1. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3 - Lesson 8 of 11

Your whole life is nothing but the Mahābhārat War. The Mahābharāt should be read again and again to understand the intricacies of life, the complications of life, and the ability to handle life. The true story of this perfectly recorded epic is about two warring clans, Kauravas and Pānḍavas, closely related to one another. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the blind king of Hastināpur and father of the 100 Kaurava brothers was the brother of Pānḍu, whose children were the five Pānḍava princes.

It is a tale of strife between cousins and ultimately between dhārmic and adhārmic, righteous and unrighteous civilizations.

Since Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind, Pānḍu was made the king of Hastināpura. Pānḍu was cursed by a sage that he would die if he ever entered into a physical relationship with his wives.

He therefore had no children. Vyāsa says that all the five Pānḍava children were born to their mothers Kuntī and Mādri through the blessing of divine beings. Pānḍu handed over the kingdom and his children to his blind brother.

Kuntī, who is the embodiment of tapas, spiritual penance, had received a boon when she was still a young unmarried adolescent, that she could summon any divine power at will to father a child. Before she married, she tested her boon. The Sun god, Sūrya appeared before her. Karṇa was born to her as a result. In fear of social reprisals, she cast the newborn away in a river. Yudhiṣṭra, Bhīma and Arjuna were born to Kuntī after her marriage by invocation of her powers, and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva were born to Mādri, the second wife of Pānḍu.

Yudhiṣṭra was born to Kuntī as a result of her being blessed by Yama, the god of death, dharma and justice, Bhīma by Vāyu, the god of wind, and Arjuna by Indra, god of all the divine beings. Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngest Pānḍava twins, were born to Mādri, through the Divine Aśvini twins.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra had a hundred sons through his wife Gāndhārī. The eldest of these Kaurava princes was Duryodhana. Duryodhana felt no love for his five Pānḍava cousins. He made many unsuccessful attempts, along with his brother Duśśāsana, to kill the Pānḍava brothers. Kuntī's eldest son Karṇa, whom she had cast away at birth, was found and brought up by a chariot driver in the palace, and by a strange twist of fate, joined hands with Duryodhana.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra gave Yudhiṣṭra one half of the Kuru kingdom on his coming of age, since the Pānḍava prince was the rightful heir to the throne that his father Pānḍu had vacated.

Yudhiṣṭra ruled from his new capital Indraprastha, along with his brothers Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva.

Arjuna won the hand of princess Draupadī, daughter of the king of Pāñcāla, in a svayaṁvara, a marital contest in which princes fought for the hand of a fair damsel.

In fulfillment of their mother Kuntī's desire that the brothers share everything equally, Draupadī became the wife of all five Pānḍava brothers. Duryodhana persuaded Yudhiṣṭra to join a gambling session, where his cunning uncle Śakunī defeated the Pānḍava king.

Yudhiṣṭra lost all that he owned—his kingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself, to Duryodhana. Duśśāsana shamed Draupadī in public by trying to disrobe her. The Pānḍava brothers and Draupadī were forced to go into exile for fourteen years, with the condition that in the last year they should live incognito or ajyāta vāsa.

At the end of the fourteen years, the Pānḍava brothers tried to reclaim their kingdom. In this effort they were helped by Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the king of the Yādava clan, who is the eighth divine incarnation of Bhagavān Viṣṇu.

However, Duryodhana refused to yield even a needlepoint of land, and as a result, the Great War, the War of Mahābhārat ensued. In this war, various rulers of the entire nation that is modern Bharat aligned with one or the other of these two clans, the Kauravas or the Pānḍavas.

Kṛṣṇa offered to join with either of the two clans. He says, 'One of you may have Me unarmed. I will not take any part in the battle. The other may have my entire Yādava army.'

When the offer was first made to Duryodhana, he predictably chose the large and well-armed Yādava army, Nārāyaṇī Senā, in preference to the unarmed Kṛṣṇa.

Arjuna joyfully and gratefully chose his dearest friend, his life mentor and his Guru, Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa, to be his unarmed charioteer!

This whole history is such a beautiful happening. Mahābhārat is actually your life! Every character in the Mahābhārat teaches so much! We don't need to go anywhere for our life success or fulfillment or for anything else that we may desire. We don't need to study any other book to learn the human psychology or the science of living and leaving. Whether we seek righteous living—dharma; or we want to learn business or administration, economy or abundance—artha; or we want to create the best rich lifestyle—kāma; or we want to be a leader and want the enriching life of being enlightened mokṣa, for all these purposes, we don't need anything other than the Mahābharāt!

Study each character. We will not find any more characters in our life than the characters described in the Mahābharāt!

Any character we see in our life is mapped to Mahābharāt's one character. They are either half or full representation of some character.

To know how to handle them and even handle yourself, just see how Śrī Kṛṣṇa handles them and handle them the same way. The Mahābharāt war is a representation of life as it was lived in that age.

Vyāsa, its author is an unbiased historian who recorded the whole history as it happened without trying to apply any makeup. People ask whether the Mahābharāt war happened at all!

If the Mahābharāt was a story and not history, Vyāsa should receive multiple Pulitzer prizes for his highly creative work! The Mahābharāt is the longest literary work in the whole world with hundred thousand Saṃskṛit verses—the longest poem ever written with such delicate harmony of unmatched poetic perfection. It is larger than the Greek epics. Vyāsa had no computer, no tape recorder with speech-to-text capabilities. He dictated and Bhagavān Ganeṣa wrote it down!

• Yudhiṣṭra is embodiment of Integrity the power of words, vāk śakti.
• Bhīma is embodiment of Authenticity the power of thoughts, mano śakti.

Arjuna is embodiment of Responsibility—the power of feeling, prema śakti.

• Sahadeva is embodiment of Enriching the power of living, ātma śakti.

• Nakula is embodiment of causing reality for others.

• Śakuni, the maternal uncle of Duryodhana embodies the pattern of self-hatred, which is cunningness personified.

• Droṇa represents all the best knowledge one imbibes and the teachers one encounters, who guide us but are unable to take us through to the ultimate flowering of enlightenment. It is difficult to give them up since one feels grateful to them. This is where the Enlightened Master, the incarnation steps in and guides us.

• Duryodhana, represents one's ego or root-pattern, the most difficult to conquer as it leads one to selfdestruction. One needs the full help of the Master here. It is subtle work and even the Master's help may not be obvious, since at this point, sometimes the ego makes us deny and disconnect from the Master as well.

• Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate act of compassion that one can offer to the world. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion.

Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities and all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic, conflict-free way.

Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate Till now everyone blames Bhagavan Sri Krishna for this Kurukshetra war but that's the greatest sacrifice Bhagavan Sri Krishna did to save the planet Earth. If Kurukshetra was not conducted at that time under the controlled conditions and direct supervision of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, planet Earth would not have survived more than three years.

act of compassion that one can offer to the world. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities a nd all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and The wide spread availability of the Astra shastras without Shastra, without the knowledge and vision, was posing a huge threat to the whole of humanity and planet Earth, and for life itself. The greatest achievement of Bhagavan Sri Krishna is destroying all the weapons in one controlled condition and saving planet earth, eliminating the nuclear weapons and the knowledge of these nuclear weapons to save humanity from total annihilation.

simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic,

conflict-free way.

Bhagavad Gītā appears in the heart of Mahābhārat in Bhīṣma Parva, the sixth chapter of its eighteen chapters. Veda Vyāsa, the narrator, in glorifying the Gītā sings, 'the one who drinks the water of Ganges (the sacred river for Hindus) attains liberation, what to speak of the one who drinks the nectar of Gītā?

Gītā is the essential nectar of the Mahābhārat, bhāratamṛta sarvasvam as it is directly spoken by Nārāyaṇa, Bhagavān kṛṣṇa Himself.'

The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukṣetra, now in the state of Haryana in modern day Bharat. All the kings and princes were related to one another, and were often on opposite sides. Facing the Kaurava army and his friends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome by remorse and guilt, and wanted to walk away from the battle out of total powerlessness unbecoming an invincible warrior among warriors.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa's dialogue with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra out of His utmost concern and love for him and humanity is the content of Bhagavad Gītā. Of its seven hundred and forty-five verses, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa sings the Gītā in six hundred and twenty verses responding to Arjuna's fifty-seven enquiries.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa persuades Arjuna to give-up his powerlessness unfitting an Ārya—the spiritually evolved one who understands human life and urges him to raise himself again as Parantapa—the conqueror of enemy, and take up arms and vanquish his enemies. They are already dead,' says Śrī Kṛṣṇa, 'All those who are facing you have been already killed by Me. Go ahead and do what you have to do. That is your responsibility. Do not worry about the outcome. Leave that to Me.'

mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇi sannyasyādhyātmacetasā
nirāśīrnirmamo bhūtvā yudhyasva vigatajvaraḥ

Dedicating all actions to Me, with consciousness filled with spiritual knowledge of Self, without desire for gain and without sense of ownership, without being lazy, fight

Become a flute in the hands of Kṛṣṇa.

```sanskrit
ye me matamidaṁ nityam anutiṣṭhanti mānavāḥ
śraddhāvanto 'nasūyanto mucyante tepi karmabhiḥ

Those persons who execute their duties according to My teaching and who follow these teachings faithfully with authenticity, without envy, become free from the bondage of fruitive actions

When you enter into your being, whatever your being says is Kṛṣṇa's words.

```sanskrit
ye tvetad abhyasūyanto nānutiṣṭhanti me matam
sarvajñānavimūḍhāṁstān viddhi naṣṭānacetasaḥ

But those who do not regularly perform their duty according to My teaching, are ignorant, senseless and ruined

Authenticity is the key

When you complete and drop the goals and fall into your being, the Divine will guide you and you will become an instrument in His hands.

If you become a hollow bamboo without any blockages inside, you will become a flute in the hands of Kṛṣṇa.

Dropping your purposes or dropping your root pattern is what is called becoming a hollow bamboo.

When you become a flute, the air that enters into you comes out as music. Your words become mantra, sacred words that enrich people, your actions become tantra, sacred techniques to realize the Divine, and your form becomes yantra, sacred form, you become Divine.

Understand, as long as you follow the goals set by society, you will be carrying a social conscience.

The moment you drop social conditioning, the purposes taught to you by society, you will drop conscience and start living with consciousness.

Please listen, conscience will become consciousness the moment you bring responsibility to it. Conscience means struggling with do's and don'ts, guilt and desires. Consciousness means the pure flow of life.

Śraddhā cannot really be translated as faith. It means faith plus the courage of authenticity to execute the highest level of possibility. In English, there is no equivalent for śraddha. Sraddha is authenticity, but authenticity is not all-encompassing translation of śraddha.

The courage of being established in the peak of your capability, and responding to life from who you perceive to be for yourself, who you project yourself to be for others, what others expect you to be for them and what you expect them to be for you is what is called śraddhā, Authenticity.

A small story: A man born blind goes to the doctor and asks, 'Doctor, will you help me gain my eyesight?' The doctor says, 'Don't worry, I will perform an operation. You will get your vision and after that you can walk without your stick.'

Blind people always carry a stick to feel their way around. The doctor tells him that he will be able to walk without the stick. The blind man asks, 'Doctor, I understand you will do an operation. I understand I will have my eyesight restored. But I don't understand howI can walk without the stick?'

By and by, the blind man had forgotten that his stick was just an aid. In the same way, just live without the mind. Just live without purpose and goals, you will be able to walk without the stick. The stick is nothing but your planning and worrying. By and by, worrying has become a part of you.

Courage is the fragrance of authenticity. When you have the courage of authenticity, śraddha towards living these teachings and start living without purpose, only then will you realize that you don't need the stick to walk. That is when you become authentic to your peak possibility. Once you enter into the depths of your being, you will enter into a totally different dimension. Whatever you think now as spiritual life or material life both lose their meaning and you will enter a new dimension of life. You will be established in authenticity, in the space of possibility.

When you enter into your being, when you experience the purposelessness of life, the socalled material life and spiritual life both drop you and you enter what is called 'Quantum spirituality' or Eternal Consciousness. You are then in eternal bliss. Only then you will understand you don't need worries to live. You don't need your mind. Until you reach the being, you need to have śraddha

The next word is a beautiful word: 'anasūyanto,' which means 'without envy.' This is important. We all think, 'He has that, she has this,' what happens?

All your spirituality, all your authenticity, all your purposelessness, everything just disappears.

