3K's from Jaya

“Intend and Manifest” I heard Forbes 30 under 30 Pooja Dhingra say during her “Mukbang with Sherry” while describing the scene of her meet-up with the idol Trever Noah. By using the power of intention, Pooja had made her dream meeting happen even after several past failed attempts. How many times has such a thing happened to you? For me, it does happen in the case of books. In my “tell me about series” section below, I have shared the story on how I landed up with getting “Inner Engineering” book without asking my friend for it.

 In recent times, it happened again with the book “Jaya- An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata” by Devdutt Pattanaik when my sister sent it to me without knowing that I was asking for it from the universe. I had heard great reviews about the book, the author and had got convinced that it will act as a rich source of knowledge for me. Also, like many 90s kids, I had grown up watching and hearing about Mahabharata in different forms starting from TV serials to aunts and grandmas chanting verses from “Bhagavad Gita” . However, until this point, I had failed to get answers to many of my questions such as the real reason behind Bhishma never getting married or refraining kingship, Shakuni never losing a game in dice, Dwarka undergoing the fatal series of events, Kauravas ending up in heaven and Pandavas (except Yudhishthira) being taken to hell, etc. By receiving and reading this book, which uncovers rationales and provides logical explanations behind all the happenings the thirst of curious souls such as mine got satiated. Moreover, it made me question my beliefs further on good vs bad and heroes vs villains thus, making me rise above my ignorance and/or superficial knowledge.

 The book convincingly retells the fact that the epic Mahabharata is much more than the fight between cousins over a piece of land. Within it lies a journey on how one can free himself/herself over worldly attachments/ desires. For me, the book indeed came at the right time when I was struggling to make a very important decision in my life. It helped me understand the fact that “Only the truly enlightened know the world as it truly is; the rest construct a reality that comforts the ego. The enlightened are therefore always at peace while the rest are constantly restless and insecure”. These were words of wisdom from Krishna to Arjuna when the later resisted to fight his own brothers, uncles, friends and teacher during the Kurukshetra war. Krishna’s explanations spanned across 700 verses in Bhagavad Gita made Arjun rethink his decision to not fight.

 At the end of the discourse, he understood that the war was meant to be fought to overcome his own fear, guilt, and rage and not over property or vengeance. However, the interesting fact shared by the author is that even after winning the war and having heard the discourse from the god himself, pandavas including Arjuna clinged to their vices thus, teaching us an important lesson that gaining and practicing wisdom is always a work in progress. True to my blog’s intention, I will be sharing top three lessons I learnt from this book. Note, the bigger picture of sharing the blog on this specific book is to suggest that lessons from this great epic and scripture should be re-read by millennials, Gen Z and re-told to our coming generations.

1.      Karmic Konnection –The greatest scholars and saints of all times including Vyasa, the author of four Vedas and Mahabharata have underscored the importance of law of Karma. Leonardo Da Vinci once quoted that “Realize that everything connects to everything else”. Despite knowing this truth, humankind struggles to understand that everything is a reaction to the past. They fall under the trap of spontaneity and end up performing acts which might have disastrous future effects. One such incident recited in the epic and explained in the book is the past life of Bhishma and his parents Shantanu and Ganga . In the past life, Shantanu as Mahabhisha behaved inappropriately in the heaven which caused him to return to the earth. Also, as a contributor to this incident river-nymph Ganga was asked to leave and return only after breaking Shantanu’s heart. Born as the prince of Hastinapur in his recent life, Shantanu fell in love with a beautiful woman ganga who agreed to marry him only if he took the oath to never question her actions. Driven by lust, Shantanu agreed to follow the lady’s suit. Soon after, Ganga gave birth to their first son and drowned him in the river. Bound by the promise, Shantanu kept quiet and mourned in silence. The same tragedy was followed every time a new child was born until, the eight one. This time Ganga was stopped by Shantanu and asked to let the child live. Being questioned, Ganga stopped and told her husband that she would have to leave him because a promise was broken. Also, she narrated the reason why lives of their past seven children were ended by her. These seven kids were seven gods who were cursed to born as mortals for committing the crime of stealing a cow from the sage. To end their misery of earthly existence, Ganga had shortened their punishment by killing them as soon as they were born. The eight born- Devavrata famously known as Bhishma was destined to live longer and more miserable life because he had stolen the cow for his wife in past life. Before leaving, Ganga foretold Shantanu that his eight son would live to neither marry nor inherit the throne despite of being the most eligible. Thus, Bhisma never became a king nor had a family of his own but, ended up being a mere householder always struggling to take care of the Kuru clan. Thus, all three of the above characters suffered because of their past deeds. Vyasa shared multiple such instances such as disrobing of Draupadi, destruction of Dwarka, relationship between Krishna and Arjuna and more which had links to the respective creator’s past deeds. Even though I had always believed in karma, these stories reminded me to be aware of and take charge of my own actions. Because as quoted by Guru Granth Sahib “As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma.”

2.      Knowledge is the Key – Lucretius famously quoted “The generations of living things pass in a short time, and like runners hand on the torch of life”. True to this quote, both the epics- Ramayana and Mahabharata had a discourse at the end of the war to transfer the wisdom from dying people to the living. In the later epic, Krishna asked King Yudhishthira to get the secret of peace and prosperity from his dying grand-uncle Bhishma.

The discussion between the two has been believed to have lasted for days where, Yudhishthira learnt about history, geography, law, politics, economics and philosophy. One of the most important lessons shared by Bhishma which has personally stuck with me- “Life is like a river. You can struggle to change its course but, ultimately it will go its own way. Bathe in it, drink it, be refreshed by it, share it with everyone, but never fight it, never be swept away by its flow, and never get attached to it. Observe it. Learn from it.” In recent times, the practice of learning from our older generation seems to be depleting at faster rate in both personal lives and workspace. From my childhood days, I fondly recall of the times spent with my grandparents specifically my deep conversations with the grandfather. His zest for life, energetic personality and big dreams has influenced me to be the person I am today. However, these conversations grew shorter and lesser when I grew up and today, I miss him and his guidance dearly. In our busy schedules, we tend to forget on putting efforts in spending time with our parents, grandparents or elder of the house. This episode was a wakeup call for me to ensure that I meet/call, talk and learn from them often. When did you last have conversations with your favorite grandparent/parent/elder?

3.      Keep Dharma – Humans are gifted souls with the capability to differ between right and wrong, to treat everyone fairly, and with the ability to take care of their surroundings. However, with this imagination capability, comes the responsibility to use it wisely, to perform righteous acts- dharma and provide justly for everyone residing on mother earth. During his last few days, Bhisma recited the story of King Vena, Prithu and mother earth to King Yudhishthira. The story started with the tragic episode of mother earth running away as a cow due to King Vena’s exploitation. Out of desperation to resolve his subject’s hunger, King Prishu- son of deceased Vena requested earth to return and feed his subjects. Mother earth responded angrily and suggested that the greed, ambition has made mankind to destroy her back. The story ends with Prishu promising earth that he would setup a code of conduct called “Dharma” which would be based on empathy rather than exploitation. Through this analogy of mother earth as a cow, Vyasa has tried to explain to us that as humans our primary responsibility is take care of mother earth. One of the Sanskrit verses from Bhagavad Geeta translates to “Oh! Mother Earth, oceans are your clothes, mountains are your bosom, wife of Lord Vishnu, I bow to thee. Please forgive me for the touch of my feet.” Since, earth is the provider of food, clothes, and other resources, in this verse Krishna is suggesting us to be reverent towards earth and seek her forgiveness as we hurt her by touching the feet, walking, uprooting trees, excavation, etc.

A 16-year-old environmental activist, Greta Thunberg recently gave a speech at UN in which she challenged current generation's way of living and its impact on climate change. She sets a great example herself by leading an international movement such as “School Strike for Climate”, by refraining to take aircrafts because of its adverse effects to the environment and other similar activities. What are you doing for the mother earth? How about we join the dharmic movement of saving the earth starting with these 10 simple steps?

All of the above lessons were focused on Bhishma, likewise there are innumerable lessons to learn from each character of Mahabharata. Which one is your favorite character from Mahabharata and which one would you like to hear about in the future blogs? Primarily, our brains are wired to remember lessons taught via stories. What better way to learn than from our greatest epics? Did this blog inspire you to go buy/rent/ steal (just kidding!) the book? If you have any questions/ recommendations for me on the write-up, on which book my next blog should be on, on books to read, or on anything else leave them in the comments section below. Until the next time, may you be blessed and brave enough to learn from elders, perform dharmic acts and accumulate good karmas!

Tell me about Riya

Riya is an avid reader, life-long learner and lively person. She gets a great joy in sharing her knowledge and developing others. Her interest lies in automotive safety, women empowerment and environmental issues. She lives by the quote of “Take risks in life. If you win, you will lead. If you lose, you will guide”

Tell me about Series 3X’s from Riya’s Reads

This series is targeted to cover 3X* powerful lessons/ characteristics that Riya has learnt from the books she reads. Where, X={A-Z}. Let us hear what Riya thinks about the series in her own words.

Since childhood, I have always loved reading books. However, in recent years I noticed a big change in me. Let us take an example - If my friend asks me to pick a choice between binge watching movies or doing a readathon. The chances are 7 out of 10 times I would pick up books. Don’t get me wrong here. I do like watching movies but, my intrinsic choice will be books over movies. Also, I am a strong believer of the theory that you attract the books that you need at any point of time in your life. One quick example on same- In early-2015, I was flying from Kerala to Mumbai and in the flight noticed a person in adjacent seat reading the book titled ‘Inner Engineering’. Looking at the book, one quick thought crossed my mind- “How nice would it be if I could read this book?”. And guess what? I was gifted this same book within a month and the cherry on the top was that the person did not know that I wanted it or that I would need it near future. During the same month, I was also gifted a book called ‘The Book of Joy’. With fortunate accident, I had received two books which would prove to be my pillar of strengths in near tumultuous times. I have always appreciated the books I was gifted more than the one I purchased. Because it brings with it not only the well wishes of the giver but, more importantly hidden messages such as “You can do it!”, “This shall pass too”, “If they can, so can you” and so on. In every chapter of the series, I will cover three well-worthy lessons I have learnt from all these books. The aim of each chapter would be to give out the hidden messages of optimism, hope, and strength through model, simple text and/or equations.