GANGA AND SHANTANU AND SATYAVATI SYMBOLISM -MAHABHARAT

    I talked about the symbolism in Mahabharat related to Dronachary . But now we go the beginning of the story and see if there is some symbolism. Shantanu the king falls in love with Ganga  and wants to marry and she has a condition that he will never ask him as to what she does with her children and then she has children, she drowns them Last  one is saved as Shantanu asks her as to why she is doing this . Then Shantanu wans to marry fisherman's daughter and she does not want to marry as her children will not be the King as Shantanu had his own son from Ganga  and traditionally he would the king. Th son named BHISHMA  promises that he will never become king . But the Satyavati is worried about his children  who would be the one who would become king and so Bhishma promises that he will never marry.  

    So now let is try to analyze. Shantanu is PARABRHMA - The transcendental principle of creation of the universe or the FATHER .Unchanging and reason for all forms and shapes etc. The Ganga is the CHAITANYA or CONSCIOUSNESS - also MAHA PRAKRUTI .and the Satyavati is the Primordial NATURE or the MATTER.

   GANGA is the CONSCIOUSNESS and she has 8 children and one of them is BHISHMA . The 6 children are INTELEGENCES  controlling 3 each of micro and 3 macro universes . We all know about the PHYSICAL , ASTRA. and CAUSAL bodies . Each exists in microcosm and macrocosm . So that is 6 and they are  EMERSED  IN CONSCIOUSNESS and so in that way they are gone. The 7th one is ABHAS CHAITANYA  or REFLECTED CONSCIOUSNESS , without which NOTHING CAN WORK . That is like electricity in our home - without which A/C heater . freeze, cooking range , TV etc. could not  function. The BHISHMA is UNIVERSAL EGO -the self awareness of the universe. 

   The SATYAVATI is PRIMORDEAL MATTER and she has 3 children , one is VYAS and 2 others are CHITHRANGADA AND VICHITRAVIRYA 

   I will write about them and Pandu and Dritarashtra and Pandavas in my next blog. . 

   

 

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MAHABHARAT AND SYMBOLISM

   Now a days we all consider ourselves as intellectual. In past we did not question everything, as there was some faith and some trust  and sometimes we were told that 'that is the way it is'. So I often get questions about the characters in Mahabharat. I have written about it in past and many have written about it too. Everyone has his own thought process and some explanation. Recently I saw some videos on social medias trying to explain the major characters, and so I thought of writing this blog.

   The story is very interesting and it starts with King Shantanu marrying Ganga. She had made him promise that he would never question as to what she does to her children , Then she drowns the first 7 and then 6th one is BHISHMA and when Shantanu questions her as to her behavior , she leaves him taking Bhisham with her. The king does get back  Bhishma, but then he falls in love with MASYAGANDHA -smell of fish - a fisherman's daughter and later known as SATYVATI. She gives birth to VYAS and then Vyas impregnates AMIKA AND AMBALIKA and then DRITHRASHTRA AND PANDU are born .The DRITHRASHTRA is blind  and PANDU is WHITE Drithrashtra is married to Gandhari and has 100 children known as KAURAWAS and Pandu with help of 6 different DEVAS has 6 Kids . The first one Karna is serrated and is brought up by charioteer. The rest of his kids are known as PANDAWAS. Their mother Kunti tells Arjuna to 'share ' his winning prize with his brothers and so then Draupadi becomes wife of all five brothers. 

   The problem is with many parts of the story . Bhisma kidnapping 2 young girls from their wedding, then asking Vyas to impregnate them to have kids. the Pandawas sharing Draupadi who now has 5 husbands and many other .  

  There are many ways to interpret these seemingly abnormal behavior. e.g. one lady marrying 5 brothers , Having sons from different deities etc.

  So, I will try to explain some of the characters in Mahabharat.Leyt me start with Dronachary. He was the teacher of both Pandawas and Kaurawas. He was named as DRONA as he was born out of DRONA which is bowl made of dry leaves of a tree. In India people used that and the plate made out of same leaves called PATRAWALI. He became Guru or the teacher and so the Drona changed to DRONACHARY .Rishi BHARADWAJ went a river to take a bath and saw a beautiful APSARA named KRINJI or GHRITANJI  and had spontaneous ejaculation . He stored that in a pot or Drona nd the child born is DRONA. He was married to KRIPI who was sister of KRIPACHARY .The had a son named ASHWASTHMA, who is CHIRANJIV or will never die. 

 The symbolism of Dronachary is that it represents last life SUNSKARAS or impressions. Every action we take has impression and that is stored till it is fructified Since we have many lives and so we have ton of - unending Karmas or actions, we never can exhaust the impressions . That is why Drona's son is immortal or CHIRANJIV. We have bad karmas and good karmas and so we have bad impressions and desires and lust and we have good karmas and desires . So these impressions guide us or make us do things in present life . So Dronachary as teacher was teaching KAURAWAS - WHO WERE BAD  and PANDAWS who were righteous or good. 

  We talk on other characters in next blog..  

TIME OF DEATH

    This Upanishad is about the death and what happens after death. In a way we have some scriptural references to the death and what happens after deathfic was l listening to a  highly educated physician who is well know commentator on DNYANESHWARI. The DNYANESHWARI is the the Marathi critique on Geeta . In Geeta it is stated that at the time of death if it is night time , darker part of the lunar month and Sun moving southward - DAKSHINAYAN, then the soul does not to Nirvan or Mukti. But if the sun is moving NORTHWARD and the time of the month is brighter half of Lunar month and it is day time then the soul get Mukti. North 

  The Bhishma in Mahabharat 'held the leaving of the soul' till the movement of the Sun was moving Northward. So the question is is the TIME OF DEATH is more important than what we did in out life? In today's lecture they mentioned that the DNYANESHWAR who wrote the critique or commentary on Geeta at age 14 years, did take SAMADHI. And at that time it was darker half of the lunar month and night . So where di this highly evolved soul go? The real answer lies in not taking literal meaning but understanding symbolism .

  The SUN is not the one that we see in sky. But the sun is the enlightenment or our spiritual improvement. In the physical body the upper part is NORTH an lower part is South just like in map . So if our attention is towards lower centers - procreation , excretion and hunger , then we have no chance of Mukti .The same thing is about 'the night ' or the' Day'. This reflects our thought process and so depending upon what we think what we practice and have lusts and attachments , the rebirth or path after death is decided. So when our attention is towards heart or brain ,and don't have the attachments /lust , then we have a chance of MUKTI. 

ASKING AND NOT ASKING

    When we go to temple or pray at home we usually have some demands. We want better job , more money and better life ,Sometimes we want same things for our close family members. One of the lectures that I was attending , the speaker said that 'when some people visit temple , the God must be saying here comes 'headaches' with list of demands'. We all are guilty of doing this .But then the questions come in mind. Is God like God Father ? Or if we cannot ask the God for the help ,then whom we will ask for the help? I have addressed this in some other blogs. But this reminded me of the story of Vivekananda

    IN the life of Vivekananda , he had some personal issues . His father was a barrister, but then things went bad and his family did not have much money and could not even get good food for day to day living. At that time Vivekananda had started going to Ramakrishna .He was worshiper of Kali. Many people around Ramakrishna could not understand this worshiping of a Goddess when he was promoter of ADWATYA .Vivekananda went to him and asked him to pray Mother Kali for better life and material things for his own family .Ramakrishna told him to go to the temple and pray himself for that rather than asking Ramakrishna. Vivekananda went to the temple then after some time came back. The Ramakrishna asked him if he did pray and ask for the money ? Vivekananda answered that he forgot or was in so much ;trans' that he did not or forgot as to why he had gone there .Ramakrishna  told him to go back and ask for the money . Vivekananda went and came back  and could not ask for it as he went in deep samadhi, Ramakrishna smiled and told him that he will do it for him ,but he will get bare minimal to survive and not become rich etc. The moral of the story is that TRUE Devotee does prayer for love and not for personal gains and when one is in that deep state of UNITY then one cannot ask for mortal and material things , even though they are needed for the survival. 

IF I SEE GOD, HOW WOULD HE LOOK LIKE?

     We all worship God and even those who do not believe in Idol worship , do Idol worship Cross , Mary or Jesus are nothing other than Idol worship. But the question arises , if I see God, what form will he be? Will he be Lord Ganesh or Lord Shankar , or Lord Krishna? Would he be HE or SHE  and would he be in form of Human Being ? The answer is  in Bhagavat Geeta . The answer is HE / SHE WILL BE WHAT YOU WANT HIN /HER WANT TO BE . So if one worships one form of the God , he will  see that form. In Geeta Lord Krishna states that 'by worshiping a God you will achieve that Heaven of that God.'

    We all have our own choice of the GOD . One cannot worship Formless God . So in India, we have FAMILY GOD called KOOLDEVATA , the God in a form that the entire family worships But then as with our regular life, we may have a friend who lives next door to us. But we have more friendship with some one else who may not live physically close to us , but is close to us otherwise. So we 'prefer one over other when we want to tell our secrets , ask for help or share our happiness etc. The same hold true in our spiritual life. We have one form of God - an Idol that we are exposed to as our Family God , but then in our personal life we have some other form , that we feel is closer to us . So this form of God is called personal God or ISTA DEVATA -ISHTA means one which is favorable to us. 

  This brings me to my original question and the answer, what form will I see upon death if I see God . It will be the form that I WANT IT TO BE . If that is male forms - Ganesh , Vishnu , Shankar, Krishna or female form Goddess Lakshmi or Sarasvati or Durga etc. .WHATEVER WE WANT WE WILL GET OR SEE. One thing for sure the formless omnipresent GOD will be in form and will be seen as if it has limits. This is why we say that the God is father - mother - friend . 

DRAUPADI AND 5 PANADAWAS

     This blog is for those who know or have read , heard about the Mahabharata. The story of Mahabharata is well known to Indians  and the Bghagavat Geeta is part of it. On the battle field when Arjuna has doubts about fighting Kaurawas , who were his cousins , the Lord Krishna gives him a lecture  and that discourse is called Bgagavat Geeta. In that epic - it is largest poetry in any literature-Arjuna goes for the wedding competition called SWAYAMVARA -just like the TV show of BACHELER ,and wins Draupadi . When he comes home ,his mother Kunti, tlles him to 'share' whatever he has won among his brothers and so Draupadi becomes wife to all 5 Pandawas. This may sound impossible  or difficult to accept today and it has some meaning. Even in those days men were allowed to have more than one wife, but women were not allowed to have more than one husband. So what does this mean ?

    The answer is in symbolism in Mahabharata. The 5 Pandawas represent 5 big elements  and also 5 Chakras the coccygeal, sacral, lumbar, thoracic and cervical  and they also are related to Earth-PRUTHVI-Water-AAP,-Energy Fire -TEJ, wind or Air -VAYU, and Space- AKASH. The Drupadi represents coiled up energy in the lowest part of the spinal cord called KUNDALINI SHAKTI. When one does the meditation, and the Kundalini is AWAKENED - becomes JAGRUT , it ascends the spine touching each of the above CHAKRAS  and then there are different sounds and visual thins that one hears and sees . This is the MARRIAGE between Draupadi  and 5 Pandawas. 

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