Omnipresent Omnipotent Ram

What an unprecedented piece of world history it was – the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan! Never before in the history of modern civilisation an aboriginal society has been able to come back to reinstate its lost cultural symbolism in a constitutional resolve by a democratic government, while projecting a peaceful and prosperous future for the nation.

PM Narendra Modi has given a clarion call to all Indians from the dias of Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan “Lord Rama has taught us how to fulfil our duties. He also taught us how to face challenges and how to seek and attain knowledge. The Ram Mandir should be built with bricks of love, respect & brotherhood. We need to keep in mind that the humanity could progress whenever it kept its faith in Lord Rama, and that it moved towards destruction, whenever it swept away from Lord Rama. We need to respect the sentiments of all. We need to be together, progress together & trust one another. We need to develop a confident and self reliant India with the help of our efforts and resolution.”

As the temple building is taking shape physically in Ayodhya, each Indian is ought to construct a temple in heart which fills one’s personality with strength of character and love for all. History of Mauritius vividly shows us the strength of shaping up one’s life in Ram’s love and devotion. The only hope for the Girmitiya community, group of starving bonded labour brought from Avadhi and Bhojpur speaking India to this African Island nation, was Ramayana i.e. Tulsidas’ RamCharitManas.

Even when subjected to harsh and horrible living conditions, even worse than bonded labours brought from Africa, Girmitiya kept the faith in Ram. Heart wrenching working conditions could not break their spirit to do Bhajans and Satsang ( prayers and story telling) in the evening and somehow get their children literate. The resulting change of power equations is a marvellous piece of history of this Island Nation which allowed landless, penniless bonded labour class brought throughout 1834 to 1920 to rule the state today. This should inspire everyone to have faith in Ram and keep working to build a prosperous and large-hearted future for oneself and generations to come. A life based on HIS Name, HIS Work – a life inspired by Ram!

Moha wrecks duty

India is facing a huge backlog of Court Cases. Knowing just about a handful of these, one can extrapolate that most of these cases are due to acts done by people in Moha. These civil and criminal cases are due to actions taken by seemingly good people in the state of Moha, delusion, which is nothing but unchecked emotional attachment to person(s), object(s) and situation(s). The wickedness has not come from somewhere outside. True enemy is our greed, anger,  hypocrisy, ego, jealousy and the likes – the birthplace of crime. That is why siblings are fighting among each other, divorces are rampant, parents are left in old-age homes to die alone, relatives are usurping property and so on. These inner enemies need to be won over and one realizes the world is not that bad afterall!

Take the case of Arjuna in Kurukshetra. He came there all set to kill the enemy.  During inspection, he identified them as relatives and kept on dwelling on it to come up with arguments to avoid his duty and abscond. What is the use of winning a kingdom by killing our own kith and kin? These guys have lost their mind and it doesn’t mean we also should not understand and kill them! If we kill everyone from our dynasty, all relatives and friends then traditions practiced over generations will be lost forever. 

 

He kept on going and started pitying himself to have come to the battleground. He argues that by participating in this war (where he had not been left with any other choice), he will be committing the crime of killing relatives and straightaway go to hell for these sins. Everyone in the enemy camp may have made up their mind to kill or die, but I am no fool and will lay my arms even if they slay me, says Arjuna. This is an example of a person being deep in Moha, which leads to Shoka (sorrow, despondency).

Tendulkar doesn’t want to bat in the world cup final and throws away the bat or Federer doesn’t feel like serving in Wimbledon final, finds himself unable to lift the racket!

Moha, delusion, is of such nature that it makes us eschew our duties, makes us Adharmik so to say. The ability to discriminate between right and wrong, what ought to be done and not to be done goes for a toss. The solid answer of the proverbial “To be or not to be” goes out of the window. 

Moha wrecks duty.

This is why even the greatest surgeon finds himself or herself unable to operate on one’s own child. A high ranking, honest and dedicated police officer finds it difficult to let cases be filed or run their due course for his son’s crime. A teacher gives extra marks to her child for even poorer answers to those written by others in the class. A manager fails to take disciplinary action against a friend from the team who has flaunted rules and regulations at the workplace.  We fail to see the violation of duty due to moha, and even if seen, it gets ignored.

Knowing what needs to be done and what doesn’t, and what needs to be really known in the spirit of leading a life free of emotional turmoil is the real knowing. This is the aim of studying our scriptures. A spiritual guide helps maneuver this forest for picking up the right herbs, roots and fruits.

Raag or Prem (राग या प्रेम)

Big stage is set. Vijaya or Brihannala, the eunuch is charioteer to the young prince of Virata’s kingdom of Matsya, who has single handedly challenged the grand army with all important warriors of Hastinapur. Taking a decision without planning and not thinking of consequences is one of the key signals of a tamasic lifestyle, which will be looked into later on. Virata parv narrates the story of Arjuna in disguise rather than the young prince Uttar who wins the battle using sammohana Astra causing all in the opposition to fall asleep or swoon. Arjuna chooses not to kill any of them. Single handedly Arjuna had defeated all great warriors of opposition who were attacking him simultaneously. This same Arjuna has become despondent looking at the same enemy camp in Kurukshetra. Such is the power of Raaga leading to Moha, to Shoka!

