In the previous episode, we had witnessed an important counter-narrative from Arjuna, on Yudishtra’s three important resolutions. Arjuna’s version was very simple – “How can you be “good” to the entire world? Of course, you can be good to people who are “Dharma-Atmas” and ardent “Bhaktas” of Bhagawan. That’s correct. But how can you be good to people like Duryodhana who are looking for every chance to pull you down? Is it even possible to be good to these crooked people? Moreover, if you’re trying to be good to crooks, they would only use this as an advantage to play their dirty games on you more and more, isn’t it?” Arjuna’s point was extremely relevant and this is where we witnessed yesterday how Yudishtra’s resolutions backfired to a large extent. Of course, with all these resolutions, was Yudishtra able to achieve his ultimate motive of avoiding the disaster? The Kurukshetra war did take place and the entire Kaurava clan was completely destroyed! Was Yudishtra able to stop that? He wasn’t! This is what we call as “Deivamatra-Pramaanam”, which means, whatever Bhagawan has decided, He would somehow make it come true and there could be nothing that could stop things from happening!
Now the big question comes – If everything happens according to Bhagawan’s will and wish, why should we be true and honest? Why should we be at the receiving end every time and take all the blame upon ourselves? Yudishtra did exactly this – Right from the gambling game, it was Yudishtra upon whom the entire blame was pinned! Nobody wanted to criticise Duryodhana for cheating Yudishtra and Co. This is how the world is! Hence, we would immediately ask a question here – If such is the case, where we would have to take all the blame by being true and honest, why shouldn’t we also start lying and “go with the flow” of the world? For instance, today we’re talking about “Westernisation” and we’ve gone to the extent of integrating western and eastern cultures. Our cities have become more cosmopolitan in nature, which means that there are so many ways and means to follow “Adharma”. There are so many atheists who propagate wrong facts about our “Sanaatana Dharma” for their own personal brownie points. If we’ve to listen to all of them, we ourselves would start getting tempted as to why we should follow the “Dharma Maarga” anymore! Why don’t we enjoy our life by going into all the wrong ways of leading life?
This is where we’ve to be careful. We should ask this question within ourselves – Just because someone else is following the path of “Adharma”, just because the entire society is going away from the “Dharma-Maarga”, should we also follow suit? If someone is going to fall into a gutter or a pit hole, what would we do? Do we try and prevent that person out of the gutter, or do we also go and fall into it along with him? This is where we’ve to use our discrimination sense. The western cultures propagate the fact that “Deha-Sukham” (Comforts for the physical body) is more important for a life, whereas our Indian culture propagates the fact that “Atma-Sukham” (Comfort for our Atman) is more important. Now which is better here? The ultimate purpose of taking a human birth in this world is to ensure that we’ve to reach “Moksha”, isn’t it? If we’ve to reach “Moksha”, which one is more important? The “Atma-Sukham” is more important, isn’t it? Thus, if we ensure that our “Atman” is happy, even if the “Deham” suffers with some disease or displeasures, or frustrations, etc. we can easily discard all of them and focus on the higher goal in life. Whereas on the other hand, if we’re focusing only on the “Deham” part, even if a small disaster happens in our lives, we would go into a deep mental depression!
This is the gross difference here – If our focus is on the “Atman”, we wouldn’t bother much even if our “Deham” has to undergo suffering. We should realize one important point here – The “Deham” is bound to suffer periodically because it is something that is subjected to destruction some day or the other. Whereas, the “Atman” is something that is permanent, sans destruction by any external force. We’ve witnessed this concept earlier in our previous episodes and projects as well. Given this fact, does it make sense for us to give importance to something that is destroyable at some point, or does it make sense for us to give importance to something that is permanent in nature? This is where we’ve to make a conscious decision for ourselves and this is exactly the decision that Yudishtra takes here – Of course, he is going to go to the forest shortly after losing the Indraprastha kingdom, and all his wealth. But did Yudishtra feel for it even for a moment? Not at all! Yudishtra was calm and composed at all times, because his focus was completely on the “Atman” part. All those worldly things associated with the “Deham”, like the luxuries and kingdom, did not matter for him! Thus, Yudishtra chose to follow the path of “Dharma” which ultimately enriches “Atman”. Hence, even though Yudishtra would have suffered a lot because of this decision, he did not take that as suffering at all. Moreover, since Yudishtra followed “Dharma”, Bhagawan Krishna followed him, isn’t it? If Bhagawan is coming behind us, what should we worry about?
Now here’s the choice for all of us – Just because someone is going behind some wrong path, should we also go along with him in that, or should we still follow “Dharma” and make Bhagawan come behind us? This is the conscious choice that all of us should make in our lives. Hence, for today, let us think and analyze about this counter-narrative to Arjuna’s point and let us wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 