In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhishmachaarya continuing his accord on the “Aapad Dharma” to Yudishtra. Here, we are witnessing a 4*4 Matrix as to how to handle each kind of enemy. Bhishmachaarya talks about four different kinds of enemies here – The enemy who is high on “Dharma” and high on power, the enemy who is low on “Dharma” but high on power, the enemy who is high on “Dharma” but low on power and finally, the enemy who is low on “Dharma” and low on power. We’ve witnessed in detail over the past three episodes as to how a leader should handle each of these enemies and of course, from this it is very clear and obvious that there can be no one templated response for all kinds of enemies. At times, a leader has to adjust, collaborate, compromise, etc. to handle the conflict effectively, and at times, a leader has to compete and fight it out. At a time when a compromise has to be done, there is no point in fighting it out, and vice versa. Doing such things might end up in a situation wherein the leader would have to face disastrous consequences. In other words, at a time when the leader has to put up a brave face and fight it out, there is no point in going for peace talks. This would indicate that the leader is a coward and is unwilling to take any chances. However, on the other end of the spectrum, if the situation warrants the leader to attempt a peaceful negotiation, there is no point in picking up a fight. This shows the sheer arrogance of the leader and his unwillingness to come forward to the negotiation table.
As we understand this matrix clearly with regards to “Conflict Management”, Bhishmachaarya continues further thus, “Oh Yudishtra! Now, let me tell you one thing – As a leader, you need to have two important things to protect “Dharma”. Firstly, you should have immense power. Secondly, you should have enormous wealth! It is only with these two important factors, one can protect the “Dharma” of the land! When we talk about power, it should be both physical power and psychological will-power. Both are important! While we talk about wealth, both monetary and non-monetary wealth are paramount!” We’ve spoken about this earlier as well – If we’ve to protect our “Sanaatana Dharma” even in today’s context, we need both these powers – Physical and money power. While we say physical power, of course we’re not going to attack someone brutally like how the barbaric islamists do. Instead, we should have sufficient power to defend our “Dharma”. We should not become “sitting ducks” to external attacks. This would of course come into all of us if we are performing our “Nitya-Anushtaanam” and regular “Nitya-Karma” properly without any compromise. If we are perfecting ourselves within our homes, we will be automatically able to defend our “Sanaatana Dharma” outside. First of all we should remember one thing – Hindus should be united at all times! Our “Sanaatana Dharma” is the fundamental building block of this great “Bhaarata Desha”. In other words, we should realize that India is the land of “Sanaatana Dharma” and the “Vedas” & “Upanishads”. If this realization has to come within every one of us, we should see unity in diversity. We might be “Shaivaites” or “Vaishnavites” or any other category. But the truth is that, all these divisions come under one big umbrella called “Sanaatana Dharma”. This is the basic understanding that all of us should have. We might worship different deities – Some might worship Bhagawan Shiva, some might worship Bhagawan Vishnu, and so on… But as we’ve seen in all these episodes of Ramayana and Mahabharata, Bhagawan Shiva and Bhagawan Vishnu are complementary to each other. They are never separate. They are the same! Hence, as ardent followers of our “Sanaatana Dharma”, we should first stop differentiating ourselves in all these ways. All of us have the freedom to worship any deity of our choice and this is the greatest thing that “Sanaatana Dharma” has given us!
We might sometimes get carried away by the differences between different schools of thoughts – For instance, Shankarachaarya, Madhwachaarya and Ramanujachaarya might have proposed different schools of thought like “Advaitam”, “Vishishtadvaitam” and “Dvaitam”. While there might be differences, we should understand that there are enormous similarities in what these three great “Aachaaryas” of our “Sanaatana Dharma” have said! However, it has become a fashion today for these so-called “modern-day thinkers” and “intellectuals” who have zero understanding of our “Sanaatana Dharma” to conduct meaningless debates and “Satsangs” to spot out the differences in these three philosophies. However, the fact here is that, the similarities in these three philosophies are about 99% and the differences are only about 1%! We leave the 99% and catch hold of this 1% and keep talking and ranting! Isn’t this wrong? Rather than spotting out differences, does any debate talk about spotting out the similarities? They wouldn’t do it because of the simple fact that if they do so, Hindus will get united! These modern-day seculars & intellectuals always want Hindus to be divided, and hence, they come up with all sorts of stupid and unverified narratives to keep maligning Hinduism! We should remember very clearly here that these people are trying to make a living on the behest of our lack of unity. Hence, Hindu unity is very important, especially at critical times like these wherein barbaric islamism is showing its ugly head! Each and every one of us who is reading this blog episode today should be proud to be a “Sanaatani”! We should be able to flaunt our religious identity to the outside world and should never buckle down to these unwanted elements!
This is exactly what Bhishmachaarya means by saying that we should have the “power” to defend our “Dharma”. So the power here means the power of unity and the moment we achieve unity, no external force can even touch us in any form! So for today, let us understand and appreciate this important point that Bhishmachaarya is explaining here, and we shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 