The Indian Dharma

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another dimension of answer for the important question as to why do we blame Bhagawan when we encounter sorrow and suffering in life. If we’re encountering some joyous and happy phases in our lives, many of us tend to completely forget Bhagawan during those times! We focus only on enjoying those happy times and little do we care to even thank Bhagawan for such wonderful times! This is where the problem lies. Hence the point here is that, we should learn to take life as a “balance” between happiness and sorrow. We should learn to treat both happiness and sorrow in an equal manner. Neither should we jump in joy while being happy, nor should we sit in a corner and cry while being sad. This is the level of maturity that all of us should try and develop within ourselves, and this is exactly what Vidura is advising King Dhirdiraashtra too. When Vidura says that all our “Karma” will keep following us birth after birth, we should see it in a positive way so as to face them and burn them out, rather than brooding over it.

Now moving on to the next point of Vidura’s concluding remarks thus – Vidura again tries to poke King Dhirdiraashtra with an important analogy here. He says, just as birds like eagles, vultures, etc. would try to feed on a person’s dead body, if let alone on a huge open space, our wealth, money, luxuries, etc. would be fed upon by many other people after we pass away from this world! Moreover, while the dead body is burning, the fire (Agni Bhagawan) “tastes” the dead body along with the vultures and eagles too! Saying thus, at the end of this point, Vidura asks King Dhirdiraashtra a question – Although the fire tastes the human body, along with the vultures and eagles and many other birds or animals, although many other people might pounce upon all the wealth and luxuries that this person has left over while dying, nobody including people, fire, vultures, eagle, etc. ever touch the “Paapa” and “Punya” that this person has committed all through his life! Why is that so? It is because, if someone has to bear all the good things that we’ve accumulated in our life – like money, power, wealth, luxuries, etc., they would be ready to do! However, if the same someone has to bear up our bad things like sins (“Paapa”), none would come forward! This is how opportunistic the world is! Thus driving home this point, Vidura advises King Dhirdiraashtra to understand this selfishness of the world and act accordingly, without accumulating much of unwanted sins.

Here in this point, Vidura is trying to explain something very important, which we can witness even in the present day – Many people going behind the wealth and money accumulated by “others”! The word “others” might signify our own parents, brothers, sisters, organizations, etc. How many cases are we witnessing in today’s world wherein brothers and sisters engage in huge fights to acquire their parents’ property, post their death? How many cases are we witnessing people swindling money from an organization in various illegal ways, so as to satisfy some venomous personal agenda? How many cases are we witnessing people fighting with each other even in spiritual organizations like temples, ashrams, mutts and other religious places of worship? We might ask a question here – Do people even keep their hands on the wealth of religious and spiritual places too? The sad answer is “Yes”! Even in a small temple or a place of worship, there is so much of politics that go on between people who maintain the temple! Many of us might have witnessed it in various temples across the world.

Thus the point here is that, when it comes to “money”, “wealth”, “fame”, “name”, “luxuries”, etc. people automatically become selfish and tend to grab more and more of them without a sense of satisfaction! This is exactly what Vidura is indirectly explaining to King Dhirdiraashtra here. He’s poking King Dhirdiraashtra that his crooked son Duryodhana is exactly an epitome of whatever he had explained in this point so far! He is taking every little chance possible to harass the Paandavas and to see the back of them – Only to swindle away all the wealth and property that they’re entitled for legally! Explaining thus, an emotionally disturbed Vidura asks King Dhirdiraashtra that for how long is this going to continue!

Hence for today, let us ponder over this important point of Vidura and let’s reflect this upon our lives in the current day! We shall wait for the next episode to witness the continuation of this discussion forward. Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode we had witnessed an important extension of Vidura’s explanation on the “Karma Theory” wherein we discussed the fact that we need to take our life as it comes. We should try and develop the maturity to take life on the chin and face the problems and challenges that come through. The ultimate message from this point is that, everybody in this world would have problems and happy moments alternating at different times and phases of life. It is upto us to treat them separately and face life as it is, instead of cribbing and crying. Yesterday’s episode also saw the reason why there is no use of blaming Bhagawan for all our sufferings that we undergo. If we look at the “cause” and “effect” principle, whatever we do today is going to retaliate tomorrow. In that way, whatever good or bad deeds that we commit today is going to come back at us at a later stage. Thus, we discussed two different dimensions for the question ‘ “Is the approach of pinning the blame on Bhagawan for our sufferings right?”.

The first dimension spoke about how we ourselves are responsible for what we experience today in our life – Both happy and sad moments. If that is the case, how will Bhagawan stand to be blamed amidst all the mess that we’ve created for ourselves? The second dimension spoke about some important intricacies about our horoscope and how it is influenced by our past “Karma”. If we’re born with a definitive planetary position, we’ve to literally live with it all through our life. So there is no point in cribbing about it.

In fact, there is also a third dimension to it. We understand that if we are undergoing a stressful situation in life, we go in front of Bhagawan and cry! What if we’re undergoing a happy situation in life? How many of us go near Bhagawan when our going is smooth? Do we really share our happiness with Bhagawan by thanking Him for this good phase of life? Many of us do not do it and this might be a hard pill to chew! In fact, we conveniently forget Bhagawan when we’re happy and would never even go near the vicinity of the temple! So, isn’t this a hypocrisy from our side? One one hand, when we are extremely happy, we are overwhelmed to such an extent of forgetting Bhagawan altogether and on the other hand, when we’re hit by a sorrow, we immediately run to Bhagawan to blame him for what we’re undergoing! Why should we play this hypocritic game?

To be brutally honest, if we’re starting to blame Bhagawan for our problems and miseries in life, we’re only losing our mental stability and faith towards our Hindu Sanaathana Dharma. It only means that we do not have that strength and courage to stand up and face the problem. If we’re losing our mental strength, our faith towards “Dharma” and Bhagawan slowly starts to diminish. This is where, some anti-Hindu elements capture and create problems. In fact, most of the religious conversions happen only with weak-minded people. Some people from some other religions keep a close watch on those who undergo stressful situations in their lives and whether they lose hope and heart on the way. The moment they find us vulnerable, they catch us red-handed and try to pounce on our “weak faith”. This is where we should be strong enough to stand up for our Hindu Sanaathana Dharma. The question to be asked here is that, if someone comes and tries to influence us in a wrong way, do we have the courage to step up and retaliate with our strong fundamentals? Do we have the boldness to reply them saying that, everyone in this world is bound to have sufferings and happy moments alternatively and there is nothing much that religion can do in this? This is important for all of us to be clear with. Thus the point here is that, as a third dimension to answer the fundamental question, just like we go to Bhagawan and pour out our sad feelings and emotions, we should also have atleast the basic courtesy to share our happiness too with Bhagawan. If we’re able to do so, we’re doing justice to ourselves and also to Bhagawan, who has given us the opportunity to be happy and contented.

So for today, let us ponder over this important third dimension and let us act accordingly by putting it into practice in our everyday life. Let us try and move beyond blaming others (including Bhagawan) for our problems and miseries. I understand of course it’s easier said than done. But it requires lot of guts and will power to develop such a strong attitude towards life. Let’s strive towards achieving it! We shall wait till tomorrow’s episode to witness Vidura’s next important point! Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode, we had witnessed a very important excerpt of the “Karma theory” as explained by both Valmiki Ramayana and Vidura. Of course, the Valmiki Ramayana explains it in an indirect way through the incident of Bhagawan Rama killing Shubaahu and “chasing away” Maareecha to the far-off ocean. However, Vidura seems to hit the point straightaway here – He directly explains King Dhirdiraashtra that when a person passes away from this world, none but only his / her “Karma” would follow him / her for all the “n” number of births that are to follow! This is of course an important message not only for King Dhirdiraashtra but for all of us as well. Whenever we’re about to perform any action (“Karma”), we should think twice before committing ourselves into it. We should use our sense of discrimination to check whether we’re doing this action on purpose of fulfilling a “Dharma” or are we performing this action in a hasty manner, which might pull us into the path of “Adharma”. Thus the choice is ours! It is upto us to use our intellect and do the needful!

Now to extend this context to the modern-day scenario, many of us have cultivated this “habit” of blaming Bhagawan for whatever sufferings that we undergo in life! We can see this everywhere and even within all of us too. In fact, (on a lighter note) myself as a person who is explaining this to all our readers, I’m also not an exception to this! 😊 Whenever we undergo a stressful situation or when the going gets tough, we immediately wash our hands off it and conveniently put the blame on Bhagawan and our horoscope for whatever misery happens to us. Now the question here is whether this is a right approach that we’re taking towards life. How do we answer this important question, with whatever Vidura and Bhagawan Rama had illustrated to us? Let’s have a detailed discussion today.

In fact, we can look at this question in two dimensions. (Of course, there might be many other dimensions as well, and maybe, our readers can come up with them while giving your comments and feedbacks!) On the first dimension – As per the “Karma theory”, it is very clear that, as we sow, so we reap! If we perform good actions according to the path of “Dharma”, we’re going to definitely reap the good benefits for them. If we’re performing some bad actions owing to whatsoever reasons, we’re on course to reap the ill-effects for what we’ve done. This is like an examination that we write – If we’re knowing the answers for all the questions in the question paper and if we’re consciously answering them with all our preparation, we can expect good results to come. Else, we would have to face failure and the consequences attached to that. Hence, if we are undergoing sorrowful situations in life, we should understand that these situations are resultants of some bad actions that we might have performed in our past. Perhaps, sometimes we might not be able to connect the “cause” and the “effect” very easily because of the uncertainty of the time in between. As Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (AMMA) puts it beautifully in perspective, the “time-lag” between our actions and their resultant outcomes is completely out of our control – In other words, we might currently be experiencing the resultant outcomes of some of our actions that we might have performed during our last birth! Or, we might be experiencing the resultant outcomes of some of our actions that we might have performed yesterday too! However, one point is sure – There is no escape from experiencing the resultant outcomes for whatever good or bad actions that we perform.

Hence, the sole reason for both our happiness and sorrow in life, is we ourselves! If we are solely responsible for our situations, what is the point in blaming Bhagawan for what we’re undergoing? What can Bhagawan do in the middle of all this? We should give this point a serious thought for today! If we’re the sole cause of our actions, why to blame someone else who is not even in the picture? 😊 Hence, we should develop the maturity to deal with any kind of situation in life (both happy and sad) with a strong will power and of course by seeking and invoking Bhagawan’s grace.

Now on to the second dimension – With respect to our horoscope, the planetary positions that it depicts, is solely dependant on our past “Karma” that we have accumulated over many births (“Sanchita Karma”). Our readers should understand this very clearly. Of course, many of us might know that our horoscope chart is predicted based on the date and the time of our birth from our mother’s womb. This is totally out of our hands and is the act of Bhagawan. If we’re born with a certain planetary position in our horoscope, we can never change it and we’ve to live with it all through our life. Of course, there might be some “remedial prayers” (“Parihaara”) suggested by many astrologers, but all of it would work only to a certain extent. There can never be an escape or a “short-cut” route to come out of our “Karma” just like that! If that was so easy, everybody in this world who do the “remedial prayers” should be happy! But is that the case? The answer is “No”!

Hence again, we should think over this point, and should develop the maturity to take life as it is and face the problems and challenges that come through. The ultimate message from this episode is that, everybody in this world would have problems and happy moments alternating at different times and phases of life. It is upto us to treat them separately and face life as it is, instead of cribbing and crying. We shall continue this important discussion in the next episode too, with an interesting instance from the Valmiki Ramayana! Stay tuned! 😊

We’re at an important juncture of an interesting and an important discussion on the Karma theory, wherein Vidura is directing his guns to fire at King Dhirdiraashtra’s emotions and heart for one last time. Vidura explains clearly to King Dhirdiraashtra that if a person passes away from this world, none other than his / her own “Karma” would follow him / her beyond death! This point from Vidura is a clear vindication and validation of the “Karma” theory that forms the baseline of our Hindu “Sanaathana Dharma”. In yesterday’s episode, we were amidst a detailed discussion on how the “Karma” theory operates in one’s life and how does it carry itself forward to subsequent births that a person might take.

From our previous Ramayana project, we had recalled an incident wherein Bhagawan Rama and Lakshmana destroy the demoness Thaataka. Eventually her two sons Maareecha and Shubhaahu come along to fight down Bhagawan Rama. As the fight progresses, Shubaahu gets killed and Maareecha is pounded by Bhagawan Rama’s arrow and eventually chases him away to a far-off place in between the huge ocean waters. We’re in the midst of answering the all-important question as to why did Bhagawan Rama kill Shubaahu and let Maareecha escape.

Now continuing the explanation of the in-depth meaning of this episode, we’ve witnessed the two types of “Karma” – “Sanchita Karma” and the “Praarabdha Karma”. As discussed, “Sanchita Karma” is nothing but the huge truckload of “Karma” that we’ve accumulated over infinite births till date. “Praarabdha Karma” is nothing but the process of taking one load from the infinite truckload of “Karma” and experiencing the fruit (result) of it. Once this first load of “Praarabhda Karma” gets diminished, we again take the next load from the “Sanchita Karma” and would start experiencing the fruit of it. This cycle continues on and on endlessly, birth after birth! It is only amidst all of this, we go and stand in front of Bhagawan and surrender to His feet! Now the moment we surrender at Bhagawan’s feet, what does Bhagawan do? Does he destroy both “Sanchita Karma” and “Praarabdha Karma” together? The answer is “No!” If that’s the case, what happens then?

Now here is the important point – When we seek refuge under Bhagawan’s feet, Bhagawan makes it a point to destroy all of our “Sanchita Karma” instantaneously by burning it out! Just like how a ball of cotton burns completely without any remain, when put into a fire, Bhagawan burns out all our “Sanchita Karma” without any trace of remains! If this is the case with the “Sanchita Karma”, what about our “Praarabdha Karma”? Doesn’t Bhagawan destroy that too? Rather than destroying the “Praarabdha Karma”, Bhagawan “frees” us up from our “Praarabdha Karma”!

Why does he do this? It is because, life has a rule that we would get “Moksha” (Ultimate Salvation) only at the end of this birth! Bhagawan is not going to grant us “Moksha” immediately after we surrender to Him! In fact, Bhagawan is very smart here! 😊 If he grants “Moksha” to everyone then and there, then none of us would even go to Him, until we cross the age of 70 or 80! 🙂 We would like to enjoy all the worldly pleasures till then! This is why Bhagawan always has the last laugh! He has the authority to give us the “Moksha”, but only at the end of this lifetime.

However, till the end of this lifetime, we would still be accumulating many sins and good deeds! Until we are bonded by the “Samsara” (Worldly life) we would still keep doing many activities, both good and bad! Now because of our surrender, Bhagawan would grant us “freedom” from all these “new Karma” that gets attached to us! Just like how drops of water would never stick to a lotus petal, whatever “Karma” we perform in this world after we surrender to Bhagawan, would never stick to us! It is only to illustrate this difference, Bhagawan Rama kills Shubaahu and chases away Maareecha!

Thus, the inner meaning of this incident of the Ramayana is that, Bhagawan burns away our “Sanchita Karma”, which is illustrated by the killing of Shubaahu! Bhagawan grants us freedom from our “Praarabdha Karma”, which is illustrated by chasing away Maareecha!

This is exactly what Vidura focuses here – He clearly says that our “Karma” is the only one that follows us birth after birth, and this story would keep continuing endlessly, if we’re not mending our ways and surrendering to Bhagawan’s feet! He warns King Dhirdiraashtra of the dire consequences of not surrendering to Bhagawan Krishna, who is closely watching all the developments that are taking place in the Hastinapura kingdom.

So for today, let us ingrain within ourselves, the significance of “surrendering ourselves to Bhagawan” and let us take a conscious effort to do so! If we’re able to do that whole-heartedly, we do not need to worry about anything in this world thereafter and it is the responsibility of Bhagawan to take care of us! As Bhagawan Krishna himself says in the Bhagawad Gita – “Maashuchaha”, which means, “Please do not worry! I’m here to take care of you!” Let us try meticulously to understand this truth and implement it in our lives! We shall wait till the next episode to witness Vidura’s few more points as he concludes the Vidura Neeti! Stay tuned! 😊

 

In the previous episode, we were at a crucial juncture wherein, Vidura is trying to emotionally influence King Dhirdiraashtra one last time and attempting to correct him to the path of “Dharma”. He puts up an important phrase as he begins and tries to create a hypothetical situation wherein Duryodhana is “assumed” to be dead! The moment King Dhirdiraashtra listens to this hypothetical phase that his son is “dead”, he loses himself and studders with fear and grief! He immediately looks at Vidura and requests him not to repeat that phrase again ever! This clearly shows how much of love and affection King Dhirdiraashtra has for his son.

Of course, I’m not saying that we should not have any love or affection towards our children or our family. Readers shouldn’t mistake the point here. Love and affection towards our family is of course very essential for a happy life. The problem comes when this love and affection “blinds” us from taking tough and important decisions for the betterment of our children in future. Just because we “love” our child, does it infer that we get along with him / her without asking any question when he /she does something wrong? Won’t it set a bad precedence to the child that he / she can take the words of parents for granted everytime? This is exactly what happened in the case of Duryodhana – King Dhirdiraashtra’s excessive love and affection towards his son Duryodhana led him to a situation wherein he couldn’t question anything whatever Duryodhana did! At one stage, Duryodhana started to take his father for granted and eventually led to a situation of arrogance wherein his father started fearing a huge backlash from his son if he opened his mouth!

This is what happens in many families today too! The point here is that, it is not wrong to have love and affection towards our children. However, if our children seem to walk down the wrong path, parents should stand up and criticize them and correct them to the path of “Dharma”. The important point here is that, parents should be able to draw the line between love and “excessive” love towards their children. If the love and affection turns excessive, children would start taking parents for granted and the result of it is for all of us to see from the case of King Dhirdiraashtra and Duryodhana.

Moving on, Vidura explains further that if a person passes away from this world, none of his / her family members, relatives, friends, parents, children, spouse, etc. are going to come alongside the person. All of them may come upto a certain point in the burial ground, but not any further! Eventually, only our “Paapa” (Sins) and “Punya” (Good deeds) are going to come along with us and these two would follow us for all the “n” number of births that we would be taking in this world again and again.

This is an extremely important message for all of us to ponder. In fact, we have had a detailed discussion on this topic during our Ramayana project and if our readers can recollect, this context comes at a point when Bhagawan Rama kills Shubaahu and lets Maareecha escape. During the journey from Ayodhya to Mithilapuri along with Sage Vishwaamitra, Bhagawan Rama and Lakshmana encounter the first threat in the form of the demoness “Thaataka” and subsequently her two sons Maareecha and Shubaahu. Of course, all of us know that Bhagawan Rama singlehandedly took on Thaataka and finished her off with a single arrow! Upon hearing the demise of their mother, Shubaahu and Maareecha come in front of Bhagawan Rama and one of them get killed! Bhagawan Rama’s arrow chases away Maareecha to the far-flunged ocean, several thousand kilometres away! Now the interesting question arises – Why did Bhagawan kill Shubahu and let Maareecha escape? In fact, if Bhagawan Rama would have killed Maareecha on that spot itself, the entire Ramayana would have been sealed there itself! Our readers might be aware that it was this same Maareecha who was instrumental in Ravana’s ploy of kidnapping Mother Sita from Panchavati, many years later. But why did Bhagawan Rama do this? There’s an interesting answer.

If we look at our “Karma” theory, there are two categories of “Karma” namely “Sanchita Karma” and “Praarabdha Karma”. The “Sanchita Karma” amounts to the truckloads of “Karma” that we have been doing over the past innumerable births that we’ve taken in this world so far. “Praarabha Karma” is just one load out of that huge truckload that we take in this birth and start experiencing the results of it. We do not know if we would be able to finish experiencing all of the aftereffects of our truckloads of “Sanchita Karma” in this birth itself! Thus, we also do not know how may births are still required to finish off all of this! Eventually in this birth too, we would be accumulating fresh “Karma” and what about that? All these “fresh Karma” would again go into the truckload of “Sanchita Karma”, and this vicious cycle of birth and death continues!

It is only at this point that we go and stand in front of Bhagawan, seeking surrender! The moment we surrender to Bhagawan’s feet, he takes care of all of our “Karma” and liberates us from it! How does he liberate us from all our Karma? Let’s wait to continue this discussion in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the extension of yet another important point wherein Vidura is stressing the significance of keeping ourselves away from the path of our predecessors who went against “Dharma” and met a ghastly end to their lives! Just like we learn many good things from various role models that we might have for ourselves, we should also learn not to perform some bad things in life from various people who have done that in the past and ended up in misery. Just like how we witnessed few instances from our scriptures in the past couple of episodes, including the yesterday’s example of Sahuni, we have so many such examples in the present day lives too. Even in our workplace, there might have been few people in the past, who must have exhibited bad conduct (in whatever ways) and eventually would have lost their jobs because of that. We should listen to such episodes and stories from our colleagues carefully and should make sure that we do not walk the same path as those few people did!

Now moving on further, Vidura is trying to play the emotional card here. He pokes King Dhirdiraashtra with an emotional appeal by illustrating the continued point that an individual who is born on this earth, is always accountable for all the good and bad deeds that he / she commits during the lifetime. Here, Vidura stuns King Dhidiraashtra with his selective words, so as to drive home this important point.

Vidura says thus, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! Just for a moment, assume that Duryodhana is dead!”

The moment Vidura utters these words, King Dhirdiraashtra couldn’t bare it and looks at him with a stunned face! This is where King Dhirdiraashtra’s “Putra Vaatsalya” (Excessive attachment towards his son) is in full display for everyone to see! As the stunned King Dhirdiraashtra looks on, Vidura continues thus, “Oh see! The moment I said this sentence, look at the reaction on your face! This is exactly what is holding you back from performing your Dharma! Anyways, now just assume that your son Duryodhana is dead. What would happen next? You would weep for a while, but what would you do next? Since it is not advisable to have a dead body at home beyond a point, you would keep the body of Duryodhana outside your home. You wouldn’t respect it anymore! Whom you called once as “Duryodhana”, you would call him as just a “body”! You would never respect and preserve it anymore! You would close it with a white cloth! Even ants and other small living beings wouldn’t respect it anymore! Thereafter, this body is taken to the burial ground and is burnt to ashes! Once the body is burnt, you come back and take bath. You have food too! However, are you going to go away with your dead son Duryodhana? No, you are not! However, there is one thing that the dead person takes along with him / her – It is nothing but the “Paapa” (Sins) and the “Punya” (Good deeds). Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! This one thing is never visible to anyone else in this world! However, everyone of us should bear our sins and good deeds on our shoulders while we pass away from this world! Just because Duryodhana was your son, can you or your wife Gaandhaari bare all his sins or good deeds? You can’t! So please understand this important point and act accordingly!”

Saying thus, Vidura drops a huge bombshell in King Dhirdiraashtra’s heart and mind! This moves King Dhirdiraashtra to tears! The moment Vidura pulls up his own son Duryodhana to illustrate his point, King Dhirdiraashtra couldn’t digest it anymore! But is this enough for him to mend his ways and change his stance? Let’s continue this discussion further in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed Vidura’s angry display yet again, wherein he slams King Dhirdiraashtra for his indifferent attitude. He takes this opportunity to remind him of few of his predecessors in the likes of Ravana, Kamsa and Hiranya Kashibu and issues a stern warning by saying that all these kings who once led luxurious lives in the past, had to meet terrible ends due to their sheer arrogance and misbehavior owing to various reasons. Vidura thus slams King Dhirdiraashtra of following the same footsteps of these people in meeting a treacherous end.

Thus, the message from this segment of Vidura’s accord is that, by looking at some of our predecessors, we should learn how not to lead a life in this world. Of course, there are good examples like Bhagawan Rama, Krishna, Prahlada himself, etc. wherein we can learn how to follow the path of “Dharma” to attain the highest spiritual stature of “Moksha”. If we take the “Bhagawad Gita” itself, all of this is clearly explained by Bhagawan Krishna. Apart from this, by traversing through Bhagawan Rama’s life, we shall nbe able to understand how not to deviate from the path of “Dharma” at any instance and at any catastrophic situation that we might come across in life. Similarly, if we consider Prahlaadha, we can obviously learn how to be steadfast in the path of “Dharma”, irrespective of whatever hurdles might come and hit us. Prahlaadha is the perfect example to illustrate the fact that if we have unshakable faith over Bhagawan, He would somehow protect us by all means.

As mentioned above, these are some good examples that we shall keep as benchmarks in our day-to-day lives. Similarly, there are certain bad examples too that we might come across in our Ithihaasas and Puraanas and from these, we should learn how not to lead a life along the path of “Adharma”. The likes of Duryodhana and his brothers, Ravana, Kumbakarna, Hiranyaaksha, Hiranya Kashibu, etc. illustrate the fact that if we’re exhibiting arrogance and ignorance towards righteous people, we would be dealt with very severely by Bhagawan.

Similarly, even in our day-to-day lives, we might come across innumerable good and bad examples in both our personal and professional setups. It is always better to maintain a neutral stance in all this, and understand which is good and which is bad. Our sense of discrimination is of prime importance here. If we’re able to maintain a neutral stance by not taking sides towards one set of people, we would be able to clearly make the distincition as to who is right and who is wrong! This is very important, especially in the corporate setup. There might be different kinds of people that we might come through at our workplace and it is important that we do not get carried away just with certain sets of people, only because they are pleasing and attractive for us at that moment. We should think twice before getting into closer relationships with people at our workplace as this is like a double-edged sword! We should be very careful not to get into a trap of a bad companionship and eventually spoil our name and reputation in our organization.

This is where we need to apply our sense of discrimination and this is exactly what Vidura is advising King Dhirdiraashtra here. The problem with King Dhirdiraashtra is that, he is going into a huge trap that is laid by his brother-in-law, Sahuni. We’ve witnessed this in one of our previous episodes as to how Sahuni wanted to take his revenge on the whole Hastinapura Dynasty and how he executed his wicked plans by making Duryodhana as his puppet! The moment Sahuni realized that Duryodhana was desparately after the Paandavas for capturing their share of the Hastinapura kingdom, he used Duryodhana’s urgency and ignorance to his full benefit and started to corner King Dhirdiraashtra on various issues, including the infamous game of gambling that took place in the public courtroom. Thus, at every instance, Sahuni was a “king-maker” in various decisions that King Dhirdiraashtra had to make, including the torturous exile that was metted out to the Paandavas on the behest of his son Duryodhana. In fact, it was Sahuni who created that situation in such a way that King Dhirdiraashtra had to fall in line with him and to obey whatever he and Duryodhana said! Sadly enough, King Dhirdiraashtra never realized the plots that Sahuni had made to satisfy his revenge of pulling down the Hastinapura dynasty and King Dhirdiraashtra right royally fell into the trap! This is where, he should have applied his sense of discrimination as a righteous king! Rather than encouraging his son Duryodhana to get along with Sahuni, he should have taken stern steps against it .Of course, this should be backed up with real-time data and evidence that Sahuni is trying to play spoilsport! Thus, we can see clearly that King Dhirdiraashtra had miserably failed in terms of trusting and going behind the wrong person, without the sense of discrimination. Thus we can realize here, that going behind bad companionship is ultimately going to pull us down at some stage!

Hence, these are all the bad examples that we come across in the Mahabhaarata itself, and we should try to learn our lesson, not to lead our lives in such ways! So for today, let us sink in this important point and let us try to open up our sense of discrimination to understand exactly who is right and who is wrong and which is “Dharma” and which is “Adharma”. This episode should be an eye-opener for all of us with respect to this important point of Vidura! We shall wait till the next episode to witness Vidura’s next important point! Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode, we had witnessed an important extension of Vidura’s point on how to cope up and live along with change, and where exactly do King Dhirdiraashtra and Duryodhana are losing the plot. The only reason why both of them are facing so much of heat from various quarters is that, they’re unable to accept the changing reality and practicality of the situation. Their ego is coming in the middle of everything and preventing them to take a constructive step forward to prevent hostility. This is what Vidura is trying to explain here – He says to King Dhirdiraashtra clearly that there should be no space for the ego to come in between while analyzing the practicality of life and making a firm decision to move forward according to the situation.

In fact, many of us make the same kind of mistake in our daily life too – Sometimes, we tend to get carried away by the situation or by the excessive attachment or affection towards someone or something, in such a way that we would start repenting heavily over the loss of that someone or something owing to various reasons. In other words, we would get completely stuck up because we wouldn’t be able to accept the practical situation at that point in time and move on further with life. Such things should not happen. Of course, I understand that as our readers read through this, all of us might think that it’s easier said than done! Yes, agreed! But there’s no option in life! We need to live up with change and try to move on as quickly as possible. Of course there would be certain amount of sadness or whatever bad feeling that might get associated with, but we need to get over it quickly and move on. The moment we let those bad feelings take over us, we would get stuck into the same trap as what King Dhirdiraashtra is getting stuck here – His excessive attachment towards his son (“Putra-Vaatsalya”) is the “trap” that is pulling King Dhirdiraashtra down every time and also making him turn deaf ears to whatever Vidura is trying to tell him. Thus, the message here is that, we should be extremely careful not to let our ego or similar thoughts associated with our attachment towards things, take over us at critical times. If we let that happen, it would become very tough for us to move on and take wise decisions.

Now, moving on further, Vidura issues a huge warning to King Dhirdiraashtra here – He reminds King Dhirdiraashtra that there were innumerable kings before him who fell into the huge “trap” laid by Yama-Dharma-Raaja, by misusing their power and position as a king and thus finally entered into “Naraka” (Hell) by meeting a ghasty end to their luxurious lives. Vidura explains thus:

“Mahaabalaan pashya mahaanubhaavaan!
Prashaasya bhoomim dhana dhaanya poornam!!
Raajyaanihitvaa vipalaam cha bhogaan!
Gathaan narendraan vashamanthakasya!!”

Here Vidura invokes the significance of King Ravana, King Hiranya Kashibu, King Kamsa, etc. and explains how much of richness, luxury and fame did each one of them possess during their times. However, due to their misconduct and misbehavior for whatever reasons, all of these people met terrible ends to their illustrious lives. Thus citing this point, Vidura asks King Dhirdiraashtra as to why should he follow the footsteps of these kings. Vidura poses as question as to why should he be known for all the wrong reasons after his demise.

In fact, all of us know and we’ve spoken so much about Ravana’s significance. Valmiki Maharishi gives an account of Ravana’s richness and luxuries in the “Sundara Kaanda” of the Ramayana in detail and we’ve witnessed it during our Ramayana project. Valmiki Maharishi explains the luxurious and lavish lifestyle of Ravana in Lanka as Hanuman goes in search of Mother Sita. In fact, he has devoted close to 13 Sargas (Chapters) in the “Sundara Kaanda” to explain this! Similarly, if we witness that of King Hiranya Kashibu, it was of a similar accord. He was a great king with lot of name, fame and luxuries, but because of his arrogance and ignorant attitude towards Bhagawan, and inspite of child Prahlaadha explaining, advising and warning his father about Bhagawan Vishnu, King Hiranya went into the trap! Similarly, King Kamsa’s story explains this point – Irrespective of innumerable warnings from various people, Kamsa was in no mood to relent from his intention of killing Bhagawan Krishna, come what may! Right from when Bhagawan Krishna was a baby till he was a young boy, Kamsa unleashed all tricks in his trade to get rid of Bhagawan Krishna, but failed miserably! Ultimately Kamsa had to meet a ghasty end for all what he had done!

Explaining all this, Vidura warns King Dhirdiraashtra that he is next in the list and that, Bhagawan Krishna is closely watching all the developments that are happening on his side. Vidura slams King Dhirdiraashtra for his indifferent attitude towards “Dharma” and says sternly that he is walking dangerously over fire!

So for today, let us ponder over this important point and let us learn the lesson here. We shall wait till tomorrow’s episode to extend this discussion further! Stay tuned! 😊

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the extension of Vidura’s one of the most fundamental points of discussion – Managing Change! In this context of course, he is advising King Dhirdiraashtra that “Change” is an inevitable and an integral part of life and what is in his possession today (Hastinapura Kingdom) is surely going to be someone else’s tomorrow! The main problem here with King Dhirdiraashtra and Duryodhana is that, these people are not accepting the fact that change is bound to happen and that, they’ve to live with it by moving on further. Just because the kingdom was solely under King Dhirdiraashtra for all these years, he thinks that only his son should be the next person to rule it. He is unable to accept that this trend is subject to change, as the agreement has already been made with Paandu (King Dhirdiraashtra’s brother) that his sons (Paandavas) would also be given a proportionate share of the kingdom. The main reason thus, for the brewing uneasiness between the Kauravas and the Paandavas is only that, this Hastinapura Kingdom should or should not be split to be given to the Paandavas partly! This is where Vidura is trying to educate King Dhirdiraashtra and making him accept the fact that this change has to be effected and the Hastinapura kingdom be split amongst the two camps. If he is not going to move on with this change, it is going to be very difficult times later on.

Thus we can see here, that Vidura is trying his best to prevent a war-situation between the two rival groups, although he knows that this war is going to be an inevitable occurrence that is going to entirely change the fate of the Hastinapura kingdom. Neverthless, Vidura is trying his best to make King Dhirdiraaahtra accept the practicality of the situation and act according to it. There is no point in experimenting something foolish at this stage, which could spiral the situation from bad to worse! This is what King Dhirdiraashtra is still trying to do – He’s still trying to justify what he and his son Duryodhana are doing! For whatever Vidura says, King Dhirdiraashtra is only trying to build a counter-narrative and is trying to defend himself, rather than taking it in a constructive manner and to change accordingly. This is the problem if we’re unable to accept change in life.

This psychological understanding is very important to have here for all our readers – If we’re unable to accept the change that is coming by our way, we would start turning defensive and we would never budge to any advice given by whomsoever it may be! This is one classic example here that the Mahabharata has given us. If we trace back to our Ramayana project, we witnessed exactly the same behavior from Ravana too. Irrespective of whoever came to advice Ravana – right from his own sister Soorpanaka, to Hanuman, to Angadha, to Vibhishana (Ravana’s brother), to Kumbakarna (Ravana’s brother) and finally Bhagawan Rama himself that he has done a terrible mistake of capturing and abducting Mother Sita and that he should correct himself by giving her back to Bhagawan Rama, Ravana never paid heed and turned defensive everytime! When Kumbakarna warned Ravana of terrible and irrepairable consequences of having Mother Sita in Lanka and when Ravana himself saw that his army was slowly dwindling in the hands of Bhagawan Rama and Co., he never wanted to change! He still never wanted to give Mother Sita back! His ego prevented him completely from doing so!

