The War Begins🔗

Conches, called śaṅkha in Sanskrit, are the shells of mollusks that live in the sea. From time immemorial, Hindu scriptures have referred to the use of conches during ritualistic, devotional and celebratory occasions. In general, a conch was blown to signify obeisance to the Divine or royalty, or in celebration of an auspicious and victorious occasion. Blowing the conch signified joy.

It is said that the valampuri śaṅkha, the conch that describes a right hand spiral, has exceptional supernatural properties. Blowing into a valampuri śaṅkha produces the sound auṁ, the praṇava mantra, which is the sound of creation. Experiments have shown that when the sound of auṁ is recorded digitally, the shape of the sound wave is a spiral similar to that of a valaṁpuri śaṅkha!

Each of the great warriors in the Mahabharata war had his own personal conch, and each one's signature was the sound produced by his conch. Most of the great warriors also had their own flags that flew on their chariots and their weapons, especially their bows, had great spiritual significance. They were often bestowed upon the warrior by the Divine after a long penance. It is said that even if his flag were masked by dust and distance, Arjuna's presence in any part of the battlefield would be known by the sound of his conch and the twang of his bow!

When Bhishma blew his conch in support of Duryodhana, the response was tumultuous on both sides. Every warrior on the battlefield took out his conch and blew his signature note. Of all the sounds that emanated at that moment, a few were heard above the rest. Krishna sounded his Pañcajanya, the conch of Vishnu. The sound of Krishna's Pañcajanya drowned out all other sounds on the battlefield. It was the announcement for all that the Divine was already present with the Pandava army.

Vyasa, through Sanjaya, says that Krishna sounded His divine conch. This is significant since Vyasa attributes divinity only to Krishna's conch, not to anyone else's. He refers to Krishna as Madhava, and later as Hrishikesha. Madhava signifies that Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu, who is the husband of Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and fortune. In this context, it signifies that whoever Krishna sides with would be invincible. Krishna is then referred to as Hrishikesha, controller of the senses, the superconscious, who has created the māyā, the illusion that is this great war of Mahabharata.

Vyasa implies that all that happens is a creation of Krishna. For what purpose? He alone knows. The Divine truly has no purpose. The Divine IS, that's all.

Krishna was Arjuna's charioteer. The chariot was a blessing from Agni, the fire god. This chariot was said to be capable of traversing all the three worlds. His bow Gāṇḍīva was also a gift from Agni. Arjuna is referred to as Dhananjaya, winner of wealth, in reference to his ability to generate the wealth needed by his brother Yudhishtira.

Not to be outdone, Bhima blew on his conch Paundra, a fearsome sound that invoked dread amongst the Kaurava army. Here Bhima is called Vrikodara, one with the stomach of a wolf; Bhima was forever hungry and ate more than all his brothers combined, and yet had a lean and flat stomach of a wolf, and like that predator, he was feared by his enemies for his strength and anger.

Bhima's conch was followed by that of the other three Pandava princes, Yudhishtira, Nakula and Sahadeva and then by the great warriors, Drupada, Virata, Satyaki, Shikhandi, Dhrishtadyumna, Abhimanyu and others, all blowing their conches in celebration of their impending victory.

Each of these warriors had a great history. Yudhishtira, the eldest of the Pandava princes, was born to his mother Kunti through the grace of Yama, the god of justice and death, and was universally known as Dharmaraja, the king of truth, as he was never known to tell a lie. Nakula and Sahadeva were born to Madri, the second wife of Pandu, through the grace of the Ashwini Kumaras, celestial beings.

Drupada, the king of Panchala, was the father of Drishtadyumna and Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas. Drishtadyumna was born to Drupada, when he prayed to Shiva to give him a son who would match Drona in valor and vanquish him in battle. Virata was the king in whose kingdom the five Pandava princes and Draupadi spent a year in hiding. His daughter married Abhimanyu, Arjuna's son by Subhadra, Krishna's sister.

Shikhandi was born as Bhishma's nemesis, when Amba, a princess whom Bhishma captured as a bride for his stepbrother Vichitravirya, immolated herself to be reborn to avenge her shame.

It is as if Sanjaya, the narrator of the incidents of war, repeatedly tries to impress upon the blind king Dhritarashtra the caliber of the Pandava warriors and their glorious antecedents, so that the shock of the impending disaster to the Kuru clan of Dhritarashtra would not be so unexpected. Sanjaya specifically refers to these warriors as 'aparājita', invincible, always victorious in whatever task they undertook, with the clear implication that they would be victorious in this war that they had embarked upon as well.

It is significant that Bhishma's conch, which was sounded by him as the Commander-in-Chief of the Kaurava army, to signify the beginning of the war, was responded to by Krishna, and not by Drishtadyumna, the Pandava Commander-in-Chief, or any of the other Pandava princes. Krishna's was a response, not a reaction to the challenge issued by Bhishma. It was an acceptance of the fact that whatever was thrown at the Pandava army was being accepted by Him, Divinity Incarnate.

Krishna, as the superconscious guide of the Pandava princes, absolves them of any guilt or wrongdoing by taking upon Himself the responsibility for whatever is to happen. The rest of the Pandava army, including Arjuna, follow His lead by blowing their conches.

Q: Is the Mahabharata war a conflict of egos? If so, is there good ego and bad ego?

This is a beautiful question. As I mentioned in the introduction, Mahabharata is not a fight between what is good and what is evil. In a spiritual sense there is nothing that is absolutely good or inherently evil. As you said, not only may it be a mix, as Tao puts it, but more importantly, Existence is nonjudgmental. Whatever happens just happens and in turn causes something else to happen.

Mahabharata is the metaphorical war between the positive and negative beliefs, thoughts and value systems collectively termed saṁskāras. The nearest equivalent English word may be ‘engrams’, engraved memories that lie deep in our unconscious mind. These engrams trigger what we call karmas, action arising out of unfulfilled desires. They are responsible for the mindset or vāsanas that cling to the spirit departing the dead body-mind system.

To be free of engraved memories, unfulfilled desires and the mindset arising out of these is the route to liberation and bliss. This state when one is free of saṁskāras, vāsanas and karmas is the state of enlightenment. Krishna’s prescription to Arjuna is the process that leads to this enlightenment. That is the yoga, the uniting of mind, body and spirit without a trace of these negative and positive tendencies within us, which is the message of the Gita.

The simplest way to this uniting that results in bliss is the clear understanding of jīva, īshvara and jagat - self, God and the world - and that they are one and the same.

We are all a creation of the interaction between these three entities. When we celebrate their existence, all three will reveal their mysteries to us. Please understand that this is not a moral advice. It is a spiritual technique.

We will never be able to realize our Self, understand ourselves, until we accept ourselves and celebrate what we are. As long as we are fighting with what we are, we will never be able to realize our self, jīva.

Usually we carry two identities, one is ahaṅkāra, outer ego, and the other is mamakāra, inner ego. Outer ego is the identity that we present to the world, project to the world. This is how we want the world to see us. The other is inner ego. This is the identity we truly believe to be us.

Our whole life is nothing but the fight between these outer and inner egos. The struggle between you and you eats your whole life. Stop. Just accept and celebrate whatever you are. You will see that you are realizing the Self. The self-realization is postponed again and again just because of the fight between you and you. The moment you stop fighting, suddenly you see both the identities disappear into the realization that outer and inner egos exist just because of the tension between them. Whatever you are, accept it and say a resounding 'yes' to yourself as you are. Suddenly you will see that both these egos just disappear. Accept and celebrate the existence of your Self as it is. Neither do you need to develop the self in the outer world, nor do you need to develop it in the inner world. Accept and celebrate, suddenly you will see the Self will be realized.

