ViBha Class Notes: November 21, 2021

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a pyramid from most functional to most fundamental needs. So from the bottom up, the needs are: physiological needs, safety needs, belonging needs, esteem needs and actualization needs and for us, that is Sukha Prapti or Mumukshutvam or the need to be enlightened. Now let us reflect on these needs by comparing them with our rinas. In our culture, the fourteenth samskara is called Pancha Mahayajna. These are five factors in this multiverse that are forever giving to us. From farthest to closest, these are nature’s forces, nature’s creatures, society, family and the closest is our Guide or our Guru-Shishya parampara. According to Vivekji, these needs and the rinas match up –

• In terms of our physical needs, who provides that? It is nature’s forces like oxygen. 
• In terms of our safety needs, it is nature’s creatures. If we look at our medicines, most are plant based. 
• In terms of belonging needs, it is society. If we think about a school that nurtures arrogance, then one feels a lack of sense of belonging. 
• In terms of esteem needs, it is our family. Those families which are always preoccupied with their professions, the people in that home tend to have a lower sense of self esteem. 
• And actualization is naturally facilitated by our Guides. 

The higher implication – Thanksgiving is now more focused on getting than giving. It seems that Friday’s Black Friday is more important  than Thursday’s Thanksgiving, and we, who have access to the Puranas (that which is ancient yet applicable ) and the Pancha Mahayajnas should make Thanksgiving more meaningful by giving. The Pancha Mahayajnas is when we remember how much we have been given and start to give back to nature’s forces, nature’s creatures, society, family and the Guide tradition. We should give thanks and be joyous.

In Chapter 70, Bhagavan Krshna is looking at all His Devis and they all feel the same way as well, as if He is their Krshna. All of these Devis are Mumukshus or Muktas, so where would their minds be? Naturally on Bhagavan Krshna. So when He left those palaces or rooms, their minds would all be on Bhagavan Krshna, and  He would smile at them and take their minds with Him. That is a very beautiful and practical way to live, where our body is moving, but our mind is with the unmoving. Bhagavan Krshna would then go to Sudharma. What is Sudharma? The Veda has two subjects – Dharma & Brahma. When one completes their Dharma, they will start to feel Brahma, Infinity or Joy. Sudharma is when one has completed their Dharma and there is only Brahma then, only Bhagavan. If we are in Sudharma or in Brahman or Bhagavan, what we will not experience are the six waves of affliction or sadness – Sahd Urmayah. They are, from the least intense to the most intense – hunger, thirst, aging, dying, sadness and finally ignorance. To complete our dharma, we should use our body, mind and intellect completely, so that we know that we are more than what they are, that we are Bhagavan, we are Brahma. 

In a typical katha, they will only mention Sudharma and describe the pillars and the scenes. Bhagavata is vedanta and in one half sentence, it is mentioned that people don’t experience these waves of affliction. But in this same half sentence, so much of a program is given for us – to treat food more functionally, treat thirst more functionally, accept that we are going to age, know that we are not going to die.

This Chapter’s main emphasis was Dinacharya or how we are to live or what our lifestyle should be. It begins with Dhyana, expresses more as Dama, more as Daana, more as Dharma. This should be the priority in our lifestyle. Dhyana is for our thoughts, Dama is when we are using our words and actions which are also directed towards Bhagavan, in other words puja, rituals, etc. 

When we chant Jagadeeshwara Aarti, we chant ‘tan man dhan sab kuch tera’. Dhyana is when we offer our mind, Dama is offering our tan or body, Daana is giving our dhan, which is our resources or time. If we give man, tan, dhan, then we will feel Atman. If we have given all that which we depend on, we will feel that which is closest or Atman or we will feel independent. Only such an established personality can engage in Dharma. They are the ones who are the performers of actions. All this is shared only in half a chapter of the ninety chapters of the tenth Skanda. 