This is exactly what happens when we’re unable to accept Our ego comes in the middle of everything and this is what makes us defensive in our approach. We might still want to change ourselves, with all the advice that we get from various elderly people or whomever! But our ego will come in the middle and make us think, “Oh! Who’s he to come and tell us to change? Why is he poking his nose into our personal affairs? What bothers him so much? Is he trying to influence me for his personal gains?” We start asking questions like this to ourselves, and all this is the work of our ego! This is where, we should be very careful! Of course, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t think and analyze before taking a decision. We’ve to definitely do that, without a doubt. But the point here is that, we should be able to make a clear differentiation between our thinking / analyzing and our ego! If one person says that we’re doing something wrong, it’s okay! If two or three people are echoing the same point, then we need to start thinking about it. If many people around us are starting to criticize our actions in a wrong way, we should understand definitely that the problem is only in our side! Else, why should so many people point fingers at us and criticize? What is the use of giving space for our ego at this point? Thus, we should be able to make the clear differentiation here.

So for today, let us ponder a little more over this important point of accepting change. At some point, if many people point fingers at us and advice us to go by a particular direction, we need to give it a serious thought and act accordingly, rather than turning completely deaf ears and being defensive towards them! We shall wait till the next episode to witness Vidura’s continuation of his final comments as we conclude the Vidura Neeti soon! Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode, we had commenced yet another important and one of the final discussions of Vidura, wherein he talks about something called as “Change” in this world and how it is an inevitable factor in our everyday life. In this context, Vidura provides one last advice to King Dhirdiraashtra with respect to his attitude and behavior towards the Paandavas wherein, he explains clearly that whatever assets, kingdom, money, etc. that remain in the hands of King Dhirdiraashtra and Duryodhana today, is going to dwindle away and go into another person’s hands tomorrow! Money and fame would unfortunately never remain stationary at the same place always and it keeps moving on from one hand to the other, or from one bank account to the other! 😊 This is where, King Dhirdiraashtra and Duroydhana lack the awareness – They’re unable to digest the fact that this Hastinapura kingdom that is under their possession currently, is never going to sustan this way forever in their hands!

How applicable is this point to the modern day? In our everyday life happenings, we witness enormous contexts wherein change is inevitable in life. For instance, we see someone today and after today, we see that same person after some ten or fifteen years – What would we say immediately? We would exclaim, “Oh wow! You’ve changed a lot within ten years! Your hair has become grey in colour, your skin has started having wrinkles on your face! You’ve started a new job! You’re now a married person with two kids! The list goes on, isn’t it? Let’s look at another instance – If we’re residing somewhere abroad and visiting our native city in India after two to three years – What would be our reaction? We would exclaim that, “Oh wow! So many new buildings have come up on this road! What was there in this same place before? Looks like the roads are much cleaner than I saw in the year 2016! Again, this list is endless, isn’t it?

So from all these instances, it is very clear that the world is susceptible to changes and this is the reality of life! Similarly when it comes to money and property, we should always realize that money will come and go anytime. If we look at the news that is trending widely today in India, everybody is talking about a famous airline company called Jet Airways and how this company is going into the brink! Once upon a time, Jet Airways was one of India’s most premiere airline organization that offered world-class services to its guests! Unfortunately because of financial and other turbulences that the organization went through recently, this same organization is at the brink of shutting down completely! Of course, all of us agree that Jet Airways is such a prominent brand in India, but what happened now? Aren’t we seeing a change in the aviation industry here? What was once a world-class and a reputed airline till atleast a year back, has reduced itself to just rubbles in no time! This is where, we need to learn the lesson that nothing in this world is permanent. Now, if I’m an employee of this organization, can I just sit in one corner and brood over, thinking the sad plight of my organization? What would happen to my earnings, my family life, my professional growth, etc. if I just feel upset and unable to accept this brutal change that has come through in my life? We need to think over!

Yesterday there was this another sad news that a world-famous religious center and a monument in the city of Paris, France – Saint Michael Nottre-Dame Cathedral was gutted in a deadly fire that ravaged the building unexpectedly! This is a 900-year old monument in the city centre of Paris and it attracts millions of tourists worldwide! Now what happened? Within just few hours, this 900-year-old monument underwent a phenomenal change that the whole world would never forget in the years to come!

Such is the uncertainty of this world. Thus, the point here is that, change is inevitable in life and that, we need to prepare ourselves to accept change and move on with it. There is no point in sitting in a corner and brooding over that, “Oh! Once upon a time I was like that! Today, I’m nothing!” All of us need to cope up with change in some way or the other to lead our life in the positive direction towards “Dharma”. There might be innumerable challenges on the way, and if we’re going to give up and brood over it, there is no end to our misery. Rather, we need to make up our mind and accept whatever situation comes in front of us and face it with all our might. This is the way to overcome change and successfully move forward in life.

So for today, let us ponder over this very important point on “Change” and let us reflect this point to our personal and professional lives. We should make a conscious effort to understand and make up our mind that we need to keep moving on, irrespective of whatever favourable and unfavourable changes happen to us and to our professional career. We shall wait till tomorrow’s episode to witness Vidura’s next important point. Stay tuned! 😊