Next, let us look at jagat, the world. Understand that all the difficulties and problems between you and the world are just because you do not look at the world as a mystery. Continuously you are trying to overrule the world with your logic. You are trying to understand the world with your intellect, instead of celebrating, instead of accepting, and instead of enjoying. You are just analyzing, segregating and trying to bring it under your control. If you are continuously using your logic, analyzing and judging, trying to bring things under your control, you will miss it. Just accept and celebrate Existence, Nature, the world, with all its different dimensions and paradoxes.

Do not judge. Continuously we keep judging that something is right, or something is wrong. We feel that something is supposed to happen or something is not supposed to happen. Understand: whatever happens is auspicious. In Sanskrit, the word Shiva, that refers to the god of rejuvenation and one of the Hindu trinity, means causeless auspiciousness, it is also called maṅgalatva. For no reason, this auspiciousness is overflowing. Everything that is happening in your life is increasing your frequency, raising your intelligence. Causeless expansion is happening.

In the whole world there are only two kinds of people living. One, the person who feels that whatever is happening in the world is against his will and has to be changed. He is constantly trying to alter, trying to judge, trying to criticize things happening in the world. There is another group, a rare group that feels that whatever is happening is causeless auspiciousness. Whoever feels whatever is happening is auspicious inside and outside, lives like Shiva. They live in Shiva consciousness. They live in eternal bliss. They live in celebration.

Understand, every happening including disease and death has a message for us. They have something to teach us. They raise our intelligence, raise the frequency of our consciousness. In the whole drama of the cosmos, everything that happens in your life brings auspiciousness to you. It brings maṅgalatva to you, it adds to you.

Look at the world as a mystery, as an intelligent mystery. When you understand it is an independent intelligence, a mystery, everything happening in your life will open itself and teach you the lesson it has brought. When suffering comes to you, if you approach it with non-acceptance, or resistance, it will create only pain in you. It will only add suffering to you. If you approach the same incident, the same suffering, with deep respect and acceptance, suddenly you will see the same suffering reveals its mysteries to you. It will show you the cause, why it happened in your life and the lesson it brought to your life.

Everything happening in the world is auspiciousness, including what you call natural calamities. There is no such thing as inauspiciousness. One group lives like Shiva. The other lives like shava or a dead body. Whether you live like Shiva, as God, or śava, a corpse, only you can decide. Understand, the cosmos is causeless auspiciousness. The universe is reasonless, causeless auspiciousness. Accept and celebrate the very existence of the world.

The third, Īshvara, God, is the source of both jīva and jagat – the self and the world. As long as you carry doubt or faith about the existence of God, you don't experience God. Understand, just like doubt, faith is also an obstruction. I have seen people who believe but never try to experience. They continue to believe, believe, and believe but do not do anything to experience.

So now, drop both your doubt and your faith. The moment you see an object in front of you, you know the Creator exists. If creation exists, its Creator also exists. The very presence of the creation in front of you proves the existence of the Creator. He is just creativity overflowing for no reason. He is just constant creativity, which is expanding, expanding, and expanding - a constant Big Bang.

He is creation, created and creator, all three expressed as creativity. Celebrate the existence of creativity. The very existence of creation is the solid proof that the

Creator or creativity exists. Just celebrate the existence of the independent intelligence. Celebrate the existence of God as creativity.

When you celebrate the existence of these three - self, God and the world, suddenly you realize that the perception of these three entities being independent and separated by barriers is created by your unconscious mind. There is no barrier, it is just one pure existence, pure consciousness, pure celebration of what we call sat, chit and ānanda - truth, consciousness and bliss. Understanding that self, world and God are not three different entities, and then celebrating the existence of this ONE core is what I call Living Enlightenment.

Understand and celebrate the existence of all three. Suddenly you will see only celebration will exist, all three will disappear into the celebration. When that happens, that is what I call nityānanda, eternal bliss.

Live enlightenment, live eternal bliss, live nityānanda. Let you all achieve, radiate, and celebrate eternal bliss, nityānanda.