• General
  • Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
  • Art Of Living
    • Guinness Records
  • Knowledge
  • Stories
  • About Me

Art of Living, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and My Self!

Art of Living, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and My Self!

Tag Archives: HInduism

The Mahabharata within you! – Part 1

13 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by Aravind Venkatachalam in Knowledge

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Body, desires, Ego, emotions, HInduism, Mahabharata, Mind, Scriptures, Spirituality, Story, Symbolism, thoughts

Two families. Five brothers against a Hundred. A story spanning four generations. Aerial attacks, Ufos, Aliens, Atomic bombs and many many more. That is just a part of the Mahabharata for you. If you have not had the chance the read it, here is the Mahabharata in 36 tweets for you.

The author of the epic used the real incident and weaved  symbolic images to reflect our own inner conflicts. Using these images if we dive deep into our inner self, we will be able to appreciate the mystery of our own mind and life. Recently, I had a chance to read many versions of it with their story changed. Even though there were good efforts with good intentions, I felt that a lot of people haven’t explored the inner essence and symbolism of the characters, events, their interactions, etc. It is imperative to know the inner symbolism of the characters and its representation to grasp the immensity of Mahabharata. I have been wanting to write on it but had to do some research on it to get it right. So here is a write up of what the characters meant and why is it important to know this. To deal with all the characters at once would be over whelming. We will take a group of characters and few events in a series of posts. Lets deal with the Kauravas first.

Cast of the Mahabharata series

Cast of the Mahabharata series

Dhritarashtra – The blind king of Hastinapura represents the our mind. More than that – our blind mind. Without the intellect’s discriminating power. Hence the blindness. His wife Gandhari represents the intellect power. The intellect can see. However, when the intellect gets smitten with emotion it gets blinded too. This is indicated by Gandhari blinding herself after being married to Dhritarashtra. The result is devastation and destruction. The blind mind has got many desires and tendencies in it and is the abode of emotions and feelings.

Five are senses of knowledge or perception the eyes, nose, ears, tongue and skin (Gnanendriyas). The other five are the senses of action-mouth, hands, feet, genital organ and anus (Karmendriyas). There are 10 directions north, south, west, east, north east, south east, south west and northwest and up and down. When the mind and intellect run blindly in all 10 directions and functions through 10 sense organs , give rise to hundred desires, thoughts, ambitions, expectations and dreams. These are the children of the mind and symbolized as the 100 sons in Mahabharata.

Duryodhana – the first son. The main thought of the mind is always ‘I, me, Mine’. This is called the ego. So he represents the first and fore most thought of the mind – the EGO. The mind cant control the ego very easily. That is why Dhritarashtra couldn’t control Duryodahana and always swayed by his son’s wishes. ‘Duh‘ means difficult and ‘yodhana‘ means to fight. Ego is something that was difficult to fight against. It is the Ego feeling or  “I” thought that craves and falls into addiction. All mental and physical problems stems from the “I” feeling.  The “I”  feeling instead of helping the body, ruthlessly rips off health of the body.  “I” want to experience  spicy taste no matter my stomach hurts and develop ulcers.  “I” want to experience to “refresh” with coffee no matter if it dehydrates my body  and make my body cells suffer in thirst. “I” want to experience dull-mindedness with alcohol  no matter if it hurts my liver and all other body organs. I want to do something even though my doctor has asked me not to because I already booked it! (targeted remark). 🙂

The moment the Ego gets the mind to dance to its whims and tunes, the body is completely forgotten. That is why Dhritarashtra was caught completely in the whims of Duryadhana and gave in to most of his wants. As a king, he didnt listen to his subjects which represent the body. The blind mind always tries to give importance to its ego – Dhritarashtra wants his son to be crowned as the prince of the kingdom. Like this you can find so many instances of how the mind empowers the ego and the ego runs rampage in our mind. This is so beautifully portrayed in the mahabharata with various events. The next time you read the mahabhrata, see if you can relate to the same happening with in you.

Dhritarashtra had a son named Yuyutsu with a vaishya(worker) clan woman. Yuyutsu was always on the path of dharma even though he was with the Kauravas. He does defect to the Pandavas just before the war. Kind of an equal to Vibhishana of Ramayana. He represents the desire to give psychological battle to the bad things the mind comes up with but is not as powerful as the ego and desires. This shows the mind is capable of producing good thoughts but these are not strong enough. In my next post, I will bring out the Pandavas and many other events within the mahabharata and its significance.

[COURTESY : Discourses on Bhagavad Gita by Paramahamsa Prajnanananda, Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Eswaran and Symbolism of Mahabharata article]

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Days to WCF

World Culture FestivalMarch 11, 2016
The World Culture Festival in New Delhi, INDIA!

Categories

  • Art Of Living
  • General
  • Inspirational Quotes
  • Katha Vidya
  • Knowledge
  • Poems
  • Stories
  • Videos

Pages

  • About Me
  • Guinness Records
  • Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Art of Living Ashram Bad habits Bhagavad Gita Brain Breath Campaign Choice community Death Dushyant Ego emotions Guru Guruji Happiness health Inspiration Karma Knowledge Life Love Mahabharata Mahabharatha marriage Meditation Mind Navaratri Peace Poem Poetry Prana Pranayama Quote Quotes Relationship Satsang Society Spirituality Sri Sri Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Story Stress Stress Free Sudarshan Kriya Teacher Video games Violence Violence Free Yoga

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,225 other followers

Follow Art of Living, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and My Self! on WordPress.com

My favorites

  • Flying High in Peace
  • Kaalakshepam...
  • rarasaur
  • Art of Living Blog
  • Intenseice

Art Of Living

  • Art of Living Foundation
  • Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Blog Stats

  • 134,984 hits

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

May 2022
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Feb    

Prayer

Saha nav avatu, Saha nau bhunaktu, Saha viryam karavavahi: Tejasvi nav adhitam astu: ma vidvisavahai; Aum Santih, Santih, Santih - May He protect us both; may He be pleased with us both; may we work together with vigor; may our study make us illumined; may there be no dislike between us. Aum, peace, peace, peace.

Recent Posts

  • Critic or Profiteering – For Anti WCF Brigade – Part 1
  • 33000 artists to perform in WCF!
  • 7 Energy chakras of India & our Earth!
  • Why you should be in New Delhi this March!
  • What’s on your mind?

Archives

  • February 2016
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • July 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012

Aravind Venkatachalam

is a senior software engineer living in the Bay area. He is a devotee of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and volunteers for the Art of Living Foundation. He uses this blog to share his ideas on ancient wisdom from the Puranas and from Sri Sri along with many other stories and juicy stuff!!

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Flying High in Peace

Kaalakshepam...

Stories untold and retold

rarasaur

frightfully wondrous things happen here.

Art of Living Blog

Intenseice

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Art of Living, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and My Self!
    • Join 1,225 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Art of Living, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and My Self!
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
    %d bloggers like this: