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Our Inner Conflict

        What we are going to "achieve" through Sakthi Gita  is inner peace. This inner peace is not some thing which we have to gain. Inner peace is already  there in us  but  because of our inner conflicts we are not aware of it.  Only in brief moments of happiness we get a glimpse of the inner peace.  We then crave to maintain that blissful state and we think that "doing" something we can maintain that peaceful state. It is due to ignorance we are not  aware of the fact that Peace is our real "Nature".

           We are not aware that our real nature is peace or silence because  of the constant rambling noises in our mind. The  inner conflicts of our mind prevent us from being peaceful. Gita helps us  to over come inner conflicts by reveling  the agents in our mind  that cause the conflicts. Like a story it portrays  who or what  is involved in this conflict.

        We will understand that the conflict is between the "Ego" which is an attitude that denies the reality. The Ego wants every thing inside and outside of the way it want to be. It dictates its own rules  and wants everything to happens according to its likes and dislikes. It webs its own  "Matrix" world and want to rule that fictional world. Any thing that threatens its powers , it ruthlessly destroys.

The "I"  World

         Our predominant thought is the "I" thought. "I" want this, "I"  do not want this. "I" want this way and not that way. "I"  like and do not like that. "I" want her or him to behave and  talk in a manner that is pleasing to me. "I"  want things to unfold in the way "I" feel good about it. We will stop here because we are experiencing this "I"  thought every moment of life. This "I thought is referred to the Ego in Gita and all Vedic texts.  Having known about the "I" and the problems it creates we will see its connection to the mind and its affairs.

|The Mind and the Ego

          As we understand the Ego is an attitude born in the mind. To symbolically represent we can say that the Ego is the son of the blind mind. If the blind mind can be taken as a Blind king ruling over a kingdom called the body, then the Ego is the Prince. What is mind?. Mind is just flow of thoughts. Why is the mind blind?  Like a blind man who has no eyes of his own but depends on  other's eyes, the Mind  depends on senses to know what is happening inside and  outside of the body. Mind is just flow of thoughts and knows no direction.

             This Mind has hundreds of thoughts, but the predominant or the eldest thought is the "I" thought , the Ego thought. The Mind cannot think without the feeling of  "I" thought. So the Mind has a blind attachment or affection to its son Ego. Knowing this weakness of the father, the  son Mr. Ego,  grabs POWER  and makes the mind its own puppet. Look at the irony,  instead of the prince (Ego) obeying the King (mind) , the mind dance to the tune of the Ego. You can imagine though history,  the condition of a kingdom, which has a blind king serving his Ego prince.

          This is exactly the condition of our own mind and body.   How can the body (kingdom) be free of diseases and sufferings when our Ego is concerned only in executing its own likes and dislikes and not bothered about the welfare of its citizens. We eat unhealthy foods or use alcohol and drugs just for the Ego ignoring the damages it cause to the body. Isn't this hypocritical? 

         The Ego decides to experience a feeling which it considers great. The mind caters to its need. When the Ego demands this more often then it is called addiction. We have different types of addiction some in the form of habits like coffee, tea, alcohol, smoking, munching potato chips, eating highly spicy foods, eating too much sweets, craving for sex  and the list continues. Have you ever analyzed about your addiction or habits and who demands this addiction?  The body does not  crave for any of these "things". Then where is the craving or addiction coming from?

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Parent Category: Uni5 Self Awareness

Category: Gita Sakthi

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Ego -The villain

           It is the Ego feeling or  "I" thought that craves and the bottom line for 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..

            The moment the Ego gets the mind to dance to its whims and tunes, the body is completely forgotten. But every time when we try these body damaging experiences some thing in us warns about the consequences and that is our intellect. The intellect is like a wise minister or counselor who is concerned about the welfare of the people and of the king . It will warn the blind's king attitude of dancing to the tunes of its Ego prince as dooming the kingdom, the body. Such a blind king will wake up only when the citizens wake up and revolt against the autocratic  rule of the king. As we had discussed earlier disease is an alarm of the dys-functioning of the mind affecting the body and requires immediate attention. So the waking up call of the citizens  is the disease alarm.

Peaceful kingdom

          How can maintain Peace always?. When the mind (king) rules the kingdom (body) sticking to  law and the advice of the ministers without the selfish attitude of pleasing his son, the Ego, there would be peace in the Kingdom.  A king (mind) who rules with his own inner strength and not being a puppet in the hands of his Egoistic son, would bring peaceful reign.

          The above kingdom is an ideal kingdom. But what if there is no peace, there is total confusion and no direction in life?  If there a way out? Can something be done for the blind king (mind) its own strength and bring peace to the kingdom? Yes and that is the purpose of this Sakthi Gita.  Gita is the essence of Mahabharata.  The above story of our mind and Ego is the theme of Mahabharata. Our inner conflict is the Mahabharata war. Reading this Sakthi Gita not only we regain our inner strength but also know our real nature which is not this body, this mind, the intellect or this ego. Our true nature is one and the same but called in different names in different traditions - Soul, Spirit, Atma, God, Consciousness, Peace, Being, Reality etc.

Healing diseases of the mind and the body.

       Through Sakthi-Gita, one can heal the diseases of the mind and the body. As you have read in the health section in Sakthi Foundation web page, stress in the mind is the root cause for all the diseases. At a subtle level, the stress in the mind is due to its inner conflicts. If we can distinctly see the Ego and through that we can overcome stress in the mind, addictive habits, inner conflicts, deep wounds of the mind and all negative tendencies of the mind. Purifying all these aspects of the mind one can heal diseases of the mind and the body. This approach is not a temporary solution but a long lasting approach to regain peace in us, at all levels.

         Before introducing this approach to public on internet , we and our friends tried it and got amazing results. Many of our friends told us that for the  first time they were able to understand how the Ego plays tricks in the minds. They viewed their own Ego curbing all their attempts to let free the mind from its prison and realize its own power. This approach is like an adventure or like watching a movie since we observe our own thoughts. Through this path we understand the mystery  of the mind.

In the Uni5 model, ego is not only the Self destructive individual's enemy but also resrources exploiting, world's enemy too. It is a thug in the Self, rooted in flesh, bone and blood. It continues its rebirth again and again and takes the shine of God. It breaks the laws of life, fearlessly it judges others. It tries to control the whole universe, for sky is it limit. 

Please click here to continue to read briefly the story of Mahabharata.       

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Mahabharata and Gita

Mahabharata

The  Mahabharata composed by sage Vyasa tells the story of two sets of paternal first cousins.  It is the story of a blind King Drita-rastra (mind), whose eldest Son Duryo-dana,  is the symbol of Ego. According to the code of Indian law, the kingdom should not be ruled by a physically handicapped King.  Drita-rastra who is born blind had to give up the ruling power of the kingdom to his younger brother Pandu. Pandu is the symbolism of wisdom.  To Pandu  five sons are born (called Pandavas)  and to Drita-rastra 100 sons (called Kav-ravas). Pandu dies soon after his sons were born  and since his son being young, it was decided by the ministers that the blind king Drita-rastra assumes the throne until Pandu's  son was old enough to be the king. 

          Through the above story and the symbolism, we will understand that from our birth, the blind mind cannot rule our life but the wisdom in us. Since the wisdom has to strengthen through experience in life, we temporarily allow the blind mind to rule us. But having tasted power the mind not only want to give up the kingdom ,but tries to crown  its own son, the Ego. This is what we see in Mahabharata.

           The power thirsty blind King Drit-rastra did not want to  now give up kingdom to his brother's Son.  He wanted to crown his own Son Duryodana as the king instead of giving back the kingdom to the most deserving brother's son Yud-istra. These developments lead the two sets of paternal cousins to  became bitter rivals, and opposed each other in war for possession of the ancestral kingdom. In Mahabharatadays India was called as  Bhaarat with its capital Hastinapur. Hastinapur  is still current  India's Capital with the new name Delhi.

               Knowing the developing rivalry, the great grandfather ,Bhisma divides the kingdom into two and allows one portion of it to be ruled by Pandavas. Duryodhana  however behaved viciously and brutally toward the Pandavas in many ways. With the intention of getting back the partitioned kingdom, he invited  the eldest Pandava, Yud-istra  in a game of dice:   Treacherously they win not only the kingdom but also wins all the five brothers and their common wife Draupadi. After they won the game of dice, the Kavravas (100 sons of Drita-rastra)  humiliated all the Pandavas and physically abused Draupadi and  drove the Pandava party into the wilderness for twelve years, and the twelth year had to be followed by the Pandavas' living somewhere in society, in disguise, without being discovered for one more year. If they are spotted then they have to repeat the exile of 12years and one year of disguise again.

         The Pandavas fulfilled their part of that bargain, but the villainous leader of the Drita-rashtra party, Duryodhana , was unwilling to restore the Pandavas to their half of the kingdom when the thirteen years had expired. Both sides then called upon their many allies and two large armies arrayed themselves on the battle field.

           The most dramatic figure of the entire Mahabharata, however, is Krishna,  who with great personality protects Law, performs Good Deeds and Right conduct. Krishna is not only  cousin  to the Pandavas (sons of Pandu) but also the brother-in-law of Arjuna , the third Pandava, and served as Arjuna's mentor and charioteer in the great war.

           Much of the action in the Mahabharata is accompanied by discussion and debate among various interested parties, and the most famous sermon of all time, Krishna  ethical lecture and demonstration of his divinity to his charge Arjuna (the justly famous Bhagavad Gita  occurred in the Mahabharata just prior to the commencement of the hostilities of the war. The war was fought 18 days and finally the Pandavas won killing Duryodhana.

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Symbolism Of Mahabharata

Though there are lives of  thousands of kings , why was Mahabharta, a great epic which was composed on the kings of Kuru , Pandu and Yadava dynasty?. This is because their lives still continue to inspire lives of not only ruling class but down to every human being on Earth. Mahabharata is the biggest book ever written which includes all branches of life.      

                Mahabharata is a powerful and amazing text that inspires awe and wonder about  cosmos and humanity. The Mahabharata and the war is not a fictional story but a historical event. But 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. Through this epic we will be left with no unanswered question.

The 100 sons

    We already discussed that the eldest son of the blind son Drita-rashtra is Dur-yodhana, who symbolize the Ego. To the blind king who symbolize the blind mind marries Gandhari. She out of emotionally love  to her blind husband , ties a bandage on her  eyes. Thus Gandhari symbolize the blind intellect  following the  blind mind. This blind mind and blind intellect breeds many desires through ten sense organs. 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 (10 x 10 = 100) propensities, desires, thoughts, ambitions, expectations and dreams. These are the children of the mind and symbolized as the 100 sons in Mahabharata. The eldest of these thought is Dur-yodhana which means the one whom it is difficult to fight. "Duh" means difficulty, "yodh" means to fight and represents the Ego , which is difficult to fight or indomitable. The second son and brother to Dur-yodha is Dus-asana , the name means one who is difficult to control.

Pandavas - The Five

      Pandu was the younger brother of the blind king Drita-rastra. Pandu represents wisdom (represented by white color). But this wisdom matures with experience and hence gives the ruling power to the blind mind, until the children of wisdom are ready. Pandu's wife is kunti, which means to invoke. She invokes powerful inspiration of nature and bears children. The first child is Yudhi-stra. Yudhi means in the battle, sthira means tranquil or undisturbed. Yudhi-stra is the symbol of peace and the  sky element of Pancha Bhootas. Sky is the bridge of transcendence to the conscious state and  represented as throat chakra.

        Peace should be the ruler of us. But the Ego demands that it should be the take control over. This fight for the throne is Mahabharata war. In the war, Bhima the second son of the Pandavas who  killed all 99 sons of Drita-rastra. Bhima represents the life force or breath, the Air element in Pancha Bhoota.  Bhima is the breath that brings the awareness of "Oneness". The ignorance of duality dissolves in the purity of  "Love" and is represented as heart chakra.

       Arjuna the third represents fire element. Rajju means rope or bondage and na means no. This represents that we are really not bonded, but free. Arjuna represents the liberating thoughts in us and brings peace. Arjuna is the enquiring mind. The enquiring mind burns like fire and destroys the darkness of ignorance. This burning fire is what needs to be given direction and that is why out of the five brothers Arjuna was taught Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna represents the mastering the "Heat or Power" of senses symbolized as the navel chakra.

       Na-kula , na means no and kula is bank of a river or shore. Nakula means boundless or endless flow of water. He represents the flowing energy of desires, the energy to reproduce. Water is the element of nature that sustains life and reproduction. This sexual energy should be directed for our higher evolution towards peace.

      Sahadeva is the youngest of the Pandavas. He represents the Earth element, the solidness (reality)  of manifestation. Earth is the discriminating element, the food factor. It is through enquiry of real and unreal that drives us to seek wisdom. Earth is the foundation of "enquiry".

Nakula and Sahadeva are twins and is interesting to know their symbolism. Nakula represents the sexual energy that produce life and Sahadeva represents the enquiring attitude. According to Vedas,  life began when the cosmic consciousness wanted to know itself. Hence Life (Nakula) and knowing (Sahadeva) are twins.

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