Not that he wasn’t clearheaded of modus operandi to win this war, he knew exactly what needs to be done and wanted to have just one last look before the war begins and the course of the history is moulded by his hands, well by his bow, Gaandiva. Such is the power of unchecked attachment, Raaga for the super-star of his times. What to say of mere mortals like us who are entangled in worldly affairs of earning the next promotion and settling the score with old friends and relatives turned enemies.

Ajuna’s despondency in the middle of the battleground is not due to his lack of ability. It is about lacking the clarity of his duty according to time, role and place. It is not realizing what his Dharma is. How many of us fall victim to our own lack of understanding of Dharma paving way of misery in our lives is beyond count. 

Natural question coming to our mind is, “Whole world says Love is the key to happiness and isn’t attachment just another name of Love”? Raaga or Emotional Attachment is fundamentally different to Prema or Love due to the nature of attraction. 

Raaga is due to selfish reasons while Prema is selfless.

One is trapped in the world of pleasure and pain due to dependence on emotional crutches. Emotional attachment to people, objects and situations (Vyakti Vastu Paristhiti) is the cause of all our pleasure and pain in the world. When we get addicted to these pleasures for want of more and pain to avoid at any cost, this psychological addiction leads to Moha.

Moha is the second stage of excesses of materialistic living. Mohini Shakti, power of delusion, is heavily described in our scriptures from various angles. It has huge potency to get us to start liking what is dangerous for us and hate what is really good for us. A free person would not like to engage in an act but willingly goes for it under the influence of Moha, such is its power. Arjuna was experiencing this as he kept on looking at his enemies yet identifying with them as relatives. He starts counting some 20+, seemingly good reasons why he should not kill them. Aren’t we all deluded like Arjuna due to unchecked attachments and material desires?

Raag – Moha -Vishaad

Almost 5 million people have assembled to kill each other and most of them are indeed dead within 18 days, such is the state of affairs just before the beginning of Kaliyuga, in the battle of Kurukshetra, some 5000 years ago. Almost all assembled men knew that they were going to die soon or at best had 50:50 chances if they were ranked the top most and have trained almost their entire life as warriors. Staring straight at death, these men were sure that they were fighting in a war of Dharma.

Dharma, a key concept for leading a meaningful and aware life, is rather simple to know yet difficult to explain in words. Every aware person knows what needs to be done to be fair and just given the time, role and place. One can jokingly say maintain your right course of action as per your TRP (time, role and place), not the BARC way. It requires a mature intellect to execute Dharmic life though.

A person of immature intellect though flirts with situations to put him in a position of despondency almost at every stage of his life. It’s a three step process, Raaga or attachment, Moha or delusion, and Shoka or Sorrow. Will look into details in this topic, but for now an example just before the beginning of the great war of Mahabharata is apt to understand.

Shri Krishna, Draupadi and Duryodhana – just these three knew very clearly that war is inevitable given how things had evolved, esp. over the previous 15-16 years, what was at stake now and what efforts had gone futile to prevent the war. If these three had changed their minds, one could argue that war would have been averted.

The key person for the war, Arjuna, has been preparing for this moment throughout his life, in a very focussed manner over the last 13 years for sure. He is the superstar whose skills and abilities would determine how long this war is going to last. Everyone knew it, he knew it and wanted to inspect Durbudhe, the evil minded ones, who came to fight him up close. 

Cousin and friend, now acting as charioteer, Shri Krishna is asked by Arjuna to take him to the middle of the battleground so that he can look in the eyes of the enemy who have come here to be killed by him. It seems as if on purpose Shri Krishna stations him right in front of Arjuna’s beloved great grandfather Bhisma. Arjuna, who was clear in his mind that his opposition has assembled only to be wiped out by his arrows identifies his enemies as relatives now, Raaga (attachment) begins to unfold.

Arjuna, who knew very clearly that all options of averting the war have been exhausted and people have chosen their sides for the battle thereby he is looking at the enemy camp, yet keeps on dwelling on the thought that these are my relatives after all. This causes Moha, delusion, and he starts arguing with Krishna why they are in the wrong place and should abandon the post. Tendulkar doesn’t want to bat in the world cup final or Federer doesn’t feel like serving in the Wimbledon final!

Unchecked attachment leads to delusion which has just one destination and that is where Arjuna lands up. He is visibly distraught, feeling feverish, sweaty palms, shaky legs, dried mouth as if strong bouts of GERD are hitting him. Such is the state of the super-star who has lost clarity of his Dharma due to Raaga and Moha, and has become Despondent Arjuna – Arjuna in Vishaad.