The Spirit Of Spirituality: Shloka 1

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Shloka 1 - Bhagwad Gita

Dhritaraashtra Uvaacha:

Dharmakshetre kurukshetre samavetaa yuyutsavah;

Maamakaah paandavaashchaiva kimakurvata sanjaya.

Dhritarashtra said:

What did the sons of Pandu and also my people do when they had assembled together, eager for battle on the holy plain of Kurukshetra, O Sanjaya? This is the first shloka of the Gita and sets the stage for the Divine teachings.

Historically the great Mahabharatha war is just about to begin and the blind King Dritarashtra asks his charioteer Sanjaya to tell him what is happening on the battlefield where his sons are fighting against the sons of his brother Pandu. The battle is between Dritarashtra's sons, the Kauravas who have usurped the throne of Hastinapura from the Pandavas who are the sons of Dritarashtra's brother. So it is historically speaking a battle between the righteous forces led by the Pandavas and the wicked forces led by the Kauravas. If we see the Mahabharatha war as just a story which is entertaining, we are losing the benefit of the phenomenal symbolism behind each character and sequences in the story.

The war really symbolizes a daily war within ourselves along multiple planes. At the grossest level, it is a fight between what is right and what is wrong as defined by morality. When I see a beautiful woman and desire her, the first barrier is the moral barrier. Though morality is dictated by society's norms and cannot be an accurate guide to right behavior, it is still a vital barrier. Whereas marrying several women was acceptable in the earlier times, in current times it would be seen as immoral. So every action that we perform where there is a potential for conflict, the morality driven intellect fights against the potential immoral activities of the desire driven mind.

The next battle is at a higher level. There is no question of morality here. The fight is based on pure logic and understanding of the source of happiness. All of us desire happiness and keep searching for it without realizing that the source of our happiness is within. Owing to primordial ignorance we are distanced from the Truth of ourselves and just as we feel a void when we leave our home and go elsewhere, there is an inner void because of separation from Truth and we look to fill this void by getting sense objects from the material world. So it is a daily battle between the sense driven inclination to look outside for happiness versus the True knowledge that happiness is within.

In symbolism, Dritarashtra stands for the mind which is blind. The mind can never make decisions and depends on the intellect for guidance. Dritarashtra was married to Gandhari who to respect the fact that her husband was blind, blindfolded herself. Though it may seem an act of sacrifice, symbolically, Gandhari who had eyes is the one who could have guided the blind king. She was the intellect. Now the mind(Dritarashtra) was wedded to Gandhari(blind or intellect covered). With them were born the 100 sons who were known as Kauravas. Symbolically, the union of the mind and a blind intellect creates the 10 off springs each of the 5 action organs and the 5 sense organs. These 100 off springs include jealousy, anger, hatred, cunningness etc. So on one side of the historical battle, we have the 100 kauravas. Within each of us since we have a mind which is rarely guided by the intellect and have 100 vices waiting to surface at any time and lead us to destruction.

On the other side, Dritarashtra's brother was Pandu a noble and brave king who had 5 children who were known as the Pandavas. Symbolically Pandu represents pure intellect. His 5 sons stand for (a)what is the righteous thing to be done, (b)what are the unjust things to be avoided, (c)self control over senses, (d)the life principle which connects the inner consciousness to the mind/body/intellect complex and (e) Calmness. Within each of us we have the 5 good qualities that will lead us on path to a fulfilled life.

So the verse symbolizes the daily battle between our mind filled with emotions and our pure intellect which is a guiding light based on principles and right thoughts. We as individuals were born free and have a right to be free and happy. That is our true self, a very embodiment of happiness. This happiness resides in us when we are guided by our intellect. The intellect is what enables us to see things as they actually are. The mind based on its impressions of events in the past always colors the current events based on the impressions.

Dritarashtra is asking this question to his charioteer Sanjaya who in the mythology is credited with having divine eyesight with ability to see far and wide. Keeping aside the mythology, to whom can we turn to during a period of conflict within ourselves? How do we innately know what is right or wrong? How do we know that in a particular situation we are acting out of emotion and not out of logic? We know we can sense it. We burst out in anger and then realize we should not have done it. We do something wrong and soon feel that prick about it. That ability is the intuition or our own conscience which resides in us and to whom we can go for guidance. What then of serial criminals. Don t they have a conscience or intuition? They surely have it, but it is totally clouded by emotions. In such a situation, they cannot fall back on conscience or intuition for guidance. In such situations where intuition is clouded, the way to be guided on the right path is through a mentor or teacher who has sharpened his intellect with regular practice and can see any situation bereft of emotional baggage.

This then is the historical, symbolical and spiritual background to the opening verse of the Bhagwad Gita.

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I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality