Below are the answers for some of the frequently asked questions on mahabharatha/Ramayana collected from authenticated resources:
1) Why did Krishna fight with Jaambavaan without knowing that he is a devotee of Raama?
Jaambavaan was a close friend of Raama in Thretayuga. He had a fantastic desire. He wished to fight a duel with Raama. His wish could not be fulfilled. Lord Vishnu fulfills even the strange wishes of his devotees by creating situations to meet it. In Dhvaaparayuga when Krishna was accused by the king Sathrajith of having stolen his Shyamanthaka gem when it was actually lost in the forest, Krishna had to prove to him that he has not robbed it, so he went in search of the gem. He went to the forest and followed the spoors leading to a lion’s den. There He found the Shyamanthaka gem in the possession of a bear – Jaambavaan. He challenged him to a duel to return it. The duel lasted for 28 days. At last by a sudden flash of illumination Jaambavaan realized that His adversary was his friend Raama. At last his wish was fulfilled. Although Jambavan is the bear and looks old, he doesn’t die. He is a chiran-jiva. He is also called as oldest living being created by Brahma. That is why you find Jambavan in both ramyana and mahabharatha.
2) How can the Raasa Leelaa or Raasa Kreeda of Lord Krishna be justified?
This indeed is a much misunderstood and misinterpreted episode. The Lord Krishna was dancing in moonlight with the cowherdesses, each Gopika dancing with a Krishna. The Lord multiplied Himself into many and stood beside every cowherdess. There are actually five kinds of Bhava(feelings) in Bhakti(love of God) and according to that there are 7 kinds of devotions. The five kinds of Bhavas(feelings) are Shanta(peaceful attitude of devotee ), Dasya(servant attitude of devotee), Sakhya (friendly attitude of devotee), Vatsalya(devotee looks upon God as his child) and Madhurya Bhavas (a devotee regards the Lord as his spouse). Madhurya Bhava is absolutely different from conjugality of earthly experience. Earthly conjugality is most of the time is purely selfish and is undertaken only because it gives pleasure to one’s own self. But in Madhurya bhakti it is because it gives pleasure to God and not for the sake of the devotee. Madhurya bhakti is considered to be supreme way of loving the God. When Lord danced with his devotees, there was no tinge of lust. It is the people who see it that way.
Gopikas and Gopaalas in their previous birth were Rishis in Kritha Yuga. When Lord himself takes avatara(coming down to earth in human form) many of the Rishis who are His devotees and even demigods also come down to earth to participate with God in the leela(divine play). However, most of them do not get chance to mingle with Lord always. When Vishnu appeared as Rama, He had got many proposals to marry from devotees who were born as women. However, He was not ready to marry anyone after marrying sita because the purpose of rama-avatara was to teach how a perfect gentleman should be (maryadha purushothama). However, Rama promised them that He will marry all of them in his next incarnation (krishna avatar). It is said that humans should listen to krishna’s words but should not imitate him (marrying many women), because humans cannot be God.
3) Why did Krishna stole butter and gave trouble to gopikas?
Krishna is described as a butter thief. Krishna did not actually desire butter – but He desired the pure mind kept in the heart-pot of the Gopikas. Usually you can find a lover doing pranks with his beloved one, or a husband with his wife. It is not done with the intention to give trouble to their consort. Since gopikas were eager to share the madhura bhakti(amorous devotional love) with Lord, Krishna doing such pranks was out of love with his devotees. That is why Krishna is called Navaneetha chora. Navaneetha means pure mind. So krishna stealing the butter was out of love but not out of childish behavior.
4) Why Lord Krishna first drank the milk from Putana and then killed her?
After consulting with his demoniac ministers, Kamsa had instructed a witch named Putana, who knew the black art of killing small children by ghastly sinful methods, to kill all kinds of children in the cities, villages and pasturing grounds. Such witches are called khecari, which means they can fly in the sky. They can transfer themselves from one place to another on the branch of an uprooted tree. Putana came to take Krsna on her lap and offer her breast’s milk(which was actaully poison). Krisna first drank the milk and then killed the demoness Putana. Some people who do not understand the divine play of God think that this scene is very indecent. They think that why the God didn’t kill Putana immediately. Krsna is so merciful that because the demon Putana came to offer her breast-milk to Him, He took her as His nurse or mother. But to stop her from further nefarious activities, He then immediately sucked all her blood and killed her. Krishna also closed the eyes when sucking the blood. There is a reason He closed His eyes: He had to kill a nurse or mother.
5) Why draupathi married pancha pandavas?
There were actually five women in one body of draupadhi. The presence of Parvati,Shyamala and Usha with Bharathi in the same body has a background. Once upon a time, these four got into one body and moved before Brahma as a matter of fun. Brahma became angry and cursed them to be born as human beings thrice as they cheated him thrice being in one body. To overcome the hardship of contact with some man other than their husbands during these births, Parvathi ,Shachi etc approached Bharatidevi also to be born with them so that nobody would dare to touch them, accordingly these were born. In the first birth these were born as daughter of Brahmana. During this birth these performed penance to Shiva. Bharathi performed the same to Vishnu present in Shiva. They were told by Shiva and Vishnu respectively in one of their human births they will live with their husbands. Later they were born as Nalanandini and Indrasena. Nalanandini was the wife of Mudgala while Indrasena was the wife of his son Maudgalya. In these two births also they were in one body, Finally , these were born as Draupadi, It is only in this birth that they met their husbands. Arjuna succeeds in hitting the mark and qualifies himself to seek the hand of Draupadi. When Pandavas return home and inform Kunti about their gain, a ticklish situation arises. Without knowing the nature of the gain, Kunti tells her sons that “you five share it”. How could five brothers share one wife? This problem was solved by Sri Vedavyasa who arrived at that time. He informed Drupada, that the Pandavas are really Yama, Vayu, Indra and Ashwini Kumaras born as men. The wives of these are present in the body of Draupadi. Therefore, the marriage with Draupadi is really the marriage with their respective wives. With the grace of Vedavyasa Drupada saw their wives in the person of Draupadi and prostrated at the feet of Vedavyasa. The marriage was organized in a splendid way by Drupada. The way in which the Pandavas dealt with Draupadi is quite interesting. In the person of Draupadi four women viz shyamala, Bharathi, Sachi and Usher were present. These were the wives of Yama, Vayu, Indra and Ashwini Kumaras who were now born as Pandavas. When Dharmaraja was in contact with Draupadi, Shyamala used to be actively present and others used to be in dormant state. Similarly when Bhimasena was in contact with Draupadi, Bharati used to be actively present and others in a dormant state. This process continued in other cases also. This avoided the overlapping of the contacts of these couples. The physical personalities of the wives were one but their actual presence was relative to their husbands. However, in the case of Vayu and Bharati, these were exclusively present when Bhima was in contact with Draupadi and were also present along with others when others were in contact. However, there was no overlapping of these two and the respective others so far as the contact is concerned. It only means that Vayu and Bharati were never dormant. The whole set up seems to be beyond human logic and human understanding. That is why it is called atimanusha.
6) Why did Krishna kill Karna un-righteousness?
Most of who were on the side of kuaravas were actually demons and the people who were on the side of pandavas were demigods. Here, Krishna the Supreme God came on the side of demigods to protect them and relieve the burden of the earth. When Karna’s chariot wheels were struck, he pleaded with Arjuna that he could give him time to retrieve it. That was the rule of the righteous war. At that Krishna said, “You talk of righteousness does not behave like that. You have been the part of evil Duryodhana’s all sinful schemes, you never protested against the insulting treatment given to Draupadi in their court, rather you were a party to aggravate it by your insulting remarks. We cannot forget the recent killing of Abhimanyu. Do you think that was righteous?” Although killing of Karna was un-righteousness, Krishna clarifies this part in the above sentence. On the Kuaravas side there were many great heroes including Karna. Some had actually received several boons and killing of them was not an easy task for pandavas without Krishna. Krishna used tricks to kill Kuaravas after finding the weakness of Kuaravas. When an enemy is repeatedly not following the principles of warfare, the warrior can follow tricks that are not as per rules of warfare to kill the enemy. However, this is an exceptional rule. When a warrior follows the principles of warfare that is laid down in the Hindu scriptures and fight with the enemy it is called dharma yuddha. However, the main purpose of such a war is to establish justice and peace by killing the demonic class of people. Krishna didn’t fulfill the principles of warfare but fulfilled the purpose of a war. Thus the war of Mahabharatha represents the eternal conflict which goes on in every soul between the forces of righteousness and wickedness; to the extent that righteous succeeds, the soul is said to come out victorious on its onward march towards final release. Sri Narayana Himself present in every soul directs this internal war just as Sri Krishna He did in the field of Kurukshetra. The main reason for the Krishna avataaar was to reinstall righteousness in the world and protect his devotees and good people.
One more thing about Karna is that he was not given the social status like pandavas. When Karna lay wounded on the battlefield waiting for the messengers of death, he asks Lord Krishna the reason for suffering in his life, because Karna was actually belongs to kshathiya clan and son of Kunti. Krishna reminds Karna of all the evil deeds he did when he was Dambhodabhava and how he fled from the battlefield and took refuge in Lord Surya and was destined to be slain at the hands of Arjuna. Although Karna is partial amsa of Sun God He faced lot of bad luck and disgrace in life due to giving protection to a demon Dambhodabhava. The story goes like this: Once upon a time, there was an evil demon king Dambhodabhava, in pursuit of attaining the boon of immortality does penance and pleases the Sun God. Unfortunately for the demon, the Sun God refuses to make him immortal but grants him any other boon. So the witty demon conceives a plan and asks for such a boon that would indirectly grant him immortality. The boon he asked was to have 1000 Kavachas(armours) and it must take 1000 Years to break each Kavacha, and the one who would break a Kavacha would instantly die. Nara and Narayana was the avatar of Lord Vishnu. The twins were sons of Dharma and his wife Murti (Daughter Of Daksha) or Ahimsa. These two sages take avatars on earth for the welfare of mankind .The demon Dambhodabhava was named Sahasra Kavacha now. To fit to the boon, first Narayana pennaced for 1000 Yrs and Nara fought 1000 Years with ShahasrKavacha and after 1000 Years, Nara was able to break his one Kavacha. As Nara broke the Kavacha,he died. But Narayan due his penance of 1000 Yrs could get back life of Nara and Narayan starts fighting and Nara starts penance for the next 1000 years.Nara and Narayana alternatively penace and fight for 1000 years and the cycle continued. At last, when they both were able to break 999 Kavachas. Petrified by the very thought of death, the wicked demon fled from the battlefield seeking refuge with the Sun God who had given the boon. ShahasraKavacha hides himself behind the Surya with his last Kavacha due to fear that he would be killed by Nara and Narayana then. Both the heroes of the war, Nara and Narayana chased him and demanded Lord Surya to return the demon to them. But Lord Surya who had given Dambhodabhava the promise to protect him, refused Nara and Narayana to hand over the demon. At this time, there was Pralaya on Earth due to the change of the Yuga. Thus ShashtraKavacha escapes death. In Dwapar Yuga, amsa of Lord Surya and Dambhodabhava was reborn as Karna with Kavacha and Nar and Narayan as Arjun and Krishna respectively. Hence, Karna was affected with “split personality”. Finally it was Narayana who declared that the last of the thousand kavachaÂ’s would be broken by Nara in the Dwapara Yuga when Nara would be born as Arjuna and the wicked Dambhodabhava as Karna. The incarnation of Krishna was to relieve the burden of the earth. The Earth was overpowered by hosts of demon armies like Daityas and Danavas who descended to the Earth taking birth as kings in royal families although previously killed also as demons battling the demigods. In order to lessen this burden of the Earth, the Supreme Lord Krishna descended and manifested Himself in the Yadava dynasty.
The confusion over one’s own action arises in an individual when he is not able to identify his sva-dharma. Arjuna was clearly in this jumble. Dharma is further classified as mukhya-dharma (Main) and gauNa-dharma (Subsidiary).
These change based on the circumstances of the individual. Take the example of a school teacher. His mukhya-dharma and gauNa-dharma change according to the situation. Suppose his own son is a student in his class. The same person has the dharma of a teacher and that of a father. When he is in the classroom, his mukhya-dharma becomes that of a teacher and gauNa-dharma that of a father. Only then will he be able to conduct the class in an impartial manner as a teacher.
The mukha and gauNa dharma-s for him change outside the classroom. There, his mukhya-dharma become that of a father and gauNa-dharma that of a teacher. So we should be able to identify our mukhya-dharma according to the circumstances we are in.
Now take the case of Arjuna. He is basically a kShatriya(to protect the ) whose dharma is to fight. On the other hand, he is also a student, an uncle, a brother and a friend to many in the kaurava army. These are also his dharma in their respective realms. However, in the battlefield his mukhya-dharma is that of a kShatriya and all other dharma-s take a back seat. We can see from the gItA that Arjuna clearly failed to recognize this and this made him to drop his bow and arrow. He forgot his dharma to fight as a kShatriya when confronted with attachments.
7) Why drona didn’t teach archery to ekalavya?
When we hear the word Ekalavya, Guru Bhakti will come to our mind immediately. He gave his thumb, an important finger as Guru Dhakshina for the education obtained from Guru. Before practicing the shastras (shastra vidya) in front of Drona’s idol, earlier he learned Paishacha vidya from group of devils (pishachi). From this force only, he fought against Sri Krishna with Jarasanda and got defeated. Ekalavya attacked Krishna for the second time and got defeated. Ekalavya thought that it’s not possible to kill Sri Krishna using Paishacha Astra. In order to get Divine astras, he came to Dronacharya with bad intention. Acharya Dhrona had promised to Arjuna that he would make him as supreme in Dhanur vidya after liking his conduct. To keep the promise Acharya Dhrona didn’t taught it to Ekalavya first. Also Ekalavya came to learn archery with the bad intention. When Dronacharya came to know that Ekalavya was worshipping him to obtained Astra Vidya, Dronacharya went and got Ekalavya’s thumb as Gurudakshina to teach him the Astra Vidya. After Dronacharya obtained the Guru Dakshina, he then started to teach Ekalavya the Astra Vidya. Here, Dronacharya didn’t violate the promise of Arjuna (because Ekalavya cannot be as efficient as Arjuna) but at the same time he (as a guru) didn’t disappointed his disciple.
Ekalavya was an amsha of Manimanta, the leader of a certain group of demons although he was talented and came from hunter family. Even demons show devotion towards their master but their actions are demonic and their intentions are against what is good for the society. You will find many demons who worship demigods but they dislike Vishnu because He is in charge of reducing the burden of earth. Earth was actually filled with demons at the time Krishna incarnated. If you read the story of Krishna, you will see many demons planning to kill Krishna since His birth without knowing that He is the cause of all causes. One can have peace only when one develops faith in Absolute God and dedicates all his actions for the good as well as to that God.
You will find devotion, talent and hardship even in demons but we cannot support them because they can misuse the skills that are taught. Regarding the social status of Ekalavya, one has to understand the hindu caste system properly.
The caste system was actually called as swa-dharma. It means duty( dharama) according to one’s swabhava(nature). There are 2 types of dharmas according to Vedic system. Samanya (Normal) and vishesha(Special) dharma. Samanya dharma is common to all. It includes being kind, courteous to all beings, etc. Vishesha dharma is what differs and it is also called swa-dharma. Vedic scriptures has explained to us that our actions must match our energy-nature, our prakriti. Our actions, including our livelihood, must be consistent with our state of conscious, our swabhava. Our swadharma, the mode of life and duty that is natural to us, being based on our karma(deeds of previous lives) and samskaras (impressions in our mind).
According to the Hindu religion, the 3 types of natures of the human being are: mode of goodness, mode of passion and mode of ignorance. Hence, the class of people who are completely in mode of goodness (brahmana=one who has gained the brahma gyana (one who has the correct knowledge about the brahmanda(everything about the universe))) are considered as intellectual class since their mind is not biased towards bad things. That is why they were ministers or priests in the king’s court in olden times. The class of people who are in mode of passion and goodness is considered to be belonging to administrative class(kshathriya). That is why they were kings or warriors because the rulers and warriors have to be very active and brave. They must not only be good towards their citizens( mode of goodness) but also should have the courage to punish the culprits (mode of passion). If a king loves even the criminals like a saint, then the society will not be peaceful. The third class of people is a businessmen (vaishya) who is in the mode of passion and ignorance. The last class of people is ones who are driven by immoral thoughts or who do not have control over their mind to decide what right or wrong or even lazy people. They are worker class(sudra). They were not given highest position because they can misuse the powers. For example, the knowledge about making the bombs/guns is misused by terrorists by killing innocent people. This is because they are in the mode of ignorance. By doing manual work, they would gradually rise above the mode of ignorance and would be getting the higher posts in the future or same life. Hence, this system also worked as purification process for the human beings.
If this division is not done properly in a society, there will be no peace, prosperity as well as spiritual progress of individuals. That is why the meaning of Dharma is that which is meant for the stability of the world. It is also means to be both secular and spiritual welfare of living beings.
The 3 natures explained before are found in ‘varying degrees’ in all individuals, be they Indian, American or British. So the God made a broader classification of the individuals. The natures present in individuals fall under the various people in the order of predominance as follows:
BrAhmaNa: sattva–>rajas
kShatriya – rajas–>sattva–>tamas
vaishya – rajas–>tamas–>sattva
shUdra – tamas
In the satya, dwapara and tretayugas it is told that God was helping us to establish good governance in the world. You may ask how God was helping us. The four divisions of human beings were originally done by God to divide the people according to their quality so that there won’t be any waste of time or confusion in selecting the right candidate for different positions in society. God used to fully control the births of the people in previous yugas and decide who has to take birth in which family. We all say that God is the controller of everything but we cannot admit this truth. In the previous yugas, only a pure man, when his punya [karmic merit] becomes exhausted, descends from heaven to earth and is born in kshathriya(administrative class of people) lineage and such man was selected as a king. Such a person is indeed great and is a portion of God on earth. Because Lord Vishnu entered the body of that monarch and helps the citizens to give good governance. Hence we can see the God’s responsibility for the welfare of the world or society. The form of government that is the oldest, most prevalent down through the ages, and most widely found around the globe is that of the divine monarchy. These were found in India, China, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Sumer, Ur, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Sudan, in ancient Greece, as well as in Scandinavia and Celtic Europe. In all these civilizations the king was spoken of as divine representatives. That is why we can see great kings like shibi, Satya harishchandra in earlier yugas. There are also instances of sudra getting purified in the same life and getting all the respect. For example, Sage valmikki who came from hunter family has written epic historical book ramayana. Also Vidura the son of a maid-servant has served as minister of Hastinapura. In Mahabharatha, Krishna has even declined the gorgeous feast of Duryodhana, who came from kshathriya clan and went straight to the hut of Vidura who was born from Sudra mother. Vidura had nothing to offer Krishna except some plantain fruits. In his joy, which made him lose his body-consciousness, he offered the peels to Krishna and threw the pith away, not knowing what he was doing. Such was the delight he was immersed in, on seeing Krishna in his cottage. Sri Krishna uttered not a word. He went on swallowing the peels. He noted that the plantain stuff was being thrown off, but said nothing. At that time, it appears, the wife of Vidura was taking a bath. When she heard that Sri Krishna had come, she ran without even dressing herself properly. She forgot herself equally. When she saw Vidura giving peels to the Lord, she yelled, “Oh! What are you giving?” The moment she uttered these words, Vidura came to consciousness and he immediately told her, “Go and put on your clothes, please.” Neither she knew that she had no proper clothes, nor Vidura knew that he was feeding the Lord with peels. When both began to realise the mistake they had made in their overwhelming joy, the one rushed to put on decent clothes and the other offered the fruit instead of the peels. But Sri Krishna is reported to have smilingly remarked, “Now the taste of the fruit has gone. The peels were tastier.” God loves only himself. He cannot love anything else, because anything else does not exist.
However, this caste system is distorted in kaliyuga because it is controlled (partially) by great demon called kalipurusha. Hence, determining the quality of a human cannot be determined merely from birth or caste in this yuga. The entire system has also collapsed because the caste system is no longer formulated as per the inherent guNas in an individual. It is now a caste system based on the individual’s birth. Even now, if an individual objectively examines his nature, he will come to know of his real dharma (duty that purifies oneself).
In the beginning of satya yuga, there was actually no such caste system. Because all the people were thinking well about others and were pure in heart. As people started to think unethically there was a need to divide the people according to their nature.
In the Bhagavd-Gita Lord has told: “Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. Thus, from this sloka it is clear that even if we educate a person who is in the mode of ignorance he will still act according to his nature. Even if his intellect says that it is wrong to do the misdeeds, he will still do it because of the impulse of the sense organs.
Why did Sri Rama killed Vali?
[After Mother Sita was kidnapped, Sri Rama was wandering in the forest looking for her. Although Sri Rama is supreme lord, he wanted to get a good freind to help him to find Sita. This is part of Sri Rama's leela(divine play). On the way, Sri Rama met Hauman and Sugriva.] Sugriva explained his pitiable condition on account of his brother’s aggressive posture. [Sugriva wanted to rescue from Vali and Vali was ready to kill Sugriva. Sri Rama decided to help Sugriva becuase Sugriva's wife was also kidnapped by Vali and he came to conclusion that Sugriva is the right person to help him. This is something to be learnt from God. When we are in difficulty, we have to make freinds who have expierinced the similar difficulty.] Sri Rama promised to him that his aggressive brother Vali will be killed (as kidnapping somone’s wife is a big sin and culphrit has to be punished as Sri Rama himself was a king duty and punishing is his duty. Although Sri Rama was not a king after he came to forest, he was a shatriya by birth and punishing the culphrit is his duty) and the kingship will be restored to him. Sugriva also agreed to help Sri Rama to find out Sita. However, he wanted to know whether Sri Rama had a sufficient amount of strength to fight Vali. Therefore, he showed Rama the body of Dundubhi killed by Vali. Sri Rama threw that dead body a hundred yojanas away by the very toe of his feet and killed by it a number of demons living on Rasatala. Then, Sugriva showed Rama seven demons present in the form of seven Tala trees and said that if you can destroy these by one arrow, then you can kill Vali. Sri Rama destroyed all of them by one arrow, which, after destroying the Tala trees pierced into the seven underworlds viz., Atala, Vitala, etc., upto Patala and also destroyed the demons known as Kumiudi. This is the strength of the God. Then, Sugriva took Rama to the city of Kishkindha to kill Vali. Vali pounced on Sugriva and beated him. But Sri Rama did not kill vali for the first time pretending that he could not distinguish between the two. The real reason was to give an opportunity for the brothers to reconcile and to avoid a confrontation. Even the long enmity among the brothers vanishes when they reach the point of crisis. Since rama has taken the vow to help sugriva when vali tries to attack him, rama became confused on what action to be taken. Rama was sugriva’s ally and rama must help Sugriva as Ram needs some help in return. When Sugriva again appealed to Sri Rama to kill Vali Sri Rama threw a strong arrow at Vali and killed him. When compromising of the brothers was not possible, Rama thought of keeping his promise instead. It is said that Sri Rama killed Vali from behind a tree. The reason for this was neither fear nor treachery. If Vali would have prostrated at the feet of Sri Rama then, it would have been a dilemma whether to stand by his promise to Sugriva or to stand by Vali who had prostrated at his feet. According to the rules of warfare, warrior must not kill the enemy if he surrenders. Although Sri Rama punished Vali by not fighting face to face like a real warriors, there is an exception for the warriors to kill an animal (sugriva was a monkey) when it attacks a person who has to be saved. The bottom point is that when it comes to rescuing a person and there is no enough time to reconcile with the enemy, first we have abide to protect the person.
sugrIva and karNa were both amshAs of the sun, yet they met with different treatments at the hands of the Lord; sugrIva benefited immensly from rAma, whereas karNa was punished. The answer to this seeming paradox is given by srimadAchArya “sa mArutikrutE ravijam raraksha” (MBTN canto 5 verse 46) child of sun (sugrIva) was protected (by rAma) only because he was with hanumantA. “bhImArthamEva ravijam nihatya” (MBTN canto 5 verse 47) It was because of (enimity with) bhIma that offspring of the sun (karNa) was killed (by krishna). A similar reversal is seen in the case of vAli and arjuna. Here again, the key was the relationship that vAli and arjuna had with hanumanta and bhIma respectively. This illustrates the point that getting the grace of devotee of the Lord (vayu) or association of the devotee of the Lord (vayu) is a sure-shot way of getting the grace of hari.
