asmaakam tu vishishtaa ye taannibodh dvijottama |
naayakaa mama sainsyasya sangnyartham taanbraveemi te || 7 ||
O best of Brahmins, hear too about the principal generals on our side, who are especially qualified to lead. These I now recount unto you.
bhavaanibheeshmashcha karnashcha kripashcha samitinjayaha |
ashvaththaama vikarnashcha soumaduttistathaiva cha || 8 ||
There are personalities like yourself, Bheeshma, Karna, Kripa, Ashwatthama, Vikarn, and Bhurishrava, who are ever victorious in battle.
anye cha bahavaha shoora madarthe tyaktkajeevitaaha |
naanaashastrapraharanaaha sarve yuddhavishaaradaaha || 9 ||
Also, there are many other heroic warriors, who are prepared to lay down their lives for my sake. They are all skilled in the art of warfare, and equipped with various kinds of weapons.
Commentary
To recap, so far we have seen the rival forces on the battleground of Kurukshetra and as we have seen, it symbolizes a battle within our own mind between the positive forces and the negative forces. We have also seen in the earlier verse an enumeration of the positive forces and a brief description of some of them. Here I will try and bring out the negative forces impacting us in our daily lives.
When we talk of positive or negative forces, we simplicity assume that positive forces lead us in the right direction and negative forces lead us in the wrong direction. I have heard the statement, “ I know what is right, but cannot bring myself to do it. I know what is wrong, but cannot bring myself to avoid it.” Before we proceed further we need to understand what is right and what is wrong from various perspectives.
We as human beings are constantly being reminded that there is a path which leads to eternal happiness and that path is reached by giving up any binding desires to worldly objects and focusing on attaining that infinite Oneness. However, we are attracted by the shiny objects of the world and do not continue on the right path. This act of becoming astray from the right path is the only sinful act. Using this, let us try to rationalize why one should not do the wrong things mentioned above.
In summary, any act that I do, any thought that I entertain that negates the Oneness principle; when I see another individual as separate causing lust, anger etc. and thirst for objects of the world to bring me temporary happiness, I am indulging in the true sin or wrong act. I as a human being who had the unique intellect to realize the Oneness principle am doing the wrong thing by negating that principle and going on a wrong path.
There are several negative forces within us that try to take us on the wrong path as defined above. The negative forces include the following:
Let me talk briefly on some of the above forces:
Material passion
There was once a pious person who had given up everything in search for God and lived in a cave. He had just 2 pieces of loincloth to cover his dignity. Daily he used to wash one loincloth and wear the other. One fine day when he woke up, he was shocked to find a hole in his loincloth and realized that a rat had eaten up his loincloth. So the pious man went down to the town and begged the people to give him a loincloth. The people realizing that this would be a problem forever gave him a loincloth and also a cat to catch the rat.
The pious man came back happy and that day the cat caught couple of rats and he was
happy that his loincloth was safe. Soon enough, the cat got hungry and started making
noises. So, down he went to the town to get some milk for his cat. The people have him some milk and to ensure that he always had milk, gifted him a cow. So the pious man came back happy with a cat and a cow. The cow grazed around and gave milk, which he fed the cat, and the cat killed rats and he was happy that his loincloth was available. Soon he went down to get some grass for the cow. The people gave him some grass and also gave him a patch of grassland to manage. So daily, the pious man took the cow to graze. Soon the pious man realized he was not spending much time on meditation and told the people his problem. So the town people suggested he get married and have a wife who would take care of all the things so that he could focus on meditation! So he got married and........
Though apocryphal and seemingly silly, this man who wanted to give up everything and
focus on God, got distracted by his desire for a loin cloth and ended up having a whole
lot of objects one after another till he had fully forgotten his purpose in life. Does this not
happen to us always? We are on a particular purpose in life and are all fired up. Then
we tell ourselves, let me just acquire this thing and all will be fine. As seen above, that
single object will lead us unknowingly deeper and deeper into the quagmire of desire for
objects, till we totally get ensnared in it and forget our true purpose. The only purpose of human life is to realize the Truth that we are one with consciousness and take necessary steps to retrace the route back to it and unite with it.
