often are in anger and sorrow

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when thousands are destroyed in natural calamities orwhen young ones die in accidents.

We say nature is cruel. We ask, ‘Does God exist? Godis supposed to be compassionate. How can He allowthese things to happen?’

We have no understanding of how nature operates.Nature just is. It does not accept any conditions known toour logic. Humans only dimly understand the laws ofnature.

Let us imagine a situation where you are driving a carand you run over an anthill. The car destroys a wholecolony of ants. Would you have even noticed it? Youwould drive on without being aware of what havoc youhad caused upon this colony of ants. Had you run into amoose or a deer, you certainly would have knownbecause your car would have been damaged, but not ananthill.

Nature takes as much notice of us as we do of ants.The frequencies are different, just like how our size andfrequency are different from those of ants. Enlightenedbeings operate at the frequency of Existence. They followthe laws of nature, not of humans. When I said there isno right and wrong in nature, it applies at the level ofExistence and enlightened masters.

It is true that at the level of human beings you need tohave guidelines of right and wrong, of what to do andnot to do. But be careful. When these are enforced

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without understanding they will never work. Most of theregulations laid down by many religions are beyondunderstanding. One religion will say you cannot eat pork.Another prohibits beef and yet another stipulates thateverything can be and must be eaten. One religion willsay that you can marry only once and must stay withthat spouse for the duration of your life. Another will sayyou can leave one spouse and take another; some will sayyou can be married to four at a time.

Different religions say such confusing and contradictorythings about what is right and wrong, and they havedifferent gods and different versions of heaven and hell.It is as if each religion issues a different passport and visawhen you die.

If one thinks about all this with awareness, theunderlying reasons will become clear. The rights andwrongs that society and religions lay down have nothingto with the truth of existential reality. These regulations,which define our conduct, be they right or wrong, are inplace for the sake of self-preservation. It is like saying, ‘Iagree not to kill you and in turn you agree not to killme.’ This gradually is extended across society. Suchregulations are needed to provide safety to all those wholive within that society.

What about those actions that extend beyond theindividual? When one group attacks another group andkills its people, with or without provocation, how can youjustify it? When you kill someone else in defense of yourcountry you are called patriotic, and you are celebrated

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as a hero. But you are still a murderer! If the murder iscarried out in the name of patriotism, does it becomejustifiable?

Throughout the history of mankind there have beenhundreds, if not thousands of wars. In each war thevictor was always considered to be in the right. All thesewars were in defense of so-called noble principles.Whoever won had a nobler principle, that’s all. If Hitlerhad won World War II, history would have beenrewritten and he would have been a hero.

It is as the Tao says: there is no right or wrong, nogood and bad, no light and darkness. Everything that isterribly wrong has something right in it for someone.Everything wonderfully right has something wrong in itfor someone. Such is the truth of life.

What has been considered right at one point in timeand space, is considered wrong at another point in timeand space. What is considered absolutely incorrect at onetime becomes universally acceptable in another era. At onetime in India, it was considered a duty and an honor fora woman to commit suicide by walking into the funeralpyre of her dead husband. If she did not voluntarilywalk into the pyre, she was forcibly burnt. At one time,so-called witches were burnt at the stake and it wasconsidered justifiable. Today these acts are consideredbarbaric aberrations.

Fundamental, existential truths cannot oscillate betweenright and wrong. They have to be one or the other at alltimes and in all space. Unfortunately, in the true

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existential sense, there is no such definition. It is simplybecause Existence does not operate that way. Existence israndom, truly random. Randomness cannot bedifferentiated as right random and wrong random.

Human nature is such that whenever rules are made,the first impulse is to break the rule. This impulse isdeeply rooted in us and is part of our desire to be free ofall bondages. If you have a speed limit, and if you do notsee a cop, you will speed. If you happen to get caughtspeeding and you are in a country where corruption is anacceptable practice, you may try to wriggle your way outthrough a bribe.

One can understand a child doing such a thing. A childis driven by curiosity and does things that may seemdangerous and incorrect to an adult. But why does aconditioned adult consistently break rules? First of all hedoes not believe that the rule applies to him. He isperfectly happy to have the rule applied to everyoneexcept himself. Each man and woman would like to befree from rules that bind, but want them to be applied toothers so that they can be free from interference.

In India, when you travel in trains, and you buy thecheapest tickets, your seats will not be reserved. So youmust fight to get a seat. People jump in through windowsand push one another to get a seat. Then they try toprevent others from getting into that compartment! Theywill begrudge someone else having what they juststruggled for.

Anything that you do out of a sense of duty to yourconscience is always forced, because it is based only on

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what you have been taught as right or wrong, Because itis forced, you will always want to break away in someway or other from some of those rules. It is only whenyou consider something to be right or wrong based upona deep internal awareness, that you do it withearnestness. You do it because something deep inside youtells you it is the right thing to do. Conscience is societal.Consciousness is natural.

As an adult, whatever you do must be done inawareness, not out of force.

Unfortunately, we always get caught in this game ofchoosing between right and wrong. We are conditionedfrom early childhood to play this game. Our emotionalstrings are controlled as if by a master puppeteer, throughgreed and fear. It could be your church telling you that ifyou covet your neighbor’s wife you will go to hell. Or itcould be your legal system that tells you if you do notpay taxes you will go to jail. Or it could be your adultchild blackmailing you emotionally to continue financialsupport.

It also could be the attraction of becoming thePresident of your neighborhood Rotary Club, if you raisea hundred thousand dollars for charity. Or the feeling ofaccomplishment that comes over you by jogging tenkilometers in the midday sun, because you have read itimproves cardiovascular fitness.

In every action of ours, we are ruled either by fear orgreed. Fear and greed are embedded deeply into our

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psyche through conditioned mindsets of good and bad.Be very clear, it is not your conscious mind directingyou, not at all. It is your unconscious mind driving youthrough embedded memories, memories that you havelimited access to.

If we act out of greed, we have temporary pleasure.Often even that pleasure is tinged with guilt. Even if yougive to a beggar feeling charitable, you wonder at theback of your mind whether you are doing the right thingor possibly supporting one of their bad habits. Are youencouraging other able bodied people to beg? If thebeggar is disabled, you remember stories about howchildren are maimed and used by beggar mafia in somecountries. You can never win. For every well-intentionedaction, your mind can bring up at least a few argumentsagainst it.

If you do something out of fear, this bothers you evenmore. In addition to feeling guilty, you also feel you are acoward. In a big city like New York or Mumbai, you willsee hundreds of people passing by a man or woman lyingon the pavement. Or when some one is being muggedand crying for help, others refuse to get involved for fearof their safety. They will look away or close theirwindows. These people are afraid; they are afraid to getinvolved. They are afraid to help another human being introuble. The same people will rush out to rescue a puppy.I am not against rescuing pups or kittens but why do yourun away when another human seeks help?

Our concepts of right and wrong seem absolute to us,or at least absolute in relation to our conditioning. They

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are not. If you read the history of countries that werecolonized, you will find that colonizers introduced manybad practices in the name of civilization.

Such incidents have happened for thousands of years.They are happening now as you read these words andthey will happen again and again in the future. So, whatcan you do? People ask me, ‘Are we to keep quiet anddo nothing?’

No. First, drop your judgment about something orsomeone being right or wrong. You are no one to judgeand in any case, your judgments are based purely uponyour own social conditioning. God Almighty does notjudge, contrary to what your religions may say. Dropyour negativities first. Then you will realize that yourimpressions about other people’s negativities will alsodrop. You will start seeing good in each person and inevery situation.

Second, raise your awareness through meditation. Lookinwards and connect with your consciousness. There is noother way for you to understand and accept the ways ofnature. There is no absolute right or wrong in nature.Nature just flows. With meditation, you too learn to flow.

As you flow, you learn to act in awareness. You learnto extend a helping hand to a passerby even if it seems toinvolve personal danger. Actually, you will fall so much intune with Existence that you won’t even feel that there isdanger that can threaten you. You will begin to experiencethat everything is happening only for the good.

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One of my healers told me this incident recently.

As he was walking to a meeting he passed a manlying face down on the road. Normally he would havewalked by, and he almost did. Then something strangehappened. He thought of me and his legs couldn’t move.They in fact moved backwards to the spot where the manlay. Despite the delay, he stayed till an ambulance came topick up the man.

This is not about right and wrong. This is aboutawareness. This is not about what others would say ordo. He said a few hundred people passed by looking andnot doing anything. If so many people chose to donothing, then some would consider the right action basedon that alone, is it not? But for the person who stoppedto help, the correct action was to be of service.

There are people who interpret their religiousscriptures to mean that they can destroy those who do notbelieve in their God or their principles. How can you callthese people or their religious leaders who encourage thisattitude spiritual? There are millions, perhaps billions,who believe this implicitly and therefore act withoutawareness. How can spirituality be exclusive? It is neverexclusive. It is inclusive, always inclusive. This divisivenessis what causes the collective unconsciousness to rise in oursociety.

Whenever something is collective, it will be from theunconscious. It can never be from awareness. To be inconsciousness, you need to work individually. Consciencecan be collective; Consciousness is the path of aloneness.

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Do not worry about what others say about right andwrong, including me. That is my awareness, not yours.Go into your inner space and find out your own answersthrough a process of connecting with your awareness.Only then can you be free from your bondages of fearand greed, as well as guilt. Only then you will beliberated.

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The War begins1.13 Conches, bugles, trumpets, drums

and horns all suddenly sounded,

Their combined sound renting the skies.

1.14 Seated on a magnificent chariotdrawn by white horses,

Krishna and Arjuna sounded theirdivine conches.

1.15 Krishna blew on His conch, thePanchajanya;

Arjuna sounded the Devadatta; andBhima, sounded his great conch calledPaundra.

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1.16,17,18 King Yudhishtra, the son of Kunti, blew hisconch, the Anantavijaya, Nakula and Sahadeva blew theSughosa and Manipuspaka.

That great archer the King of Kashi, the great fighterSikhandi, Dhrishtadyumna,

Virata and the invincible Satyaki, Drupada, the sons ofDraupadi, and the others,

Such as the mighty-armed son of Subhadra all soundedtheir conches.

Conches, called shank in Sanskrit, are the shells ofmollusks that live in the sea. From time immemorial,Hindu scriptures have referred to the use of conches inritualistic, devotional and celebratory occasions. Ingeneral, a conch was blown to signify obeisance to thedivine or royalty, or in celebration of an auspicious andvictorious occasion. Blowing on the conch signified joy.

It is said that the valampuri shank, the conch thatdescribes a right hand spiral, has exceptional supernaturalproperties. The sound produced by blowing into avalampuri shank produces the sound of aum, the pranavamantra, which is the sound of creation. Experiments haveshown that when the sound of aum is recorded digitally,the shape of the sound wave is a spiral similar to that ofa valampuri shank!

Each of the great warriors in the Mahabharata war hadhis own personal conch, and each one’s signature was thesound produced by his conch. Most of the great warriors

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also had their own flags that flew on their chariots andtheir weapons, especially their bows, had great spiritualsignificance. They were often bestowed upon the warriorstatus after long penance to the Divine. It is said thateven if his flag were masked by dust and distance,Arjuna’s presence in any part of the battlefield would beknown by the sound of his conch and the twang of hisbow!

When Bhishma blew on his conch in support ofDuryodhana, the response was tumultuous on both sides.Every warrior on the battlefield took out his conch andblew his signature sound. Of all the sound that emanatedat that moment, a few were heard above the rest.Krishna sounded his Panchajanya, the conch of Vishnu.The sound of Krishna’s Panchajanya drowned out all othersounds on the battlefield. It was the announcement for allthat the Divine was already present with the Pandavaarmy.

Vyasa, through Sanjaya, says that Krishna sounded Hisdivine conch. This is significant since Vyasa attributesdivinity only to Krishna’s conch, not to anyone else’s. Herefers to Krishna as Madhava, and later as Hrishikesa.Madhava signifies that Krishna is an incarnation ofVishnu, who is the husband of Lakshmi, Goddess ofWealth and Fortune and in this context, signifies thatwhoever Krishna sides with would be invincible. Krishnais then referred to as Hrishikesa, controller of the senses,the Super Conscious, who has created the maya, theillusion that is this Great War of Mahabharata.

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Vyasa implies that all that happens is a creation ofKrishna. For what purpose? He alone knows. The Divinetruly has no purpose. The Divine IS, that’s all.

Krishna was Arjuna’s charioteer. The chariot was ablessing from Agni, the Fire God. This chariot was said tobe capable of traversing all the three worlds. His bowgandiva was also a gift from Agni. Arjuna is referred toas Dhananjaya, winner of wealth, in reference to hisability to generate the wealth needed by his brotherYudhishtra.

Not to be outdone, Bhima blew on his conch Paundra,a fearsome sound that invoked dread amongst theKaurava army. Here Bhima is called Vrikodara, one withthe stomach of a wolf; Bhima was forever hungry and atemore than all his brothers combined, and yet had a leanand flat stomach of a wolf, and, like that predator, hewas feared by his enemies for his strength and anger.

Bhima’s sound was followed by that of the other threePandava princes’, Yudhishtra, Nakula and Sahadeva andthen by the great warriors’, Drupada, Virata, Satyaki,Sikandi, Dhrishtadyumna, Abhimanyu and others, allblowing on their conches in celebration of theirimpending victory.

Each of these warriors had a great history. Yudhishtra,the eldest of the Pandava princes was born to his motherKunti through the grace of Yama, the God of Justice andDeath, and was universally known as Dharmaraja, theKing of Truth, as he was never known to tell a lie.

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Nakula and Sahadeva, were born to Madri, the secondwife of Pandu, through the grace of the AshwiniKumaras, celestial beings.

Drupada, the King of Panchala, was the father ofDraupadi, wife of Pandavas and father ofDhrishtadyumna. Dhrishtadyumna was born to Drupada,when he prayed to Shiva to give him a son who wouldmatch Drona in valor and vanquish him in battle. Viratawas the king in whose kingdom the five Pandava princesand Draupadi spent a year in hiding. His daughtermarried Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son by Subhadra, Krishna’ssister.

Sikandi was born as Bhishma’s nemesis, when Amba, aprincess who Bhishma captured as a bride for hisstepbrother Vichitravirya, immolated herself to be rebornto avenge her shame.

It is as if Sanjaya, the narrator of the incidents of war,repeatedly tries to impress upon the blind KingDhritharashtra the caliber of the Pandava warriors andtheir glorious antecedents, so that the shock of theimpending disaster to the Kuru clan of Dhritharashtrawould not be so unexpected. Sanjaya specifically refers tothese warriors as ‘aparajita’, invincible, always victoriousin whatever task they undertook, with the clearimplication that they would be victorious in this war thatthey had embarked upon as well.

It is significant that Bhishma’s conch, which wassounded by him as the Commander-in-Chief of the

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Kaurava army, to signify the beginning of the war, wasresponded to by Krishna, and not by Dhrishtadyumna,the Pandava Commander-in-Chief, or any of the otherPandava princes. Krishna’s was a response, not a reactionto the challenge issued by Bhishma. It was an acceptanceof the fact that whatever was thrown at the Pandavaarmy was being accepted by Him, Divinity Incarnate.

Krishna, as the Super Conscious guide of the Pandavaprinces, absolves them of any guilt or wrong doing bytaking upon Himself the responsibility for whatever is tohappen. The rest of the Pandava army, including Arjuna,follows His lead in blowing their conches.

Q: Is the Mahabharata war a conflict of egos? If so,is there good ego and bad ego?

This is a beautiful question. As I mentioned in theintroduction, Mahabharata is not a fight between what isgood and what is evil. In a spiritual sense there isnothing that is absolutely god or inherently evil. As yousaid, not only may it be a mix, as Tao puts it, but moreimportantly, Existence is nonjudgmental. Whateverhappens just happens and in turn causes something elseto happen.

Mahabharata is the metaphorical war between thepositive and negative beliefs, thoughts and value systemscollectively termed samskaras. The nearest equivalentEnglish word may be engraved memories that lie deep inour unconscious mind. These are what trigger what we

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call karma, action arising out of unfulfilled desires andleaving behind the mindset or vasanas that cling to thespirit departing the dead body-mind system.

To be free of engraved memories, unfulfilled desiresand the mindset arising out of these, is the route toliberation and bliss. This state when one is free ofsamskaras, vasanas and karmas is the state of enlightenment.Krishna’s prescription to Arjuna is the process that leadsto this enlightenment. That is the yoga, the uniting ofmind, body and spirit without traces of these negativeand positive tendencies within us, which is the message ofGita.

The simplest way to this uniting that results in bliss isthe clear understanding of Jiva, Ishwara and Jagat - Self,God and the World - and that they are one and thesame.

We are all a creation of the interaction between thesethree entities. When you celebrate their existence, all threewill reveal their mysteries to you. Please understand thatthis is not a moral advice. It is a spiritual technique.

You will never be able to realize your Self, understandyourself, until you accept yourself and celebrate what youare. As long as you are fighting with what you are, youwill never be able to realize your Self, Jiva.

Usually we carry two identities, one is ahankara, outerego and the other is mamakara, inner ego. Outer ego isthe identity that we present to the world, project to the

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world. This is how we want the world to see us. Theother is inner ego. This is the identity you truly believe asyou.

Our whole life is nothing but the fight between theseouter and inner egos. The struggle between you and youeats your whole life. Stop. Just accept and celebratewhatever you are. You will see that you are realizing theSelf. The self-realization is postponed again and again andagain just because of the fight between you and you. Themoment you stop the fighting suddenly you see both theidentities disappear into the realization that outer andinner egos exist just because of the tension between them.Whatever you are, accept and say a resounding ‘yes’ toyou as you are. Suddenly you will see that both theseegos just disappear. Accept and celebrate the existence ofyour Self as it is. Neither you need to develop the self inthe outer world, nor do you need to develop in the innerworld. Accept and celebrate, suddenly you will see theSelf will be realized.

Next, let us look at Jagat, the World. Understand thatall the difficulties and problems between you and theworld are just because you do not look at the world as amystery. Continuously you are trying to overrule theworld with your logic. You are trying to understand theworld with your intellect, instead of celebrating, insteadof accepting, and instead of enjoying. You are justanalyzing, segregating and trying to bring it under yourcontrol. If you are continuously using your logic, analyzingand judging - trying to bring things under your control,

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you will miss it. Just accept and celebrate Existence,Nature, the world, with all its different dimensions andparadoxes.

Do not judge. Continuously we keep judging thatsomething is right, or something is wrong. We feel thatsomething is supposed to happen or something is notsupposed to happen. Whatever happens is auspicious. InSanskrit, the word Shiva, that refers to the God ofRejuvenation and one of the Hindu Trinity, meansCauseless Auspiciousness; it is also called mangalatva. Forno reason, this auspiciousness is overflowing. Everythingthat is happening in your life is increasing your frequency,raising your intelligence. Causeless expansion ishappening.

In the whole world there are only two kinds of peopleliving. One, the person who feels whatever is happeningin the world is against his will and has to be changed byconstantly, is constantly trying to alter, trying to judge,trying to criticize things happening in the world. There isanother group, a rare group that feels whatever ishappening, is causeless auspiciousness. Whoever feelswhatever is happening is auspicious inside and outside,lives like Shiva. They live in Shiva consciousness. They livein eternal bliss. They live in celebration.

Understand, every happening including disease anddeath has a message for us. They have something toteach us. They raise our intelligence, raise the frequency ofour consciousness. In the whole drama of the cosmos,

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everything that happens in your life brings auspiciousnessto you. It brings mangalatva to you, it adds to you.

Look at the world as a mystery, as an intelligentmystery. When you understand it is an independentintelligence, a mystery, everything happening in your lifewill open itself and teach you the lesson it has brought.When suffering comes to you, if you approach it withnon-acceptance, or a resistance, it will create only pain inyou. It will only add suffering to you. If you approachthe same incident, the same suffering, with deep respectand acceptance, suddenly you will see the same sufferingreveals its mysteries to you. It will show you the cause,why it happened in your life and the lesson it brought toyour life.

Everything happening in the world is auspiciousnessincluding what you call natural calamities. There is nosuch thing as inauspiciousness. One group lives like Shiva.The other lives like shava – a dead body. Whether youlive like Shiva, as God, or shava, a corpse, only you decide.Understand, the cosmos is causeless auspiciousness. Theuniverse is reasonless, causeless auspiciousness. Accept andcelebrate the very existence of the World.

The third, Ishwara, God, is the source for Jiva and Jagat– the Self and the World. As long as you carry doubt orfaith about the existence of God, you don’t experienceGod. Understand, just like doubt, faith is also anobstruction. I have seen people who believe but never tryto experience. They continue to believe, believe, andbelieve but do not do anything to experience.

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So now, drop both your doubt and your faith. Themoment you see an object in front of you, you know theCreator exists. If creation exists its Creator also exists. Thevery presence of the creation in front of you proves theexistence of the Creator. He is just creativity overflowingfor no reason. He is just constant creativity, which isexpanding, expanding, and expanding - a constant BigBang.

He is creation, created and creator, all three expressedas creativity. Celebrate the existence of creativity. Thevery existence of creation is the solid proof that theCreator or the creativity exists. Just celebrate the existenceof the independent intelligence. Celebrate the existence ofGod as creativity.

When you celebrate the existence of these three - Self,God and the World, suddenly you realize that theperception of these three entities being independent andseparated by barriers is created by your unconsciousmind. There is no barrier, it is just one pure existence,pure consciousness, pure celebration of what we call Sat,Chit and Ananda, Truth, Consciousness and Bliss.Understanding that Self, World and God are not threedifferent entities, and then celebrating the existence of thisONE core is what I call Living Enlightenment.

Understand and celebrate the existence of all three.Suddenly you will see only celebration will exist, all threewill disappear into the celebration. When that happens,that is what I call nithyananda, the eternal bliss. Live

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enlightenment, live eternal bliss, Live nithyananda. Let youall achieve, radiate, and celebrate the eternal bliss,nithyananda.

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Arjuna Falters1.19 This tumultuous sounding of the conches

reverberated in the sky and the earth, And brokethe hearts of the sons of Dhritharashtra.

1. 20 Sire, seated in his chariot,which bore the flag of Hanuman,

Arjuna lifted his bow, fixed hisarrows and looking at the sons ofDhritharashtra spoke to Krishna.

1.21, 1.22 Arjuna said:

O Infallible One, please position mychariot between the two armies and letme see the war mongers gathered herewith whom I must wage this battle.

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When Bhishma sounded his conch, it invited in returnthe resounding response of the conches of the Pandavawarriors. There is no mention by Sanjaya that Bhishma’sconch sound or the accompanying sound of drums andtrumpets from the Kaurava army caused any concernamongst the Pandava army.

What he says now is different. With the roar of theconches of the Pandava warriors, led by Krishna andArjuna, Sanjaya says that the hearts of the sons ofDhritharashtra were shattered.

The words used here are significant. He says that theblowing of the conches created vibrations in the sky andupon the earth. The conches of the Pandava princes andthe great warriors were not mere musical instruments.They were imbued with divine presence. The sound thatthey produced when activated by their owners to whomthey were gifted by celestial beings were filled with greatspiritual power. They were in fact mantra, or sacredsounds, which created powerful vibrations affecting theenvironment. That is the uproar Sanjaya was talkingabout.

In the Hindu epics, one hears of references to weaponscalled ‘astra’. An astra was not a physical weapon. It was athought or a word that was given enormous power byits creator to destroy. These were mantra that createdvibrations or energy forces to destroy, the same as anuclear device. Metaphorically speaking, these weremeditative techniques to destroy the samskaras or engravedmemories that resided within the individual.

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At a later stage in the Mahabharata war, when theKaurava army had been routed, one of the remainingwarriors, Aswattama, son of Drona, in revenge and outof despair, released the Brahmastra, deadliest of all theastras. It is said that the Brahmastra was like a nuclearweapon, capable of delivering terrible heat anddestruction and which could bring at least 12 years offamine to the land. Brahmastra was a weapon that wasobtained from Brahma, the creator, after severe penancesby Aswattama.

Arjuna countered the Brahmastra with Pasupatastra,which he had obtained from Shiva. To prevent massivedamage to the world, both warriors were advised toretract their weapons. While Arjuna could and did retracthis astra, Aswattama could not. It is said that Krishnareceived the Brahmastra as his own before it could do anydamage.

The conches that the Pandava warriors used were notmeant to destroy physically, but they were clearlysuccessful in destroying the fantasies that the Kauravaprinces nurtured in their minds. The purpose of theconches sounding was to set the stage for the battle anddefine its boundaries. They were clearly successful inestablishing these boundaries. The Pandava princes andwarriors had the comfort of knowing that they weredoing what was right, both in their own hearts andminds and in the eyes of God, since they had the supportof Krishna Himself. The Kaurava princes were afraid. Allthat motivated them was greed and envy. They did nothave divine purpose as their motivation.

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We should remember that Sanjaya was able to see farbeyond the superficial responses of individuals on thebattlefield. Filled with his powerful ajna, third eye vision,Sanjaya was able to fathom the subconscious and unravelthe deep emotions and responses of the warriors.Whatever may have been the perceived reaction of theKaurava army to the response from the Pandava warriors,Sanjaya concludes that the Kaurava princes weredemoralized.

The armies went face-to-face. They were in militaryformation. The conches had sounded in anticipation. Thewarriors on both sides were waiting for theircommanders to signal the first move in offense.

Arjuna was at the forefront of the Pandava army. Hehad blown his conch, Devadatta, at the same time asKrishna. Arjuna had taken up his divine bow gandiva, andhad fixed the arrow to the bow. However, instead ofreleasing the arrow, Arjuna looked at the Kaurava armyamassed in front of him, with all the Kaurava princes, hiscousins, facing him. He then addressed Krishna, his friend,mentor, divine guide and charioteer.

Arjuna’s chariot as we saw earlier was a gift fromAgni, the fire God. The chariot flew the flag of Hanuman,the monkey god, son of the wind god Vayu, and theclose confidante and disciple of Rama, the incarnation ofVishnu prior to Krishna.

The Fire God Agni had requested Krishna’s help whenIndra, Chief of the demigods threatened to quench hisfire with rain. Krishna, accompanied by Arjuna, helped

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him by offering a forest that Agni could consume. Verypleased with this help, Agni gifted Arjuna with thegandiva bow, a team of four horses, a chariot, twoinexhaustible quivers and armor.

Once, when Bhima was walking through a forest, hefound an old frail monkey lying on his path. Bhima askedthe monkey to move and give him way. The monkeypleaded that it was too weak to move and suggestedBhima shift him. Bhima first picked up the monkey’s tailwith his fingers. When the tail would not budge, he triedharder. Even with all his might Bhima, who was knownto have the strength of eight thousand elephants, couldnot move the monkey’s tail even an inch. Bhimaunderstood that this was no ordinary monkey, and sopaid respects by saluting the monkey, and asked itsidentity.

The monkey revealed itself as Hanuman, who asanother son of the wind God, was in fact Bhima’sbrother. Hanuman blessed Bhima saying that he would bewith the Pandava princes at all times, and that he himselfwould ride upon Arjuna’s flag, on his chariot.

It is said that wherever Hanuman is, Rama is present.Therefore Arjuna is accompanied not only by Krishna, butalso by His earlier incarnation Rama! Arjuna and thePandava princes were twice blessed!

For the first time in this scripture Arjuna speaks. Arjunais not the mere hero of Mahabharata in this Gita scripture.He is the embodiment of all humanity. He is nara, thehuman aspect of Narayana, Lord Vishnu, who in turn is

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Krishna. The juxtaposition of Krishna and Arjuna, asNarayana and nara, as divine and man, is the theme thatruns throughout the Bhagavad Gita and also much of theepic Mahabharata.

‘Infallible One,’ said Arjuna to his friend and mentor,‘Please take me to a vantage point between the twoarmies so that I can see for myself who I am fightingwith. Let me see who is assembled here on thisbattlefield. Who has taken up arms to fight, and who arethose I must be prepared to fight. Krishna, please showme,’ he says. ‘Show me who I must vanquish.’

Arjuna already knew to the last man, each one whowas on that battlefield at Kurukshetra. He had noconfusion about whom he was fighting and whom he hadto face. All these decisions, the changing of loyalties, thedropouts, all these happened in the days before the war.The negotiations had all come to an end; the lines hadbeen drawn very clearly, even if unwillingly in somecases.

It made no sense at all for Arjuna to ask Krishna atthis last minute to show him clearly who he was fightingagainst. It was as if he was hoping that at the last minutesomething would occur to change the course of events. Ifthat were to happen, he knew that it could only takeplace through the grace of his charioteer, friend andguide.

It is as if Arjuna was making a desperate plea toKrishna, ‘Please show me something that I do not know.

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Show me something that You alone know, Oh InfallibleDivine. Take me there, where You will, and show me.’

Q: Master, conches, mantra and astra, all these seemso unreal in this modern age of science and technology.Even the mala with your picture worn by your followersseems to build a cult-like environment. I would like tobelieve, but much that I have learned is contradictory.Please help me understand.

This is an honest question. Your question comes froma genuine struggle between what you have been taught tobelieve and what you are now seeing and hearing, whichseems so totally different.

Science and technology are not in opposition tospirituality. Some scientists and technologists may beopposed but the concepts are not. Einstein, one of theworld’s greatest scientists, said that the last step inscience is the first step in spirituality. He had discoveredthe link between matter and energy, and this was beingused for destructive purposes. He moved towardsspiritual literature for solace and read the Veda andUpanishad.

The very first verse of the first Upanishad declares:

Isa vasyam idam sarvam

All matter arises from energy.

Science and spirituality are congruent when weunderstand that we do not have to make choices between

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them. They are not merely parallel paths but congruentand identical. Thousands of years ago enlightened mastersknew what is being discovered today. They lookedwithin. Today scientists look out into the world. That isthe difference.

Even fifty years ago people would have laughed if theyhad been told that atomic and sub atomic particlesbehaved differently at different times. This would havebeen like shaking the foundations of science. Sciencestated that matter and energy were different and couldnot occupy the same space at the same time.

This is what you have been taught since childhood, isit not? But this is proven to be untrue by the scientificcommunity today. These scientists, who have been braveenough to challenge that assumption with research, havecome forward with empirical data that proves the truthof our physical world. These are the scientists at theforefront of Quantum Physics and Molecular Biology, themost advanced frontiers of science and technology today.

Quantum Physicists have found for years now that subatomic particles do not behave in any predictable manner.You cannot say anything certain about them. In fact,strange and weird as it would seem to yesterday’sscientists, sub atomic particles behave differently todifferent observers. The same particle being observed inthe same time and space by two different scientistsappears to be in a different state depending upon who iswatching it! Would this have made any sense to scientistseven a few decades ago?

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The Hindu philosopher Sankara said the same thing athousand years ago. ‘Nothing is real,’ he said. ‘Everythingis relative.’ The interaction between the observer,observed and the observation decided what would beperceived. He stated that the truth reveals itself when allthree, that is the observing person, the observed object orevent and the sense of observation, collapse into oneexperience, and all three become congruent. That is theonly reality, which is the reality beyond illusion, what hetermed maya.

Maya, the word sounds exotic. It means ‘that which isnot.’ What is not real but appears to be real is maya,illusion.

People laughed at this. ‘I can wound you now. I cankill you now. Is that not real?’ they asked. No, it is not;not from the perspective of reality that the great innerscientists discovered.

You can destroy what you see as my body. Nothing ofmy energy is destroyed or even affected. Matter movesinto the plane of energy. That is all. But as long as youfeel bound in the material plane and cannot see or feelbeyond that plane, this will not make any sense to you.The same way it would make no sense to a Newtonianscientist if a Quantum Physiist were to explain thephenomena of a sub atomic particle behaving differentlyto different observers in the same time and spacedimension.

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To most of us, our conditioning is what is real. Whatwe have learned all these years, what we have been toldby others since childhood is real. If the information comesfrom an authority, we are prepared to trust. It becomesour truth, our value system and belief. These valuesystems and beliefs collectively are what Sankara andother enlightened rishis called samskara, our conditioned,unconscious memories. Today’s neuroscientists accept thatthis is what drives all our decisions and actions, and notour logical and rational mind as we have been led tobelieve.

As soon as we live within the illusion that we controlour lives, we live in suffering. So long as we think thatby some logical process we arrive at the decisions wemake, based upon which we act, based upon which thingshappen, not only are we steeped in total ignorance butwe suffer deeply as well. Less than ten percent of ourmind behaves in a conscious manner that we can follow;the rest of it is the deep unconscious, instinctively pullingus along.

We are driven by an instinct that is primal. Thereptilian brain stores memories of a million years andcontrols us at times of physical danger. We have nocontrol whatsoever over this. We cannot preventourselves from fleeing from a danger that seems toogreat to handle. We cannot prevent ourselves fromattacking a danger that seems surmountable. We cannothold ourselves from getting excited sexually when weperceive the right opportunity to procreate.

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Our unconscious brain operates much faster and morereliably than the conscious part. That is the only reasonwe are still alive. We are alive not because of ourselves,but in spite of ourselves!

Science and technology are tools. As long as we usethem as tools, they can enhance our lives. Once we allowthem to dictate our lives and our beliefs, we are indanger. We are in far greater danger than if we were tobelieve a self styled holy man!

Conches, mantra and astra! One thing you need tounderstand. All these scriptures and purana, the epics thatfollowed, are about truths and not facts. There is a majordifference between these two - truth and fact. Fact ishistorical and measurable. Facts are bound in threedimensions as well as in time and space. Truth is beyondthese dimensions. Truth is about awareness. Truth isabout Consciousness.

While giving bread and wine, Jesus said, ‘Eat my bodyand drink my blood.’ These are truths, absolute truthscoming from an enlightened being. But these are not factsas you interpret them. They are metaphorical truths froma Master who lived beyond His physical boundary, towhom every being, living or non-living, was an extensionof His own spirit. If you do not understand that, andmake His words into a ritual, it becomes meaningless asit has become today.

We have lost the key to metaphorical truths. That iswhy rituals that are steeped in truth have degenerated

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into superstitions and mechanical repetitive actions. If youwere to eat every morsel that you eat as if you wereconsuming it as the energy of Christ and drink every sipof water as the energy of Christ, you would never needto step into a church in your life again. You will besteeped in Christ Consciousness. You would be anotherChrist!

That is what truths are about. The sound of theconches of these great warriors, especially Krishna andArjuna, was not mere sound. These were cosmicvibrations, vibrations that keep the universe alive andfunctional. That was the purpose of blowing these conchesin temples and at prayer. They help us resonate with theenergy vibrations of the universe. They are meant to tuneus to the vibration of pure cosmic energy.

So it is with mantra, the chants with sacred syllables.The sounds of the mantras create vibrations within youthat help you get in tune with the cosmic energy. Youneed not even understand the meaning of the chants.However, the pronunciation and rhythm are important.They can quickly raise your energy, and a number ofscientific experiments conducted for many years nowhave substantiated this. Your health - physically,psychologically and emotionally, improve, and yourmaterial life also improves as a result.

Astra, the mystical weapons, actually existed. Theseweapons were not physical or material. They werepowerfully focused thoughts of a trained master whocould create and destroy using the energy of these

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thoughts. The power of intention is now a widelyresearched field and dozens of books have been writtenbased on scientific experiments in this field. Hindu yogisas well as Chinese and Japanese masters have shown thatby merely focusing their thoughts, they can throw aperson many feet away and can move objects to anydistance. Parlor tricks such as bending spoons with powerof thought are an extension of this, and millions ofpeople have experienced such powers.

The problem is this. Scientists want all this bottled intomanageable containers. Containers that can be opened atwill and used. My question is: are you able to containyour life energy? Can you guarantee that a person willcontinue to breathe in the next moment? You can state aprobability, but never the certainty. That is whatintelligent scientists have found today. They say that youcan only talk about the probability of an event even inthis material world, never with certainty.

The whole concept of what we were taught as sciencehas now been turned around. Science is not aboutguaranteed repeatability. It is about the probability ofrepeatability. That is all. A low probability of repetitiondoes not mean that an event is not scientific. Even if ithappens once and we are able to verify its authenticity, itis no longer a fantasy, it is a scientific reality.

You asked about the mala, the necklace. These malascarry the cosmic energy. They are like batteries thatrecharge you when you need the energy. There is noneed to blindly believe this. We can use scientific

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instruments and show that they radiate energy. When aperson wearing these malas meditates using the techniquesI teach, he or she charges these batteries further. Theseare inexhaustible sources of a psychic energy supply to aperson. You need not believe in them; they will stillwork. They will heal you.

When a person is in tune with me, has faith in me,specifically if that person has been initiated by me, theycan communicate with me through the mala. I call the malamy cell phone! Any number of my followers will testifyto this. Again this is not blind belief. There is scientificevidence to back such phenomena of thought exchange.They call it Zero Point Field in Quantum Physics. My malais just an instrument that makes this happen.

The mala is a psychic defense. In many cultures aroundthe world, people believe that others can harm themthrough their thoughts, black magic, etc. Yes, this canhappen when your psychic defenses are down, and whenyou allow someone to enter your psychic field. My mala isyour defense.

What I am about to tell you now is a real life incident,in a Western country.

In 2005 and 2006, a number of people from the Frenchcolony of Guadeloupe, the West Indies started coming tome. I traveled to Guadeloupe from the USA andconducted courses that hundreds of them attended. Fromthere they arranged for classes in France and manyFrench people came for the discourses and startedwearing the mala.

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A divorced lady who was living with her young sonreported this incident in France. One night she woke upfrom sleep and it was as if someone was telling her toput on some clothes. She put on a dress and went back tosleep. She woke up to the sight of a man holding a knifestanding at her bedside. Instinctively she held up the malain defense. This man tried to stab her, but he could notmove. He seemed suddenly paralyzed!

Meanwhile, the son woke up and came into the room.Seeing him, the intruder turned to him and woundedhim. As they were struggling, the mother once again heldup her mala, and the intruder was paralyzed again.Eventually the intruder jumped out of an open window.The lady reported this to the police.

After a day or two, the police called her to identify aperson who may have been her attacker. When she wentto identify the person, and he saw her, he cowered andcomplained to the police that she was a witch withsupernatural powers and he did not want to mess aroundwith her again.

The mala is made from special organic material.Rudraksha mala is strung with rudraksha - the seed of atree that grows in Nepal and Indonesia. The word means‘tears of Rudra, or Shiva.’ From time immemorial theseseeds have been prized in India and parts of Asia assacred and healing. The other type of mala is the redsandalwood mala. Both of these are energizing and goodfor your mind body system especially since they havepassed through the hands of an enlightened master. They

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work on your throat and heart energy centers, thevishuddhi and anahata chakras, which means they work onyour thyroid and thymus glands. Your growth andimmune functions are boosted.

In recent times I have also been giving energizedcopper bracelets for protection. These too are for physical,psychological and psychic protection. Made of speciallytreated copper, they benefit many of the arthritic andrheumatic complaints. I am sure that over time, all ofthese will be scientifically validated. They are based onVedic principles, which are scientific in nature.

You mentioned cults. Cults are led by fear and greed.Though they claim to be alternatives to other institutions,cults themselves are bondages. And although my form isworshipped in all our ashrams, if you know ourinstitution well enough, you know that at every levelthere are strict injunctions to move away from my forminto the formless. All our meditation techniques andteachings are based on the formless. People are free tomove in and out as they want. The form is used as thefirst step in your journey.

I always tell people, ‘Once you have come into myashram gates, you are always with me. Whenever youwish to leave physically, you are free to go. You will gowith my blessings. Many people who have left for onereason or another will tell you that. They come and go,but they always come again with joy to see me. Thiscannot happen in a cult; you are bound hand and foot.

Each of you has a path. You have your own path toyour awareness and liberation. Those in whose path I

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play a role seek me out and I am there for them.Sometimes things turn out differently and even if I amyour Master, this may not be the right time. So you maymove away. I see that happen with regret, only because Iknow that your spirit longs for that liberation. It willsuffer as it leaves the body. But there is little I can do.Your transformation is in your hands.

There are so many Westerners who come to theashram. Why should they come from all over the worldwhile many Indians and Hindus, far more familiar withthe background of my teachings, hesitate? This is notbecause Westerners are gullible. They come because thereis a connection; there is a spiritual connection that bringsthem. I am here to fulfill and liberate them so that theyneed not suffer another birth again.

This may seem a fanciful promise, but it is absolutelytrue.

We provide free boarding, lodging and all facilities tothose interested in spending a year with us learning aboutthe Vedic culture. If you do not find that it is a good fit,it is your choice to leave. There is no pressure either tocome in or to stay.

All I teach you is to experience truth for yourself, andnot to simply believe anyone’s words, even mine. Whenyou experience the truth, it is your truth. That is the truththat liberates you and no one can ever take away fromyou.

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Intelligence Questions1.23 Let me see those who have come here to fight,

Wishing to please the evil-minded son ofDhritharashtra.

1.24 Sanjaya said:

O descendant of Bharata, being thusaddressed by Arjuna,

Krishna then drew up the finechariot in the midst of both armies.

Arjuna starts out on a challengingnote. He says he would like to see allthose who had assembled to fight him,in support of the evil mindedDuryodhana. Accordingly, Krishna

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drew up the chariot between the two armies so thatArjuna could have a good look at all those who hadgathered.

Arjuna is being called Gudakesa in this verse, the onewho had transcended sleep, or the need to sleep. Sleep,here, also refers to the unconscious mind. All oursamskara, the embedded memories, our value systems andthe beliefs that drive our actions, reside in ourunconscious. Arjuna is being referred to here as one whohas conquered his samskaras, as a result of his totalsurrender to Krishna.

Krishna has been called Hrishikesa, one who controlsthe senses. The relationship between Krishna and Arjuna isthe highest form of interaction between the Divine andthe human.

In a later part of Mahabharata, there is an incidentthat illustrates this relationship.

One day, Arjuna was walking with Krishna afterthe war was over. Suddenly Krishna points out to acrow on a tree and says, ‘Arjuna, look at that greencrow! Can you see it?’

Arjuna responds immediately, ‘Yes, Krishna, I seethe green crow.’

They walk a little further and again Krishna pointsto another crow on another tree and exclaims,‘Arjuna, do you see the black crow on that tree?’

This time Arjuna says, ‘Yes Krishna, I see thatblack crow.’

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Krishna turns to Arjuna and says, ‘Arjuna, you area fool! How can a crow ever be green? Why did youagree with me when I pointed to a crow and said itwas green?’

Arjuna simply answered, ‘Krishna, when Youpointed out a crow and said it was green, my eyesactually saw a green crow. What can I do?’

The metaphysical importance of this exchange isbeautiful. You see, for one who is caught in the sleep ofunconscious living, this world of illusion, maya, appearsutterly real. But the enlightened master is not fooled. Hehas awakened to the level of Pure Consciousness andknows that this world is just another type of dream.When the disciple is able to completely trust the Master’ssenses - that this world is illusion – and not his ownsenses that give the idea that this world is real and thesource of his happiness, then the surrender is total.Krishna’s senses were controlled in the sense He knewthat what He experienced through them was not thesource of His happiness and therefore He didn’t run aftersensual pleasures for His fulfillment.

When approaching the Divine or one’s master, theultimate step is one of complete surrender. This surrenderhappens in three stages. At the first level it is anintellectual surrender - the intellectual acceptance of whatis divine, what the master represents and what he meansto you. A true seeker reaches this stage when he encountersthe real master destined for him. The seeker sees in themaster, qualities he has been searching for, and answers toquestions that have long arisen in his mind.

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At this stage of intellectual surrender, when thedisciple meets the master, questions start dying down. Itis as if answers come to one’s mind even before questionshappen.

Questions can never be answered. They are a reflectionof one’s internal violence, violence of one’s ego, wishingto prove one’s control over another person. If we analyzeour own questions, almost always it is about tellinganother person about what we know, telling that personthat he does not know, rather than it being the desire toknow ourselves.

Rarely are our questions like that of an innocent child,who asks out of curiosity. A child may ask, ‘Why is thesky blue?’ An adult would rarely ask such a question,unless he is a wise scientist whose curiosity transcends hisknowledge base and he truly seeks to know.

Intellectual surrender to the master replaces questionswith doubts. Doubts are not violent like questions. Theydo not arise from the ego. They arise from a genuineneed to know and to understand. Doubt and faith aretwo sides of the same coin. One cannot develop faith inone’s master without having doubts about him. Despitehis high level of surrender, one does see Arjuna initiallyin this state of questioning as well, perhaps as a lesson tous ordinary mortals. Arjuna progresses during the Gitafrom the stage of questioning, to the higher stage ofintellectual surrender and doubts. Ultimately, we mustmove beyond both doubt and faith to a deep trust in themaster, recognizing that everything the master expressesis for our liberation.

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At the next level, one reaches the state of emotionalsurrender. From shastra one moves to stotra. One movesfrom the head to the heart. It is like coming home whenthe heart surrenders. The person feels a deep connectionwith the master. One does not have to make an effort toremember the master. It is impossible to forget Him. Hismemory brings tears to one’s eyes, tears of gratitude thatare impossible to hide.

Ramakrishna said so beautifully, ‘When thinking of theDivine or the master, if you have tears streaming downyour cheeks, be very sure that this is your last birth.’

Emotional surrender leads one close to liberation. Itbrings you home.

At the final level, there is the surrender of the senses.One truly realizes Hrishikesa and gives up one’s distortedsense of reality and embraces the truth of absolute realitythat the Master and every enlightened sage haveexpressed. Arjuna is at that level of surrender andthrough the progression of the Gita, layers of Arjuna’ssurrender peel away.

Arjuna calls Duryodhana evil minded. This was to painta contrast to his own state of mind from that ofDuryodhana, the Kaurava princes and the Kauravawarriors. When one’s mind is filled with greed, lust, envyand fear, there is a single-minded focus on the potentialmaterial benefits of these negative and evil emotions.There was no confusion in Duryodhana’s mind as to whathe should do. His objectives were clear - do away with thePandava princes and usurp the entire kingdom, that’s all.

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Duryodhana was like an animal, operating out ofinstinct. Unlike Arjuna, he was not an intelligent man anddid not suffer from doubts and guilt. Animals suffer noguilt. They do what comes to them naturally. They do notconsider hunting their prey as something that needsdiscussion. If they are hungry, they hunt, kill and eat. Soit is with Duryodhana. He needs power, and whatevermight be the means to achieve that power he will employwithout any reservation.

A human being has a level of consciousness higherthan that of animals. A human can discriminate betweenright and wrong and has the free will to act based onsuch awareness. When a human behaves the wayDuryodhana does, he is in the unconscious and unawarestate.

With such an unaware and unconscious mind,Duryodhana and his allies did not suffer from any doubtsof awareness. Mired totally in the darkness ofunawareness, these Kaurava warriors followedDuryodhana blindly; unaware that the person theyfollowed was blind himself.

Arjuna, on the other hand is in turmoil. As Krishnabrings the chariot to a stop between the two armies, in ametaphoric sense, He brings Arjuna’s mind to a steadystate.

Duryodhana is in darkness. He is operating out of theinstincts of an animal. His moves are totally unconscious,driven completely by his samskaras. In a sense, he is not incontrol of himself, his samskaras control him. So strong is

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his delusion that the wise counsel of the few who daretell him that the path he follows is one of self destruction,falls on deaf ears.

Arjuna, on the other hand, is in a twilight zone. UnlikeDuryodhana, Arjuna has become aware of his samskaras,and is working to free himself from their bondage.However, he is not in the zone of light yet.

The conflict between Arjuna and Duryodhana is theconflict that all humans face within themselves. It is aconflict between their deep unconscious desires driven bytheir samskaras and the potential awareness of theirConsciousness. Which part wins depends on one’s abilityto surrender to the super conscious Divine or the Master.

As long as one is in darkness, one does not miss light.A person born blind has no idea what sight is, what lightis and what he is missing. Whatever he may think he ismissing is based on what others tell him, not because ofany experience of his own.

However, someone who has been born with sight andsubsequently lost it would miss it. He would miss thelight. He would regret the darkness where he would findhimself. He would be afraid of that darkness, which aperson born blind would never fear because that wouldhave always been his experience.

Arjuna is in the state of a person who has had sightand has now lost it. He was an intelligent man, whosuddenly realized that what he might be doing is wrongand evil. So he is troubled.

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Duryodhana on the other hand has a mind that isalways in darkness. He has never experienced trueintelligence or awareness. Therefore, anything that otherstell him is immoral or unethical would make no sense tohim.

Q: You say Gita acquires the authority of thescriptures since it is delivered by Krishna, the PerfectIncarnation, poornavataar. Other scriptures such as theVeda, the Koran, etc were revealed to sages. Is therehistorical proof that Krishna was God incarnate?

A good question. It is a question that naturally rises ina rational mind. If I were to say that there was someproof or other, the next question will be to show proofthat God exists. Only if I can prove that God exists can Iprove that Krishna too is God.

Our entire belief system in God or its absence is basedon some assumptions we make about God. We cast Godin our own image or in an image far different. Whateverwe do it is an identity that we create. It is ahallucination, it is a fantasy; it is not an experience.

Since different people have different fantasies andsome have fantasies that they themselves are God, thereis this continuous argument about whether God exists ornot. If some people agree that God exists then they argueabout their God being better, faster and stronger than theother persons’ God.

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Sometimes I feel it is better that people do not believein God! There will be far less violence and bloodshed onthis planet. The vast majority of wars originated fromreligious conflicts. Religion is the breeding ground forterrorists today. At least atheists do not wage war. Theyonly argue. Some believers cut the throats of those whodo not share their belief!

Most of you have only a concept of God. You are sureof your own identity. At least you are able toconvincingly articulate about who you think you are,however existentially irrelevant this identity may be.However, when it comes to God, your idea of God isbased on your conditioning, belief systems, culture andenvironment.

This is a powerful unconscious belief. It is difficult tochange this belief. For some, God is a bearded old soulwith kind eyes. To some there is no form at all and it issacrilegious to cast Him in form. To billions of Hindus itis Shiva, Krishna, Vishnu or Kali, with definitive formsand attributes.

Buddha denied God. He went beyond the concept ofGod. For hundreds of years, the Bodhi tree alonerepresented Buddha. The ultimate irony is that hisfollowers turned him into God!

For most of you, God is a concept, but you are real.To me, I, this form, is unreal, but God is reality! Everymovement I make is sanctioned by that ultimate energy.So I have no doubt in telling you that God exists and thatKrishna is indeed God. I have seen Him, so I know.

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A young man came to me once and asked me, ‘Canyou show me God?’

Vivekananda posed a similar question when he firstmet Ramakrishna. As you may know, Vivekananda wasthe first disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, one of themost renowned enlightened masters of this age.Vivekananda’s question arose from a deep desire toexperience God. So Ramakrishna answered himappropriately.

This young man was imitating Vivekananda fromarrogance. He wanted to show that he had read aboutRamakrishna and Vivekananda. So, I caught him by hiscollar and said, ‘Surely I can. Come with me and I shallshow you.’

This man thought I had gone mad and ran away!

I do invite every one of you out of compassion, for allof you to come and experience God with me. It is apromise and not easily given.

I have come down with the technology and thecompassion and the intelligence, the sutra, the stotra andthe shastra to make what I said happen for you. It is ahighly refined process and I know that it is successful.

God is not the prerogative of any one religion. You donot have to be part of one religious belief or another tobe a believer. God belongs to all, by whatever name youwish to call Him and in whatever form you wish to seeHim. Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Hindu or

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Buddhist, the experiencing of God will make you a betterChristian, a better Muslim, a better Hindu and a betterBuddhist. None of you will be converted from your ownreligion into another.

The concept of God should not be about conversion.Only those who are insecure in their own beliefs aboutGod would want to force their beliefs on others. Noconfident religion would want to convert someone else’sbelief system.

A while ago I met with a Christian priest in Mumbai,India in an inter-religious conference. I told him proudlyabout the programs that we run and how it attractshundreds of people. He listened politely and said that theprograms that he runs usually have thousands attendingthem! Later during the conference, he became quitefriendly and confided in me a number of his problems. Igave him some advice and techniques. They seem to haveworked because he sought me out towards the end ofthe conference and thanked me. One of the problems heexpressed was that he was himself unsure of what hepreached to others. I had asked him in surprise, ‘How doyou then manage to convince them if you yourself are notsure?’ His answer was revealing. He said, ‘When somany people come to listen to me and pay respect to me,I become convinced that whatever I am saying must beright!’

It is quite easy to brainwash yourself or bebrainwashed and still continuously carry the guilt of nothaving understood.

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God cannot be proved by logic. He transcends logic.You need to lose your mind to find Him!

Therefore, any amount of rational arguments will onlywarm up the environment.

There was once an atheist and a believer in a villagewho constantly were at loggerheads. The villagers got fedup and told them to sort it out between themselves, onceand for all.

The two argued for days. At the end of the argumentthe atheist declared that he was convinced that thereindeed was a God.

Before the villagers recovered from this shock, thebeliever stood up and said, ‘No, I don’t agree. I am nowfully convinced that there is no God!’

You asked whether Krishna was real. Yes, He was andis!

The Bhagavad Gita did not get scriptural authority onthe basis of any proof that Krishna was God. Gita wasacknowledged as a scripture of the highest order becauseof the indisputable truths that it laid out. It did notmatter who delivered the dialogue. Anyone who did thatdelivered from Krishna Consciousness. Therefore, He wasKrishna!

A fervent group of Krishna devotees once cornered meafter a discourse and heatedly asked me, ‘You deliveredsuch a profound discourse about the Gita. However, weunderstand that you worship Shiva! How is this possible?You are committing sacrilege.’

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I said to them that Krishna and Shiva were the sameenergies, as are other enlightened masters andincarnations.

They were not satisfied. They said I should desist fromworshipping Shiva.

I asked them, ‘Have you read the Anu Gita?’

They said, ‘No, what is it?’

I told them that after the Mahabharata war, whenArjuna was alone with Krishna, he asked Krishna,‘Krishna, I have forgotten what you advised me duringthe war. Can you tell me again, please?’

Krishna said, ‘Oh, you forgot Arjuna! I too haveforgotten!’

Arjuna asked in surprise, ‘Krishna, how is thatpossible. You are the greatest master of them all. Howcan you forget the truths you yourself have established?’

Krishna says simply, ‘At that time I was the UltimateConsciousness. I was Parabrahma Krishna, God incarnate.Now, I am Vasudeva Krishna, the human son ofVasudeva, your friend. So, I do not remember it now.’

What Krishna once again repeated to satisfy Arjuna isthe Anu Gita.

I told them that at the level of the Parabrahman, theUltimate Consciousness that we term as Shiva, Krishna,Buddha and so on, are all the same energy.

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One of the elders in the group told me, ‘Sir, wethought you were such a young person and thereforeprobably misguided. However, now you have taught usthe truth!’

There is no need for historical proof that Krishnaexisted or that Gita is considered a scripture becauseKrishna was God. Gita is Krishna Consciousness. Anyone who delivered Gita was Krishna!

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Arjuna’s Dilemma

1.25 to 1.30

In the presence of Bhishma, Drona andother rulers of the world,

Hrishikesa said, Partha, behold allthe Kurus who are assembled here.

There Arjuna could see within thearmies of both parties,

His elders, grandfathers, teachers,maternal uncles, cousins, sons,grandsons,

And friends, as well as his fathers-in-law and well-wishers

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When Arjuna, the son of Kunti, saw all these friendsand relatives present there,

He was overwhelmed with deep pity and said:

Krishna, seeing my friends and relatives present beforeme, eager to wage war,

I feel my limbs trembling, my mouth drying, and myhair standing on end.

My bow, Gandiva, slips from my hands, and my skinburns

I am unable to stand here any longer.

I am forgetting myself, and my mind reels.

I foresee only evil omens, O killer of the Kesi demon

Krishna parked the chariot between the two armiesand said to Arjuna, ‘Here are the people you wished tosee.’

There, in front of Arjuna are his friends and relatives.Krishna pulls no punches here. Arjuna wanted to seethose who were about to fight him and die, and Krishna,with no mercy at all, showed him that these wereArjuna’s near and dear ones.

Krishna Himself was related to Arjuna. Kunti, Arjuna’smother, also known as Pritha, was Krishna’s aunt, sisterof Krishna’s father Vasudeva; so He addresses Arjunahere as Partha, the son of Pritha, emphasizing hisrelationship. Krishna is also referred to in the Gita asParthasarathy, the charioteer of Partha, Arjuna.

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Assembled in front of Arjuna were compatriots of hisfather Pandu, grandfathers and great grandfathers such asBhishma, his own teachers such as Drona and Kripa,uncles such as Sakuni, brothers and cousins as all theKaurava princes were, friends and well wishers. He knewevery one of them. At one time or another, each of themhad been an object of affection and respect to Arjuna.Now, they were part of this enemy army.

The theme of Gita is the story of Arjuna’s dilemmaand its resolution by Krishna.

The expression of Arjuna’s dilemma starts here.

As a warrior, as a kshatriya, Arjuna was used to killingin battle. He was no stranger to death and violence. Aslong as his mind accepted the fact that those who facedhim were his enemies and therefore deserved to be killed,Arjuna had no difficulty in carrying out the execution.

However, whom he saw in front of him now were notenemies as he had imagined, that his mind would expect,but instead people with whom he had shared commonbonds over the years. These were people whom he hadregarded with love and affection. They were his relatives,people who actually were or are like his father,grandfathers, uncles, brothers, sons and grandsons, tied tohim with bonds of blood lineage. Many others were hisfriends with whom he had previously enjoyed bonds ofloyalty and kinship.

Arjuna’s dilemma was not one of nonviolence, ahimsa.As a warrior, as a kshatriya, this word had no place in hisdictionary. His dilemma was one of violence, violence

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born out of his ego, his identity. He could annihilatepeople he did not identify with, but he could not bear tokill those whom he could relate with himself in one wayor another. The bond of family was far stronger thanArjuna had imagined. The bond of family that arose fromhim was rooted in his ego, and to cut this bond was todestroy himself. This was Arjuna’s dilemma.

The Great War of Mahabharata was not merely aboutthe fight between the hundred Kaurava princes and thefive Pandava princes. It was not just about good and eviland the fight between the two. It was the war wagedwithin the mind of Man, Nara, represented here byArjuna, while coming to terms with what was perceivedas good and what was perceived as evil.

What follows now is a litany of fantasies that Arjuna’smind weaves in an attempt to justify his dilemma. It iswhat the human mind conjures up time and again as itsprojection of the unconscious samskara, trying to justify itsactions.

Sanjaya says that Arjuna was overwhelmed with pity.Some translate this as compassion.

Compassion, true compassion, which is the hallmark ofan enlightened being, is non discriminatory; it does notdifferentiate. To the truly compassionate person, thewhole world, of both living and nonliving beings, is anextension of his own self. Anything that hurts any objectaround such a person would hurt him, and he too wouldfeel the pain.

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However, the feeling that is referred to in these versesas the emotion that Arjuna experienced upon seeing hiskinsmen was not of that noble kind. Arjuna’s emotionwas discriminatory. He felt pity for those who faced him,thinking that all of them would be killed. He felt pityonly because they were his kinsmen, only because heidentified with them.

As I mentioned earlier this was not compassion bornout of ahimsa, nonviolence, but pity borne out of himsa,violence.

Arjuna’s emotions arose from his ego.

True compassion arises from a state of absence of ego,from a state of no-mind and no-thought, where thefeelings of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ have disappeared. Truecompassion is a state of bliss, one of true surrender to theUniverse.

When the individual self merges with the universalSelf, true compassion happens out of an awareness of thecosmic consciousness and awareness that one is part ofthat Brahman.

Arjuna’s pity rose out of fear, fear of losing hisidentity, his ego. Arjuna was afraid, mortally afraid. Heclaimed that his throat was parched, his hair wasstanding on edge and his divine bow was slipping fromhis sweaty hands. If one did not know Arjuna better, onewould have considered him a coward.

Arjuna was no coward. He had no fear for his ownphysical safety. He was not concerned that he might be

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injured or that he might die. As a kshatriya of kshatriyas,these feelings were beneath him. But, Arjuna was afraid.He was afraid of breaking social and ethical laws. Hisvalues and beliefs, his subconscious memories, hissamskaras, told him that what he was doing was wrongand unacceptable. So powerful was this feeling that hewas reeling, quivering, dazed and unable to think orfunction.

Can something like this really happen? Can a hero losehis composure and exhibit the identical physical symptomsof a frightened coward? A true hero to whom death isplay, who is trained from childhood by the greatest ofmasters not only in the control of his body but of hismind as well?

Arjuna’s situation shows how the mind can play gameswith the best of us, how the samskaras can take over themind in so powerful a manner without his being evenaware of it.

Arjuna was frightened that he would be heldresponsible for the death of his kinsmen, people whowere father, grandfather and other such important figuresto him. He was afraid that even if others did not blamehim, he would suffer the guilt and regret for his actionfor the rest of his life.

So great was this fear of potential guilt, that it droveArjuna into behaving like a coward. All he could foreseewas disaster and evil; disaster to him and his clan;disaster to his reputation, and material destruction allaround him.

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At another, far deeper level, Arjuna was terrified ofhis own destruction. The moment one starts identifyingwith kinsmen, family, friends and relatives, it is a materialidentification. It is an identification born out of possession.This identification arises from one’s ego, from the feelingof ‘I’ and ‘mine’.

Possession leads from attachment, and leads toattachment as well. There can be no feeling of possessingsomething unless one is attached to it.

People speak of attachment, liking and love. All theseare born out of and valid only as long as possessionresults. The moment the person wanting to be liked turnsaround and displays independence and unwillingness tobe possessed, the liking and the love disappear.

Possession arises out of our survival need, from ourmuladhara chakra – an energy center located at the base ofthe spine. It is a primal feeling that yokes us to MotherEarth. Out of the need for possession, feelings of lust,greed and anger arise. Often what one cannot possess,one wants to destroy.

‘What I cannot have, let no one have,’ we often feel.

Possession leads to violence.

It is also the deep-rooted feeling of possessions givingrise to the feeling of ‘mine’ that gives rise to youridentity ‘I’. Please understand that the need to possessdoes not stem from your identity. It is the other wayaround. ‘Mine’ leads to ‘I’, not ‘I’ to ‘mine’. This is why

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you cannot eliminate your identity till you renounce yourattachment to all your desires and possessions.

Arjuna is in this mood and frame of mind. It strikeshim at this eleventh hour, at the moment of waging war,that what he is about to destroy are his own possessions.These are his own kinsmen and part of his own identity.If he were to destroy them he will be destroying a partof his own self. By destroying those who are akin to hisfather, grandfather, son, brother, uncle and friend, he iseffectively destroying his own mind-body system.

It is true that when someone dear to us dies, a part ofour mind-body system dies with them. Arjuna was awareof this. He knew that the destruction of so many of hisnear and dear, his kinsmen, would take a massive toll onhim. It would be akin to committing suicide.

Arjuna’s dilemma was an existential one. What is thepoint of eliminating others, if it results in one’s ownelimination? It is a dilemma born out of partialunderstanding, a peek into the truth of collectiveconsciousness. If Arjuna were to be as unaware asDuryodhana, this doubt would have never entered hismind. Were he enlightened as Krishna was, the answerwould have been obvious. Arjuna was in between, hencehis dilemma.

Why should I destroy myself? What for? These are thequestions that naturally follow this line of reasoning.Arjuna was far wiser than many modern philosophers inposing this as a doubt, without venturing any answers.

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Many philosophers, existentialists and nihilists, haveconcluded that there is no meaning to life when theyencountered similar doubts. Since they did not have thehumility of Arjuna, or the guidance of a Krishna, theyprovided their own answers created out of logicalreasoning. Their reasoning had no experiential backing.Hence, they were wrong.

Arjuna is undergoing a process of transformation. Hestarted off in this war with the basic assumptions of thekshatriya codes of conduct. When challenged, a kshatriyamust fight; that is his code of honor, as with the samurai.Arjuna had no compunctions in doing this as he wasbrought up in this belief system.

However, the problem was that Arjuna was a thinkingman. Unlike Duryodhana, or his own brother Bhima, hewas not a thoughtless man. This ability to think, to beaware, was what had got him into trouble now. Doubtsassailed him. ‘Am I really doing right? Am I notdestroying myself and all that I stand for when I wagethis war against my own people?’

Arjuna had become a seeker of the Truth. He was nolonger satisfied with what he had imbibed all these years- the Shastra, the Stotra and the Sutra. He wished to gobeyond. He questioned them, as he had doubts. He wasin a dilemma. Vishada, is the name given to this firstchapter of the Gita, Arjuna Vishada Yoga. Vishada canmean many things in Sanskrit - grief, sorrow,despondency, despair, depression, dilemma and such.Here what we see is the dilemma that Arjuna was in, not

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knowing whether what he had been taught all his life,and what he had believed to be true, was really trueafter all.

The transformation that Krishna leads him through overthe eighteen chapters is the revelation of truth to Arjuna,and to all humanity.

Krishna is referred to by many names thus far. Someof them and their meanings are included here.

The word Krishna itself refers to His dark blue color,the color of the sky, and as infinite as the sky. It alsomeans existence and bliss, sat chit ananda and ‘whoprovides salvation to those who surrender to Him.’

Kesava, the name by which he is called in the aboveverses, refers to the fact that He destroyed the demonKesin. It also refers to his beautiful hair. The embodimentin Him of the Holy Trinity in the Hindu tradition, theSanskrit words K referring to Brahma, A to Vishnu and Isato Shiva is another one of His titles.

Govinda, is a combination of go referring to all livingbeings and vinda which means knower, Krishna being theultimate knower of the mind, body and being of all livingcreatures.

Q: Master, You explained that Duryodhana acted outof blindness and Arjuna from partial awareness. Yet, ifArjuna were to enter the fight and kill his kinsmen, therewould be no difference between him and Duryodhana. Youyourself pointed out that rights and wrongs are merely our

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conditioning. Then in what manner is Arjuna better thanDuryodhana?

Here is an excellent question. It is correct thatDuryodhana was like a blind man and therefore rightsand wrongs had no meaning to him. He is at one end ofa spectrum in his total unawareness. He is in the samestate as an enlightened being in not distinguishingbetween right and wrong. But, here the similarity ends.

Arjuna, on the other hand, is an average human being,conditioned to accept the reality of right and wrong astaught to him by society. Moreover, he has deep faith inthe code of the kshatriya, which places him under thecompulsion of fair play, justice and so on.

We differentiate between two individuals based on ourown conditioning and judgment. Each individual isunique. No human being and no being, living orinanimate can be evil. Existence, which is compassionincarnate, cannot produce something that is out of itscharacter.

When we are born and as young children, we are ableto see people without differentiation. If you watch a veryyoung child, that child will go towards anyone, whetherthat person is holding a gun or a candy. It is immaterialto that child, as the child operates from curiosity. Thechild makes no judgment.

However, as the child grows up, it is ‘educated’;educated by its elders that certain things are right andcertain things are wrong, safe or dangerous. The childmay be taught that people who come from a background

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similar to its own parents are good people, and peoplewho come from a dissimilar background are bad people.A child does not differentiate; an adult differentiates andexcludes.

Good and bad, right and wrong, likes and dislikes,love and hatred arise out of differentiation. All these areadult qualities. All these are qualities that each generationimbibes from another with the assumed notion that ithelps that generation and culture be safe.

Yet, crime records show people known to the victimcommit the vast majority of rapes, murders and otherviolent crimes. That is why the first suspect in themurder of a spouse is always the other spouse. This isreality. Strangers are much less likely to harm you. Yourown people do. Yet xenophobia, fear of strangers, is builtinto the human psyche.

Part of this xenophobia arises from our animal rootsand tribal roots. Animals and tribes exist by groupingtogether for survival. Their very survival, the survival ofthe fittest, depends on how well they resist intruders.Ironically, this behavior has been shown to be scientificallydangerous to the long-term survival of any race.Inbreeding degenerates the chances of survival. It doesnot enhance it.

In this day and age, where the entire globe is avillage, no man can live as an island. No group or race orcountry can isolate itself from others and expect tosurvive and thrive. We have to learn to live with oneanother. Co-operation and co-dependence are the factors

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best suited for survival and growth in this age, not violentcompetition and conflicts.

Studies at the cellular level have shown that cells liketo link to other cells; they do not isolate themselves.Nature’s way of evolution was not by competition andsurvival of the fittest, but by coming together and sharing.Darwin was wrong in that part of his theory that statesthat a species survives through conflict and elimination..

Whatever we apply as differentiated standards to thosewho you do not know, we also apply to those whom weknow. We develop a common standard based on ourexperience and those who abide by it are good and thosewho do not are bad. This is developing a base of thelowest common denominator. Anything that is developedas averages or lowest common denominators willcontribute to degeneration and not enhancement.

If you keep your head in boiling water and your feeton ice, your average temperature may be near the normaltemperature for a human being; but then you won’t bealive for long. We have been taught to think in terms ofaverages in everything. The average family size is 4.2.Does this make any sense in real terms? No!

Our unconscious is packed with emotion-filledmemories, samskaras, which drive our decisions and actionsand cause us to create separation and isolation. We wouldbe shocked to know that there is no rationality to thesedecisions. Neither our senses nor our mind aredependable. Their judgments are questionable.

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You may say, ‘That is all what we have. What else canwe use?’

That is not all that we have. At the highest level ofexpression, we are pure Intelligence. Intuition is availableto us at every moment but we have not been taught thisand so we never draw upon this innate Intelligence. Wechoose to rely upon our senses and our mind. Thepleasures that our senses seem to provide us from theexternal world are our sustenance and we are so addictedto this that we do not turn our attention inwards. Wedon’t know how, so much so that the prospect of justsitting with ourselves is actually frightening!

Your fundamental nature is one of awareness andintelligence. That is your core, your very center. But yourmind is attracted through your senses towards peripheralpleasures, which are transient. From time to time, yourealize that the periphery is not your real home and youmove towards the center. The periphery attracts youagain. So, you oscillate. You are never at the center forlong.

You become eccentric!

Duryodhana operates near the periphery, coming veryrarely towards his center. He is controlled by his sensesand his mind. He has no control over them. Arjuna, onthe other hand, tries to move to the center as much as hecan. He tries to control his mind and his senses. This isthe difference between the two. Who is better and who isworse? Who can pass any judgment?

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If you were to ask for my advice, of course I shall say,be like Arjuna. Arjuna is a seeker. He is a disciple and heis working to drop his ego. But until he reaches thecenter, there is no fundamental difference between himand Duryodhana.

Like Arjuna and Duryodhana, every one of you is thesame distance from enlightenment. Do not make yourselfproud by thinking that you are at a better spiritualvantage point than any one else. Attending a fewdiscourses, reading many books and even understandingsome of them intellectually is not the experience ofenlightenment itself. Both of these warriors are indarkness, but just to different degrees, that’s all. It is thesame with all of you. The person who hasn’t met me orspent any time in spiritual pursuits is just as qualified asyou are.

Such a person has an equal chance of beingenlightened. Existence does not differentiate betweensaints and sinners as we classify them. Existence does notcare. When you turn your attention inward and you areat the center of your being, you become Existence; youbecome enlightened. I always say that enlightenment isyour natural state; it is not something that you need towork towards. You just have to be, that is all.

You may be Duryodhana or Arjuna. It makes nodifference!

I have said time and again: I needed to experimentwith ten thousand keys before I could find the right keyto open the door to the truth. I now offer you that keyso that you do not need to struggle.

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It does make some difference in the path when youare an Arjuna. Not because you are closer to the centerinstead of the periphery, but because you are guided bya master. The redeeming factor for Arjuna was thatKrishna was his master. Nothing else. It is Arjuna’ssurrender to Krishna that makes the difference. Nothingelse.

Do not try to judge Arjuna and Duryodhana. There isnothing to differentiate and judge. But, act like Arjuna, ifyou can. Become a seeker. Seek a master. Your path willbe easier. You can learn from life or you can learn fromthe master. With the master it is faster, easier and morecompassionate for you.

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Rigors of Conditioning1.31 I do not see how any good can come from

killing my own kinsmen in this battle, Nor canI, my dear Krishna, desire any subsequentvictory, kingdom or happiness.

1.32 What use is kingdom, pleasures oreven life, Krishna?

1.33 Those for whose sake we seekkingdoms, enjoyment and happiness

Now are arrayed in this battlefieldready to lose their lives and wealth.

1. 34, 1.35 Even if I am about to beslain by my teachers, fathers, sons,

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grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons,brothers-in- law and all relatives,

I would not like to slay them to gain control of allthree worlds.

Why then, Madhusudhana, would I wish to kill themfor control of this earth?

Arjuna now started developing his theme in detail. Hestarted expressing his doubts with clarity. One may ask,‘How can such doubts be clear?’

Doubts need to be clear if they are to be resolved.Unclear doubts lead only to more confusion. Unintelligentbeings have unclear doubts. Arjuna’s doubts were precise.

How could he seek happiness through destruction ofhis kinsmen, he asked. How could any good come out ofthis action? How could he desire power, possessions andpleasures through such action? And if he did gain thosethings as a result of killing his family, of what use wouldsuch a life be to him?

Though Arjuna was in a dilemma, it was a dilemmaborn out of intelligence, not out of ignorance.

Arjuna had been taught all his life to seek power,possessions and pleasures, and he had done it. Up to thispoint, he had not come across a single situation where thecost of acquiring these had seemed to be greater than theend profit, the resulting enjoyment. Perhaps he had neverbothered to evaluate the cost and benefits.

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For the first time in his life, he has encountered asituation that forces him to evaluate his options.

‘Do I forge ahead and destroy what is dear to me sothat I get more power and possibly more pleasure?’ heasks. What a fundamental question, one that each one ofus should ask ourselves. How often do we embark onwhat we think are meaningful pursuits and activities thatpromise us more material benefits even though we knowthat these may in some way damage our life or the livesof those we care about?

Life becomes mechanical for most people. Rather thanlive in the spontaneity of the present, our past is vividlyremembered and is used to forget the future. If the pastevent is one of sorrow, we try to avoid it in futureevents. If the past event is joyful, we try to replicate it.We try to avoid regret and guilt in the future, andembrace happiness. The problem is that life is not sopredictable. Yet we try to control it as if it is. The biggerproblem becomes that we are so conditioned by ourbehavioral patterns, that in spite of all precautions, wekeep making the same mistakes. Our samskaras, ourunconscious, ensures this.

Very few of us stop to think and question the purposeand value of our actions. With few exceptions, we aretaught how to live and what to do with our lives, first byour families and later by society. We do our best to seekfulfillment and make a contribution in the way that wehave learned. Most often we are so busy just trying to

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keep up with our personal and professional commitments,that it never occurs to us to question if we are trulyfulfilled. Our lives become a constant series of ‘What next,what next?’

For example, as youngsters we think, ‘As soon as I getout of my parents’ house and into college, I will behappy.’ When that is accomplished our minds immediatelyrush to the next goal. ‘As soon as I graduate and get agood job I will be happy.’ Once that is done, it ismarriage, house, children, vacation. On and on it goes,until we have all the things that we want but not thesustained satisfaction for which we worked for whiledoing these things. Perhaps when we are older weseriously listen to the pull of discontentment within, thecall of our very being, but by then it is too late to takeup inner development with any vigor.

It takes a lot of courage to stop and question our lives,our actions and society’s plan for us. It takes innerfortitude to say to the world, ‘Stop, I want to get off; Iwant to retire from the world and seek true inner bliss!’

Sanyasis are courageous people. They are not cowardswho walk away from society because they can’t succeedby society’s rules. No! It takes tremendous courage andinsight to recognize the transitory nature of life and itslimited offer of happiness, to say ‘I want somethingmore.’ It takes enormous courage to escape from thematerialism of the world with an attitude of seeking one’strue purpose in life.

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‘What is the purpose of my life, Krishna?’ wailedArjuna.

Arjuna is now questioning himself, his training and hispurpose when faced with the task of fighting against hiskinsman. The scene from his chariot has taken him offbalance! In his heart he knows that what he is about todo is correct. All of his training as a kshatriya confirms thisas well. But when faced with the reality of actually killingthose who have been near and dear to him, he loses hiswill. Why?

Arjuna is a courageous man. Only a courageous personwill have the confidence to open himself up sotransparently and expose his innermost fears and seekhelp. Arjuna was not depressed. He was not frustrated.He was not afraid in the obvious sense.

Arjuna was confused, but in a way that was differentfrom what we see in Duryodhana’s behavior. Based uponall of his training and society’s guidance, Arjuna couldcertainly differentiate between actions that are right orwrong. His sudden confusion grew out of a concern thatwhat he had been taught throughout his life, the veryfoundation upon which he stood, might be wrong. ‘Couldthis be possible?’ he asked himself for the first time.

Fortunately for Arjuna, his charioteer is none otherthan Krishna Himself, Lord of all beings and Knower ofall. Only He can see what is at the heart of Arjuna’s grief.Only He could provide answers to Arjuna’s doubts andthe right solutions to Arjuna’s dilemma.

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Arjuna argues that the reason one would fight to gainpower and wealth through kingdom and enjoymentthrough its possession was all for the sake of one’s nearand dear ones. However, these people who were nowgathered in battle, ready to lay down their lives and losetheir possessions, were the ones for whom Arjuna shouldshare the spoils of war! As we saw, they were histeachers, fathers, grandfathers, uncles, fathers-in-law,grandsons, brothers-in-law and other relatives.

Arjuna declared that even if they killed him, he wouldnot consider killing them at any cost, even if he gainedthe possession of all three worlds as his reward. He thenquestioned Krishna rhetorically, if he would not kill for allthe riches of the three worlds, why would he destroythem for the sake of Earth, this one world, alone?

When asking this question, Arjuna calls KrishnaMadhusudhana, which means the slayer of the demonSadhu. Arjuna implies that Krishna may be a destroyer,but Arjuna himself would not like to be one like Him.

Arjuna’s dilemma had now become deeper and morecomplicated. He had now gotten into justifications as towhy he should not kill, justifications that have no meritfrom the standpoint of a warrior.

Arjuna’s initial dilemma was with his value system. Asa kshatriya he was bound by duty to destroy enemies andconquer material possessions. The dilemma was created bythe fact that his enemies were his kinsmen, teachers andfriends. To any observer, his dilemma had validity. But

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now, he tries to convince himself through furtherarguments that actually lack strength.

Arjuna’s mind was playing tricks on him. This is acommon game we all play with ourselves. When the stakesare high in any competitive environment, when they aretoo high for comfort, we play this game. We fantasizeabout rewards far greater than what could possiblymaterialize. The more unrealistic and unlikely the reward,the easier it is to refuse it. If we are not willing even totake action for such a great, though unlikely reward, whyever would we bother taking on the risk for such a small,realistic benefit?

Once we convince ourselves of this imaginary sacrificeof imaginary rewards, we find it easier to walk awayfrom the more realistic and tougher challenges that wehave at hand. Arjuna is playing the same game.

Arjuna said he would not kill even if he were to bekilled. This is just a lie that his mind is imposing on him.It is his own loss of identity that is bothering him; theloss of identity that would result from the destruction ofhis lineage.

Arjuna then went on to say that he would not considerkilling his kinsmen and teachers, even if he were offeredall the three worlds of this universe in return; even such agreat reward at the end of the task would not attracthim. Why then, he queries, would the reward of just thisplanet Earth, be attractive to him?

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Who was offering Arjuna the three worlds anyway?The notion was a pure figment of his overexcitedimagination. If Krishna had turned around and offeredArjuna the control of the universe, Arjuna’s dilemmawould have actually become far worse! However, posingit as a symbolic question as Arjuna did, made him looknoble.

There is a folk tale in Tamil, in which a jackal offers acrow fruits to eat while trying to entice the bird andcapture it. The crow is interested in the fruit but it issmart also! It refuses the offer and consoles itself bysaying that the fruit was probably sour, otherwise thejackal itself would have eaten it. ‘Oh, oh, this fruit issour,’ the bird says, ‘I don’t want it.’

Arjuna’s tale is similar. He is consoling himself with theidea that the rewards of winning this battle are too smalland that even if he were to be offered control of theuniverse, he would not be tempted. It is a safe positionhe is taking, since the chances of his being offered thecontrol of the universe are infinitely small. What mattersis that it salves his bruised mind and keeps the focus offthe real source of his fear.

Time and again, people play this game withthemselves and others. It starts when we cannot face thetruth and therefore cannot tell the truth. Whatever be thereason, the truth is dangerous, both to the one whospeaks it and to the one who hears it. So we camouflagethe truth in a more acceptable presentation. Then we arecaught in denial.

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Arjuna was afraid to lose his own identity through theloss of so many well-established relationships in his life.However, that truth would hurt him and he was notprepared to see it. Perhaps he was not even aware of thistruth. It might have been well hidden in his unconscious.For the majority of us, our identity lies in the roles weplay, the responsibilities that we have, the worrying wedo and the acceptance that we receive from others.Without these possessions and relationships to form thefoundation of our personalities, without the foundation of‘mine’, we feel lost and have no ‘I’. Like us, Arjunafound it better to invent a host of other reasons to avoidfacing the truth.

A senior government official, a devotee, once called mein the middle of the night, desperate to see me. ‘I mustsee you now,’ he said. ‘I am desperate. I am so boggeddown by problems and so depressed I may even commitsuicide. It is a matter of life and death. I need to see youimmediately.’

I talked to this person for a while and managed tocalm him down and suggested that he could come thenext morning and that I would see him.

‘No, no,’ he replied. ‘I cannot come tomorrowmorning. I have urgent meetings that I cannot miss. I willcome some other time.’

A few minutes earlier, seeing me immediately was amatter of life and death to him. Now, his meeting in themorning was more critical!

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We create illusions in our mind about the situationswe face, about how critical they are to our existence.Then we create fantasies in our minds about what isgoing to happen to us, be it an imagined good ordifficulty. We do everything except face the presentmoment with awareness.

As we will see later, facing the present moment isprecisely what Krishna forces Arjuna to do. When Arjunais able to surrender to Krishna’s teachings and brings hisattention to the present, his doubts and illusions dissolve.Arjuna then understands what he needs to do and goesabout doing it with purpose and full commitment.

Q: Arjuna was a successful warrior and yet he goesinto depression. At least he had a master who could helphim. What can others do?

There are two kinds of depression. One is ‘depressionof failure’. Time and again you try for some end resultand you fail. You then get frustrated. After a while,depending upon how persevering you are, you may keeptrying and succeed or give up and move to anotherobjective.

This is why patience and perseverance are consideredgreat virtues. Each attempt is a new attempt and notlinked to what happened before. This is what I call ‘un-clutching’. So long as you do not relate a past failure toyour current failure, you can continue to be energized andkeep trying and ultimately be successful.

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Most of what you do is like tossing a coin! The endresult is one of probability. The more you attempt, themore the chance of your success.

In the so-called less developed countries, more peoplesuffer from this depression of failure. They would like toacquire more material possessions and until they acquirethese they are constantly striving and sometimes becomedepressed.

The other kind of depression is what I call the‘depression of success’. This is common in developedsocieties. Here, you are successful in acquiring all that youhave dreamed of but then start wondering what thepurpose of all these acquisitions are!

Wealth, relationships, pleasures and all these externalacquisitions create more wants. Enjoyment of what oneacquires is no longer the purpose. Acquisition itselfbecomes the purpose. This can never end. It becomes anaddiction. The more one acquires, the less one derivespleasure.

People ask me time and again in USA, ‘Master, wehave everything that we ever wanted, far more than weever dreamed was possible. Yet we are dissatisfied. Wehave all that we always wanted, but now we do notunderstand why we wanted them. There is no joy.’

Of course, there is no joy. You think joy comes fromoutside. No, it comes from within. So, you change carsevery year, houses every three years and spouses everyfive years!!

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That is why in the Vedic culture there is no word forthe English word divorce! The concept itself wasunknown! In those days, you never attempted to changeyour spouse; you worked on changing your perceptionand personality! The external change will never bring youhappiness; the inner transformation always will!

How do people cope with success?

The first is through addiction. One keeps acquiringwithout even knowing why. This is the classic example ofdecreasing value with increasing inputs. It never works.Whether it is alcohol, drugs, sex or wealth, more andmore delivers less and less. In fact, it delivers more andmore suffering, that’s all.

Depression of success can lead to suicide, either justkilling oneself or slowly dying within, and becoming theliving dead. Addiction is an active way of invitingsuffering and depression is a passive way of invitingsuffering. Both methods are dead ends. The thirdmethod, which only a few intelligent people choose, isthat of meditation. You have to go into the depression toget to know it, to analyze it and come out of it. These arethe three paths to get out of depression. You have tochoose your own path.

You may ask, ‘But is it not that difficult?’

It is not!

Just change the programming in your mind! Instead of

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always saying it is difficult, start saying it is easy! It isyou who creates the word ‘ difficult’ in your mind. In thebeginning your mind will not accept that it is easy. It willresist. But if you go on telling yourself that it is easy,you will find that you have become more positive in yourwhole outlook.

Ramana Maharishi, an enlightened master from India,sings so beautifully:

‘So easy is this Self Realization, so easy thisenlightenment!’

His followers ask, ‘How can you say it is easy?’ Heexplains that we need to work hard to achieve in thisouter world, to have a good lifestyle. But we only haveto relax and be quiet to achieve in the inner world, andthat is enough!

You have been trained to achieve many difficult thingsbut you forget the simple thing. All you need to do islook into yourself. You cannot say that you are so poorthat you cannot even address your mind with goodwords, or speak kindly to yourself. Of course, you can!

You do not need complicated techniques to achievethis. People talk of ‘stillness of mind’, ‘pranayama’, and allsuch big words. These create more complications.

Meditation is simple. Now, as you are sitting, justbecome aware of your boundary. Not going where youare not is meditation. Being where you are is meditation.

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Usually when you are here, you are thinking of yourhome. When you are at home, you are thinking of theevening discourse. At the discourse you are thinking ofwhen you can return home. At home you are thinking ofthe next day’s office work. At the office you are planningan evening outing. When outside, you start thinking ofhome again. We are never where our body is. So being inthe present, living with awareness and consciousness iswhat I call meditation.

We are always disturbed by too many words andideas. Just relax and be where you are. Feel the ground,feel how you are sitting, and feel all the parts of yourbody. Just experience the present. By just being totally inthe body you will start experiencing life. Because this ideais so simple, it is difficult to understand.

There is a Zen koan about the Truth. It says:

It is too clear and so it is hard to see.

A dunce once searched for a fire with a lightedlantern.

Had he known what fire was,

He could have cooked his rice much sooner!

The truth is too simple and is there right for us to see,but we make it so complicated!

All our lives we are used to moving out of our body insearch of pleasures and so it is difficult to come out of it.

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We are used to living either thinking about regrettingwhatever we have done, or in the future speculatingabout what can happen. If you are used to living in thepast and in the future, don’t be bothered by it.

Here is a logical example: when you have a headache,you try to come out of it. You take medicine to come outof it because painlessness is your nature and you want tocome back to that state quickly. In the same way, ifworrying and thinking about the past and the future isyour nature, then why do you want to come out of it?You want to come out because it is not your nature.

Why then are you associating yourself with theworrying? Associate yourself with living in the present.

You have come from France and settled in USA for thepast 30 years. As you no longer practice speaking French,you have forgotten how to speak French. Suddenly ifsomebody starts speaking in French, will you notremember? In the same way, bliss and living in thepresent is a language closer to you than your mothertongue. Up to the age of seven, you were in that state. Sostart reclaiming that forgotten language, that forgottenstate.

Moving into the present allows you to disassociatefrom guilt, regret, greed and speculation. It will allowyou to disengage from past happenings that you projectinto the future. These are the projections that invitesuffering. You understand that success and failure are

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both in your mind. You learn to perform withoutattachment to the end result.

You then walk out of any possibility of depression!

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Good men do not kill1.36 What pleasure will we get by destroying the sons

of Dhritharashtra, Janardhana? Only sin willovercome us if we slay these wrong doers.

1.37 It is not proper for us to kill thesons of Dhritharashtra and our friends.

How could we be happy by killingour own kinsmen, Madhava?

1.38, 1.39 O Janardhana, althoughthese men are consumed by greed andthey see no fault in killing one’s familyor quarreling with friends,

Why should we, who understand the

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evil of the destruction of a dynasty, not turn away fromthese acts?

Here is Arjuna’s dilemma spoken plainly. He had twooptions and is looking to be convinced of one or theother. The first was that going to battle was wrong,especially against his kinsmen. Therefore he should ceaseand desist, walk away from the war before it starts. Allof his arguments up to this point were in this line ofthinking. At the same time, Arjuna was open to thepossibility that what he had set out to do was indeedcorrect, in which case he would go back into battle mode,as a true kshatriya would do.

Had Arjuna been totally convinced that war against hiskinsmen was wrong, he would not have come to thebattlefield to begin with. It was his degree of awarenessthat raised within him the question of retreat from hisduty. To Arjuna’s credit, he listened to what his mindhad to say and turned to the Master for guidance andresolution.

Arjuna’s mind now brings up one more argument.Arjuna agreed that Duryodhana and his allies were theaggressors and wrong doers. Whatever they had done tohim, his brothers and his wife was not pardonable, andthey needed to be punished for that. The laws of theland would concur. By all rights Arjuna would have beenquite justified in attacking and killing those wrong doersfor what they had done.

‘But,’ Arjuna asked, ‘Would one wrong be corrected byanother wrong?’ ‘How can I be happy killing my

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kinsmen,’ asked Arjuna, ‘however justified I might be indoing that? Their misdeeds cannot be remedied by mymisdeed and that would only make me miserable.’

There are two factors central to Arjuna’s dilemma.

The first one is that of connectivity. The problem thatArjuna faced is one that we all face when asked to dounpleasant things to people we know. It is always easierto criticize and punish people one does not know. To befaceless is to be fearless. With people one knows, withwhom one has established bonds of connection andfriendship, there is a danger of loss to that connection ifwe disrupt it through perceived negative behavior, evenwhen it may be fully justified.

For one to face this factor in one’s dilemma, one mustfirst break the connection or develop a sense ofdetachment that allows action without worrying aboutthe consequences. One follows the process and the pathand leaves the result to the process. As long as the pathis right, whatever destination the path takes one to, willalso be right.

Over the ages, this connectivity had been broken byreligious and societal separation. Contrary to what anyonemay say, religion separates. It segregates and it destroys.More people have been killed in religious war over theages than for other reasons. As Lenin famously remarked,‘Religion is the opium that blunts one’s sensitivity toanother human and allows one to ill treat, maim and killanother human.’

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Terrorists are only the modern representation of whathas gone on for centuries in many nations in the name ofreligion. It is nothing new. Destroying one another hashappened through the ages, within religions throughartificially created separations, and between religions inthe name and defense of my god versus your god.

When religion was deemed insufficient reason to kill,man found other ‘rational’ reasons to segregate and kill:color of the skin, language and cultural differences,territorial disputes and more. Anything that coulddifferentiate, anything that created the possibility of fearor threat was a good enough reason to discriminate anddestroy. As one present day activist has put it, ignorancebreeds fear, fear breeds hatred and hatred breedsviolence. It begins with our ignorance.

For instance, outside India, all Indians gather againstanother country in a cricket or football match. But onceback in India, the same people start talking in terms ofnorth and south Indians. If one is a south Indian, andone is back in the south of India, it is a matter ofwhether one is a Tamil, Telugu, Malayalee or Kannadiga.Once one is Tamil, and if one is a Hindu, the segregatingquestion then becomes one of caste association. If one isbrahmana, the differentiation becomes whether one is aniyer or iyengar, vadakalai or thenkalai.

The differentiation and discrimination continues untilthe most basic common denominators are identified -connection as a tribe or a family. Everyone else is anoutsider, potentially unwanted, not as loved, a littleunreliable and a dispensable threat.

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To overcome this break in connectivity, we need torealize that no man is an island. We are all connected.We are interconnected at the spiritual level and recentdiscoveries show that we are also interconnected at thecellular level. Studies in molecular cellular biology by pathbreaking scientists such as Bruce Lipton show that Darwinwas wrong when he said we must compete to survive. Infact, we need to collaborate to survive. That is what cellsdo. They know intuitively that they are interconnected,that they are part of a larger system.

When we arrive on planet Earth, we are open to allpossibilities. We are centered upon ourselves as childrenin a simplistic and beautiful way, and open to allconnections. It is as if we are a large open area thatanyone can access. Over time, we build walls. We buildwalls believing that these walls will keep us safe and thatthe connections that we have established inside the wallsare ours to keep. Bit by bit, the open space we startedwith becomes a maze. We do not know how to exit andif we do exit, we do not know how to enter again. Weare just lost inside!

In the material corporate world, it can be even worse.Companies often believe that such walls, such barriers offunction - domain and geography - are intrinsic to thesuccess of any enterprise. They believe that unless suchspecialization, such segregation, such individualizationhappens people cannot perform efficiently. We forget thatperforming efficiently but not effectively is far worse. Itis like running blindfolded as fast as you can without

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knowing where you are running and why. Yet, employeestoday are rewarded for such blind sprinting.

Suddenly, a blind person wakes up and wonders whythere is no communication amongst people who apparentlywork with the same objective. He finds people safelycocooned in silos, alone and pretending to be comfortableand efficient. They do not know who is around them inother silos and, after some time, perhaps they do notcare. They believe themselves to be islands when it is nottrue. At a superficial level, there is isolation and lonelinessbut at a core level there is unperceived relating. It is likethe water in a harbor thinking that it is cut off from theocean. It can never be possible.

The silos need to be broken. The islands need to bebridged. People need to communicate and collaborateinstead of isolating themselves and competing. At thebasic cellular level, it is now found that cells like tocluster together, and form clumps that can communicate.It is found that cells communicate through their boundarymembranes and not through their nuclei as had beenassumed. Competition does not ensure survival;collaboration does. Communication does.

However, when we work valuing only the results, ourefforts become counterproductive. As long as thiscollaboration is selfless, as long as it is for the collectivegood and collective survival from the awareness that weall are a part of the collective consciousness, thiscollaboration is extremely effective. We must considerprocess and source along with result.

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Arjuna is yet to reach that stage. He is still in the silostage, where he has stored all his kinsmen in his ownsilos.

The other factor that Arjuna faces is the problem ofdirectness of action. In a war of this type, Arjuna wasfaced with the transparent consequences of his action. Ifhe shot an arrow and killed a kinsman, death was adirect result of his action. This is far different frommodern warfare. Pressing a button could result in thedeath of millions. There are enough nuclear arsenalsstored in the world to destroy the planet many timesover. All that needs to be done is for a deranged mind topress that button, with no feeling of responsibility. In thiscase, destruction is not direct. No one needs to takeresponsibility. All modern warfare is impersonal andimmoral.

This has become true of modern business as well. Moreand more business, media and agricultural interests arebeing swallowed up by multinational corporations ownedby a few increasingly powerful owners. People who runbusinesses become, for the most part, faceless, and thepeople whom they serve are generally faceless, too.Decisions are made at levels where there is no contactwith those whom the decisions affect.

This style of business and industry contributes so muchenvironmental damage. No one is responsible. Boards ofDirectors make the decisions and no one is usually heldliable. A business or corporate organization becomesfaceless and therefore fearless. It also becomes

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unscrupulous. It is something created by humans, butwhich is no longer humane.

People down the line, implementing the decisions,respond like robots, and if questioned, simply reply, ‘weare not responsible. We are just obeying orders.’ Oftenwhen decisions become impersonal, they become immoraland unethical. This is true of all organizations, whetherthey be corporate, political, societal or religious. WhenHitler’s Nazi leaders were caught and prosecuted atNuremburg, the justification that each gave was so simpleand similar. They said, ‘We were just following orders,so we are not responsible.’

This impersonal nature of slaying one another, causingharm at a long, anonymous distance, has the greatestdestructive potential of present day warfare, terrorismand corporate greed. We have seen the impact of immoralCEO’s on the health of a corporation and the individualsit serves and employs.

When Hitler ordered the genocide of millions of Jews,he did not have to look into the eye of each one he hadkilled. Had he done it, it might have been a difficult taskfor him! Destroying another living being in the vastcollective consciousness does destroy something withinthe one who does the act. With each destruction,something within that killer withers and dies. However,when the killing happens remotely, perhaps it doesn’tseem so real and therefore the impact is diminished ordelayed.

Arjuna did not have the luxury of remote destruction.

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He had to look the victim in the eye before releasing hisarrow. He was aware of whom he was killing and why.He felt the destruction within himself when he killedsomeone else.

Arjuna was affected by the combination of these twofactors: that of being connected by kinship to hisbattlefield enemies and the fact that he had to kill themdirectly and personally. It affected him because he wasnot a Duryodhana, who denied to himself and others theconsequences of his actions. It affected Arjuna because hewas not a Krishna who would have taken responsibilityfor his actions, being aware all the time. Arjuna wasneither Krishna nor Duryodhana. His mind was pointingout that he might be doing wrong, but his mind had notyet transcended into that state of awareness to be able totake responsibility for such actions.

This was Arjuna’s dilemma.

Arjuna has now distanced himself further from hiskinsmen. He earlier said that even if his kinsmen hadmade big mistakes, he should not repeat the samemistakes; he would not, even if he were to be offered theentire universe. He wondered what joy he would get bydestroying his kinsmen and what would be the point ofliving as a king if he was alone to enjoy it.

He said that his kinsmen were in darkness. They sawnothing wrong in destroying one another and their ownkinsmen. They were blinded by greed for power andcontrol. They were ruled by blind ego. He asked Krishna,‘Shouldn’t we be distancing ourselves from these people

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and their attitudes, we who are not ignorant, not indarkness and not blinded?’

Arjuna was pleading with Krishna, ‘Please tell me, am Iright? Please tell me, should I withdraw from this battle?’

But now, he condemned the same fathers, grandfathers,teachers, uncles and friends that he had referred to sopassionately a few moments earlier. These are the samepeople who he claimed he held in great respect andaffection and therefore did not wish to kill. He shiftedgears now and moved from the position of not killingthem because they were his flesh and blood to a greatermoral position of not wishing to kill them because it wasmorally reprehensible.

Arjuna said that destruction of the lineage, the dynasty,is evil, and that he recoiled from such a deed eventhough his opponents had no such compunction, blindedas they were by greed. Arjuna moved to higher groundfrom arguments of family to lineage and dynasty. It wasnow a matter of tradition and respect for the lineage thatcould be traced back to the moon, and an old, establishedtradition that would be a sin to dismantle and destroy.

Arjuna’s dilemma now jumps to a larger arena. It’s nolonger about individuals, it is about destruction of a racethat had existed for thousands of years, tracing its rootsback to celestial beings. How could he be expected tocarry out such a reprehensible act, he pleaded.

In Arjuna’s mind this was a pertinent doubt. Killing afew individuals, even if kinsmen, was a mistake. Killing awhole generation was a far bigger sin, and now he was

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expected to destroy a whole race, the foundations of aproud and legendary dynasty. How could the futuregenerations forgive him?

This was how the argument of Arjuna’s dilemmashifted.

When Arjuna talks about the threat to his dynasty, itarises out of a fear of his own mortality. He has asked,‘Even if I am to die, as I must, should I not ensure thecontinuance of my dynasty that bears my signature, myidentity, my DNA?’

Q: You talked about Arjuna’s dilemma? Was therereally a dilemma? Dilemma is when one has choices. Inmany ways Arjuna had no choice about fighting hiscousins. Was it really fear that caused this confusion?

We have choices in everything that we decide and actupon. In life we have choice in everything, including ourbirth and death.

Even in birth and death our spirit does have a choice.It is our undying spirit that decides where and to whomwe will be born in the next birth. We choose our parentsbefore birth just as we choose spouses and work once weare alive. We do not choose our children. They choose us.

Our spirit does decide our death. It is just that we areliving deep in our unconscious during the lifetime and sowe are unaware of this. Even a hundred years ago inIndia, old people had the capacity to foretell how andwhen they would die. Today there are people who can tellyou when you are going to die and how to change that.

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So, we do have choice. So did Arjuna.

At every point Arjuna had a choice, not just in thebattlefield of Kurukshetra. In all earlier events, heallowed himself to be carried along with whateverhappened around him. He was a wise man andunderstood that in life choices are fruitless.

Living in the realm of dilemmas is living in the realmof the mind, the outer edges of our personality. Since wehave not been exposed to any other way, we consider thisnormal and efficient. But that is not true. When weoperate from the center of our being, we movebeautifully with the flow of life operating out of a placeof clarity and intuition. It is much more efficient andcreative.

At the battlefield of Kurukshetra Arjuna found itdifficult to make the choice. So far, in everything he didhe went by whatever was good for his brother or wifeor loved ones. Everything he did was for others. He didnot see the need to choose. Whatever option presenteditself he chose. He was guided by the code of conduct ofthe kshatriya, when he had to decide and act.

Even choosing Krishna was not his decision. Krishnamade the offer to Duryodhana: ‘Would you like me to bewith you unarmed or would you like my unmatchedYadava army?’

In greed, Duryodhana chose the Yadava army. On theother hand, Arjuna gladly accepted Krishna unarmed!

For the first time now, Arjuna had a problem. He

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thought that the point of decision-making was over. Thedecision to wage war was a done deal. Of his brothers,Bhima was focused on the war because of his hatred forDuryodhana and what he had done to Draupadi. The twoyounger brothers went along with the others. Even theeldest, Yudhishtra, though he was ready to walk awaywithout his kingdom, followed Krishna’s advice offighting for it. He considered the war a responsibility thathe had to fulfill. The Mahabharata war, in its essence,was Krishna’s making.

Arjuna probably thought the same also. It was hisresponsibility to avenge the dishonor heaped on his clan.Unmatched in valor and skill, he was not afraid in anyordinary sense of the word. He was a man without fear.What happened to him at the battlefield, the choice thathe was presented with now, was not something he hadanticipated.

The sight of his kinsmen and his elders, ready forslaughter, presented for the first time the choice of eithergoing ahead as he had planned or walking away fromthe battlefield. This was a choice that came from thedepths of his unconscious, as we said before, his samskaras.Why?

As a kshatriya, a fearless warrior, his code of life andhis conditioning from birth was to avenge, to fight and towin. What is this samskara that suddenly raises doubts inhis mind?

The fact is that at this crucial moment, when the armiesare all set to clash, the one moment when it is necessary

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to be focused and aware, Arjuna slips out of the presentmoment. That creates the dilemma. Arjuna’s dilemma isone of being caught in the regrets of the past and thespeculative prospects of the future.

Arjuna is upset that he has to fight against his elders,who are a part of his past. He is upset that many thingswill go wrong in the future. He is no longer focused inthe present moment.

This happens to all of us at times of crisis. Because ofthe intensity of the situation, when we need to be themost focused, we are often the most flustered. Wesomehow think that we must bring the past and futureinto the equation for a successful outcome in the presentsituation. You need to remember that nothing of whathas happened and what may happen are of any help orrelevance to us in the present moment. The best decisioncomes from the spontaneous, creative intelligence availableonly in the present.

Usually when we are in a panic, we don’t thinkclearly. Our minds are clouded with memories andfantasies that distract us. Our negative ideas about ourpotential future also keep us from giving all our attentionto the internal intelligence always available to guide us.As of now, fantasies and fear rule Arjuna’s mind. Hisunconscious mind in turn rules him. This creates hisdilemma.

The only way out of his dilemma is with the guidanceof his friend and Master, Krishna. It is to Him thatArjuna turns to now for clarity.

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The Plot Thickens1.40 With the destruction of dynasty, the eternal

family tradition is destroyed too,

And the rest of the family becomesinvolved in immoral practices.

1.41 When immoral practices becomecommon in the family, O Krishna,

the women of the family becomecorrupted,

And from the degradation ofwomanhood, O descendant of Varshni,arise social problems.

1.42 As these social problems

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increase, the family and those who destroy the familytradition are cast in hell,

As these is no offering of food and water to theirancestors.

1.43 Due to the evil deeds of the destroyers of familytradition,

All kinds of rituals and practices of caste and familyare devastated.

1.44 O Janardana, I have heard that those who destroyfamily traditions dwell always in hell.

By now, Arjuna had become desperate. His argumentsseemed weak, even to him. And we might wonder ifthey were making any impression on Krishna at all. Hisnext attempt was to broaden the argument to include thetragic impact this war would have on future generationsand the entire Kuru race.

Arjuna starts quoting the scriptures of social laws toexplain to Krishna the evil state his destructive actionswould bring to future generations of the dynasty.

The destruction of a noble lineage would bring aboutthe decline in commitment to the rites and rituals thatmake society civilized and moral.

Arjuna then elaborated upon these immoral andunrighteous acts.

He said that women in the family would becomeunchaste and that mixing with other castes would followresulting in children of mixed castes, which would be

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undesirable. Those who destroy family traditions wouldruin all sacred practices and lead the families into pollutedprogeny, and such people had no place to go but hell.

To understand what Arjuna said, it is important tounderstand the origin of the caste tradition in Hindureligion.

At the age of five, a child was given to the care of aspiritual master by the parents in the ancient Indianeducation system called gurukulam. The master becamemother, father and teacher to the child. By living in closeproximity to an enlightened master, the child’s personalityand expression was observed. These factors, along withany spiritual experiences before puberty, determined howthe youngster was trained – either for sanyas (spiritualfulfillment) or for married life. The child’s naturalaptitudes formed the basis for the caste classification,varnasrama. Brahmanas (priests/teachers), kshatriyas (kings/warriors), vaisyas (merchants/tradesmen) and sudras (agricultural/service) are these four classes.

Even at this level of understanding the truthsexpounded in the Gita are about personal transformation.Each verse of the Gita is a sutra, a technique that canwork on your being and transform you.

The essence of Gita is about the present moment. Thatis how Krishna brings Arjuna into awareness. RamakrishnaParamahamsa used to say that Gita is tagi, a corruption ofthe word ‘tyag’ that meant renunciation or surrender. Gita isabout surrendering the past and the future to the present.

The Vedic gurukulam system was not concerned withwhether the child’s parents were brahmana or vaisya. If the

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guru found that the child had the natural aptitude to learnthe scriptures, the child would be trained as a brahmana.Irrespective of parentage, boys and girls were taught thegayatri mantra at age seven, which allowed their naturalintelligence to blossom. Those whose ability leanedtowards the spiritual path and expressed this aptitudethrough personal development and experiences weretrained in the scriptures. Others were trained in materiallyrelevant arts and sciences so that they could re-enter theworld with a mature, integrated personality.

Such was the origin of the caste system. This systemwas similar to the Guild system that prevailed in Englandthousands of years later. It is said to have contributedmuch to the Industrial Revolution that made England asuper colonial power at one time.

Over time, this caste system was corrupted throughhuman greed. Those who believed that they were doingmore responsible work, and therefore were morerespected, such as the brahmanas and kshatriyas, decided topass on their caste qualification to their children as if itwas their birthright. Such a practice had no scripturalsanction.

The son of a brahmana, who had neither the aptitudenor the knowledge to be a brahmana, ceased to have theright and qualifications to be called a brahmana. The sonof a sudra, if he exhibited the aptitude and developed theskills to learn the scriptures and decided to lead aspiritual life, had every right and qualification to be calleda brahmana. That is the scriptural truth.

Arjuna’s doubts about caste pollution had no scriptural

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base or merit. What he referred to became the societalnorm because of human greed. There were manyinstances of caste mixture even in the great Kuru lineagethat Arjuna bemoaned would be destroyed. Satyavati, hisgreat grandmother, was a fisherman’s daughter who hisgreat grandfather, Shantanu, became infatuated with.

Arjuna himself had wives who were not of kshatriyalineage by birth.

Arjuna talked as if mired in total confusion when helinked practice of rites and rituals with morality andchastity. He talked about women becoming unchaste as aresult of families not following rites and rituals. His logicwas distorted.

Rites and rituals, as prescribed in the scriptures, are anexpression of one’s inner awareness. They become usefulwhen one is aware. Awareness is not created by blindpractice of rites and rituals. How many people do we seemuttering their prayers and mantra, rolling their rosarybeads while thinking of something else? God’s name is ontheir tongues but their shopping lists are on their minds.

Arjuna mouthed the sentiments of organized religionand priesthood, which derive their power and monetarybase from such rites and rituals. They use these rites andrituals, and their sole authority to perform them, as afactor of control over the rest of the masses. This is how,in each culture and religion, the power of the priestlyclass was established, as if they were the soleintermediaries to God.

Arjuna talked about ancestral worship and implied thatthe offspring of mixed castes has no right to make

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offerings to their ancestors, leaving them lost in therealms beyond death. It is the confusion that has prevailedover the ages that Arjuna captured and presented. Heraises doubts on behalf of mankind and seeks clarification.The dementia was not only Arjuna’s, but also ofmankind’s.

There are no ancestral spirits waiting to be pacified byus. If the spirit is enlightened it merges with the infiniteenergy. If not, it gets reborn within three kshanas, threemoments between thoughts. Spirits do not hang aroundwaiting to be pacified. Nor do they go to hell if they arenot pacified.

There is no hell or heaven in the sense that we havebeen taught. Hell and heaven are in our minds. They arepsychological spaces, not geographical places. We are inhell because we are depressed, guilty and in suffering.We are in heaven when we feel and express love, joy andgratitude. Hell and heaven are spaces in our mind, notlocations that we travel to after death. We pass throughhell and heaven even as we live, day-to-day, hour-to-hourand minute-by-minute. We do not have to wait for ourdeath to taste hell or heaven; we are in them right now.

A small story:

A preacher attracted a large number of disciplespromising them that when they died he would takethem to heaven. He said, ‘Serve me well, and I shalltake care of you in the hereafter.’

One day the preacher died. His two closestdisciples committed suicide. They were sure he would

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go to heaven, and did not want to miss out on theirchance to follow him. So they died too.

All three reached the pearly gates. The preachersaw his two disciples and was immensely pleased.‘See. I told you I would take you to heaven. That iswhere we are now.’

The person who greeted them took them to alarge palatial building. He told them, ‘whatever youwish will be available to you. Enjoy yourself.’

The preacher and his disciples were ecstatic. Allthey had to do was think of something and it wasthere. Food, music, wine and women, everythingcame to them even as they thought of it. Theyindulged themselves completely. Many things that theydared not do on Earth were no longer taboo. In anycase they could not help it. Even if they tried tosuppress a desire, as soon as it arose in their minds itwas fulfilled.

After a few days they grew tired of this. Therewas nothing to do since there was no effort involvedin fulfilling their desires. It became a suffering to havethings brought to them even before the desire wasfully formed. If this was heaven, they had enough of it.

They called for the guard. When he appeared theytold him politely that they had had enough of heavenfor a while and that they would now like to take alook at hell for a change.

The guard looked confused and then heunderstood. He smiled broadly at them and said,

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‘Where do you think you have been all this time? YouARE in hell!’

Religions and religious authorities have created theconcepts of hell and heaven, to insert guilt and motivationin people, to control others. They have also created theconcept of sin. There is no sin in true spiritual terms.Where there is sin there is also merit. It is the principleof Tao. There can be no good without evil, and no evilwithout good. The only sin we are in, the original sin, isthe ignorance of our own divinity.

Arjuna is not a fool. He understands all this perfectly.Yet, he voices his doubts as if ignorant, as if confused.He acts out of compassion for humanity when hearticulates these doubts so that the Divine Krishna cananswer, to everyone’s benefit.

A thoughtful man like Arjuna cannot talk about thelack of chastity of women without blaming the men whoare equally responsible. He reflects here the superiorattitude of men over the ages, those who have treatedwomen with undue superiority. The doubts he voices arethose of the society he lives in, and those doubts have notchanged in thousands of years.

Q: How does an enlightened person react to thephysical environment?

He responds in the same way as an ordinary person.

There is a beautiful Zen statement: beforeenlightenment, a mountain is a mountain, a tree is a tree,a river is a river. While seeking, a mountain is not amountain, a tree is not a tree, a river is not a river; one is

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confused about it. After enlightenment, again a mountainis a mountain, a tree is a tree, a river is a river!

Although the enlightened being reacts the same way tothe different things around us, after enlightenment he seesit all from a different plane. A normal person always seesin a distorted way, as he wants to see it.

A small story:

A villager went to a nearby village for a job.When he was returning, from a distance he saw thathis house was on fire. He started weeping and cryingfor help. His son ran to him and told him they hadsold the house the previous day.

On hearing this, the man stopped weeping. Hewas happy again. Then another son came and toldhim that even though they sold it, they don’t have themoney yet. Again he started weeping.

Then the wife came and said they got the moneythat morning. Again he stopped weeping becamehappy.

Same situation, same person, but the reactions aredifferent when he thinks it is his house and when hethinks it someone else’s! This is what we mean when wesay we see according to our perception. But anenlightened person sees things as they are, with neitherattachment nor detachment.

An enlightened being takes life as it flows. He doesnot attempt to change it according to his convenience. Heis passively active, not lazy.

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How do we distinguish between letting life flow andlaziness? In laziness you will always be tired. The moreyou rest, the more you will be tired; you will becometired from resting. Letting go and allowing life to flow,you will be bubbling, alive, fresh and radiating energy. Ifyou are confused, you are in laziness. The moment yousurrender, you will have no confusion, and automaticallyyou will cooperate to let life flow. You will only be inecstasy.

People wonder whether they need to be qualified tobe enlightened. Do they need to do good deeds? Do theyneed to be scholars? Do they need to belong to aparticular caste or creed or religion?

Someone in India asked me if those in the‘untouchable’ caste could ever find enlightenment?

As long as you have an idea that you are untouchable,and you are unfit, you can’t find enlightenment. Themoment you drop that idea, you can find enlightenment.Nobody is untouchable. The idea is wrong, and happensdue to some inferiority complex. If somebody claims youcan’t touch him because he is holier than you, then besure only he is the untouchable one. Except him everyoneelse can become enlightened.

Understand that saints and sinners are both the samedistance from enlightenment. The saint has no advantageso long as the sinner has the same craving forenlightenment as the saint.

People often ask me why we are not working onprojects such as environment improvement, populationmanagement and stopping wars. A socially correct answer

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would be ‘Yes, we must work for global peace, a betterenvironment, equal distribution of wealth and so on.’ Butmy honest answer is this: transform yourself. Onlyindividual transformation can ensure all these at the sametime. You can’t do much else.

If society could do anything else it would have done itby now. Let us be honest that we are not able to doanything much socially. We always feel the world is totallyspoiled now and that in ancient times the world wasbeautiful.

From the Harappa-Mohenjodaro culture, which isthousands of years old, they found writings bemoaningthe state of affairs at that time itself. They have unearthedwritings from those days that say, ‘There is so much war,society is deteriorating, but in olden times society wasmuch better.’ Even thousands of years ago, peoplethought that the past was better!

There was no such time when only good prevailed!The idea of a golden past is used only to postponeaccepting reality. Maybe the news did not reach others sopeople did not know about it. But both good and badexisted in the past and will always exist in future also. Ifyou awaken yourself, you can go beyond it. If youbecome enlightened, you can take yourself out of thecollective negative consciousness, thereby reducing it.Everybody wants to spread peace according to his ownperception, not according to others’ perceptions.

I was in an inter-religion conference where one personwas preaching, ‘All of you accept and convert to myreligion so that we won’t fight.’ The very statement

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clearly misses the whole thing! The point is not to converteverybody to your religion but to acknowledge that allreligions are one and go beyond that also into purespirituality. The problem is, every religion takes thesword to spread peace! But no revolution will help. It willonly make matters worse. Only individual evolution willhelp because as you raise your consciousness, you add tothe collective positive energy on Earth and diminish thecollective negative energy.

I often say that what you need to evolve isconsciousness not conscience. People ask how I can makesuch a statement when Hitler, a Saddam and serial killershave no conscience, and cause havoc. They ask me if isnot essential to have a conscience that tells us what isright and wrong.

Please understand, a person who has realconsciousness, cannot hurt others or kill others, becausehe feels others to be extensions of himself. A person withconscience may not kill with the knife, but he will killwith words because his being can still be violent. Withconscience, you will be socially nonviolent, but withconsciousness, your being itself will be nonviolent.

According to me, morality should be based onconsciousness, not on conscience. Conscience is a poorsubstitute for consciousness. In our meditation programcalled Nithyananda Spurana Program, also called Life BlissProgram Level II , we help people experience at least oneglimpse of consciousness, so they can start living withconsciousness instead of conscience.

Anything based on conscience is skin deep. It is noteternal. Anything based on consciousness is eternal. We

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should work for conscious experience. Just because wehave not had a conscious experience, we should notcompromise and settle for having only a good conscience.

Our morality, understanding, lifestyle - everything -should be based on consciousness. When it is based onconscience, it is based on fear and greed. If the idea thatyou should not speed is based on fear, when you don’tsee a cop’s car you will speed up. It becomes tasty tobreak laws and you feel courageous also. Whenever anyrule is followed because of fear and greed, you will bewaiting for the chance to break the rule. Children saying‘no’ to parents is because they feel good breaking rules. Itmakes them feel they have proved themselves. If moralityis based on conscience, you will always do something toviolate it, directly or indirectly.

Consciousness is the guru, the master; conscience is not.With conscience, always a set of do’s and don’ts will begiven, and you will always be fighting it. The moreconscience you have, the more dead you will be; the moreschizophrenic you will be. With consciousness you willnever have a doubt. You will just do what has to bedone.

People ask how does one know that one isenlightened?

The moment you become enlightened, the doubt itselfdisappears. Just as you have no doubt that you are seeingme, enlightenment is a clear experience, and the questionitself disappears. As long as the question is there, you arenot enlightened.

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Then the next question is, ‘How does one becomeenlightened?’

It is as simple as 1, 2 and 3:

1. Start meditating

2. Continue meditating

3. Continue meditating!

Meditation is the only key to the experience that youare enlightened. Start with some meditation technique.Surely you will see the ultimate truth. Even though youdon’t believe you are a lion, you are a lion.

In fact, you are already enlightened! That is your truenature. You are not aware of it, that is all. So,enlightenment can never be a goal to work towards,because you are already there.

Awake, arise and stop! You have arrived! Drop yourdoubts.

Surrender to the Divine by saying, ‘You are the onewho gave me belief and doubt. You keep both and let mebe free.’

A part of you believes in you, a part of you hasdoubts about you. Surrender the doubt and faith to theDivine. You want to keep only belief, but leave thedoubt, that’s where the trouble begins. Surrender both,then you will go beyond both. You will experiencenithyananda, eternal bliss!

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The Breakdown1.45 Alas, we are preparing to commit greatly sinful

acts of killing our kinsmen,

Driven by the desire to enjoy royalhappiness.

1.46 I would consider it better for theKaurava to kill me unarmed andunresisting, Rather than for me to fightthem.

1.47 Sanjaya said:

Having said this on the battlefield,Arjuna cast aside his bow and arrows

And sat down on the chariot, hismind overwhelmed with grief.

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Arjuna was ready to give up. He was all set to runaway from the battlefield and escape from the reality ofhis duty.

He had convinced himself through his own illusoryarguments that what he had embarked upon was pureevil, nothing but evil and therefore wanted no part of it.He said, ‘I am ready to lay down arms and bedefenseless. Let Duryodhana and his men kill me.’

For a kshatriya to say this means one of two things:his act is one of total surrender or of a feeling of thehelplessness of extreme confusion. A kshatriya warrior, asupreme warrior such as Arjuna knows no fear. It isneither fear of his death nor fear of injury that compelshim to say what he did.

As I remarked earlier, Arjuna was not in a mode oftotal surrender, not yet. He was not in the mode ofahimsa, nonviolence. He was not in tune with the cosmicconsciousness to say that ‘Killing others is killing myself,as I feel they are one with me.’ His arguments aboutkilling his kinsmen being like killing himself were bornout of his ego and not out of self-realization.

Arjuna’s desperation, his feeling of helplessness arosefrom his dilemma, which was becoming more extreme bythe minute. Arjuna was an intelligent man, a thoughtfulman. He was a man accustomed to the light of clarity butwho was now in darkness. He did not know where hewas headed. He was confused between what he wasrequired to do as a kshatriya prince, and the apparentcontradiction of that with the scriptural truths of morality.

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Arjuna’s distress was complete. He sat down, unable tobear the weight of his emotions. He put down his bowand arrows, which signified that he was out of the battle.

Arjuna’s delusion was complete. He was as far awayfrom reality as he could possibly get. The greatest ofwarriors of his time, the greatest of men, was in thedepths of despair based on the inner turmoil that he wasgoing through.

The inner conflict between his upbringing and valuesystems, his samskaras and what he was about to do bywaging war against his kinsmen, had reduced him to apitiable wreck, who had now abandoned his weapons andcollapsed inside his chariot. Arjuna, at this point was noexample of a true kshatriya.

Arjuna was now a true example of mankind. He wasbeing human. He was torn between darkness and light.He was in deep conflict between the unconscious samskarasthat were driving him and the reality of what he oughtto be doing. The clarity that would come about with thehelp of the great master, would be his enlightenment.

The darkness that surrounded Arjuna at this stage wasmaya, the illusion that prevents all human beings fromperceiving the Truth of Reality that pervades all of ourexperiences. Ma ya, iti maya, that which is not real butappears as absolute is maya. Maya is not unreal in thesense that it does not exist. Maya truly exists as reality. Itveils, it covers Reality, the ultimate Truth, the Truth ofour inner awareness, the Truth of our inner divinity; andtherefore it is un-real, an illusion.

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Had Arjuna been Krishna, had Arjuna been enlightened,he would not have been tormented with the play of hismaya. Had Arjuna been a Duryodhana, or even a Bhimawhose individual consciousness was not awakened, hewould have accepted the maya without question, and againnot be tormented by it. But, Arjuna is intelligent. He ispartially awakened, a seeker. He is in the presence of thegreatest of all masters. He is struggling to rid himself ofhis maya and seek clarity.

It is Arjuna’s ego that created the maya in him. Hisown identity and his own identification with who he was,along with his conviction that he should preserve hislineage - all these factors created the illusion in him thathe was something other than who he was. These createdthe scepter of doubt in him that he should do somethingother than what he was there to do.

All of us come into this world with no identity. As wegrow we collect labels describing ourselves - mother,father, brother, sister, relative, employer, employees,colleagues, enemies and so on. We become so associatedwith the labels and their accessories that we forget whowe really are. Our life is then about seeking fulfillment inthe wrong places.

A small story:

Every one in the village knew Yogi Maharaj to bean eccentric man. One day when friends andneighbors found him walking up and down in frontof his house, beneath the street lamp, they did not

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take any notice. ‘That is Yogi,’ they said and movedon.

But when they found him there late at night, stillwalking up and down, they were concerned. ‘Yogi,what are you doing?’ they asked.

‘Oh, nothing,’ he said.

‘Why are you walking up and down outside yourhome, instead of sleeping?’ they asked.

‘Oh, I am searching for my gold ring,’ he replied.‘It is precious, an heirloom from many generationsago. I must find it.’

‘Ok’, they answered. ‘We will help you,’ and theysearched along with him. Even after several hoursthey could not find the ring.

His neighbor, who knew Yogi Maharaj well,suddenly had a doubt. ‘Where did you lose that ring,Yogi?’ he asked.

‘Oh, it was inside a box in my bedroom, but Icannot find it now, that is why I am searching here,’said Yogi.

‘If you lost it in your bedroom, why are youlooking for it under the street lamp?’ demanded theneighbor. ‘Yes, yes, why out here?’ chorused the otherfriends.

‘Oh,’ said Yogi, ‘there is no light in my bedroom. Ican only search where there is light. That is why Iam out here.’

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This is how it is for most of us! We search forhappiness in the external world because that is where wehave been taught to look for fulfillment. We have learnedonly how to look outside. Unfortunately, the truth aboutthe fleeting nature of sensory fulfillment is not wellknown. We keep believing that our bliss is outside ofourselves rather than at the core of our being. We havenot learned how to look within and experience it.

Happiness comes from within. Eternal happiness thatconstantly flows as bliss is always from within. Youcannot find it outside. You cannot reach it throughmaterial possessions, through relationships, through selfishphilanthropy. It is a state of no mind that you reachwithin yourself.

As very young children we were all in bliss. Have youever seen an unhappy baby, except when it is physicallydisturbed by hunger, thirst or pain? A young child isforever in bliss, always curious, always seeking, alwaysenergetic. As we grow, as we learn from others, we aretaught to shift our attention away from that bliss. Welearn from elders, from teachers, from people around uswho have been at it longer than us. In short, we learnhow to stop feeling blissful.

Just as we learned how to stop feeling blissful, we canalso learn how to ‘un-stop’ that stopping of bliss. We canrelearn how to connect with our blissful nature again. Wecan learn to become aware of who we really are.

That is the process Arjuna was going through. He hadlost his awareness of inner bliss because of his samskarasand was in the deep throngs of despair. The process of

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relearning the process of transformation at the hands ofthe master was about to begin. If we become aware ofthat process, if we follow that process carefully over theeighteen chapters that the master takes His disciplethrough, we too can become aware.

Sankara says beautifully:

If you imbibe even a little of the Bhagavad Gita, if youdrink even a drop of the Ganga water, if you think evenonce about that great master Krishna, you will never haveto face Death.

Q: Master, how does the tale of a war help us in day-to-day issues? There have been hundreds, if not thousandsof wars in the history of mankind, and many have beenwell documented. These have not stopped other wars.They have not helped humankind learn. How does oneexpect Bhagavad Gita to transform peoples’ attitudes?

Mahabharata is not merely the tale of a war. It is atale of many lives, which get involved in a war. The waritself is incidental to the story of the Pandava andKaurava princes. What led to the war, how it could havebeen avoided and most importantly why it was notavoided are the experiences from this epic.

Contrary to most accounts of wars, written as historicaldocuments, Bhagavad Gita is about how an expression ofthe divine convinces its human aspect to go to war as apart of fulfilling its responsibilities.

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Bhagavad Gita is not about war; it is about how oneshould act in awareness, whatever be the circumstancesbefore us. We cannot always choose the events of ourlives but we can choose to live them with awareness andspiritual maturity.

The scriptural authority of Gita stems from theassurance of Krishna guaranteeing Arjuna that His wordsare the Truth. It is the Divine instructing the human. Youmay not know or even believe that some one like Krishnaever lived on this planet Earth. But many great mastersthroughout the ages have meditated upon these truthsexpounded by Krishna and affirmed them with their owndirect experiences. I affirm them with my own innerexperiences of the cosmic truth. Every word of thisscripture resounds inTruth.

The truth of the Bhagavad Gita exists at many levels.What you read from a translation or even a commentaryis still only superficial. It is at the physical level. There aremany more energy levels at which the Bhagavad Gitaneeds to be understood. These can only be conveyed inthe intimacy of the master-disciple relationship.

Any personal transformation is dependent upon twothings. First, we must want to be transformed. Nomaster, no book, nothing can be of help if we do notwish to transform. We must seek to be transformed. Theuniverse is not bothered about whether we aretransformed or not; it is up to us. Second, we must be inthe present moment in order for that transformation, thatalchemy to happen. You cannot live in the past orfantasize about the future and expect to be transformed.

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That is why meditation is such a powerful tool ofpersonal transformation. In fact it is the only real tool ofpersonal transformation in addition to the enlightenedmaster. No one can meditate on our behalf; we need todo it for ourselves. With practice, meditation immediatelybrings us into the present moment. We can betransformed, liberated, enlightened.

Unlike addictions that lower our consciousness andrequire more and more for the same effect, meditationraises our consciousness and takes less and less to get thesame and deeper benefits. With experience, we will findthat we flow through our days in mindful awareness andbliss.

Bhagavad Gita is meditation. Each verse is a sutra thatwe can meditate upon. These verses, these profoundtruths, will take us deeper into inner awareness inmeditation as we contemplate upon them and transformourselves as nothing else can. That is why Sankara saysthat even a little reading of the Bhagavad Gita willliberate us.

Metaphorically, this epic is the story of our own innerwar. It is the fight between our positive and negativetendencies, our fear and greed. In many ways we are atwar from the moment we are socialized and conditioned.

Unfortunately, we are constantly at odds withourselves. We do not know how to accept and celebrateeverything that happens in the inner world and the outerworld. We have yet to learn that life is good and ournature is bliss. So we struggle to define and bring ‘order’

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to everything in life with the hope that we can succeed inbeing happy or at least not unhappy. In doing this weonly bring chaos and suffering to ourselves and others.

Mahabharata is the story of this inner war. That is whythis great expression, the Bhagavad Gita, touches andtransforms us even today. It is Arjuna’s story but it is ourstory as well!

Thus ends the first chapter of the dialogue betweenSri Krishna and Arjuna, called as Arjuna VishadaYoga,in the Brahmavidya Yogashastra Bhagavad GitaUpanishad.

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Scientific Research onBhagavad Gita

Several institutions have conducted experiments usingscientific and statistically supported techniques to verifythe truth behind the Bhagavad Gita. Notable amongstthem is the work carried out by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,whose findings are published through Maharishi VedVigyan Vishwa Vidyapeetam.

Studies conducted using meditation techniques relatedto truths expressed in the verses of the Bhagavad Gitahave shown that the quality of life is significantlyimproved through meditation. These studies have foundthat meditators experience a greater sense of peaceresulting in a reduced tendency towards conflict.

Meditators gain greater respect for and appreciation ofothers. Their own inner fulfilment increases resulting inimproved self-respect and self-reliance, leading to SelfActualization.

One’s ability to focus along with brain functionintegration is enhanced. These have resulted in greatercomprehension, creativity, faster response time indecision-making and superior psychomotor coordination.

Stress levels have been shown to decrease withenhanced sensory perception and overall health. Thetendency towards depression has been clearly shown todecrease.

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There is enough evidence to show that as a result ofmeditation, individuals gain a better ethical lifestyle thatin turn improves their interaction with others in thecommunity, resulting in less conflict and crime. Groupmeditation of 7000 people (square root of 1% of worldpopulation at the time of the study) was significantlycorrelated to a reduction in conflict worldwide.

Meditation leads to higher levels of consciousness.Through the research tools of Applied Kinesiology, Dr.David Hawkins (author of the book Power vs. Force) andothers have shown that human consciousness has risen inthe last few decades, crossing a critical milestone for thefirst time in human history. Dr. Hawkins’ research alsodocuments that the Bhagavad Gita is at the very highestlevel of Truth conveyed to humanity.

We acknowledge with gratitude the work done by theMaharishi Mahesh Yogi institutions and Dr. DavidHawkins in establishing the truth of this great scripture.

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Glossary of Key Characters in theBhagavad Gita

Pandava’s Side:

Krishna: God Incarnate; Related to both Kauravaand Pandava; Arjuna’s charioteer in thewar

Drupada: A great warrior and father of Draupadi

Drishtadummna: The son of King Drupada

Shikhandi: A mighty archer and a transexualperson

Virata: Abhimanyu’s father-in-law; King of aneighboring kingdom

Yuyudhana: Krishna’s charioteer and a greatwarrior

Kashiraj: King of neighboring kingdom, Kashi

Chekitan: A great warrior

Kuntibhoj: Adoptive father of Kunti, the motherof first three Pandava princes

Purujit: Brother of Kuntibhoj

Shaibya: Leader of the Shibi tribe

Dhrishtaketu: King of Chedis

Uttamouja: A great warrior

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Kaurava’s Side:

Sanjay: Charioteer and narrator of events toDhritharashtra

Bhishma: Great grandfather of the Kaurava &Pandava; Great warrior

Drona: A great archer and teacher to bothKaurava and Arjuna

Vikarna: Third of the Kaurava brothers

Karna: Panadava’s half brother, born to Kuntibefore her marriage

Ashvatthama: Drona’s son and Achilles heel; Said toalways speak the truth

Kripacharya: Teacher of martial arts to both Kauravaand Pandava

Shalya: King of neighboring kingdom andbrother of Madra, Nakula andSahadeva’s mother

Soumadatti: King of Bahikas

Dushassana: One of Kaurava brothers; responsible forinsulting Draupadi

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Meaning of Common Sanskrit WordsFor purposes of simplicity, the phonetic of Sanskrit has

not been faithfully followed in this work. No accents andother guides have been used.

Aswattama is spelt as also Asvattama, Aswathama,Aswatama etc., all being accepted.

Correctly pronounced, Atma is Aatma; however in theEnglish format a is used both for a and aa, e for e and eeand so on. The letter s as used here can be pronouncedas s or ss or sh; for instance Siva is pronounced with asibilant sound, neither quite s nor sh. Many words herespelt with ‘s’ can as well be spelt as ‘sh’.

[In the glossary, however, letters have been indicatedin brackets to facilitate pronunciation as intended in theSanskrit text.]

This glossary is not meant to be a pronunciation guide,merely an explanatory aid. It is merely a compilation ofcommon words.

A(a)bharana: adornment; vastra(a)bharana is adornment withclothes

Abhy(a)asa: exercise; practice

A(a)cha(a)rya: teacher; literally ‘one who walks with’

Advaita: concept of non-duality; that individual self andthe cosmic SELF are one and the same; as different fromthe concepts of dvaita and visishta(a)dvaita, which considerself and SELF to be mutually exclusive

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A(a)ha(a)ra: food; also with reference to sensory inputs asin pratya(a)ha(a)ra

A(a)jna: order, command; the third eye energy centre

A(a)ka(a)sa: space, sky; subtlest form of energy of universe

Amruta, amrit: divine nectar whose consumption leads toimmortality

Ana(a)hata: that which is not created; heart energy centre

A(a)nanda: bliss; very often used to refer to joy, happinessetc.

Anjana: collyrium, black pigment used to paint the eyelashes

A(a)pas: water

Aarti: worshipping with a flame, light, as with a lamp litwith oiled wick, or burning camphor

A(a)shirwa(a)d: blessing

Ashta(a)nga yoga: eight fold path to enlightenmentprescribed by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra

A(a)shraya: grounded in reality; a(a)shraya-dosha, defectrelated to reality

A(a)tma, A(a)tman: individual Self; part of the universalBrahman

Beedi: local Indian cigarette

Beeja: seed; beeja-mantra refers to the single syllable mantrasused to invoke certain deities,

e.g., gam for Ganesha.

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Bhagava(a)n: literally God; often used for an enlightenedmaster

Bha(a)vana: visualization

Bhakti: devotion; bhakta, a devotee

Brahma: the Creator; one of the Hindu trinity of supremeGods, the other two being Vishnu, and Shiva

Brahmacha(a)ri: literally one who moves with the truereality, Brahman, one without fantasies, but usually takento mean a celibate; brahmacharya is the quality or state ofbeing a brahmachaari

Brahman: ultimate reality of the Divine, universal ntelligentenergy

Bra(a)hman: person belonging to the class engaged in Vedicstudies, priestly class

Buddhi: mind, intelligence; mind is also called by othernames, manas, chitta etc.

Buddhu: a fool

Chakra: literally a ‘wheel’; refers to energy centres in themind-body system

Chakshu: eye, intelligent power behind senses

Chanda(a)la: an untouchable; usually one who skins animals.

Chandana: sandalwood

Chitta: mind; also manas, buddhi.

Dakshina(a)yana: Sun’s southward movement starting 21st

June

Darshan: vision; usually referred to seeing divinity

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Dharma: righteousness

Dhee: wisdom.

Deeksha: grace bestowed by the Master and the energytransferred by the Master onto disciple at initiation or anyother time, may be through a mantra, a touch, a glance oreven a thought

Dosha: defect

Dhya(a)na: meditation

Drishti: sight, seeing with mental eye

Gada: weapon; similar to a mace; also Gada(a)yudha

Gopi, Gopika: literally a cowherd; usually referred to thedevotees, who played with Krishna, and were lost in Him

Gopura, gopuram: temple tower

Grihasta: a householder, a married person; coming fromthe word griha, meaning house

Guna: the three human behavioural characteristics orpredispositions; satva, rajas and tamas

Guru: Master; literally one who leads from gu (darkness)to ru (light)

Gurukul, Gurukulam: literally ‘tradition of guru’, refers tothe ancient education system in which children werehanded over to a guru at a very young age by parents forupbringing and education

Homa: ritual to Agni, the God of fire; metaphoricallyrepresents the transfer of energy from the energy ofA(a)ka(a)sa (space), through V(a)ayu (Air), Agni (Fire),

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A(a)pas (Water), and Prithvi (Earth) to humans. Alsoy(a)aga, yagna

Iccha: desire

Ida: along with pingala and sushumna the virtual energypathways through which pranic energy flows

Ithiha(a)sa: legend, epic, mythological stories; also pura(a)na

Jaati: birth; jaati-dosha, defect related to birth

Ja(a)grata: wakefulness

Japa: literally ‘muttering’; continuous repetition of thename of divinity

Jeeva samadhi: burial place of an enlightened Master, wherehis spirit lives on

Jiva (pronounced as jeeva) means living

Jyotisha: Astrology; jyotishi is an astrologer

Kaivalya: liberation; same as moksha, nirva(a)na

Ka(a)la: time; also maha(a)ka(a)la

Kalpa: vast period of time; Yuga is a fraction of Kalpa

Kalpana: imagination

Karma: spiritual law of cause and effect, driven by va(a)sanaand samska(a)ra

Kosha: energy layer surrounding body; there are 5 suchlayers. These are: annamaya or body, Pra(a)namaya orbreath, manomaya or thoughts, vigya(a)namaya or sleep anda(a)nandamaya or bliss koshas

Kriya: action

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Kshana: moment in time; refers to time between twothoughts

Kshatriya: caste or varna of warriors

Kundalini: energy that resides at the root chakra‘mula(a)dha(a)ra’(pronounced as moolaadha(a)ra)

Maha(a): great; as in maharshi, great sage; maha(a)va(a)kya,great scriptural saying

Ma(a)la: a garland, a necklace; rudra(a)ksha mala is a garlandmade of the seeds of the rudra(a)ksha tree

Mananam: thinking, meditation

Manas: mind; also buddhi, chitta

Mandir: temple

Mangala: auspicious; mangal sutra, literally auspiciousthread, the yellow or gold thread or necklace a marriedHindu woman wears

Mantra: a sound, a formula; sometimes a word or a set ofwords, which because of their inherent sounds, haveenergizing properties. Mantras are used as sacred chants toworship the Divine; mantra, tantra and yantra areapproaches in spiritual evolution

Ma(a)ya: that which is not, not reality, illusion; all life isma(a)ya according to advaita

Moksha: liberation; same as nirva(a)na, sama(a)dhi, turiya etc.

Mula(a)dha(a)ra: the first energy centre, moola is root;a(a)dhara is foundation, here existence

Nadi: river

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Naadi: nerve; also an energy pathway that is not physical

Na(a)ga: a snake; a na(a)ga-sa(a)dhu is an ascetic belongingto a group that wears no clothes

Namaska(a)r: traditional greeting with raised hands, withpalms closed

Na(a)nta: without end

Na(a)ri: woman

Nidhidhy(a)asan: what is expressed

Nimitta: reason; nimitta-dosha, defect based on reason

Nirva(a)na: liberation; same as moksha, sama(a)dhi

Niyama: the second of eight paths of Patanjali’s Ashta(a)ngaYoga; refers to a number of day-to-day rules of observancefor a spiritual path

Pa(a)pa: sin

Phala: fruit; phalasruti refers to result of worship

Paramahamsa: literally the ‘supreme swan’; refers to anenlightened being

Parikrama: the ritual of going around a holy location, suchas a hill or water spot

Parivra(a)jaka: wandering by an ascetic monk

Pingala: please see Ida.

Pra(a)na: life energy; also refers to breath;pra(a)na(a)ya(a)ma is control of breath

Pratya(a)hara: literally ‘staying away from food’; in thiscase refers to control of all senses as part of the eight foldashta(a)nga yoga

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Prithvi: earth energy

Purohit: priest

Puja (pronounced as pooja): normally any worship, butoften referred to a ritualistic worship

Punya: merit, beneficence

Pura(a)na: epics and mythological stories such asMaha(a)bha(a)rata, Ra(a)ma(a)yana etc.

Purna (prounounced poorna): literally ‘complete’; refers inthe advaita context to reality

Rajas, rajasic: the mid characteristic of the three humanguna or behaviour mode, referring to aggressive action

Putra: son; putri: daughter

Rakta: blood

Ra(a)tri: night

Rishi: a sage

Sa(a)dhana: practice, usually a spiritual practice

Sa(a)dhu: literally a ‘good person’; refers to an ascetic;same as sanya(a)si

Sahasrana(a)ma: thousand names of God; available formany Gods and Goddesses, which devotees recite

Sahasrara: lotus with thousand petals; the crown energycentre

Sakti: energy; intelligent energy; Para(a)sakti refers touniversal energy, divinity; considered feminine; masculineaspect of Para(a)sakti is purusha

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Sama(a)dhi: state of no-mind, no-thoughts; literally,becoming one’s original state; liberated, enlightened state.Three levels of samadhi are referred to as sahaja, which istransient, savikalpa, in which the person is no longercapable of normal activities, and nirvikalpa, where theliberated person performs activities as before.

Samsaya: doubt

Samska(a)ra: embedded memories of unfulfilled desiresstored in the subconscious that drive one into decisions,into karmic action

Samyama: complete concentration

Sankalpa: decision

Sanya(a)s: giving up worldly life; sanya(a)si or sanya(a)sin, amonk, an ascetic

sanya(a)sini, refers to a female monk

Sa(a)stra: sacred texts

Satva, sa(a)tvic: the highest guna of spiritual calmness

Siddhi: extraordinary powers attained through spiritualpractice

Sishya: disciple

Simha: lion; Simha-Swapna: nightmare

Shiva: rejuvenator in the trinity; often spelt as Shiva. Shivaalso means ‘causeless auspiciousness’; in this sense,Shivara(a)tri, the day when Shiva is worshipped is thatmoment when the power of this causeless auspiciousnessis intense

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Smarana: remembrance; constantly remembering the divine

Smruti: literally ‘that which is remembered’; refers to laterday Hindu works which are rules, regulations, laws andepics, such as Manu’s works, Puranas etc.

Sraddha: trust, faith, belief, confidence

Sravan: hearing

Srishti: creation, which is created

Sruti: literally ‘that which is heard’; refers to the ancientscriptures of Veda, Upanishad and

Bhagavad Gita: considered to be words of God

Stotra: devotional verses, to be recited or sung

Sudra: caste or varna of manual labourers

Sutra: literally ‘thread’; refers to epigrams, short verseswhich impart spiritual techniques

Sunya: literally zero; however, Buddha uses this word tomean reality

Sushumna: Please see ‘ida’

Swa(a)dishtha(a)na: where Self is established; the groin orspleen energy centre

Swapna: dream

Swatantra: free

Tamas, taamasic: the lowest guna of laziness or inaction

Tantra: esoteric Hindu techniques used in spiritualevolution

Tapas: severe spiritual endeavour, penance

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Thatagata: Buddhahood, state of being such…a pali word

Tirta: water; tirtam is a holy river and a pilgrimage centre

Trika(a)la: all three time zones, past, present and future;trika(a)lajna(a)ni is one who can

see all three at the same time; an enlightened being isbeyond time and space

Turiya (pronounced tureeya): state of samadhi, no-mind

Upanishad: literally ‘sitting below alongside’ referring to adisciple learning from the master;

refers to the ancient Hindu scriptures which along withthe Veda, form sruti

Uttara(a)yana: Sun’s northward movement

Vaisya: caste or varna of tradesmen

Va(a)naprastha: the third stage in one’s life, (the first stagebeing that of a student, and the second that ofhouseholder) when a householder, man or woman, givesup worldly activities and focuses on spiritual goals

Varna: literally colour; refers to the caste grouping in thetraditional Hindu social system; originally based onaptitude, and later corrupted to privilege of birth

Va(a)sana: the subtle essence of memories and desires,samska(a)ra, that get carried forward from birth to birth

Vastra: clothes

Vastra(a)harana: removal of clothes, often used to refer toDraupadi’s predicament in the

Maha(a)bha(a)rata, when she was unsuccessfully disrobed

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by the Kaurava prince

Va(a)yu: air

Veda: literally knowledge; refers to ancient Hinduscriptures, believed to have been received by enlightenedrishi at the being level; also called sruti, along withUpanishad

Vibhuti (pronounced vibhooti): sacred ash worn by manyHindus on forehead; said to remind themselves of thetransient nature of life; of glories too

Vidhi: literally law, natural law; interpreted as fate ordestiny

Vidya: knowledge, education

Visha(a)da: depression, dilemma etc.

Vishnu: preserver in the trinity; His incarnations includeKrishna, Rama etc. in ten incarnations; also means ‘allencompassing’

Vishwarupa (pronounced vishwaroopa): universal form

Yama: discipline as well as death; One of the eight foldpaths prescribed in Patanjali’s

Ashta(a)nga Yoga; refers to spiritual regulations of satya(truth), ahimsa (non

violence), aparigraha (living simply); asteya (not covetingother’s properties) and brahmacharya (giving upfantasies); yama is also the name of the Hindu God ofjustice and death

Yantra: literally ‘tool’; usually a mystical and powerful

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graphic diagram, such as the Sri Chakra, inscribed on acopper plate, and sanctified in a ritual blessed by a divinepresence or an enlightened Master

Yoga: literally union, union of the individual self and thedivine SELF; often taken to mean

Hatha yoga, which is one of the components of yogasana,relating to specific body postures

Yuga: a long period of time as defined in Hindu scriptures;there are four yugas: satya, treta, dwa(a)para and kali, thepresent being kali yuga

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Invocation Verses! Paaqaa-ya p/itbaaioQataM Bagavata naaraayaNaona svayaM

vyaasaona ga/iqataM puraNamauinanaa maQyao mahaBaartMAWOtamaRtvaiYa-NaIM BagavatIM AYTadSaaQyaaiyanaIMAmba %vaamanausandQaaima Bagavad\gaIto BavaWooiYaNaIM

Om paarthaaya pratibodhitaam bhagavataa naaraayanena svayamVyaasena grathitaam puraanamuninaa madhye mahaabhaaratamAdvaitaamrutavarshineem Bhagavateem ashtaadsaadhyaayineemAmba tvaamanusandadhaami bhagavadgeete bhavadveshineem

OM, I meditate upon you, Bhagavad Gita theaffectionate Mother, the Divine Mother showering thenectar of non duality and destroying rebirth, (who was)incorporated into the Mahaabhaarata of eighteen chaptersby sage Vyasa, the author of the Puraanaas, andimparted to Arjuna by Lord Narayana, Himself.

vasaudovasautM dovaM kmsacaaNaUrmad-nama\dovakIprmaanandM kRYNaM vando jagad\gauruM

Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa ChaanuraMardanam

Devakee Paramaanandam Krishnam VandeJagadgurum

I salute you Lord Krishna, Teacherto the world, son of Vasudeva andSupreme bliss of Devaki, Destroyer ofKamsa and Chaanura.

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Chapter 1: Arjuna Vishada Yoga:Arjuna’s Dilemma

vÉÞiÉ®úɹ]Åõ =´ÉÉSÉ

vɨÉÇIÉäjÉä EÖò¯ûIÉäjÉä ºÉ¨É´ÉäiÉÉ ªÉÖªÉÖiºÉ´É&*¨ÉɨÉEòÉ& {ÉÉhb÷́ ÉɶSÉè́ É ÊEò¨ÉEÖò´ÉÇiÉ ºÉ\VɪÉ**1.1**

Dhritaraashtra uvaacha:

dharma-kshetre kuru-kshetre samavetaa yuyutsavahmaamakaah paandavaas chaiva kim akurvata sanjaya 1.1

Dhritaraashtra: Dhritarashtra; uvaacha: said; dharma-kshetre: in the place of righteousness; kuru-kshetre: in thislocation of Kurukshetra; samavetaa: gathered; yuyutsavah:desiring to fight; maamakaah: my people; paandavah: thesons of Pandu; cha: and; eva: also; kim: what; akurvata: didthey do; sanjaya: O Sanjaya

1.1 King Dhritarashtra asked: O Sanjaya, on thisrighteous location of Kurukshetra, what did my sonsand those of Pandu ready to fight, do?

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ºÉ\VÉªÉ =´ÉÉSÉ:

où¹]Âõ´ÉÉ iÉÖ {ÉÉhb÷´ÉÉxÉÒEÆò ´ªÉÚfÆø nÖùªÉÉævÉxɺiÉnùÉ*+ÉSÉɪÉǨÉÖ{ɺÉRÂóMɨªÉ ®úÉVÉÉ ´ÉSÉxɨɥɴÉÒiÉÂ**1.2**

sanjaya uvaacha:

drshtvaa tu paandavaaneekam vyoodham duryodhanas tadaaaachaaryam upasangamya raajaa vachanam abraveet 1.2

Sanjaya: Sanjaya; uvaacha: said; drshtvaa: having seen; tu:indeed ; paandavaaneekam: the Pandava army; vyoodham:arranged in formation; duryodhanah: Duryodhana; tadaa:then; aachaaryam: the teacher; upasangamya: approaching ;raajaa: the king; vachanam: words; abraveet: said

1.2 Sanjaya said: O King, looking at the Pandavaarmy in full formation, Duryodhana went to his teacherand spoke.

{ɶªÉèiÉÉÆ {ÉÉhbÖ÷{ÉÖjÉÉhÉɨÉÉSÉɪÉÇ ¨É½þiÉÓ SɨÉÚ¨ÉÂ*´ªÉÚføÉÆ pÖù{Énù{ÉÖjÉähÉ iÉ´É Ê¶É¹ªÉähÉ vÉÒ¨ÉiÉÉ**1.3**

pashyaitaam paandu-putraanaam aachaarya mahateem chamoomvyoodhaam drupada-putrena tava shishyena dheemataa 1.3

pashya: behold; etam: this; pandu-putraanaam: of the sonsof Pandu; aachaarya: O teacher; mahateem: great; chamoom:army; vyoodham: formed; drupada-putrena: by the son ofDrupada; tava: your; shishyena: by disciple; dheemataa:intelligent

1.3 O my teacher, behold the great army of the sons

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of Pandu, arrayed for battle by your intelligent disciple,the son of Drupada.

+jÉ ¶ÉÚ®úÉ ¨É½äþ¹´ÉɺÉÉ ¦ÉÒ¨ÉÉVÉÖÇxɺɨÉÉ ªÉÖÊvÉ*ªÉÖªÉÖvÉÉxÉÉä Ê´É®úÉ]õ¶SÉ pÖù{Énù¶SÉ ¨É½þÉ®úlÉ&**1.4**

atra shooraa maheshvaasaa Bhima-arjuna-samaa yudhiyuyudhaano viraatas cha drupadas cha mahaarathah 1.4

atra: here; shooraa: heroes; mahaa-ishu-asaa: mightyarchers; Bhima-arjuna: Bhima and Arjuna; samaa: equal;yudhi: in battle; yuyudhaanah: Yuyudhana; viratah: Virata;cha: and; drupadah: Drupada; cha: and; mahaarathah: greatcharioteers

1.4 Here in this army there are many heroes wieldingmighty bows, and equal in military prowess to Bhimaand Arjuna - Yuyudhaana, Virata, and the great chariotwarrior Drupada.

vÉÞ¹]õEäòiÉÖ¶SÉäÊEòiÉÉxÉ& EòÉʶɮúÉVɶSÉ ´ÉÒªÉÇ´ÉÉxÉÂ*{ÉÖ¯ûÊVÉiEÖòÎxiɦÉÉäVɶSÉ ¶É褪ɶSÉ xÉ®ú{ÉÖRÂóMÉ´É&**1.5**

dhrshtaketus chekitaanah kaashiraajas cha veeryavaanpurujit kuntibhojas cha shaibyas cha nara-pungavah 1.5

dhrshtaketuh: Dhrshtaketu; chekitaanah: Chekitaana;kaashiraajah: Kaasiraaja; cha: and; veeryavaan: courageous;purujit: Purujit; kuntibhojah: Kuntibhoja; cha: and; shaibyah:Saibya; cha: and; nara-pungavah: best of men

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1.5 There are courageous warriors like Dhrshtaketu,Chekitana, Kasiraja, Purujit, Kuntibhoja and Saibya,the best of men.

ªÉÖvÉɨÉxªÉÖ¶SÉ Ê´ÉGòÉxiÉ =kɨÉÉèVÉɶSÉ ´ÉÒªÉÇ´ÉÉxÉÂ*ºÉÉè¦ÉpùÉä pùÉè{ÉnäùªÉɶSÉ ºÉ´ÉÇ ´É ¨É½þÉ®úlÉÉ&**1.6**

yudhaamanyus cha vikraanta uttamaujaas cha veeryavaansaubhadro draupadeyaas chasarva eva maha-rathaah 1.6

yudhaamanyuh:Yudhamanyu; cha: and; vikraantah: mighty;uttamaujaah: Uttamauja; cha: and; veerya-vaan: brave;saubhadrah: the son of Subhadra; draupadeyah: the sons ofDraupadi; cha: and; sarve: all; eva: certainly; maha-rathaah:great chariot fighters.

1.6 There are the mighty Yudhamanyu, the braveUttamauja, Abhimanyu, the son of Subhadra and thesons of Draupadi, all of them great chariot warriors.

+º¨ÉÉEÆò iÉÖ Ê´Éʶɹ]õÉ ªÉä iÉÉÊzɤÉÉävÉ ÊuùVÉÉäkɨÉ*xÉɪÉEòÉ ¨É¨É ºÉèxªÉºªÉ ºÉÆYÉÉlÉÈ iÉÉx¥É´ÉÒ欃 iÉä**1.7**

asmaakam tu vishishtaa yetaan nibodha dvijottamanaayakaa mama sainyasya samjnaartham taan braveemi te 1.7

asmaakam: our; tu: also; vishishtaa: important; ye: who;taan: those; nibodha: know; dvija-uttama: the best of theBrahmanas; naayakaah: leaders; mama: my; sainyasya: of thearmy; samjna-artham: for information; taan: them; braveemi:I speak; te: to you.

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1.7 O best of the Brahmanas, know them also, whoare the principal warriors on our side – the generals ofmy army; for your information I mention them. 1.7

¦É´ÉÉx¦ÉÒ¹¨É¶SÉ EòhÉǶSÉ EÞò{ɶSÉ ºÉʨÉÊiÉ\VɪÉ&*+¶´ÉilÉÉi¨ÉÉ Ê´ÉEòhÉǶSÉ ºÉÉè¨ÉnùÊkɺiÉlÉè´É SÉ**1.8**

bhavaan Bhishmas cha karnas cha krpas cha samitim-jayahasvatthaama vikarnas chasaumadattis tathaiva cha 1.8

bhavaan: your self; Bhishmah: Grandfather Bhishma; cha:and; karnah: Karna; cha: and; krpah: Krpa; cha: and; samitim-jayah: victorious in war; asvatthaama: Asvatthaama; vikarnah:Vikarna; cha: and; saumadattihi: the son of Somadatta;tathaa: thus as; eva: only; cha: and

1.8 They are yourself, Bhishma, Karna, Krupa who isever victorious in battle and even so Asvatthama,Vikarna and the son of Somadatta. 1.8

+xªÉä SÉ ¤É½þ´É& ¶ÉÚ®úÉ ¨ÉnùlÉæ iªÉCiÉVÉÒÊ´ÉiÉÉ&*xÉÉxÉɶɺjÉ|ɽþ®úhÉÉ& ºÉ´Éæ ªÉÖrùʴɶÉÉ®únùÉ&**1.9**

anye cha bahavah shooraa mad-arthe tyakta-jeevitaahnaanaa-shastra praharanaah sarve yuddha-vishaaradaah 1.9

anye: many others; cha: also; bahavah: in great numbers;shoorah: heroes; mat-arthe: for my sake; tyakta-jeevitaah:prepared to risk life; naanaa: many; shastra: weapons;praharanaah: equipped with; sarve: all of them; yuddha:battle; vishaaradaah: experienced in military science.

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1.9 There are many other heroes who are prepared tolay down their lives for my sake. All of them are wellequipped with different kinds of weapons, and all areexperienced in military science.

+{ɪÉÉÇ{iÉÆ iÉnùº¨ÉÉEÆò ¤É±ÉÆ ¦ÉÒ¹¨ÉÉʦɮúÊIÉiɨÉÂ*{ɪÉÉÇ{iÉÆ Îi´Énù¨ÉäiÉä¹ÉÉÆ ¤É±ÉÆ ¦ÉÒ¨ÉÉʦɮúÊIÉiɨÉÂ**1.10**

aparyaaptam tad asmaakam balam Bhishmaabhirakhsitamparyaaptam tu idam eteshaam balam Bhimaabhirakshitam 1.10

aparyaaptam: unlimited; tat: that; asmaakam: of ours;balam: strength; Bhishmaabhirakshitam: protected byBhishma; paryaaptam: limited; tu: but; idam: all this;eteshaam: their; balam: strength; Bhimaabhirakshitam:protected by Bhima

1.10 This army of ours protected by Bhishma isinvincible whereas their army protected by Bhima isconquerable.

+ªÉxÉä¹ÉÖ SÉ ºÉ´Éæ¹ÉÖ ªÉlÉɦÉÉMɨɴÉκlÉiÉÉ&*¦ÉÒ¹¨É¨Éä´ÉÉʦɮúIÉxiÉÖ ¦É´ÉxiÉ& ºÉ´ÉÇ B´É ʽþ**1.11**

ayaneshu cha sarveshu yathaa-bhaagam avasthitaahBhishmam eva abhirakshantu bhavantah sarva eva hi 1.11

ayaneshu: in the divisions ; cha: and; sarveshu:everywhere; yathaabhaagam: as per the divisions; avasthitaah:situated; Bhishmam: to Bhisma; eva: alone; abhirakshantu:protect; bhavantah: you; sarve: all; eva: only; hi: indeed

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1.11 Stationed in your respective divisions on allfronts, all of you must give full protection to Bhishma.

iɺªÉ ºÉÆVÉxɪÉx½þ¹ÉÈ EÖò¯û´ÉÞrù& Ê{ÉiÉɨɽþ&*˺ɽþxÉÉnÆù Ê´ÉxÉtÉäSSÉè& ¶ÉRÂóJÉÆ nùv¨ÉÉè |ÉiÉÉ{É´ÉÉxÉÂ**1.12**

tasya sanjanayan harsham kuru-vrddhah pitaamahahsimha-naadam vinadyocchaihi shankham dadhmau prataapavaan

1.12

tasya: his; sanjanayan: causing; harsham: joy; kuru-vrddhah:old man of the Kuru dynasty; pitaamahah: the grandfather;simha-naadam: lion’s roar; vinadya: causing to sound;ucchaihi: loudly; shankham: conch; dadhmau: blew; prataapa-vaan: mighty

1.12 Then Bhishma, the grand old man of the Kurudynasty, their glorious grandfather, roared like a lionand blew his conch, giving Duryodhana joy.

iÉiÉ& ¶ÉRÂóJÉɶSÉ ¦ÉäªÉǶSÉ {ÉhÉ´ÉÉxÉEòMÉÉä¨ÉÖJÉÉ&*ºÉ½þºÉè´ÉɦªÉ½þxªÉxiÉ ºÉ ¶É¤nùºiÉÖ¨ÉÖ±ÉÉä%¦É´ÉiÉÂ**1.13**

tatah shankhaas cha bheryas cha panavaanaka-gomukhaahsahasaiva abhyahanyanta sa shabdas tumulo ‘bhavat 1.13

tatah: then; shankhaah: conches; cha: and; bheryah chapanava-anaka: drums, bugles, horns and trumpets; go-mukhaah: cow horns; sahasaiva: quite suddenly

abhyahanyanta: blared; sah: that; shabdah: sound; tumulah:tumultuous;

abhavat: became

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1.14 Then, conches, bugles, trumpets, drums and hornswere all suddenly sounded, and the combined sound wastumultuous.

iÉiÉ& ¶´ÉäiÉè½ÇþªÉèªÉÖÇCiÉä ¨É½þÊiÉ ºªÉxnùxÉä κlÉiÉÉè*¨ÉÉvÉ´É& {ÉÉhb÷´É¶SÉè´É Ênù´ªÉÉè ¶ÉRÂóJÉÉè |Énùv¨ÉiÉÖ& **1.14**

tatah shvetair hayair yukte mahati syandane sthitaumaadhavah paandavas chaiva divyau shankhau pradadhmatuhu

1.14

tatah: then; shvetaih: by white; hayaih: horses; yukte:being yoked; mahati: magnificent; syandane: chariot; sthitau:seated; maadhavah: Madhava, Shree Krishna; paandavah: sonof Pandu; cha: and; eva: only; divyau: divine; shankhau:conches; pradadhmatuhu: blew

1.14 Then, seated on a magnificent chariot drawn bywhite horses, both Krishna and Arjuna sounded theirdivine conches.

{ÉÉ\SÉVÉxªÉÆ ¾þ¹ÉÒEäò¶ÉÉä näù´ÉnùkÉÆ vÉxÉÆVɪÉ&*{ÉÉèhbÅÆ÷ nùv¨ÉÉè ¨É½þɶÉRÂóJÉÆ ¦ÉÒ¨ÉEò¨ÉÉÇ ´ÉÞEòÉänù®ú&**1.15**

paanchajanyam hrsheekesho devadattam dhananjayahpaundram dadhmau mahaa-shankham Bhima-karmaa vrkodarah

1.15

paanchajanyam: the conch named Panchajanya; hrsheeka-eeshah: Hrsheekesha, one who directs the senses;devadattam: the conch named Devadatta; dhanam-jayah:

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Dhananjaya, the winner of wealth; paundram: the conchnamed Paundra; dadhmau: blew; mahaa-shankham: the greatconch; Bhima-karmaa: one who performs terrible tasks;vrka-udarah: one with the belly of a wolf

1.15 Then, Krishna blew His conch, calledPancajanya; Arjuna blew his, called Devadatta; andBhima blew his mighty conch called Paundra.

+xÉxiÉÊ´ÉVɪÉÆ ®úÉVÉÉ EÖòxiÉÒ{ÉÖjÉÉä ªÉÖÊvÉι�ö®ú&*xÉEÖò±É& ºÉ½þnäù´É¶SÉ ºÉÖPÉÉä¹É¨ÉÊhÉ{ÉÖ¹{ÉEòÉè**1.16**

anantavijayam raaja kuntee-putro yudhishthirahnakulah sahadevas cha sughosha-manipushpakau 1.16

EòɶªÉ¶SÉ {É®ú¨Éä¹´ÉɺÉ& ʶÉJÉhb÷Ò SÉ ¨É½þÉ®úlÉ&*vÉÞ¹]õtÖ¨xÉÉä Ê´É®úÉ]õ¶SÉ ºÉÉiªÉÊEò¶SÉÉ{É®úÉÊVÉiÉ&**1.17**

kaashyas cha parameshvaasah shikhandee cha mahaa-rathahdhrshtadyumno viraatas cha saatyakis cha aparaajitah 1.17

pÖù{ÉnùÉä pùÉè{ÉnäùªÉɶSÉ ºÉ´ÉǶÉ& {ÉÞÊlÉ´ÉÒ{ÉiÉä*ºÉÉè¦Épù¶SÉ ¨É½þɤÉɽÖþ& ¶ÉRÂóJÉÉxnùv¨ÉÖ& {ÉÞlÉC{ÉÞlÉEÂò**1.18**

drupado draupadeyaas cha sarvashah prthivee-patesaubhadras cha mahaa-baahuhu shankhaan dadhmuhu prthak

prthak 1.18

ananta-vijayam: the conch named Ananta-vijaya; raaja:the king; kunteeputrah: the son of Kunti; yudhisthirah:

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Yudhishthira; nakulah: Nakula; sahadevah: Sahadeva; cha:and; sughosha-manipushpakau: the conches named Sughoshaand Manipushpaka; kaashyah: the King of Kasi (Varanasi);cha: and; parama-isu-asah: the great archer; shikhandee:Shikhandi; cha: and; mahaarathah: great chariot warrior;dhrshtadyumnah: Dhrstadyumna ; viraatah: Virata; cha: and;saatyaki: Saatyaki; cha: and; aparaajitah: invincible; drupadah:Drupada; draupadeyaah: the sons of Draupadi; cha: also;sarvashah: all; prthivee-pate: King of the Earth; saubhadrah: theson of Subhadra (Abhimanyu); cha: and; mahaa-baahuh:mighty-armed; shankhaan: conches; dadhmuhu blew; prthakprthak: severally

1.16, 17, 18 King Yudhisthira, the son of Kunti, blewhis conch, the Anantavijaya, and Nakula and Sahadevablew theirs known as Sughosha and Manipushpaka. Theexcellent archer, the King of Kasi, the great chariot-fighter Sikhandi, Dhrstadyumna, Virata and theinvincible Satyaki, Drupada, the sons of Draupadi, andthe mighty-armed Abhimanyu, son of Subhadra, all ofthem O King, blew their own conches.

ºÉ PÉÉä¹ÉÉä vÉÉiÉÇ®úɹ]ÅõÉhÉÉÆ ¾þnùªÉÉÊxÉ ´ªÉnùÉ®úªÉiÉÂ*xɦɶSÉ {ÉÞÊlÉ´ÉÓ SÉè´É iÉÖ¨ÉÖ±ÉÉä ´ªÉxÉÖxÉÉnùªÉxÉÂ**1.19**

sa ghosho dhaartaraashtraanaam hrdayaani vyadaarayatnabhas cha prthiveem chaiva tumulo vyanunaadayan 1.19

sah: that; ghoshah: uproar; dhaartaraashtraanaam: of thesons of Dhritharashtra; hrdayaani: hearts; vyadaarayat:broke; nabhah: the sky; cha: and; prthiveem: the earth; cha:and; eva: only; tumulah: tumultous; vyanunaadayan:resounding

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1.19 The terrible sound echoing through the sky andthe earth rent the hearts of the sons of Dhritharashtra.

+lÉ ´ªÉ´ÉκlÉiÉÉxÉ où¹]Âõ´ÉÉ vÉÉiÉÇ®úɹ]ÅõÉxEòÊ{Év´ÉVÉ&*|É´ÉÞkÉä ¶ÉºjɺÉÆ{ÉÉiÉä vÉxÉÖ¯ût¨ªÉ {ÉÉhb÷´É&**1.20**

atha vyavasthitaan drshtvaa dhaartaraashtraan kapi-dhvajahpravrtte shastra-sampaate dhanur udyamya paandavah 1.20

atha: now; vyavasthitaan: stationed; drshtvaa: seeing;dhaartaraashtraan: the sons of Dhritharashtra; kapi-dhvajah:one whose flag is marked with the ape; pravrtte: about tobegin; shastra-sampaate: the arrows released; dhanuh: bow;udyamya: after taking up; paandavah: the son of Pandu

1.20 Seeing the sons of Dhritarashtra arrayed in thebattle field, Arjuna, the son of Pandu, who was seatedin his chariot, bearing the flag marked with Hanuman,took up his bow.

¾þ¹ÉÒEäò¶ÉÆ iÉnùÉ ´ÉÉCªÉʨÉnù¨Éɽþ ¨É½þÒ{ÉiÉä*

+VÉÖÇxÉ =´ÉÉSÉ:

ºÉäxɪÉÉä¯û¦ÉªÉÉä¨ÉÇvªÉä ®úlÉÆ ºlÉÉ{ÉªÉ ¨Éä%SªÉÖiÉ**1.21**

hrsheekesham tadaa vaakyamidam aaha mahee-pate

arjuna uvaacha:

senayor ubhayor madhye ratham sthaapaya me ‘chyuta 1.21

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ªÉÉ´ÉnäùiÉÉÊzÉ®úÒIÉä%½Æþ ªÉÉärÖùEòɨÉÉxÉ´ÉκlÉiÉÉxÉÂ*Eèò¨ÉǪÉÉ ºÉ½þ ªÉÉärù´ªÉ¨Éκ¨Éx®úhɺɨÉÖt¨Éä**1.22**

yaavad etaan nireekshe ‘ham yoddhu-kaamaan avasthitaankair mayaa saha yoddhavyamasmin rana-samudyame 1.22

hrsheekesham: to Hrisheekesa; tadaa: then; vaakyam:words; idam: this; aha: said; mahee-pate: O Lord of theEarth; arjunah: Arjuna; uvaacha: said; senayoh: of thearmies; ubhayoh: of both; madhye: in between; ratham: thechariot; sthaapaya: position; me: my; Achyuta: O infallibleone; yaavat: while; etaan: all these; nireekshe: behold; aham:I; yoddhu-kaman: desiring to fight; avasthitan: standing; kaih:with whom; mayaa: by me; saha: with; yoddhavyam: to befought; asmin: in this; rana: war; samudyame: situation

1.21, 22 and spoke this to Krishna, O King!

Arjuna said: O Infallible One, please place mychariot between the two armies while I may observethese warriors arrayed for battle and with whom I haveto engage in fight.

ªÉÉäiºªÉ¨ÉÉxÉÉxÉ´ÉäIÉä%½Æþ ªÉ BiÉä%jÉ ºÉ¨ÉÉMÉiÉÉ&*vÉÉiÉÇ®úɹ]ÅõºªÉ nÖù¤ÉÖÇräùªÉÖÇräù Ê|ɪÉÊSÉEòÒ¹ÉÇ´É& **1.23**

yotsyamaanaan avekshe ‘ham ya ete tra samaagataahdhaartaraashtrasya durbuddheryuddhe priya-chikeershavah 1.23

yotsyamaanaan: those who wish to fight; avekshe: see;aham: I; ye: who; ete: these; atra: here; samaagataah:assembled; dhaartaraashtrasya: the son of Dhritarashtra;

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durbuddheh: evil-minded; yuddhe: in the fight; priya: toplease; chikeershavah: wishing

1.23 Let me see these well wishers in this war of theevil-minded Duryodhana, who have come together hereto fight.

ºÉ\VÉªÉ =´ÉÉSÉ:

B´É¨ÉÖCiÉÉä ¾þ¹ÉÒEäò¶ÉÉä MÉÖb÷ÉEä¶ÉäxÉ ¦ÉÉ®úiÉ*ºÉäxɪÉÉä¯û¦ÉªÉÉä¨ÉÇvªÉä ºlÉÉ{ÉʪÉi´ÉÉ ®úlÉÉäkɨɨÉÂ**1.24**

¦ÉÒ¹¨ÉpùÉähÉ|ɨÉÖJÉiÉ& ºÉ´Éæ¹ÉÉÆ SÉ ¨É½þÒÊIÉiÉɨÉÂ*=´ÉÉSÉ {ÉÉlÉÇ {ɶªÉèiÉÉxºÉ¨É´ÉäiÉÉxEÖò°üÊxÉÊiÉ**1.25**

sanjaya uvaacha:

evam ukto hrsheekesho gudaakeshena bhaaratasenayor ubhayor madhye sthaapayitvaa rathottamam 1.24

Bhishma-drona-pramukhatah sarveshaam cha mahee-khsitaamuvaacha paartha pashyaitaan samavetaan kuroon iti 1.25

sanjaya: Sanjaya; uvaacha: said; evam: thus; uktah:addressed; hrsheekeshah: Hrsheekesha; gudaakeshena: byArjun; bhaarata: O Bhaarata; senayoh: of armies; ubhayoh: ofboth; madhye: in the middle of; sthaapayitvaa: by placing;ratha-uttamam: the finest chariot

Bhishma: Grandfather Bhisma; drona: the teacher Drona;pramukhatah: in front of; sarveshaam: of all; cha: and; mahee-kshitaam: of rulers of the world; uvaacha: said; paartha: OPartha; pashya: see; etaan: those; samavetaan: assembled;kuroon: the Kurus; iti: thus

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1.24, 25 Sanjaya said:

O descendant of Bharata, being thus addressed byArjuna, Krishna then drew up the fine chariot to themiddle of both the armies in front of Bhishma, Dronaand all the kings and said, ‘Arjuna behold the Kauravasassembled here.’

iÉjÉÉ{ɶªÉèiºlÉiÉÉx{ÉÉlÉÇ& Ê{ÉiÉßxÉlÉ Ê{ÉiÉɨɽþÉxÉÂ*+ÉSÉɪÉÉÇx¨ÉéiÉÖ±ÉÉx§ÉéiÉßx{ÉÖjÉÉx{ÉÉèjÉÉxºÉJÉÓºiÉlÉÉ**1.26**

¶´É¶ÉÖ®úÉxºÉÖ¾þnù¶SÉè´É ºÉäxɪÉÉä¯û¦ÉªÉÉä®úÊ{É*

tatra apashyat sthitaan paarthah pitrn atha pitaamahaanaachaaryaan maatulaan bhraatrn putraan pautraan sakheems

tathaa 1.26shvashuraan suhrdas chaiva senayor ubhayor api

tatra: there; apashyat: saw; sthitaan: positioned; paarthah:Arjuna; pitrn: fathers; atha: also; pitaamahaan: grandfathers;aachaaryaan: teachers; maatulaan: maternal uncles; bhratrn:brothers; putraan: sons; pautraan: grandsons; sakheen:friends; tatha: too; shvashuraan: fathers-in-law; suhrdah:well-wishers; cha: and; eva: only; senayoh: of the

armies; ubhayoh: of both ; api: also

1.26 There Arjuna saw, stationed there in both thearmies his uncles, grand uncles, teachers, maternaluncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, and friends, as well ashis fathers-in-law and well-wishers.

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iÉÉxºÉ¨ÉÒIªÉ ºÉ EòÉèxiÉäªÉ& ºÉ´ÉÉÇx¤ÉxvÉÚxÉ´ÉκlÉiÉÉxÉÂ**1.27**Eþò{ɪÉÉ {É®úªÉÉ%%ʴɹ]õÉä ʴɹÉÒnùÊzÉnù¨É¥É´ÉòiÉÂ*

taan sameekshya sa kaunteyah sarvaan bandhoon avasthitaan1.27

krpayaa paraya aavishto visheedann idam abraveet

taan: those; sameekshya: after seeing; sah: he; kaunteyah:kaunteya; sarvaan: all; bandhoon: relatives; avasthitaan:standing; krpayaa: by pity; parayaa: deep; aavishtah: filled;visheedan: lamenting; idam: thus; abraveet: spoke

1.27 Seeing all those relatives present there, Arjunawas overwhelmed with deep pity and spoke in sadness.

+VÉÖÇxÉ =´ÉÉSÉ

où¹]Âõ´Éä¨ÉÆ º´ÉVÉxÉÆ EÞò¹hÉ ªÉÖªÉÖiºÉÖÆ ºÉ¨ÉÖ{ÉκlÉiɨÉÂ**1.28**ºÉÒnùÎxiÉ ¨É¨É MÉÉjÉÉÊhÉ ¨ÉÖJÉÆ SÉ {ÉÊ®ú¶ÉÖ¹ªÉÊiÉ*

Arjuna: Arjuna; uvaacha: said; drshtva: after seeing;imam: all these; sva-janam: kinsmen; krsna: Krishna;yuyutsum: all eager to do battle; samupasthitam: arrangedin form; seedanti: fail; mama: my; gaatraani: limbs; mukham:mouth; cha: and; parishushyati: is parching

arjuna uvaacha:

drshtvemam sva-janam krshna yuyutsum samupasthitam 1.28seedanti mama gaatraani mukham cha parishushyati

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´Éä{ÉlÉÖ¶SÉ ¶É®úÒ®äú ¨Éä ®úÉä¨É½þ¹ÉǶSÉ VÉɪÉiÉä**1.29**MÉÉhb÷Ò´ÉÆ »ÉƺÉiÉä ½þºiÉÉk´ÉCSÉè´É {ÉÊ®únùÁiÉä*

vepathus cha shareere me roma-harshas cha jaayate 1.29gaandeevam sramsate hastaattvak chaiva paridahyate

vepathuh: trembling; cha: and; shareere: in body; me: my;roma-harshah: hair standing on end; cha: and; jaayate:happens; gaandeevam: Gaandiva; sramsate: slips; hastaat: fromthe hands; tvak: skin; cha: and; eva: only; paridahyate: isburning

1.28, 29 Arjuna said: Krishna, seeing my friends andrelatives present before me, eager to wage war, my limbsare giving way, my mouth is parching and a shiver isrunning through my body, my hair is standing on end.

xÉ SÉ ¶ÉCxÉÉ䨪ɴɺlÉÉiÉÖÆ §É¨ÉiÉÒ´É SÉ ¨Éä ¨ÉxÉ&**1.30**ÊxÉʨÉkÉÉÊxÉ SÉ {ɶªÉÉÊ¨É Ê´É{É®úÒiÉÉÊxÉ Eäò¶É´É*

na cha shaknomi avasthaatum bhramateeva cha me manah 1.30nimittaani cha pashyaami vipareetaani keshava

na: not; cha: and; shaknomi: am able; avasthaatum: tostand; bhramati: whirling iva: as; cha: and; me: my; manah:mind; nimittaani: portents; cha: also; pashyaami: I see;vipareetaani: just the opposite; keshava: O Kesava, killer ofdemon Kesin

1.30 My bow Gandiva is slipping from my handsand my skin is burning all over. My mind is whirlingas it were, and I am now unable to stand here anylonger.

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xÉ SÉ ¸ÉäªÉÉä%xÉÖ{ɶªÉÉ欃 ½þi´ÉÉ º´ÉVÉxɨÉɽþ´Éä**1.31**xÉ EòÉRÂóIÉä Ê´ÉVɪÉÆ EÞò¹hÉ xÉ SÉ ®úÉVªÉÆ ºÉÖJÉÉÊxÉ SÉ*

na cha shreyo ‘nupashyaami hatvaa sva-janam aahave 1.31na kaankshe vijayam krshna na cha raajyam sukhaani cha

na: not; cha: and; shreyah: good; anupashyaami: I see;hatvaa: after killing; sva-janam: own kinsmen; aahave: inbattle; na: not; kaankshe: I desire; vijayam: victory; krishna:O Krishna; na: not; cha: and; raajyam: kingdom; sukhaani:pleasures; cha: and

1.31 I foresee only evil omens, O Krishna; I do notsee any good coming out of killing one’s own kinsmenin this battle. I do not covet my dear Krishna, victoryor kingdom or pleasures.

ËEò xÉÉä ®úÉVªÉäxÉ MÉÉäÊ´Éxnù ËEò ¦ÉÉäMÉèVÉÔÊ´ÉiÉäxÉ ´ÉÉ**1.32**

kim no raajyena govinda kim bhogair jeevitena vaa 1.32

kim: what; nah: to us; raajyena: by kingdom; govinda:Govinda; kim: what; bhogair: by pleasures; jeevitena: life;vaa: or

1.32 Of what use will kingdom or happiness oreven life be to us?

ªÉä¹ÉɨÉlÉæ EòÉRÂóÊIÉiÉÆ xÉÉä ®úÉVªÉÆ ¦ÉÉäMÉÉ& ºÉÖJÉÉÊxÉ SÉ*iÉ <¨Éä%´ÉκlÉiÉÉ ªÉÖräù |ÉÉhÉÉƺiªÉCi´ÉÉ vÉxÉÉÊxÉ SÉ**1.33**

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yeshaam arthe kaankshitam noraajyam bhogaah sukhaani chata ime ‘vasthitaa yuddhe praanaans tyaktvaa dhanaani cha

1.33

yeshaam: for whose; arthe: sake; kaankshitam: desired;nah: by us; raajyam: kingdom; bhogaah: enjoyment; sukhaani:happiness; cha: and; te: they; ime: these; avasthitaah: stand;yuddhe: in battle; praanaan: lives; tyaktvaa: giving up;dhanaani: wealth; cha: and

1.33 For whose sake we desire this kingdom,enjoyment and happiness, they stand in battle stakingtheir lives and property.

+ÉSÉɪÉÉÇ& Ê{ÉiÉ®ú& {ÉÖjÉɺiÉlÉè´É SÉ Ê{ÉiÉɨɽþÉ&*¨ÉÉiÉÖ±ÉÉ& ¶´É¶ÉÖ®úÉ& {ÉÉèjÉÉ& ¶ªÉɱÉÉ& ºÉ¨¤ÉÎxvÉxɺiÉlÉÉ**1.34**

aacharyaah pitarah putraastathaiva cha pitaamahaahmaatulaah shvashuraah pautraaha shyaalaah sambandhinas

tathaa 1.34

aachaaryaah: teachers; pitarah: fathers; putraah: sons;tathaa eva: like that; cha: and; pitaamahaah: grandfathers;maatulaah: maternal uncles; shvashuraah: fathers-in-law;pautraaha: grandsons; shyaalaah: brothers-in-law;sambandhinah: relatives; tathaa: as well as

1.34 Teachers, fathers, sons as well as grandfathers,maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law and other relatives.

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BiÉÉzÉ ½þxiÉÖʨÉSUôÉ欃 PxÉiÉÉä%Ê{É ¨ÉvÉÖºÉÚnùxÉ*+Ê{É jÉè±ÉÉäCªÉ®úÉVªÉºªÉ ½äþiÉÉä& ËEò xÉÖ ¨É½þÒEÞòiÉä**1.35**

etaan na hantum icchaami ghnato ‘pi madhusoodanaapi trailokya-raajyasya hetoh kim nu mahee-krte 1.35

etaan: these; na: not; hantum: for killing; icchaami: I wish;ghnatah: killed; api: even; madhusoodana: O killer of thedemon Madhu; api: even; trai-lokya: of the three worlds;raajyasya: of the kingdoms; hetoh: in exchange; kim: what;nu: then; mahee-krte: for the sake of the earth

1.35 Madhusudhana (Krishna), even if I am killed (bythem) I do not want to kill these ones even to gaincontrol of all three worlds, much less for the earthlylordship.

ÊxɽþiªÉ vÉÉiÉÇ®úɹ]ÅõÉzÉ& EòÉ |ÉÒÊiÉ& ºªÉÉVVÉxÉÉnÇùxÉ*{ÉÉ{ɨÉä´ÉɸɪÉänùº¨ÉÉx½þi´ÉèiÉÉxÉÉiÉiÉÉʪÉxÉ&**1.36**

nihatya dhaartaraashtraan nah kaa preetihi syaat janaardanapaapam evaashrayed asmaanhatvaitaan aatataayinah 1.36

nihatya: after slaying; dhaartaraashtraan: sons ofDhritharashtra; nah: to us; kaa: what; preetihi: pleasure;syaat: may be; janaardana: janaardana; paapam: sins; eva:only; aashrayet: will take hold; asmaan: us; hatvaa: afterkilling; etaan: these; aatataayinah: wrong-doers

1.36 What pleasure will we get by destroying the sonsof Dhritharashtra, Janardana? Only sin will overcomeus if we slay these wrong doers.

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iɺ¨ÉÉzÉɽþÉÇ ´ÉªÉÆ ½þxiÉÖÆ vÉÉiÉÇ®úɹ]ÅõÉxº´É¤ÉÉxvÉ´ÉÉxÉÂ*º´ÉVÉxÉÆ Ê½þ EòlÉÆ ½þi´ÉÉ ºÉÖÊJÉxÉ& ºªÉÉ¨É ¨ÉÉvÉ´É**1.37**

tasmaan naarhaa vayam hantum dhaartaraashtraansvabaandhavaan

sva-janam hi katham hatvaa sukhinah syaama maadhava 1.37

tasmaat: therefore; na: not; arhah: justified; vayam: we;hantum: to kill; dhaartaraashtraan: the sons ofDhritharashtra; svabaandhavaan: our friends; sva-janam:kinsmen; hi: for; katham: how; hatvaa: after killing;sukhinah: happy; syaama: may be; maadhava: O Madhava(Krishna)

1.37 Therefore, it is not proper for us to kill the sonsof Dhritharashtra and our relations, for how could webe happy after killing our own kinsmen, Madhava?

ªÉt{ªÉäiÉä xÉ {ɶªÉÎxiÉ ±ÉÉä¦ÉÉä{ɽþiÉSÉäiɺÉ&*EÖò±ÉIɪÉEÞòiÉÆ nùÉä¹ÉÆ Ê¨ÉjÉpùÉä½äþ SÉ {ÉÉiÉEò¨ÉÂ**1.38**

yadyapi ete na pashyanti lobhopahata-chetasahkula-kshaya-krtam dosham mitra-drohe cha paatakam 1.38

yadyapi: if; ete: these; na: not; pahsyanti: see; lobha:greed; upahata: overtaken; chetasah: intelligence; kula-kshaya:in killing the race; krtam: done; dosham: fault; mitra-drohe:treason to friends; cha: and; paatakam: sin

1.38 O Janardana, these men, blinded by greed, see nofault in killing one’s family or being treasonable tofriends, incur sin.

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EòlÉÆ xÉ YÉäªÉ¨Éº¨ÉÉʦÉ& {ÉÉ{ÉÉnùº¨ÉÉÊzÉ´ÉÌiÉiÉÖ¨ÉÂ*EÖò±ÉIɪÉEÞòiÉÆ nùÉä¹ÉÆ |É{ɶªÉnÂùʦÉVÉÇxÉÉnÇùxÉ**1.39**

katham na jneyam asmaabhiha paapaad asmaan nivartitumkula-kshaya-krtam dosham prapashyadbhir janaardana 1.39

katham: why; na: not; jneyam: to be understood;asmaabhih: by us; paapaat: from sins; asmaat: from this;nivartitum: to turn away; kula-kshaya krtam: destruction of adynasty; dosham: evil; prapashyadbhih: by the discerning;janaardana: Janardana (Krishna)

1.39 Why should we, who clearly see the sin in thedestruction of a dynasty, not turn away from this crime?

EÖò±ÉIɪÉä |ÉhɶªÉÎxiÉ EÖò±ÉvɨÉÉÇ& ºÉxÉÉiÉxÉÉ&*vɨÉæ xɹ]äõ EÖò±ÉÆ EÞòiºxɨÉvɨÉÉæ%ʦɦɴÉiªÉÖiÉ**1.40**

kula-kshaye pranashyanti kula-dharmaah sanaatanaahdharme nashte kulam krtsnam adharmo ‘bhibhavaty uta 1.40

kula-kshaye: in destroying the family; pranashyanti:perish; kula-dharmaah: the family traditions; sanaatanaah:age-old; dharma: virtue; nashte: destroyed; kulam: family;krtsnam: whole; adharmah: non-righteousness; abhibhavati:overtakes; uta: and

1.40 With the destruction of the dynasty, the age-oldfamily traditions die and virtue having been lost, viceovertakes the entire race.

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+vɨÉÉÇʦɦɴÉÉiEÞò¹hÉ |ÉnÖù¹ªÉÎxiÉ EÖò±ÉκjɪÉ&*ºjÉÒ¹ÉÖ nÖù¹]õɺÉÖ ´ÉɹhÉæªÉ VÉɪÉiÉä ´ÉhÉǺÉRÂóEò®ú&**1.41**

adharmaa bhibhavaat krsna pradushyanti kula-striyahstreeshu dushtaasu vaarshneya jaayate varna-sankarah 1.41

adharma: non-righteousness; abhibhavaat: from thepreponderance; krsna: O Krishna; pradushyanti: becomecorrupt; kula-striyah: family women; streeshu dushtaasu: whenwomen become corrupt; vaarshneya: O Varshneya (Krishna);jaayate: arises; varna-sankarah: intermixture of castes

1.41 When non-righteous practices become common, OKrishna, the women of the family become corrupt, andwith the degradation of womanhood, O Descendant ofVrshni, ensues intermixture of castes.

ºÉRÂóEò®úÉä xÉ®úEòɪÉè´É EÖò±ÉPxÉÉxÉÉÆ EÖò±ÉºªÉ SÉ*{ÉiÉÎxiÉ Ê{ÉiÉ®úÉä Áä¹ÉÉÆ ±ÉÖ{iÉÊ{Éhb÷ÉänùEòÊGòªÉÉ&**1.42**

sankaro narakaayaiva kula-ghnaanam kulasya chapatanti pitaro hy eshaam lupta-pindodaka-kriyaah 1.42

sankarah: mixture; narakaaya: for hell; eva: only; kula-ghnaanaam: of the killers of the family; kulasya: of thefamily; cha: and; patanti: fall; pitarah: forefathers; hi: also;eshaam: their; lupta: deprived; pinda: offering of rice to thedeparted souls; udaka: water; kriyaah: performances

nùÉä¹Éè®äúiÉè& EÖò±ÉPxÉÉxÉÉÆ ´ÉhÉǺÉRÂóEò®úEòÉ®úEèò&*=iºÉÉtxiÉä VÉÉÊiÉvɨÉÉÇ& EÖò±ÉvɨÉÉǶSÉ ¶Éɶ´ÉiÉÉ&**1.43**

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doshair etaih kula-ghnaanaam varna-sankara-kaarakaihiutsaadyante jaati-dharmaah kula-dharmaas cha shaashvataah

1.43

doshaih: by evil deeds; etaih: these; kula-ghnaanaam: ofthe destroyer of the family; varna-sankara: mixture ofcastes; kaarakaih: by the doers; utsaadyante: are destroyed;jaati-dharmaah: caste rituals; kula-dharmaah: family traditions;cha: and; shaashvataah: age-old

1.42, 43 Admixture of blood damns the destroyers ofrace and the race itself. Deprived of offering of oblationsof rice and water the departed souls of the race alsofall, the age-long caste traditions and family customs ofthe killers of kinsmen become extinct.

=iºÉzÉEÖò±ÉvɨÉÉÇhÉÉÆ ¨ÉxÉÖ¹ªÉÉhÉÉÆ VÉxÉÉnÇùxÉ*xÉ®úEäò%ÊxɪÉiÉÆ ´ÉɺÉÉä ¦É´ÉiÉÒiªÉxÉÖ¶ÉÖ¸ÉÖ¨É**1.44**

utsanna-kula-dharmaanaam manushyaanaam janaardananarake niyatam vaaso bhavateety anushushruma 1.44

utsanna: spoiled; kula-dharmaanaam: of those who havethe family traditions; manushyaanaam: of such men;janaardana: O Krshna; narake: in hell; aniyatam: always;vaasah: residence; bhavati: becomes; iti: thus; anushushruma:we hear

1.44 O Janardana, we hear that those who have lostfamily traditions dwell in hell for an indefinite periodof time.

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+½þÉä ¤ÉiÉ ¨É½þi{ÉÉ{ÉÆ EòiÉÖÈ ´ªÉ´ÉʺÉiÉÉ ´ÉªÉ¨ÉÂ*ªÉpùÉVªÉºÉÖJɱÉÉä¦ÉäxÉ ½þxiÉÖÆ º´ÉVÉxɨÉÖtiÉÉ&**1.45**

aho bata mahat paapam kartum vyavasitaa vayamyad raajya-sukha-lobhena hantum sva-janam udyataah 1.45

aho bata: alas; mahat: great; paapam: sins; kartum: to do;vyavasitaah: prepared; vayam: we; yat: that; raajya: kingdom;sukha-lobhena: by greed for kingdom; hantum: to kill; sva-janam: kinsmen; udyataah: prepared

1.45 Alas, we are prepared to commit greatly sinfulacts of killing our kinsmen, driven by the desire toenjoy royal happiness.

ªÉÊnù ¨ÉɨÉ|ÉiÉÒEòÉ®ú¨É¶ÉºjÉÆ ¶ÉºjÉ{ÉÉhɪÉ&*vÉÉiÉÇ®úɹ]ÅõÉ ®úhÉä ½þxªÉÖºiÉx¨Éä IÉä¨ÉiÉ®Æú ¦É´ÉäiÉÂ**1.46**

yadi maam aprateekaaram ashastram shastra-paanayahdhaartaraashtraa rane hanyustan me kshemataram bhavet 1.46

yadi: if; maam: me; aprateekaaram: not resistant; ashastram:unarmed; shastra-paanayah: with weapons in hand;dhaartaraashtraah: the sons of Dhritharashtra; rane: in thebattle; hanyuh: may kill; tat: that; me: mine; kshema-taram:better; bhavet: will be

1.46 It would be better if the sons of Dhritharashtra,armed with weapons, killed me in battle while I amunarmed and unresisting.

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ºÉ\VÉªÉ =´ÉÉSÉ:

B´É¨ÉÖCi´ÉÉ%VÉÖÇxÉ& ºÉÆJªÉä ®úlÉÉä{ɺlÉ ={ÉÉʴɶÉiÉÂ*

ʴɺÉÞVªÉ ºÉ¶É®Æú SÉÉ{ÉÆ ¶ÉÉäEòºÉÆÊ´ÉMxɨÉÉxɺÉ&**1.47**

sanjaya uvaacha:

evam uktvaarjunah sankhye rathopastha upaavishatvisrjya sa-sharam chaapam shoka-samvigna-maanasah 1.47

sanjaya: Sanjaya; uvaacha: said; evam: thus; uktvaa: havingsaid; arjunah: Arjuna; sankhye: in the battle field; ratha:chariot; upasthe: at the rear side; upaavishat: sat down;visrjya: having cast aside; sa-sharam: with the arrow;chaapam: the bow; shoka: sorrow; samvigna: distressed;maanasah: with a mind

1.47 Sanjaya said: Arjuna, whose mind was agitatedby grief on the battle field, having spoken thus, castaside his bow along with the arrow and sat down atthe rear portion of the chariot.

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Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chaanura MardanamDevaki Paramaanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum

1.47 I salute you Lord Krishna, Teacher to the World, son ofVasudeva and supreme bliss of Devaki, destroyer of Kamsa andChanura

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