Ganesha - The myth, the inconsistencies and the symbolism

Introduction

Across India, if there is one God, who is revered, it is Lord Ganesha, the elephant headed God. He is seen as the God to pray to remove all obstacles. During any major religious function, it is Ganesha who is prayed first. Ganesha is the son of Lord Shiva and his divine mother is Parvathi. Over a period of thousands of years, myths have been told about Ganesha. Outside of Hinduism, people may wonder why there are so many Gods. The main reason is that, Hinduism is full of symbolism. Unfortunately, even devout Hindus have just looked at the myth, rarely ever questioning anything and totally eliminated understanding the symbolism behind Ganesha. If there is a painter using his brush on a canvas, it is like people admiring the movement of the brush or the texture of the paper without for a minute stopping to see the picture. In this article, I hope to bring out the mythological story, the inconsistencies and the real symbolism.

The Myth

Shiva and Parvathi are a loving couple. Once Shiva goes on a penance. Then Parvathy creates a small child out of mud and gives him life. The child is Ganesha. Ganesh is in charge of protecting the house and he has been strictly told not to let anyone in. Once Parvathy has gone for her bath and Ganesh is guarding the house. Shiva comes back after several years of penance and is prevented from entering his house by Ganesh. A battle ensues and Shiva cuts off Ganesh's head. In the meantime, Parvathi comes out and is grief stricken seeing her dead son. Shiva realizing his mistake, looks around and sees an elephant. He kills the elephant and puts its head on to Ganesh's torso and Ganesh comes to life with a elephant's head.

The Inconsistencies

1. Shiva's anger

If any one tries  to do meditation for even 20 minutes, one will notice the amount of peace that can be experienced. Here in the story, we have Shiva, one of the most spiritual of all Gods, who has come back after doing penance for several years and in a matter of minutes, he becomes so angry!! IS this not totally incredible? Many times when we are playing with kids, we experience similar things. The child thinks it is preventing us from doing something and is enjoying itself. Will we in anger, beat the child for preventing us? So, how can anyone sane believe that Shiva, first of all as an adult, would become angry at a child? Second, how is it possible for someone with so many years of peaceful meditation to become angry at all?

2. Inhuman killing

As per the myth, Shiva killed Ganesh and to to make it worse, killed an elephant. The elephant was innocent and had nothing to do with the whole situation. Recently, there was an incident in a zoo in USA, where a young child accidentally fell into a gorilla's cage and the zoo people killed the gorille even though it had not harmed the child. Universally, the sympathy was for the gorilla. So, is it reasonable to think that a person of Shiva's stature would not only kill Ganesh, but also an innocent animal?

3. The head surgery

As per the myth, Shiva put the elephant's head on to Ganesh's torso. This was brilliant surgery. But then, if Shiva is such a super surgeon, why did he not just fix Ganesh's own head to his torso? Why did he have to kill an elephant and fix its head? Does it sound logical?


Rationale

If we see so much illogical sequences in the story, why do we still believe it? Can we just throw out the whole story and say that this Indian God, Ganesh is a creation of unreasonable and illogical people and stop worshiping Ganesh? I can almost sense the so called rationalists smirking and saying yes! But throwing out the concept of Ganesh because of the illogical story, is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

So, why did ancient India create this myth? The ancient teachers would possibly have used the myth to create attention and then drawn people towards the actual symbolism. However, over centuries, the symbolism would have gradually faded away and the myth would have grown, making the whole purpose of the story meaningless. This leads us to the next step of uncovering the symbolism.



The Symbolism

The wide head and large ears symbolize the need for openness of the individual to receive and assimilate the higher knowledge of the Self. It is ignorance alone which prevents us from realizing our full potential of Divinity. If we can open ourselves to "listening" to the powerful messages contained in the scriptures, which enable us to lift ourselves out of our depths of ignorance, we are on the path to self enlightenment and a divine personality with infinite happiness. However most of us are so deep rooted in ignorance and are not even aware that we are ignorant. Like in a dream, when a lion comes and we wake up, we need some event in our life to shock us and hopefully look for the ray of light through which we will get out of the ignorance.

The trunk of an elephant is a very unique organ. It knows the type of gentleness to apply when accepting and eating a banana. At the same time it knows the strength to apply when holding the trunk of a tree and pulling it off the ground. It symbolizes the human intellect with an unique capability to discriminate. As I have covered earlier, it is the phenomenal capability of the human intellect to discriminate, which separates us from animals which do not have this capability. What should we use the intellect to discriminate? Not just bad and good, which are worldly concepts. But the intellect should be used to discriminate between what is real and what is unreal. It may come as a shock to most people, to know that this world with all its glossy and bright objects is unreal. It is like an illusion. In a dream, I can be with the most beautiful lady. But that is not reality. Similarly this world is like a dream and the reality is elsewhere. The reality is our true nature, which is absolute bliss.

As a person dreaming, and being a character in the dream, what is the reality? For the character in the dream, the dream world appears to be the reality, whereas the absolute reality is me who is fast asleep in my bed room, which the dream character will never know. In the same way, being in this glittering world, we will never know our reality unless we employ the strong discriminating capability of the intellect to understand that this world is unreal and we are dream characters and the reality is divine bliss or Brahman.

Ganesha has only one tusk and the other is broken. It symbolizes the breaking of the concept of duality. My life is not different from any other life as a life principle. The same life principle that exists in me exists in another human being, animal, bird, fish, insect or a plant. There is no duality. The same principal of electricity runs in a small bulb, a floodlight or any giant equipment. There is absolutely no duality. The only reality for electrical devices is electricity. Rest all are names and shapes of objects using the same core reality. In exactly the same way, Brahman or the Life principle is our only reality. Each of us has different names and shapes, but the underlying reality is one only and that is Brahman.

Another interesting aspect of Ganesh is the mouse. The mouse is seen as the vehicle of Ganesh. Looking closely at the image, we see the mouse right in front of a bowl of delicacies eagerly looking at Ganesh only. The mouse symbolizes our mind. Just like a mouse, our mind moves around from place to place. Whereas the mouse scurries around looking for edibles, our mind flirts around with objects of desire. Our mind is never constant. in that numerous thoughts arise and through the thoughts, we are driven towards objects of desire. But in the symbol of Ganesh, we do not see the mouse going after delicacies. This symbolizes that when the mind is under the control of a discriminating intellect, we will not be running after worldly objects. The mind is like a  leash of a carriage driven by the five horses, representing the five senses. Unless the leash is held tight under the guidance of a good rider, the horses will run in whatever direction they wish and derail the chariot.

In exactly the same way, if our mind is not under the guidance of a well developed intellect, the sense organs will drive us towards various objects of desire, ultimately ending in disaster for us. This concept is also superbly symbolized in the image of Arjuna and Krishna is the Mahabharatha war. Arjuna is like us, a living entity, a jiva. He is in a chariot and traveling, just as we travel on our life's journey. The horses driving the chariot are the sense organs which go towards their favorite sense objects. The mind is the leash holding the horses or the sense organs. In Arjuna's case, the leash was held by none other than Krishna, the divine incarnate and this led him to success in the war. The war we fight daily is not against others, but against our own ego. In this fight, if our mind is controlled by a powerful intellect, we will win the war and subdue our ego and merge with the eternal Brahman.

Though the worship of Lord Ganesh may itself be the end objective of people, an understanding of what the Lord symbolizes may bring more meaning to the worship.


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.


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The Spirit Of Spirituality

Arising From The Depth Of Pain

Shri Bhagavaan uvaacha

kutastvaa kashmalamidam vishame samupasthitam |
anaaryajusthamasvargyamakeertikaramarjuna  (2)
klaibyam maa sma gamah paartha naitattvayyupapadyate |
kshudram hridayadaurbalyam tyaktvotishtha parantapa

Bhagavan (Supreme Lord) said:

“From where has this weakness arisen, at this crisis time? It is not noble, nether it will take you to a better state, nor it  will earn you name or fame, ” [2,2]
“Don't yield to this effeminate behavior, it is not worthy of you. Cast off this petty weakness of heart and arise, O scorcher of foes!, ” [2,3]

Let us briefly summarize the situation. In the midst of the great Mahabharatha war, Arjuna the great warrior, has become totally emotional seeing that he has to fight his relatives. The great warrior who had defeated mightiest of enemies is now totally helpless and weeping and refusing to fight.

In the previous verse we had discussed about stress and the four stages of stress:

• Relaxed State  
• Normal Stress 
• Hyper stressed 
• Break down

It is obvious that Arjuna is in the last stage of stress. 

Well, we may say, we will not get into such situations as Arjuna's. So, why bother about all this? But are we being honest with ourselves? Most of us have at one point or other in life reached that ultimate stage of breakdown stress. If we see the increasing cases of suicide or drugs, it is obvious that more and more of us are slowly but surely descending on the self destructing path towards breakdown.

There are any number of reasons to get into this desperate stage:

1. Total loss of wealth when the stock market crashes
2. Loss of a high paying job
3. Death of a near and dear one
4. Massive loss of face/prestige

 The triggers for any person reaching this final stage of stress come primarily from 3 sources:

a. Nature: This could be natural events like floods, famines, drought etc. This is something not within a person's control and are "acts of God". But they can have a devastating impact on the emotional stability of an individual.

b. Environment: Stress trigger also could be caused by the environment in which an individual functions. It could be the family environment, office, stock market etc. A severe fight with the spouse can lead a person to emotional instability. A stock market collapse can create mental turmoil. Several people committed suicide after the stock market crash during the great Depression period in USA.

c. Internal : Stress trigger may arise from one's own thoughts. I may imagine the worst in every situation and get stressed. Have we not heard of people who are afraid of their own shadows, literally? At the extreme, this progresses into situations where people here voices that don’t exist, see people and situations that don’t exist.

What happens once a person reaches this level of stress? It causes the following:

• Desperation  
• Extreme Misery  
• illusion

A person in this situation will not be able to demonstrate the character of an upright man. Imagine being in the throes of a terrible emotional crisis and being asked to think rationally. It just is not possible. When one is in such a situation, can it add to good name or fame? When the mighty Arjuna refused to fight and was weeping, did it add to his fame? When I am on the brink of emotional failure and shout at my colleagues, does it add to my good reputation? Thsi emotional distress will not lead to a good future state. I can keep on blaming myself and the world for all the bad things which have led me to this emotional state. But will it make me better?

None of these characteristics will help us in:

•  Growing as an individual
•  Gaining peace and happiness
•  Being efficient in our activities
•  Supporting other members of the society
•  Resolving the cause of the pain or struggle

This is a not good state  to be in for a human being But how do we get out of this distress? Can I go the market and buy something? Well drinks and drugs may give short term relief. But once their effect is gone, the turmoil is doubled. What is the state we need to be in before we degrade ourselves more?

• Whatever is the situation, we should never get in to  Hyper Stress / Distress state
• We have to face the situation  with appropriate positive stress level and get back to relaxed state quickly
• We have to avoid, unwanted / unnecessary stress arousals

But all this is easier said than done. Krishna is asking Arjuna to arise and get over this weakness. But Krishna cannot make Arjuna arise. He can only impart enough knowledge to think and then Arjuna must use his own intellect to overcome his weakness.

What follows in the Gita are words of wisdom which if we can inculcate, will enable us in the first place not to reach that breakdown stage and even if we reach, will enable us to bootstrap ourselves  back to normalcy.


Conclusion : Lesson from Swami Vivekananda’s Life

“Once when I was in Varanasi, I was passing through a place where there was a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. It was in the grounds where there were many monkeys. The monkeys of Varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes surly. They now took it into their heads not to allow me to pass through their street, so they howled and shrieked and clutched at my feet as I passed. As they pressed closer, I began to run, but the faster I ran, the faster came the monkeys and they began to bite at me. It seemed impossible to escape, but just then I met a stranger who called out to me, "Face the brutes." I turned and faced the monkeys, and they fell back and finally fled. That is a lesson for all life — face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. If we are ever to gain freedom, it must be by conquering nature, never by running away. Cowards never win victories. We have to fight fear and troubles and ignorance if we expect them to flee before  you”


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As readers may be aware, 4 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. Glimpses Of Indian Spirituality

Glimpses Of Indian Spirituality

2. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

3. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

4. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality

Glimpses of Indian Spirituality - New book

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Glimpses Of Indian Spirituality

A Individual Overcome By Emotions

arjuna uvāca

dṛṣṭvemaḿ sva-janaḿ kṛṣṇa
yuyutsuḿ samupasthitam
sīdanti mama gātrāṇi
mukhaḿ ca pariśuṣyati


Arjuna said: My dear Krishna, seeing my friends and relatives present before me in such a fighting spirit, I feel the limbs of my body quivering and my mouth drying up.

vepathuś ca śarīre me
roma-harṣaś ca jāyate
gāṇḍīvaḿ sraḿsate hastāt
tvak caiva paridahyate

My whole body is trembling, my hair is standing on end, my bow Gandiva is slipping from my hand, and my skin is burning.

na ca śaknomy avasthātuḿ
bhramatīva ca me manaḥ
nimittāni ca paśyāmi
viparītāni keśava

I am now unable to stand here any longer. I am forgetting myself, and my mind is reeling. I see only causes of misfortune, O Krishna, killer of the Keshi demon.


na ca śreyo ‘nupaśyāmi
hatvā sva-janam āhave
na kāńkṣe vijayaḿ kṛṣṇa
na ca rājyaḿ sukhāni ca


I do not see how any good can come from killing my own kinsmen in this battle, nor can I, my dear Krishna, desire any subsequent victory, kingdom, or happiness.



Commentary :

These verses brilliantly illustrates the helplessness of our self-control and the corresponding impact on our body and mind. When we face a tough situation, we find it difficult to exercise our own self-control because of our love, affection, fear and addiction to negative thoughts and emotions.

The scene is the Kurukshetra war where the opposing armies of the Kauravas and the Pandavas have gathered for a battle royal.

From an event perspective, just before the battle begins, Arjuna requests Sri Krishna to take the chariot between the 2 armies so that he can get an idea as to who are in the opposing armies. The all knowing Krishna takes the chariot right in front of the revered Bhishma, Drona etc. Bhishma is Arjuna's great grandfather and Drona is his revered teacher, both unfortunately being opposed to Arjuna now due to their prior obligations to Duryodhana.

Arjuna looks at the revered elders in front of him and his numerous cousins with whom he has played as a kid, now standing before him in battle. A wave of emotion overpowers Arjuna and he goes on a long lecture as to why it is not right for him to fight the battle.

Let us try and analyse the situation from different angles. First from the situational angle, here is the greatest warrior Arjuna who has done hundreds of battles and has been preparing for the greatest battle for the past 13 years, and he has broken down totally on seeing the people he is going to fight. Arjuna knew that he would have to fight his guru and his elders. It was not a surprise for him. but seeing them actually on the battlefield and the thought that his arrows could kill them totally threw him into a disarray. He totally forgot the purpose of the war and his duty and was overcome by emotion. His duty was to dislodge the Kauravas from the empire of Kurukshetra. It was not for the desire of kingdom that Lord Krishna wanted him to fight the war. Rather it was always known that the war was a righteous war to establish Dharma or proper conduct in society. The Kauravas were bad rulers climaxing in the utter horror of the crown prince attempting to disrobe a princess in the palace in the presence of elders. How much could society have degraded that it stood still watching such a scene and did nothing about it. It was Arjuna's duty as a warrior to fight evil tendencies and help establish a moral code of conduct. However as soon as he saw the people, he forgot that objective and the only thing that was in his mind was his keen selfish desire to preserve his kith and kin. From that perspective it was a massive fall for Arjuna from the lofty ideals of war to uphold righteousness to a selfish desire to protect his kin from certain death in the war.

Let us now look at it from a psychological perspective. Here was Arjuna, a towering warrior with a rich intellect overpowered by emotions. In this emotional state, Arjuna was finding enough reasons for not fighting, all within the control of emotions and not by the reasoning of the intellect. Most often than not, does it not happen to us that when we face a crisis situation, we are totally guided by the emotion rather than the intellect? Emotions, by themselves are not bad at all. They provide us a means to express and enjoy the rich tapestry of life. But emotions primarily consist of like(Raga) or dislike(dvesha) of something. Getting what we like makes us happy and losing what we do not like makes us happy and vice-versa. So, if any major act of ours is driven by emotion, in effect it is driven by our individual likes and dislikes and not by reasoning born of intellect. Such an act based on emotions is likely to lead to bad results. Just as Arjuna driven by emotion, deciding not to fight, would have meant a sure victory for the evilness of the Kauravas, our own actions driven by spurts of emotion can lead to actions with disastrous results. Seeing the fact that the destructive emotions are part and parcel of our own personality, our self-control find it difficult to act against them. Self control concludes that life without these thoughts and emotions is meaningless.

When we face a stressful situation, the perception will be sent to our thinking and emotional brain at the very same time through the thalamus. If the emotional brain finds a threat in the situation perceived, it hijacks our thinking brain ,may go to a fight, flight or freeze situation. The emotional response "can take over” the rest of the brain in a millisecond if threatened.

This challenge with the emotions overpowering the intellect and making self control powerless will manifest in different ways in our body and mind :

• Body Shivering
• Dry mouth
• Burning sensation in skin
• Cannot stand properly
• Mind spinning
• Hair stands up

Psychologically, when we are taken over by emotions in a stressful situation, the following typically happen:

• Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. A bleak outlook—nothing will ever get better and there’s nothing you can do to improve your situation.
• Loss of interest in daily activities. No interest in former hobbies, pastimes or social activities. You’ve lost your ability to feel joy and pleasure
•  Appetite or weight changes. Significant weight loss or weight gain—a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month
• Sleep changes. Either insomnia, especially waking in the early hours of the morning, or oversleeping (also known as hypersomnia).
• Anger or irritability. Feeling agitated, restless, or even violent. Your tolerance level is low, your temper short, and everything and everyone gets on your nerve
• Loss of energy. Feeling fatigued, sluggish, and physically drained. Your whole body may feel heavy, and even small tasks are exhausting or take longer to complete
• Self-loathing. Strong feelings of worthlessness or guilt. You harshly criticize yourself for perceived faults and mistakes
• Reckless behaviour. You engage in escapist behaviour such as substance abuse, compulsive gambling, reckless driving, or dangerous sports
• Concentration problems. Trouble focusing, making decisions, or remembering things
• Unexplained aches and pains. An increase in physical complaints such as headaches, back pain, aching muscles, and stomach pain.

Now let us look at this from a spiritual perspective. As a spiritual seeker, we are told that we have to give up desires, ego, past habits etc. Just as Arjuna felt that it is not worth fighting for a kingdom and winning it by defeating Duryodhana, we convince ourselves that it is not worth living if we give up all desires(Duryodhana).

Have we not heard enough arguments that without desire there is no progress and we should all aim higher and higher for physical/mental/intellectual desires? Having been conditioned by society that desires are essential, when we as spiritual students are told that we have to fight desires, we feel the spiritual path which is advocating giving up desires is not worth it. Arjuna could not face up to the fact that his arrows could kill Bhishma. Similarly we cannot face up to the fact that our arrow of intellect got through spiritual progress can kill our ego.



In summary, just as Arjuna, with clouded intellect, gave emotional reasons not to fight refused to fight with Duryodhana whose army consisted of warriors like Drona and Bhishma, we in our fit of ignorance of reality, give apparently convincing reasons not to fight desires whose army consists of warriors like ego and past habits and give up the path of spiritual progress.


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3 of my books

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

 

Emotion Overcomes Self Control

sañjaya uvāca evam ukto hṛṣīkeśo guḍākeśena bhārata
senayor ubhayor madhye sthāpayitvā rathottamam

bhisma-drona-pramukhatah sarvesam ca mahi-ksitam
uvaca partha pasyaitan samavetan kurun iti

atrāpaśyat sthitān pārthaḥ pitṝn atha pitāmahān
ācāryān mātulān bhrātṝn putrān pautrān sakhīḿs tathā

śvaśurān suhṛdaś caiva senayor ubhayor api
taansameekshya sa kaunteyaha sarvaanbandhunavasthitaan



Sanjaya said: O descendant of Bharata, having thus been addressed by Arjuna, Lord Krishna drew up the fine chariot in the midst of the armies of both parties.

In the presence of Bhishma, Drona and all the other chieftains of the world, the Lord said, Just behold, Partha, all the Kurus assembled here.

There Arjuna could see, within the midst of the armies of both parties, his fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and also his fathers-in-law and well-wishers.

When the son of Kunti, Arjuna, saw all these different grades of friends and relatives, he became overwhelmed with compassion and spoke thus.

Commentary

To set the context, Arjuna, the archer has requested his charioteer,  Krishna to take the chariot between the two armies so that he could see the warriors assembled on the opposing side. Krishna then takes the chariot as requested and points out to Arjuna the various warriors including his great great grandfather, Bhishma, his teacher Drona, his cousin Duryodhana and various other relatives.

We have seen earlier that Arjuna represents self control and Krishna represents the supreme intellect in us. We have also seen that self control needs to be aware of the negative forces it has to battle in its journey. The intellect in us points out to us the negative forces. It shows us the main negative force which is Ego(represented as Bhishma), our past habits which drive our behaviour(represented as Drona), our material desire(represented as Duryodhana) to name a few.