Rage
Rage is an offshoot of material passion. Let us say, a child badly wants a doll and is pestering its parents to get it for her. The parent, for whatever reason is refusing the doll. The child implores for some time and then in a fit of anger starts shouting and throwing things around. What caused this rage? The desire for an object and the fact that the parent prevented the desire from being fulfilled. Does this happen only to a child? A businessman is desiring lots of money and power and is willing to use corrupt ways to get what he wants. An upright officer stands in the way. What does the business man do? In a fit of rage, orders the upright officer to be eliminated. What caused the rage? A desire fr wealth. I am desperately looking for a bonus to buy my next BMW and am working hard to get a big order. I suddenly hear that a rival has got the order. What is the state of my mind? Will I smile and congratulate the rival or will I shower the choicest curses? So, we can see that in various situations, material passion be it physical objects, emotional objects or intellectual objects, causes severe rage if unfulfilled. When the mind is in such an agitated state, can it think of its true purpose in life?
Delusion leading to destruction
What If someone or something prevents us from getting our object of desire? It could be my boss who gives a bad review and a bad bonus preventing me from acquiring that brand new BMW or it could be that old man who is preventing me from marrying the girl of my dreams. Once I am prevented from getting the object I desire, my first reaction is anger towards the entity preventing me from getting the object.The anger gradually turns into bewilderment or agony or a hopelessly lost state of mind towards the person/entity which is between me and my object. As this continues, emotionally I am lost and forget myself, my manners, and my standards of behavior. In effect, I am cut off from the source which tells me the right thing to do and the wrong things to avoid. In the final stage, my intellect also leaves me and I am totally deluded and I may take a hasty action like shouting at the boss or hitting out at the man opposing my marrying his daughter. So a small thought towards an object became an attachment and finally a binding desire. On the downside, when we do not get the object, it leads to anger which manifests as helplessness/bewilderment which leads to delusion or a memory loss of good/bad and finally to destruction.
Readers are encouraged to reflect within themselves about the type of negative forces they are nourishing and the type of impact it has on them.
As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.
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
2. Attain Infinite Bliss
Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide
3. The Spirit Of Spirituality
The Spirit Of Spirituality
naayakaa mama sainsyasya sangnyartham taanbraveemi te || 7 ||
O best of Brahmins, hear too about the principal generals on our side, who are especially qualified to lead. These I now recount unto you.
bhavaanibheeshmashcha karnashcha kripashcha samitinjayaha |
ashvaththaama vikarnashcha soumaduttistathaiva cha || 8 ||
There are personalities like yourself, Bheeshma, Karna, Kripa, Ashwatthama, Vikarn, and Bhurishrava, who are ever victorious in battle.
anye cha bahavaha shoora madarthe tyaktkajeevitaaha |
naanaashastrapraharanaaha sarve yuddhavishaaradaaha || 9 ||
Also, there are many other heroic warriors, who are prepared to lay down their lives for my sake. They are all skilled in the art of warfare, and equipped with various kinds of weapons.
Commentary
To recap, so far we have seen the rival forces on the battleground of Kurukshetra and as we have seen, it symbolizes a battle within our own mind between the positive forces and the negative forces. We have also seen in the earlier verse an enumeration of the positive forces and a brief description of some of them. Here I will try and bring out the negative forces impacting us in our daily lives.
When we talk of positive or negative forces, we simplicity assume that positive forces lead us in the right direction and negative forces lead us in the wrong direction. I have heard the statement, “ I know what is right, but cannot bring myself to do it. I know what is wrong, but cannot bring myself to avoid it.” Before we proceed further we need to understand what is right and what is wrong from various perspectives.
We as human beings are constantly being reminded that there is a path which leads to eternal happiness and that path is reached by giving up any binding desires to worldly objects and focusing on attaining that infinite Oneness. However, we are attracted by the shiny objects of the world and do not continue on the right path. This act of becoming astray from the right path is the only sinful act. Using this, let us try to rationalize why one should not do the wrong things mentioned above.
In summary, any act that I do, any thought that I entertain that negates the Oneness principle; when I see another individual as separate causing lust, anger etc. and thirst for objects of the world to bring me temporary happiness, I am indulging in the true sin or wrong act. I as a human being who had the unique intellect to realize the Oneness principle am doing the wrong thing by negating that principle and going on a wrong path.
There are several negative forces within us that try to take us on the wrong path as defined above. The negative forces include the following:
- Material passion
- Lust
- Rage
- Delusion
- Blind attachment
- Blind aversion
- Lack of verbal control
- Greed
- Pride
- Envy
- Arrogance
- Hypocrisy
Let me talk briefly on some of the above forces:
Material passion
There was once a pious person who had given up everything in search for God and lived in a cave. He had just 2 pieces of loincloth to cover his dignity. Daily he used to wash one loincloth and wear the other. One fine day when he woke up, he was shocked to find a hole in his loincloth and realized that a rat had eaten up his loincloth. So the pious man went down to the town and begged the people to give him a loincloth. The people realizing that this would be a problem forever gave him a loincloth and also a cat to catch the rat.
The pious man came back happy and that day the cat caught couple of rats and he was
happy that his loincloth was safe. Soon enough, the cat got hungry and started making
noises. So, down he went to the town to get some milk for his cat. The people have him some milk and to ensure that he always had milk, gifted him a cow. So the pious man came back happy with a cat and a cow. The cow grazed around and gave milk, which he fed the cat, and the cat killed rats and he was happy that his loincloth was available. Soon he went down to get some grass for the cow. The people gave him some grass and also gave him a patch of grassland to manage. So daily, the pious man took the cow to graze. Soon the pious man realized he was not spending much time on meditation and told the people his problem. So the town people suggested he get married and have a wife who would take care of all the things so that he could focus on meditation! So he got married and........
Though apocryphal and seemingly silly, this man who wanted to give up everything and
focus on God, got distracted by his desire for a loin cloth and ended up having a whole
lot of objects one after another till he had fully forgotten his purpose in life. Does this not
happen to us always? We are on a particular purpose in life and are all fired up. Then
we tell ourselves, let me just acquire this thing and all will be fine. As seen above, that
single object will lead us unknowingly deeper and deeper into the quagmire of desire for
objects, till we totally get ensnared in it and forget our true purpose. The only purpose of human life is to realize the Truth that we are one with consciousness and take necessary steps to retrace the route back to it and unite with it.
Rage
Rage is an offshoot of material passion. Let us say, a child badly wants a doll and is pestering its parents to get it for her. The parent, for whatever reason is refusing the doll. The child implores for some time and then in a fit of anger starts shouting and throwing things around. What caused this rage? The desire for an object and the fact that the parent prevented the desire from being fulfilled. Does this happen only to a child? A businessman is desiring lots of money and power and is willing to use corrupt ways to get what he wants. An upright officer stands in the way. What does the business man do? In a fit of rage, orders the upright officer to be eliminated. What caused the rage? A desire fr wealth. I am desperately looking for a bonus to buy my next BMW and am working hard to get a big order. I suddenly hear that a rival has got the order. What is the state of my mind? Will I smile and congratulate the rival or will I shower the choicest curses? So, we can see that in various situations, material passion be it physical objects, emotional objects or intellectual objects, causes severe rage if unfulfilled. When the mind is in such an agitated state, can it think of its true purpose in life?
Delusion leading to destruction
What If someone or something prevents us from getting our object of desire? It could be my boss who gives a bad review and a bad bonus preventing me from acquiring that brand new BMW or it could be that old man who is preventing me from marrying the girl of my dreams. Once I am prevented from getting the object I desire, my first reaction is anger towards the entity preventing me from getting the object.The anger gradually turns into bewilderment or agony or a hopelessly lost state of mind towards the person/entity which is between me and my object. As this continues, emotionally I am lost and forget myself, my manners, and my standards of behavior. In effect, I am cut off from the source which tells me the right thing to do and the wrong things to avoid. In the final stage, my intellect also leaves me and I am totally deluded and I may take a hasty action like shouting at the boss or hitting out at the man opposing my marrying his daughter. So a small thought towards an object became an attachment and finally a binding desire. On the downside, when we do not get the object, it leads to anger which manifests as helplessness/bewilderment which leads to delusion or a memory loss of good/bad and finally to destruction.
Readers are encouraged to reflect within themselves about the type of negative forces they are nourishing and the type of impact it has on them.
As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.
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
2. Attain Infinite Bliss
Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide
3. The Spirit Of Spirituality
The Spirit Of Spirituality
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