To a devotee who would continuously crib and complain,
Poojya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji roared – “There are no problems in
life! Stop crying and complaining.” The devotee was puzzled. After a pause Gurudev whispered – “There are
no problems in life! Only situations.”
Life only brings situations to us. Our mind interprets it as a problem,
challenge or crisis. For a strong mind
even the toughest of challenges is merely a situation. For a weak mind even the
simplest of situations is a mighty crisis.
Given the same situation different people respond to it according to the
texture of their mind.
The first chapter of Srimad Bhagavad Geeta beautifully
demonstrates the human response to any challenge and establishes the need for
clarity and strength in life.
Dhritarashtra, Duryodhana and Arjuna are faced with the same situation –
the fratricidal war. Let us see the
response of each one of them
- Dhritarashtra
- Being
the king, it was his duty to give atleast some share(if not the entire
kingdom) of the Kingdom to the Pandavas.
But his vision was blinded by the attachment to his son. He did not exercise the powers that he
had as a king. As a result, though
he could have prevented the war, he did not. This made him helpless. He asks Sanjaya helplessly – ‘What did
my children and Pandu’s children do, having assembled in the holy
Kurukshetra?’
- In
life, when we don’t perform our duties and allow our mind to enslave us
we become helpless. Alas! We
regret after the damage is done.
We continuously suffer from guilt after that.
- Thus,
Dhritarashtra acted out of Tamas.
When we meet any challenge with Tamas in mind we never take a
decision which needs to be taken.
Laziness, indulgence, procrastination and inalertness are the
qualities of a tamasic mind.
- Etymologically
Dhritarashtra means – ‘Dhritam rashtram yena saha.’ Symbolically it means, one who
holds-on to what does not belong to him.
Let us introspect – what is that which we are holding on to, we
are attached to, which prevents us from doing our duty and clouds our
thinking. What is that on which my
happiness and security depends? Without which I feel incomplete and
insecure. This world is created by
the Lord and nothing here belongs to us including our body. Yet we are blinded
by attachment and we hold on to the body, to the people to things and to
situations.
- If
we live a life of attachments and don’t act objectively - guilt, regret
and helplessness shall be our lot in life.
- Duryodhana
- Duryodhana
was blinded by greed and inferiority.
He was thirsty for power and at the same time did not want
Pandavas to have any power. He
always wanted to prove that he was superior and stronger. Due to jealousy, he made several
attempts on the lives of the Pandavas – Poisoned Bhima, attempted setting
fire to the wax-house, attacked the pandavas in the year of incognito
etc.
- Since
he was on the side of Adharma(unrighteousness), he was feeling scared and
there was fear in his mind. But
due to false pride, he not only did not want to show his fear but he also
acted arrogantly when he went to Dronacharya and taunted his own
teacher. Inferiority and fear was
inside but outside he was putting up a show of strength. This disintegration caused a lot of
stress, worry and anxiety in Duryodhana.
- Etymologically
Duryodhana means – Invincible in war & Unconquerable. Sadly, though he was supposed to be
strong and invincible, though he had a much bigger army(11 akshauhini)
than pandavas(7 akshauhini), still he felt that his army is
insufficient and incapable of winning over the pandava army. Adharma robs away inner strength and
makes us feel inadequate to face challenges of life.
- Thus,
Duryodhana acted under the influence of Rajas.
- When
our mind is filled with Rajas and greed takes over the mind, we will do
adharma. That will lead to
fear. Trying to hide the true
feelings inside and putting-up a false mask causes disintegration. Stress, worry and anxiety is a natural
outcome of these.
- If
we live a life of disintegration & adharma – stress, fear, anxiety,
insecurity and worry will be our experience.
How Arjuna responds to the same situation we shall see in
the next blog
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