Just as Arjuna on seeing his near and dear ones he would have to battle, felt remorseful, in exactly the same way, our self control behaves when it sees the negative forces in the mind. One may wonder why negative forces should cloud the self control. Let;s try to look at some of the negative forces we have to battle in our journey of self evolution. I mentioned ego as one of the negative forces. Have we all not been trained since almost birth that we have to have a identity different from others? Have we not been almost always taught that we should always try to become better than others? again none of these are bad in the materialistic world and are essential too. However for a spiritual journey, the feeling of separateness or the feeling of difference from the supreme which is the ego's creation, is what we are trying to eliminate. The ego has become us. I identify myself as a particular religion, group, caste whatever and when self control says, here is your enemy, we are struck with horror. If I fight ego and give it up, what becomes of me? Don’t I become a non-entity?

Intellect points and shows desire as one of my negative forces. Again it is a shock for me. It is a desire for a better life that has brought me here. It is a desire for the next BMW that makes me work hard. It is a desire to get that fat bonus that propels me. What would I be without desire? Without desire I am non-existent.

Some of the negative forces may have developed through conditions of environment. A child does not come into the world as a drunkard. But suppose it is in the company of parents/elders who always drink, then it sees nothing wrong at all in that and drinking is accepted as a part of life. Some of these negative traits may be acquired as we grow in life.  I may have casually started smoking for fun and without realizing it has engulfed me and become part of me. These are all habits which reinforce desires and are bound closely to my personality. When the intellect points out to habit as a negative force, I am stunned and if told to give up habits, I feel distressed since they have become part of me.

Conclusion

Negative forces to be controlled are  part and parcel of our psyche and it’s very hard for us to control or annihilate them as they are deep rooted and very dear to us. As discussed, some of these impressions might have been developed by the influence of the family. Some of them might have been from the society and culture we are born. Some of them might have been developed by our own misinterpretations. The negative thoughts / emotions / habits present themselves as near and dear to us. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3 of my books

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

 

Introduction To Bhagwad Gita - Chapter 1

Human Bondage

If we think deeply and question what is it that we as humans value the most, what could be the likely answer? This is assuming that all basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, security are ensured. Again surely, this could be a highly individualized desire. Someone may say that if they have a good spouse and a happy family, that's what they value most. Another may say, wealth and a third may say power or position. Let us take an imaginary situation. Assume the person who values his spouse and family as the most, if the family were to be imprisoned in a jail, would he be happy? At this point, he has his family which he values the most. So, why should it matter if all of them are in a jail or house arrest with no freedom to move around? Same is the case with the person who has phenomenal wealth. If he was told that he could spend his wealth only on a select few items or else just keep it, how happy would he be? Surely he should be since he values his wealth and he has it. Only thing is he does not have is freedom to spend it the way he wants.

What we can notice is that in spite of having what is supposedly valued the most, the inability to have a free choice makes an individual unhappy and not fully able to enjoy the most valuable thing that he or she has. In a similar vein, what is it that entire societies or countries desire the most? India desired freedom to determine its own destiny and broke free from British rule. Similarly, the blacks in South Africa desired freedom of expression and broke the tyranny of White rule. When India got independence, the entire country erupted in joy. When Perestroika happened and the Eastern bloc people tasted democracy, their joy was unsurpassed. So, if we look at these cases, it is apparent that independence or free will with an ability to express oneself freely without any bondages is what truly every human being desires and deserves.

Lurking behind our sense of freedom is a vicious invisible bondage which curbs our ability to truly express ourselves. I can almost sense the disagreement among readers telling that they are totally free to do anything and act the way they want. Let me give a couple of examples and then we will decide whether a human being is really free.


Case 1: Encounter in office

Mr X, a senior executive in a MNC is getting ready for work and is expecting to eat his choice breakfast before he leaves for work. His wife accidentally has burnt the toast which gets Mr X to accuse her of neglect while cooking. She responds back telling she had to get the child ready for school. Conversations and accusations flow between both of them and finally in anger, Mr X smashes the plate and walks out. He gets into his car seething with anger and reaches office and he has a meeting. In the meeting, one of his colleagues makes a suggestion which runs counter to X's ideas. X immediately breaks into a rage and shouts at his colleague. X is normally known as a pleasant person and everyone is shocked at the outburst.

Let us analyze this. Did X want to shout at his colleague? Was it really the fact that his colleague had a different view so angered X? What was driving X to react the way he did? Is it not obvious that X's behavior was clouded by the anger emotion that he was carrying from his fight at home? To that extent, was X really free in his interactions with his colleague or was he bound by emotions? It is clear to anyone that X was not free. The anger emotion had so bound and blinded X that he totally reacted negatively to a routine office situation.

Case 2: The beautiful flower in the party

Y is a hardworking smart lady and is seen as an excellent worker. She has a loving father at home who one day decided to surprise his daughter and went to the florist and bought a bunch of red roses. As he was walking back home he felt faint and as he fell, he was hit by a passing vehicle and he was hospitalized with serious injuries which kept him paralyzed for life. The thing that kept on hurting Y was the fact that her father had bought her red roses and and as he was bringing them, he had this accident. Several years later, when Y was promoted, there was an office party with lot of congratulations and fun. Then one of the colleagues went to her and presented her a bouquet of red roses. Y immediately became sad and broke into uncontrollable tears.

Now what made Y become so sad? It was a joyous occasion when she had to be enjoying her success. But the reality of the situation was clouded by the emotion of the red flowers. This emotion and thought of her paralyzed father prevented her from enjoying the current environment. The red roses based emotion bound her to a past sadness and prevented her from being happy in the current.