Later on in the 70th Chapter, we have to visualize that all of us are sitting in Sudharma when a messenger arrives in the sabha, with a message from more than twenty thousand kings who are rotting in a prison because of Jarasandha. Jarasandha is an asura disguised as a Raja, a vicious personality posing as a leader. We have already learned that he had attacked Mathura again and again and again, and he had lost seventeen times, but the eighteenth time, Jarasandha as if won and Bhagavan Krshna ran from that battle and built His own kingdom. So Bhagavan Krshna’s name is Ranachor or One who runs away from battle. So this messenger is asking for Bhagavan Krshna’s help on behalf of these kings who are rotting. As soon as this message is over, Rishi Narada arrives in this sabha and offers a message on behalf of Raja Yudhishthira. More references to the Pandavas will be coming.

In Meaningful Mornings, we explore the teachings of Bhagavan Krshna. In Vedanta in Bhagavata, we not only explore His teachings, but His life as well. Rishi Narada comes and says that Raja Yudhishtira would like to perform the Rajasuya yajna or yaga. A yaga is a micro ritual which is macro in nature. In this yaga, a king would normally challenge another king asking him to either accept him as the king or fight with him. Within the Rajasuya yaga, one facet is the Agra puja where an offering of reverence is made to the most enlightened personality. So Raja Yudhishtira invites Bhagavan Krshna to be part of the yaga, as he is very clear that Bhagavan Krshna is the most enlightened personality. Shishupala, however, disagrees that Bhagavan Krshna is the most enlightened person. 

For us in a proactive way, the purpose of our life is to be enlightened and everything else is secondary. The Agrapuja signifies that Bhagavan Krshna is the purpose and becoming an emperor is the secondary purpose. The reactive message here is for us to remember that as successful as we may be, that the reason for that success is the Agrapuja or Bhagavan Krshna. Then we become more humble. Better is to be humble and then live, or in the worse case, live to become humble. Either way, humility is a fact. 

In the Mahabharata, when Prince Arjuna defeated the Kauravas, he came off his chariot and when Bhagavan Krshna did as well, the chariot imploded. The message being that the only reason the chariot was functioning was because of Bhagavan. For us the chariot is our body. If Shiva leaves this body, we become shava. This body will implode as in, become a corpse. 

So Bhagavan Krshna is in a dilemma. One messenger is here to ask for help for the kings and Rishi Narada is there to ask for help with the Agra Puja that Raja Yudhishthira wants to perform. So Bhagavan Krshna asks Rishi Uddhava what He should do? This is an amazing leadership insight as Bhagavan is empowering Rishi Uddhava. There is humility in all that He does. 

In Chapter 71,  Rishi Uddhava shares that Bhagavan Krshna should first free the rotting kings because that would be part of the Rajasuya yaga. Rishi Uddhava also shares that Jarasandha is a very generous personality and gives freely. So Bhagavan Krshna, Arjuna and Bhimasena should go to Jarasandha disguised as Brahmanas and ask for a fight. Being generous, Jarasandha would not say no. Bhagavan smiles in agreement and tells the messenger to go and tell those Kings that He will be coming to free them. Bhagavan Krshna, His devis and all His Ministers then start to travel to Indraprastha where Raja Yudhishthira and the Pandavas are exiled to. 

So imagine that Bhagavan Krshna and His family are on the outskirts of Indraprastha – Yudhishthira came out of the city along with his relatives and spiritual perceptors to welcome Him. Just as the indriyas would eagerly welcome the prana on which their existence depends, so did Yudhishthira welcome Rishikesha, the power behind the mind and all its faculties, with intense warmth and cordiality and to the accompaniment of the sound of songs and musical instruments as well as of the loud chanting of the Vedas. – Raja Yudhishthira is going to become the Emperor of the world and he is running out to greet Bhagavan Krshna like a cousin we have not seen in a long time, like children would do. – With a heart melting in love at this long delayed meeting with Krshna, the darling of his heart, Yudhishthira, the son of Pandu, embraced Him again and again, hugging with both his hands the body of Mukunda. Raja Yudhishtira is a Bhakta.