You are again in the same rat race. If your neighbor buys a new air conditioner, the temperature in your house shoots up. Envy is the parasite pattern that puts you back in the same rut of inauthenticity. The problem with the rat race is this—even if you win, you are still a rat!

Any pattern you create before the age of seven is the root pattern. Any pattern created after the age of seven is a parasite pattern.

First you will have to work on completing with the parasite patterns and then completing with all the root patterns.

The moment the parasite pattern of envy or jealousy enters your being, authenticity disappears, purposelessness disappears. Again, you fall into social conditioning and you start running behind goals like a rat.

Kṛṣṇa is asking Arjuna to bring śraddha or authenticity in action to the peak possibility of what he perceives as himself and what he projects as himself, without the parasite pattern of envy.

Illusion makes us all dance with this one stick, jealousy. Have you seen guys who make money using monkeys in Bharat?

On the roadside, they perform a small show with monkeys. With a small stick they make the monkey dance and do whatever they want it to.

In the same way, the power of illusion is making you run as it wants with just one stick called jealousy.

The moment you compare, you just jump into your lower dimensions, the same rut which is called the purposeful life.

One more thing: When we do things out of comparison, we do only foolish things. Our intelligence stops working and our performance falls short of our peak potential, because we now use someone else's productivity as our measuring stick. If you do things out of the parasite patterns of jealousy, you will end up being inauthentic in your actions. Comparison or jealousy is the root from which inauthenticity justifies itself and continues to exist in you!

Do not allow it. Each one of us is unique. There is no need to compare with any other person. You are unique.

When you are in conflict, you will naturally suffer. Wherever you are in conflict, be very clear you are in conflict, even though you point at others' inauthenticity. Constantly practicing authenticity brings you to the space of possibility.

Śraddha or Authenticity continuously connects you with yourself and your highest possibility. Life is for realizing that possibility. Life is for realizing the Self. Life is for realizing itself.

Constantly go on expanding! Neither expression nor suppression is the solution, only completion with your inauthentic identities is the solution. The solution is to infuse śraddha, the courage of authenticity into this process. For example: your reaction of irritation has nothing to do with what the person has done. If you look a little deeper, you can see it is how you choose to react based on your root and parasite patterns that decides what you feel about the person. You choose to get irritated by what he is doing

Authenticity is the key. If you bring authenticity to what you perceive as you, to what is happening within you and what you project yourself outside you, you will not be controlled by your unconscious patterns. You will be able to see clearly when lower emotions arise or unconscious reactions arise.

The awareness of your inauthenticity will itself bring you to your peak capability. Then, you will naturally drop all your lower level emotions and live authenticity without envy, the space of possibility.

For children to learn about authenticity. For children to understand to drop comparison and jealousy.

• What is required to become "hollow bamboo ... a flute in the hands of Kṛṣṇa"?

• What is the difference between conscience and consciousness?

• What is Śraddha?

• What is the fragrance of authenticity?

• Do you need worries to live?

• What is anasūyanto?

• What effect does envy have on you?

• Until what age are root patterns created?

• What are illusion, comparison and jealousy?

• Why is there no need to compare with any other person?

• Is life expanding or shrinking?

Part 2: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3 - Lesson 8 of 11_English_part_2.md

1. Poster paints Paper Comb A protected surface where the children can work with paint, or outside

Encourage children to paint by dipping the comb in the poster color and spray painting on paper

For the art to be perfect and beautiful, we have to do the spray painting with full awareness. Similarly authenticity has to be practiced in every dimension of your life. What is your peak way of relating to your life?

• 1. Lemons or potatoes or similar that won't break when dropped Spoons

The spoon and lemon race is played by walking while balancing a lemon on a spoon which is held by the mouth. It is easy to play this game that is coupled with a lot of fun. One has to balance the lemon without dropping it to the finish line just like a race.

While playing this game, you have to be aware every moment. You cannot be careless for some time and careful in other times. Just like authenticity has to be practiced in every dimension of your life.

Encourage the children to talk about examples of patterns they are aware of. It can be patterns they know that they have, or patterns they have seen in others around them.. Discuss whether they are root patterns or parasite patterns.

What you know about humans, what you know about the world, what you know about you is all imperfect perception, comparative reality. Don't build your inner space on comparative reality. Let your inner space be built on the space of highest possibility