Mythology and myths of India and their misinterpretations

[Note: - Dear Madhumita, its long since you’ve asked a question .Your questions are treat to answer .Thanks to your question I came up with couple of blogs/posts that was highly appreciated one on fear and the other on the explanation of Poornamedam….God bless you.]

The great epics of Ramayana, Mahabharata and any mythological stories of India have to be read, understood, digested and lived from a spiritual angle to benefit from it completely .The great truths have been beautifully interwoven in the story form so that it is easily remembered, passed on from one generation to another and made it easy to be applied in one’s life simply by following the actions of the “good characters” in their epics.

  Sage vyasa after completing writing Mahabharata stated with pride "what’s not here can never be. And all that’s in the universe is found here." Such confidence and yet so true. All the modern day stories are just a fragment of either Ramayana or Mahabharata nothing else.

So, it’s not only important but also our ‘Dharma’ duty to understand and see these scriptures from spiritual angle to benefit completely from them. When we read these stories from physical level or logically understand them there seems lot of scope for misinterpretations and many Questions to be raised .In the process, these have been used to malign the Vedic philosophy which is termed as ‘Hinduism’ by all those who don’t know or understand Hinduism but when we see them under the light of ‘Spiritual Reason’ or ‘Adhyatm’ then all the contradictions just vanish.

Few Parts of Ramayana are explained for tour understanding

S.No	Situation in Ramayana	How it is at Physical Level	What it means at spiritual level
1.	King Dasharath , father of Rama Has three wives kausalya, Sumitra and kaikeyi	You accept this situation as common with all Kings i.e. multiple wives	King Dasharath represents human life or existence filled or married to three wives which are three gunas viz Satvic , Rajasic and Tamasic
2.	Sita asking Rama to get “Golden deer” for herself and there by going away from Rama.	1. Wife should not ask for such wishes. 2. She let troubles enter her life because of greed. 3.Wife should be satisfied and should not be making lots of demands from her husband	Rama tries to explain Sita that Golden Deer is against nature and hence should not be persuaded yet she is adamant and demands it here Rama Represents  “Purusha” or the “Divine” and Sita “Atma” or the “Human soul” Golden deer represents all the tinsel  that’s found in the world in short attractions of this world which is “Maya” by seers .When the “soul” Desires things of the world, divine (Here husband Rama) goes to fulfill that wish but in the process, the soul is Left all alone in the forest of “Maya” where in lie the beasts of fear, ego, and anger etc .Forest represents life situation. Since “Husband” is not present we as a human soul are open to temptation and fall in the clutches of “Maya” represented by Ravana in this case and hence are separated from our husband, the divine.
3.	Sita is asked to test her purity by entering the pyre	This is widely found reason to talk vely of Rama	When the “Soul” stays in the proximity of “Ravana” Who is “demon” or temptation of this world then to return back to the divine we need to go through the purification process called as “Agni Pariksha” which is nothing but the situations of the life which we need to face with equipoise and come out of it unharmed. In short we need to reclaim our place with the divine by proving our purity (Which is called as healing of Karma.)

Note: - Madhumita this is in response to your query.

Me, my Guru – on perception

 

Me, my Guru – on perception

Our Guru once was telling a story when I entered the class “Duryodhana was very angry with Bhishma for suggesting Yudhishtra’s name for the coronation. He went to Bhishma and asked “In what way is Yudhishtra better than me? Why do you prefer him over me? Why can’t I be a king?”

Bhishma simply called Yudhishtra and smiled and said “You Duryodhana, go and find 5 good people in this kingdom and bring them to me.

Yudhishtra, you go and get 5 bad persons to me”.

They both left. In the evening, both came back empty-handed. Bhishma asked, “Where are the 5 that I asked you to bring?” To which Duryodhana replied, “There are only cheaters, thugs, and useless scoundrels in our kingdom. I couldn’t find even one good person to bring to you”.

When Bhishma turned to Yudhishtra, he replied “Sir, I searched far and wide but found all to be kind, generous and hard-working. They all are good people. I couldn’t find even one bad person to bring to you”. 

Contd.....

# on perception, point of view, seeing good in others, Buddha and buddhu, you are what you see, outer world reflection of inner world, Duryodhana, Bhishma, Yudhishtra, Mahabharat - Great epic of India

also read previous post on this topic for added clarity: https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2017/05/wisdom-over-greed-me-my-guru.html 

needless to say read the entire post by continuing to click 'newer post' at the bottom of the link given above till it comes to an end....so many points in each day's post.....

get back to me with your insights, observations, comments....bye the way, read the comments too - some of them yours maybe but worth going back to your own comments - they speak a lot on your behalf.......

Helpful tips:

This anecdote is from Mahabharata - One of the two great epics of Vedic Philosophy popularly known as Hinduism. Any sensible Hindu would approach these Epics to get answers to his questions of this life and above too! Sage Vyasa after writing the Mahabharata had proclaimed "What isn't in this Mahabharata wouldn't happen in this World. All that is in this World is found here!"

As a kid I thought "What audacity!" and I was floored at this Sage's audacity. How high can one's arrogance be when it is based on Truth?

Points to ponder:

• Buddha sees buddha everywhere and in everyone.
• And the impure will see impurity in everyone. 
• The flawed will see flaws in everyone.
• You are what you read - know that to be true!
• People are just mirrors reflecting who you truly are!

To understand this point given is a link https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=prince+sugar read this old post and your queries will be answered

• If one is unable to see good in the other (within one's circle) then may be that one needs to go within and check on his own feelings and nature...??

The Epics of India - Mahabharata

...contd...

Vidurani

Vidurani is referred as wife of Vidura in Mahabharata.  Just before the start of Mahabharata war, Krishna comes to talk peace with King Dhritarashtra, but the talks fail - thanks to Duryodhan and his uncle Shakuni.

Duryodhan makes elaborate preparations in the palace for Krishna to stay.  But, Krishan refuses to stay there.  The reasons he gives for his refusal are 1. I take food served with love only and the food served by you - Duryodhana is not served with love and 2. I eat food anywhere when I am desperate for food and am on the verge of dying and now I am neither desperate or dying for want of food.  Having given these reasons, he goes to Vidura's house which was a only small house.  He was not at home as he was not expecting Krishna.  His wife Vidurani was at home and she was overwhelmed to see Krishna.  She warmly welcomed him inside the house, gave him seat to sit and went in to get something to eat.  She found only bananas at home. She brought them to Krishna and peeled them and in the excitement threw away the bananas and gave him peels.  Krishna accepted the peel and was eating them when Vidur entered the house and seeing what was happening he shouted at Vidurani for being so careless as to serve banana peel to the Lord.  Krishna stopped him and said that those were the most delicious peels he ever had!

But, when you read especially our epics, don't read them as stories of some characters and don't try to know some story or anecdote about the various characters.  Learn to see the 'Universal Law' working.  Learn it as you can easily understand through some characters and their life situations. 

For eg: With regards to Vidura's birth, it's very clear that though all three - Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidur had greatest Sage Veda Vyasa as their father - their personalities and physical well-being depended totally on the thought on their respective mothers at the time of conception and the feeling they had for the Sage.

...contd....

For Related Topics also read posts dated:

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Scriptures - their purpose

…contd….

Other stories also can have such morals then what is the difference between Mahabharata and such novels? Mainly because in this epic, it chalks out the journey of the soul through its various janmas. It talks about the reason which has caused the birth of a person – be it shikhandi, Krishna,Draupadi or for that matter anyone and everyone in that epic has a previous life that continues into present and their journey after their death is also continued in Mahabharata.  So, one gets to see clearly the reason behind every event, act or person’s nature. 

It just doesn’t stop here – because that can be seen in so many TV shows that talk about past life regression.  Mahabharata is a simple to-do list if you want results in any field of your interest – be it professional or spiritual.  Bhagavat Gita which is part of Mahabhara goes bang on to the cause of the problem and also deals with how to handle it, overcome it and finally see that you never come across it ever!

It’s the ultimate in ‘Inner Management’ techniques which when applied by any person in the world will always give the same result without an exception.  It’s the Ultimate Management Book!  It’s simple, applicable, complete and not to forget - latest than the future and hence timeless!

If you want clarification or detailed explanation on any of the above statements, then please post those questions in the comments section and I’ll try to do my best in clarifying your doubts….

on Mahabharata

On 15th Nov we have a question posed "did the characters in Mahabharata know that they were just the characters in the great epic....?"

Krishna in Bhagavatgita says Arjuna “You and I are souls eternal and have been together on this journey since Janmas (births).  Only difference between you and me is that you don’t remember and I do”.  This clearly explains that even Arjuna doesn’t remember his past lives nor does he remember Krishna to be the Divine incarnate.  So, others knowing and playing the part is totally out of question.  

How to distinguish between the person who knows and the person who doesn’t know?

One who knows is balanced.

He is peaceful for he knows this to be a role that needs to be played.

He receives both the news of death and birth alike.

Doesn’t treat the person based on what he is but treats him based on what he can be.

His likes and dislikes don’t decide his actions, words or feel.

He hates the sin and not the sinner.

He works to correct the wrong and help the person who commits wrong in seeing what is wrong.

Bhagavatam – Krishna answers King Dhritarashtra

Bhagavatam – Krishna answers King Dhritarashtra

After the Kurukshetra war (the war which was fought between cousins of Kuru Dynastry – Pandavas and Kauravas, a war between ‘the right and the wrong’ at the end of Dwapara yuga) , King Dhritrarashtra, father of 100 sons called ‘kauravas’ grieved the death of his sons. When Lord Krishna went to console him, he having seen the ‘vishwaroopa’ of Lord Krishna in an earlier instance knew him to be the one who could know the past and future, the cause and the effect of events asked  Krishna, “I had hundred  sons and all of them were killed in the war. Why? You say it is one’s karma that one experiences what one does in life – both good and bad. Then tell me, what was the cause of my grief of having lost 100 sons?”

Krishna replied, “Fifty lifetimes ago, you were a hunter. While hunting, you tried to shoot a male bird, but it flew away. In anger, you ruthlessly slaughtered the hundred baby birds that were there in the nest. The father-bird had to watch in helpless agony. Because you caused that father-bird the pain of seeing the death of his hundreds sons, you too had to bear the pain of your hundred sons dying.

Dhritarastra said, "Ok, but why did I have to wait for fifty lifetimes?" 

Krishna answered, "You were accumulating punya (pious credits) during the last fifty lifetimes to get a hundred sons because that requires a lot of punya. Then you got the reaction for the papa (sin) that you have done fifty lifetimes ago."

“But this is wrong!” cried Dhritarashtra.

“No. this is justice and Law of Karma” replied Krishna.

This is a very small anecdote from Mahabharata from Mahabharata – one of the epics of Vedic Culture. Now, what does this tell us?

contd.....

related topics : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=law+of+karma

Mahabharata - an Indian Epic

Mahabharata-sacred texts

The question was something like "....Excellent but I also have one more question I read in few books that yudushtira was the only one to be offered heaven and all his brothers and wife were offered hell duryodhana who caused the war was offered heaven why? They also say that after the war the kingdom was full if sorrow and unhappy compared to the time duryodhana ruled please explain ...."


After the war of Kurukshetra, like in every war and after every war women lost their sons, husbands and brothers and children became orphans.  The worst hit during and after war is always women and children - both innocent and who don't like and want war.  Pandavas too like them didn't want and like war.  But, they were forced by Duryodhan and his allies to wage war.  They fought not for themselves.  Never make a mistake of coming to that conclusion.  (Usually people justify their fight out of greed and envy using Pandavas stand as an eg...).  If it had been so, they wouldn't have asked for Khandava Vanam (A forest infested by dangerous snakes and demons) to build their empire as their share from King Dhritarashtra.  They could've asked for a prosperous, fertile and equal portion of land as their share from Dhritarashtra and he couldn't have said no to them.

This they asked after Duryodhan tried burning them alive in Vanavrat - building made of wax.  They didnot even fight after this injustice was meted out on them.

Later, when they converted Khandavavan into a prosperous city of Indraprasth, Duryodhan out of envy wanted to take away all their wealth and so hatched a plan along with Shakuni.  According to that plan, Pandavas were invited to Hastinapur, Capital of Kauravas and Pandava's entire kingdom was snatched in gambling by Kauravas.

Later, they were forced to live in forests for 12 years and incognito for one year and the condition kept that if they were recognised, then they had to go and live in forests again for 12 years.....

......contd......

Scriptures -their purpose

Note : The question asked on 30^th Oct 13 was “What is the essence of Mahabharata? ….” Refer comment of 30^th Oct 13 for full understanding of this question and answer.

Mahabharata or any other scripture doesn’t ‘tell’ us how to lead a life.  That is the best part of Hindu Dharma.  It respects our right of ‘free will’ (already explained in one of the previous blogs- please check) and so gives us picture of the effects of a certain act in our life. 

For eg., Dhritarashtra stands for the ultimate of ‘moham’ or ‘attachment’ – more precisely ‘putra moham’ i.e., attachment for his son.  By looking at Dhritarashtra and understanding his character we can see how he ended up taking steps which ultimately brought about downfall of not only his son but of the entire dynasty and the entire Bharata Khanda eventually.  One person’s blind attachment can be the cause of the end of this world.  All the dynasties of that era were wiped out completely because of ‘kurukshetra war’. 

Here Dhritarashtra doesn’t stand for a physically blind person.  He is shown as blind to explain that if one sense is blinded by our greed, ego, lust or anger, then imagine what our plight would be when we are blinded by all our senses?

…contd….

Epics of India - Mahabharata

Vidura - Mahabharata

King Shantanu of Kuru Dynasty married a fisher-woman Satyavati who gave birth to two sons - Chitrangadha and Vichitravirya.  Chitrangandha died unmarried and issueless.  Vichitravirya was married to Princess Ambika and Amalika.  But, he two died and Satyavathi not wanting the Kuru Clan to end, requested her son Sage Krishna Dwaipayana to bestow motherhood upon the two widowed queens.  Unable to brush aside his mother's request, he agreed to.

Though he was a great sage of high learning, his looks were frightful.  And so Ambika closed her eyes when she went to him and so she gave birth to a blind child -Dhritarashtra.  Ambalika was so weak with fright when she approached him that she gave birth to a son of weak constitution -Pandu.  Satyavati wanted a healthy child - to be fit enough to be a king and hence requested Ambika to approach Sage Vyasa once again.

Out of fear for him, she sent her maid who consented happily as she felt it a great honour and a great priviledge to bear the child of such a great sage as Sage Vyasa.  So, her son Vidur was born - both healthy and highly learned.  But, as he was born of a maid, he was not given the kingship.  Bheeshma, the grand old man of Kuru Clan brought all three of them under his care and Vidur mastered 'Dharma' very well under him.


....contd....

Related posts :

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Bhaktha and his bhakti – Guru Shishya – My Guru and Me

Contd....

Bhaktha and his bhakti – Guru Shishya – My Guru and Me       

One of us luckily intervened to ask a question that struck most of us at the time. “Guruji, aren’t Devas gods and Asuras, demons? Then why are you using Daityas for Asuras? Does Asura not mean demonic by nature? And how come they are step brothers?”

“Fine!” she said without even a single frown. “Let’s go back further and start from the beginning. “All that IS” whom we usually refer to as “the Brahman” or “the God” at one point of time felt and wanted to be many and said “let me be many” and the universe came into being! He then created “Brahma” - the master and creator of all beings. He had 7 mind-born sons (Saptarishis) and one of them was Kashyapa Mahamuni (sage). He married 13 out of 60 daughters of Prajapati Daksha. Among his wives were Aditi (mother of Devas) and Diti (mother of Daityas, later came to be known as Asuras).

As a society during vedic times, sexual attraction and intercourse was accepted as an essential part of living and hence a set of rules were laid for the same. One such rule said that when a woman initiates for sex it is wrong on the part of the man to displease or reject her. That’s why King Arjuna in Mahabharata gets cursed by a Naga Kanya when he doesn’t encourage her advances towards him. 

Contd........

also reads : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=mahabharata 

questions answered and points to be understood:

• Lust, anger, greed, ego, attachments and jealousy are not the products of Kali-yuga. They have been there from time immemorial. We can't blame 'our times' for behaving as we are and get away with it.

Draupadi - mahabharata

Draupadi in Mahabharat

One of the most prominent, powerful yet most abused character or rather one who bore most of the abuse in Mahabharata - and one of my favourite characters - is Draupadi.

King Drupada of Paanchaal Desh (kingdom) was defeated by his childhood friend Guru Dronacharya.  Guru Dronacharya waged war with Drupad to avenge his insult inflicted by Drupad when he went to visist him saying "King and a pauper like Brahmin Dron can never be friends." Dron couldn't digest it and hence taught Kuru Princes all the know-how of fighting and as Guru Dakshina (fees) asked them to bring Drupad as his war-prisoner.  Pandavas fulfilled his desire and paid their Guru Dakshina.

Now, King Drupad though was given half the kingdom by Guru Dron as a gesture of his friendship sought to seek his revenge.

This hatred in him forced him to perform a yagna seeking son who could avenge him.  Out of that Yagna (sacrificial fire) Kund came Dhristadyum - son of King Drupad and out of the same sacred fire came Draupadi - The pure one called "Yagna Seni" - Gift of Gods and born of fire.  As she was daughter of Drupad was called Draupadi - as was the tradition in those days.  People were given varous names denoting their parentage, quality and the palce of birth like :
Draupadi was called -
Yagna seni  - born of fire
Krishnaa     - the dark one (because of her dark complexion)
Paanchali - Princess of Paanchal (Paanchal was the name of her kingodom)

...contd....

Mahabharata - an Indian epic

...contd...

Utterance of sentence that implied wrong meaning also was/is a sin which had to be paid for.  This Universal Law is beautifully brought forth by this anecdote in Mahabharata....Inspite of the fact, that this sentence was asked to be said by Lord Krishna himself.  This goes to prove that even if the Lord for the good asks you to do something wrong, do it by all means as it is his command, but YOU have to bear the consequences - nevertheless!!!

Duryodhan and his allies, however cruel they were they also committed few good deeds and so were benefitted with stay in heaven for equivalent amount of time and were later shifted to hell for the rest of their astral lives.

The rule of enjoying the fruits of ones' karma as said by Lord Yama is that one's less karma, be it good or bad is first enjoyed by the person and the fruit of bigger portion is later confined to him.  For eg. Pandavas wrong was less when compared to their punya karma and hence they were made to experience hell - the result of bad karma and then they were shifted to heaven as a fruit of their punya karma....whereas Duryodhan 's punya was less when compared to the paap i.e, sins that he had committed and hence he was allocated heaven first and then when his punya was exhausted he was shifted to hell!!!

We can also understand that both good and evil deeds have their respective repurcusions and none can escape them.

...contd...

Mahabharata - a epic

...contd....

This is how this story has to be understood and remembered!

With this understanding, we would be inspired to walk on the path of Dharma and not take short-cuts or wrong approaches to fulfill our desires or passions.

But, instead if we see this story in a wrong way and ask 'Pandavas suffered so much because  of being good and Kauravas enjoyed inspite of being bad', then we need to question our defination of suffering and abundance.  We also need to look within honestly - because this question shows that we have decided to walk the path of adharma and are finding excuses and examples of great people and from their lives to quote and prove that we are right in our wrong!

"Every thought decides our future " not just immediate but janmas to come....I've already explained this so many times.  Under no circumstance, character can be compromised in exchange for worldly goodies.  Because these luxuries come with a expiry date - be it power, money, assets etc - but character is the seed from which our all future janmas come out!

If you are the one who doesn't believe in after-lives, then to enjoy heaven, we need to do good deeds only, as bad deeds will push us into hell.

...contd....

Duryodhan in Heaven? - On Mahabharata

Me, my guru – Karna receives what he gives!

 

Contd......

Me, my guru – Karna receives what he gives!

Pointers to understand the post:

“But, as the day turned to night, Karna couldn’t overlook his hunger. So, he asked the Angel “Brother, you’ve been showing me around all the places. But, I am very hungry. Why don’t you give me something to eat?” – see how Karna addresses the Angel with loads of affection and respect. Just because he had earned a seat in heaven it didn’t go to his head.

Our post, position, money, achievements, contacts and so on shouldn’t make us arrogant. I find many go head strong with “I am a Reiki Master” statement. It is just a degree. Know that. Be that!

Same applies to everything else too!

Be humble. Don’t think we are entitled to anything in this or after life! No one gets respect by demanding. One earns it by his behavior and character. And humility is that attitude that gets you respect from others. Know this and develop that character.

““Because you’ve given various kinds of riches as charity in the World below (meaning on Earth). But you never gave food to anyone. So, you will not receive food. In the heaven, you receive 10 times of what you give on Earth. You can’t receive what you didn’t give!” the Angel said and left.” – So you see, not all our good karmas are encashed in this form and on Earth only. They are also encashed in our astral forms.

The impact of our karma and their workings go beyond one life time and human body!

“So you see you receive what you give in equal measure. That is the Law of Karma. You can’t redeem one act of yours with your desire as you please.” No body, absolutely nobody can redeem their one punya with their any desire. Do not get confused with being good and earning brownie points for doing good.

# me my Guru, Karna, Mahabharata, Itihaasa of India, on receiving and giving, Law of Karma, suffering and pain, good deeds and their repercussions, acts and their impact, how our deeds decide our fate, fate and destiny, choices, dharm, 

also read this previous post to understand better https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2017/07/soul-journey-jada-bharath-bhagavatham.html 

and also 

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2017/08/on-healing.html to understand what healing is and how healing works?