Bhagavan Krshna enters Indraprastha and everyone comes to see Him. It was shared in the ninth Skanda that Bhagavan comes as an avatara not to protect the noble and correct the ignoble, but to Grace or to Bless. So He is just slowly walking through Indraprastha, looking at everyone, taking their minds with Him. Bhagavan Krshna stays in Indraprastha for a few months, and He spends most of His time with Prince Arjuna driving around in the chariot. That is the end of Chapter 71.

In Chapter 72, as part of the Rajasuya yaga, Raja Yudhishthira orders and sends Sahadeva at the head of the Shrinijayas to the South, Nakula at the head of the Matsyas to the West, Arjuna at the head of the Kaikeyas to the North and Bhima at the head of the Madrakas to the East. They won all of the directions, except Jarasandha. So Bhagavan Krshna follows what Rishi Uddhava had said and He, Arjuna and Bhimasena go to Jarasanda disguised as Brahmanas. As Brahmanas, they are praising Jarasandha for being generous. As they are praising him, Jarasandha is carefully observing them and their hands. He sees scars on their hands and knows they cannot be Brahmanas. He knows that something is not right here and starts to reflect. He remembers that the last time someone disguised, it was when a Brahmana came to Raja Bali. That Brahmana was Bhagavan Vamana and in that exchange of asking and giving, Raja Bali’s peace and position only grew. So he too decides to accept whatever they are going to ask for, and they ask for a fight. Jarasandha starts to laugh and says to Bhagavan Krshna that he wouldn’t fight Him as He is weak. Bhagavan Krshna had run away the eighteenth time they had fought in the past. He says to Prince Arjuna that he is too young to fight with, but that he would like to fight with Bhimasena. 

So they start fighting with their maces or gadas, and it is shared that their maces start to break as they hit each other’s bodies. This fight went on for twenty-seven days. They would only fight during the day and at night, they would hang out as friends. What a beautiful culture of the rules of engagement! Imagine everyone learned this in terms of games, to be a good winner and a good loser! 

Bhimasena is getting tired so he asks Bhagavan Krshna how to continue. So on the twenty-eighth day, Bhagavan Krshna says to Bhimasena that when he is most tired, he should look at Him and He would then teach him how to defeat Jarasandha. So on the twenty-eighth day, when Bhimasena is getting tired, Bhagavan Krshna splits a blade of grass in two and Bhimasena puts one foot on Jarasandha’s leg and wraps his other leg around Jarasandha’s shoulder and splits him. The details are intense. 

Here is a brief history of why Jarasandha was the way he was. When Jarasandha was born, his parents hated him and they essentially just threw him away. An asuri, named Jara, found him and did the sandha, that is joined the two halves of his body. That is why he was known as Jarasnadha and the only way he could be destroyed was to go back into two halves. And only Bhagavan Krshna knew that. 

After Jarasandha was destroyed, Bhagavan Krshna made his son, Sahadeva, the king. This only shows how non-possessive Bhagavan Krshna is. He only wants people to be noble, so He established Jarasandha’s son on the throne who then released all the twenty thousand kings. 

Vedanta: Jarasandha is symbolic of aviveka which is indiscrimination. Jada means insentient, like a pencil is jada. The one who is indiscriminate feels that the sentient and insentient can have a relationship. How do they live? They want position AND peace. Their focus is always on the and as they are indiscriminate. However, we have to tear this apart, that this is insentient, and I am sentient. We have to be intense to go from and to OR. So it is through viveka or discrimination that everything we are interacting with, if we feel that it is sentient, it is because of our sentience, but it is not naturally sentient. 

The next Chapter, Chapter 73, revolves around how thankful these kings are. It is a beautiful prelude to Thanksgiving. One more aspect about Raja Yudhishthira is shared here so that we are able to love him more – When Bhagavan Krshna came back after defeating Jarasandha, Raja Yudhishthira kept crying and crying and crying out of ananda. And there was so much love inside of him, that he couldn’t speak. This reminds us of what it feels to internalize. When one has internalized Bhagavan, internalized Awareness, there is no need to speak, no need to externalize. 

RAW: On Chinmaya Mission Niagara’s You-tube channel, listen to all the discourses on the play-list on Guru Stotram.