Case 3: The GMAT exam day

P is a loving kid and he has been pampered by his parents, grand parents and his various uncles and aunts. He is a smiling kid, well behaved and does well at school. His only dread in life is being separated from his loved ones. P has studied well and after finishing his engineering studies, has been preparing for the GMAT. His dream is to do an MBA from Harvard and for that he has been incessantly preparing. On the day of the exam, his maternal uncle has dropped him off at the exam center. As P enters the exam hall, he is full of dreams of cracking the GMAT. He sits down at his desk waiting for the exam paper. He thinks of himself cracking the paper, of getting admission to Harvard and he getting ready to leave the country to go to the US. He imagines himself at the airport surrounded by all his loving friends and relatives. Then it suddenly hits him. He is going to go far away from all his loved ones. He will not be able to see them whenever he wants and who knows whether his grandparents will be alive or not when he returns. As he thinks of it, sadness envelops him and he sits motionless. The examiner hands him the question paper. But P's hands are barely moving. He is just not able to focus on the task. His thought is only of separation from his loved ones and he feels he should not even attempt answering the paper since that can take him far away from his loved ones.

What made P who was preparing so ardently for the GMAT sink into a helpless state? For something that he had been dreaming of, why did he suddenly develop a disdain? Inspite of being a brilliant person, why could he not focus and crack the question paper? It is obvious that his free will was bound by emotions, the emotional pain of separation.

Emotions and the intellect

To understand what is happening, we need to briefly understand the structure of a human being. We have a body consisting of the five sense organs and five action organs; We have a mind which emotes and an intellect that thinks. The sense organs send cues about sense objects to the mind, which directs the sense organs to go towards the sense objects for fulfillment. It is only the intellect which provides the discerning ability and guides the mind. Just as a car needs a good driver to avoid accidents, the mind needs to be under the control of the intellect to ensure that the body goes in the right direction. In a situation where the intellect is not in control, emotions take over and can lead the body in the wrong direction, very similar to a drunk driver potentially taking a car to a disaster.

So in all the above cases we have seen that emotions have taken control over an individual and he is not being guided by the intellect. He is bound by emotions and cannot exercise his free will. Nor does he know whether he is doing the right thing or not. Our mental state determines the way in which we perceive, feel, think or act in a given situation. Most of the times, mind is not in a well placed state. There is a constant conflict between discriminative thoughts and destructive emotions We are confused and disturbed when facing challenges with an inability to focus or concentrate on the problem in hand 

Problems associated with emotional bondage

Some of the problems associated with emotional bondage are as follows:

•     We cannot perceive the situations as it exists. Rather, we see them as interpreted by our unsteady mind which may be different from the reality. The interpretation of the same fact may vary from time to time depending on our mental state.
•     Our mood or state of mind is not in our control. As a result our behavior in the world outside is not in our control
•     We cannot consistently express our full potential in the activities we do, making our inner peace and external efficiency a mere chance.
•     We cannot bounce back to life easily after facing a difficult situation which is not in our hands

Gita, Chapter 1 : A Masterly Self Analysis

The situation described above is the context of the first chapter of the Gita. Two sets of cousins are on the battlefield with their massive armies to get control of the kingdom of Hastinapura. On one side are the Pandavas who have been cheated from the throne and banished to the wilderness for 13 years by their cunning cousins and on the other side are the Kauravas who have cheated the Pandavas and have been ruling Hastinapura. The chief archer on the Pandava side is Arjuna who has been practicing archery ardently so that he can defeat the Kauravas. He requests his philosopher and mentor Sri Krishna who is also his charioteer to take him to the middle of the battleground so that he can see the people on both sides. Seeing his cousins,uncles, grand uncles on the other side, Arjuna is overcome by emotion of losing them all as he fights them and he lays down his arms and refuses to fight. His emotions have totally taken over control and even though he knows he is here to fight a just war to regain the kingdom, he uses all the logic given by his emotions to justify not fighting.

Using Arjuna as the protagonist, the first chapter gives a brilliant exposure to self analysis. It is for each of us to reflect on Arjuna's arguments to justify not doing the right thing and see how we relate to that in our day to day lives. By clearly showing the problems associated with our mind, self analysis helps us to make a cognitive change which can make a significant impact to our internal mental state and our ability to perform in the world outside. This self analysis helps us to identify and understand the problems associated with our own mind. Self Analysis is the first step towards Self Improvement. Here the Gita tells us clearly that  a strong and well placed mental state is a prerequisite for our mental well being and for pursuing any goals in life. Each chapter of the Gita provides us a process for transforming our mind to the optimal mental state.

Solutions to most of the  problems are already there within us. In any counseling session practitioners use the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Brief Solution Therapy in order to change the patient’s mindset towards a higher good.  All solutions to each and every problem or issue that we face are very much dictated within us.  All we need to do is to calm our emotional mind and be able to see through the situation in order to get a clear view of the sources available within our own intellect to solve the problem. In the first chapter, The Gita provides us this valuable tool of self analysis.


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

Bhagwad Gita - A Chance Lost

Recently there was a news item in India about a Supreme Court judge who opined that if he were to be a dictator, he wold make the study of the Bhagwad Gita compulsory in schools. No sooner had he said this, there were howls of protest from pseudo intellectuals as to why a book promoting Hindu religion and that too a book that exhorts violence is being promoted. Countering this were supporters who argued that there was nothing wrong in introducing Gita in schools and it was needed to promote basic Indian culture. Then there were the people on the fence who said, knowledge from every religion should be introduced and not just the Bhagwad Gita. In all this, unfortunately the Bhagwad Gits is getting trivialized and being used like a football by each camp trying to score a point over the other.

Let me give my opinion on this topic. Let's start off with some introductions. The Bhagwad Gita is part of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata, which is the largest epic in the world, with over 100,000 verses. It details the life of a dynasty called the Kuruvamsha and primarily focuses on the lives of two warring branches of this dynasty. One branch is the Kaurava branch and the other the Pandava branch. After a series of events. the two branches are facing each other in a do or die battle for the kingdom of Hastinapura. The ace archer on the Pandava side is Arjuna whose charioteer is Krishna. As the battle is about to begin, Arjuna seeing his kith and kin in the enemy camp is overcome by grief and decides not to fight. Then Krishna, through a series of talks advises Arjuna on what is to be done and leaves the choice to him. Arjuna, after understanding the true purpose of his existence takes up arms and finally the Kauravas are defeated. That portion of the Mahabharata which starts with the description of the two armies, through Arjuna's grief, Krishna's teachings and finally Arjuna's realization is about 700 verses and is called the Bhagwad Gita.

What The Gita Is Not

1. It is not a religious text

Many people assume that since Gita is part of Mahabharata which is an ancient Indian text, the Gita is primarily a religious book. Nothing can be farther from the truth. The Gita is not about promoting any religious practices nor does it in anyway promote Hinduism or the ancient Indian religion. I will come later to tell what it covers. The type of material in the Gita is universal and can be useful to anybody anywhere in the world.

2. It is not outdated

The charge against the Gita is that, it is outdated and not suitable for current times. This again stems from the fact that the Mahabharata is over 5000 years old and hence its content is no more relevant. If that be true, any knowledge in any form that is not in the recent history is not relevant. The principles in the Gita, if properly understood with help from the right teacher are as current as any modern text can be.

3. It is not casteist

There are allegations against the Gita that it promotes the caste system that is a bane of Indian society. But then even a casual reading of the Gita will clearly bring out why it talked of different castes as a way of division of labor. Every society has a class system with division of labor which helps it become productive depending on skill specialization. So someone blaming the Gita for the country's caste issues has obviously not even understood the literal meaning of the Gita, let alone the implied meaning.

4. It is not for youngsters and is relevant only after retirement

This probably is the most ludicrous statement I have heard. The Gita teaches how to live life and succeed against all odds. Why then would someone suggest that it be read at retirement and not during young age? Getting this knowledge when young would equip people to have a much better life as a spouse, parent, worker, manager to name a few.

What The Gita Is

I am too small a person to really comment on what the Gita is. I can only talk about how the Gita has helped me in day to day life.

1. The Need To Fight Desires

One of the foremost thing that the Gita teaches is that desires are never ending. Each time we acquire an object of our desire, there is a next desire waiting to be fulfilled. There is anxiety whether the object can be acquired, anger and frustration if it is not acquired and finally, the fear of losing it, if it is acquired. Then, people question as to how one can survive without desires and why to live? The Gita talks of binding selfish desires and not of unselfish higher level desires. It discourages a businessman from desiring a Benz for himself, while encouraging him to work so that all his employees can get a Toyota! If the entire society grows due to an unselfish desire, an individual also grows.

2. The need to act and the way to act

The Gita promotes action and is vehemently against sloth. It also shows a way of doing action which can give best results. Once a goal is fixed, it talks of focusing on how best to do the task to achieve the goal, rather than day-dreaming about the benefits after achieving the goal. The Gita is a very practical, "Do It Properly Now" text and not a "Dream About Benefits" text.

3. A principle of humility and gratitude

The Gita teaches us an attitude of gratitude and advises against selfishness or the trend to abrogate all benefits to one self. It teaches good morals about respecting parents, teachers, seniors, friends, literally anybody who has at some point in life helped make the person and the position we are in. I do not see how this teaching can be called parochial or religious. It is universal good moral teaching which will save the world from greed and deprivation.

4. The impermanence of stuff

Most of us get stung by the death of a loved one or a separation. The Gita goes deep into the cause of the grief of separation and how it can be overcome. So a teaching that helps overcome grief due to separation or death cannot be religious or local. Anybody anywhere in the world can use it for grief management.

5. Ability to address unanswered questions

Most of us have doubts as to why there is suffering, why bad things happen to us, to name a few. The Gits through its brilliant exposition of the Doctrine of Karma helps answer many of these questions. It helps understand why I find myself in a particular situation and the best part is that it says that I am the master of my own destiny. What I do today will determine what happens to me tomorrow. I wonder how such a powerful message can be deemed religious. It is something that empowers anyone anywhere in the world.

6. Ability to reach full potential

The Gita's first word is Dharma, which means nature and the last word is Mama, which means mine. So basically, Gita brings out what the true nature of an individual is. It proves that we are not these small beings trapped in a body/mind/intellect, but are the very embodiment of that universal energy and tells us not to limit ourselves, but to strive to achieve the infinite.


Conclusion


As can be seen above, the Gita is not parochial, is not religious, is not an useless old text not suited for modern times. On the contrary it is a text that gives hope, is practical in terms of how to act and does never promote a religious belief.

So, I personally do not see any harm in introducing the Gita at a younger age. But I disagree that it should be forced on children. I personally believe that if we as adults can remove the mental block that we have to our ancient texts, we can benefit from it and pass it on to our next generation. Rather than spending useless time watching a mindless show on TV, I am sure we can spare a small amount of time to read and understand a text which can change our lives.

I humbly request all the critics of the Gita to please read it with help of a good teacher and after that, you still feel it is useless, I will respect your views. At the same time, I request the supporters of the Gita to do the same thing and understand what is really good about the Gita.

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

Newest book on Spirituality

Thanks to the continuing support of all my readers, I have published the next edition of a book on spirituality. This book is structured differently from my earlier books and has illustrations to help understand some of the concepts.

It is titled, "The Spirit Of Spirituality". 

It is available at the following locations:

The Spirit Of Spirituality - Paperback

Paperback - The-Spirit of Spirituality-Shashank Katti

The Spirit Of Spirituality - Kindle Version

I look forward to the continued support of all my readers.

Best wishes to all who are on this spiritual journey.

The Incarnation Of The Lord

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.


The Spirit Of Spirituality

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The following is one of the most famous verses from the Bhagwad Gita in which the Lord reassures that whenever wickedness increases, He will come to destroy evil and restore righteousness.

Yadayada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.

Comments:

One of the most common beliefs in several major religions is the concept of the incarnation of God on this earth. I have not studied any religious texts other than Indian. So, my discussion is going to be based on Indian concepts.

Let us try to address this concept of incarnation from different perspectives. Starting with the Hindu mythology, it is believed that Lord Vishnu, the supreme Lord reincarnated in different forms at different periods of time to defeat forces of evil and re-establish righteousness. I will try to summarize some of these stories to give a context.

There is this evil king called Hiranyakashipu who has acquired superior powers through intense prayers. He cannot be killed by man or beast, can’t be killed in a house or outside, can’t be killed on ground or in space and cannot be killed by any weapons. To kill him, the supreme God, Vishnu takes the form of Narasimha, a half man-half lion, takes him to the intersection of a house and beyond, lifts him on his lap and kills him with his fangs. Then the kingdom is handed over to the son of Hiranyakashipu who is Prahlada who governs justly. This is in the Satya Yuga, the first of the 4 major cycles of time.

In the next Yuga, the Treta Yuga, we have the wicked demon, Ravana who is all powerful. He too has got magical powers and is free from death from gods and demons. He made a mistake of not asking for protection from humans or apes since he felt they could no way challenge him. To rid the world of Ravana, the Lord Vishnu incarnated as Rama a prince of Ayodhya. Through a series of events, his wife Sita is kidnapped by Ravana. Rama then marches on to the kingdom of Ravana and kills him. His pious brother Vibheeshana is crowned king and righteousness again reigns.

We then move on to the next Yuga, the Dwapara Yuga. This yuga’s main scene is the Mahabharatha war.  Two sets of cousins are battling for the kingdom of Kurukshetra. Duryodhana the wicked cousin and head of one branch of the family has usurped the kingdom from the righteous Dharmaraja. In a fit of absolute depravity, Duryodhana gets his brother to disrobe Draupadi, the wife of Dharmaraja. It is in such intense evilness that Krishna’s role builds up. Lord Vishnu takes incarnation as Krishna and guides the Pandavas led by Dharmaraja to a victory over the Kauravas led by Duryodhana and after that righteousness again is established.

I would like to point out that the incarnations of Rama and Krishna are called as complete incarnations since they started life as babies and were there till their “death”.  However the incarnation of Narasimha was a limited purpose one since he came only to kill Hiranyakashipu.

In addition to these divine incarnations, there are incarnations wherein, during time of intense social upheaval, there is a messiah who seems to lead the world towards peace.  Think of Buddha, Jesus, The great Acharyas – Sankara, Madhwa and Ramanuja to name a few.

So far we have seen mythological incarnations and spiritual incarnations. 

Let us try to look at societal incarnations. At some point, society becomes so murky and the situation appears absolutely hopeless. Then something happens at the collective psyche level of a society due to which at least temporarily the wretchedness vanishes and there is a hope of a new glorious beginning.  During our younger days, we had heard of the atrocities and unjustness in South Africa, home of the cruel apartheid system. None of us during that time had even imagined that this society was going to change.  But, as though miraculously, the apartheid system collapsed and unjustness was removed. A collective uprising or incarnation of goodness and justice totally vanquished the unjust. Some of us from my home country of India are today in despair seeing the situation. Law and order seems to be collapsing. Morality is down. Corruption is rampant. Somehow it feels as though criminals are ruling the country and there is no hope at all. But change will happen as promised by the Lord in the above shloka. The innate goodness will incarnate as a powerful force and bring about such a total transformation that we will be left wondering in amazement.

Let us now move on to the individual level. As I have mentioned earlier, my real nature is absolute bliss. This is my nature or “Dharma”. But due to intense ignorance, I lose sight of the fact that I am bliss or Brahman and become associated with the “ego” and all its attendant problems including multiple births and deaths. But the ego cannot forever subdue the true nature. At some point, when it seems like “Adharma” or the wrong understanding of nature is so deeply ingrained, there is an awakening. Once this awakening happens, the true nature incarnates in us removing the illusion or “Adharma” of the ego.

Thus at the cosmic divine level, societal level or at the individual level, whenever excesses occur and there is a total movement towards wickedness, unjustness or the sheer lack of identity with the soul, incarnation happens at various levels to lead each of the entities back on the righteous path. This is a very powerful statement which helps build up our spirits during moments of despair.

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