9) Karunanidi has once told that valmikki ramayana says that Rama is fond of wine. Is it true?
The verse that comes in question in this regard in the Valmiki Ramayana, Sundarakanda, Skanda 36, Sloka 41, says: ”Na mamsam Raghava bhunkte, na chaiva madhu sevate, Vanyam suvihitam nityam bhaktamsnati panchamam.” The literal translation of this verse is: ”Sri Rama does not take meat or honey. He partakes everyday of wild fruits and boiled (wild) rice fully sanctioned (for an ascetic) in the evening.” Faulty English translations have put it as something like this: Hanuman to Sita, ”When you were away, Sri Rama did not even take deer meat.” This incorrectly implies that Rama normally may have ate meat but did not do so while Sita was away from Him. Now in this verse, the Sanskrit word bhunkte is a verb that means strong desire for eating. It comes from the Sanskrit bhaksha, which means voracious eating. When you say Na bhunkte, as we see in the line that says ”Na mamsam Raghava bhunkte”, it gives a complete negative connotation, meaning that Lord Rama abhorred meat-eating. On the other hand, if the words were ”Na mamsam Raghavo khadate”, it could then mean that Raghava may have engaged in meat eating before, but had stopped it at this point. However, this is not what is said, but is where some English translations present a similar confusion, or are simply unclear about this issue. Nonetheless, by analyzing the correct view of the proper translation, it indicates clearly that the Valmiki Ramayana shows how Lord Rama not only did not eat meat but greatly disliked it. There is also a verse where Lord Rama laments with his Mother, Kausalya that he is going to be exiled from the palace at Ayodhya into the forest for fourteen years. Below is the misinterptreted verse: ‘I must to lonely wilds repair, abstain from flesh and wine and living there on roots, fruit, hermit’s food, pass twice seven years (14 yrs.) in solitude. The actaul meaning of the sanskrit verse is that even after living in forest, Lord Rama didn’t like to depend on meat of animals(by hunting) or bee-honey(misinterpreted as wine). This is the greatness of Sri Rama.
10) Why Rama killed Shambuka who was doing penance?
We are told that Shambuka was a shudra who was doing penance to attain salvation or some othe reason and he did not like the shudra aspiring for salvation so he was killed off. But the real reason was that Shambuka was an asura (who is in the mode of ignorance) and he was aspiring for IndraÂ’s (who is in charge of heaven) position and he was doing penance for that. It was required to protect devatas (demigods) from the asura that Rama destroyed his penance. It is the job of the king to prevent a person who is in the mode of ignorance to take charge of the society or world. It is also the Vishnu’s job to prevent an unqualified (who is in the mode of ignorance) person to take the demigod position. Indra padavi is a position like prime minister of demigods and heaven. In order to gain that position one has to do lot of sacrifices. Shambuka was trying to acquire this position through wrong means as it is not according to his own merit. In earlier yugas, whenever a person who is in the mode of ignorance takes charge of society or world, the demigods gives hint to the humanity about the future calamity. They are also in charge of maintaining the stability(dharma) of the world. That is how a newly born baby died instantly. That gave clue to King Raama that is there is something unjust that is going in his territory. In kaliyuga, untimely death is so common that people do not consider it seriously. However, in satya yuga and other yugas, there was no or few untimely death because the dharma was so stable.
Narada was a dasi-putra, the son of a maidservant. He has also done penance. Srila Vyasadeva was also (born from the womb of a sudra mother) had done penance. Hence, the conclusion is caste is not by birth. In order to understand the so called caste system properly, read the question 7.
This is not about racial discrimination. If Rama is supporting Racialism, why did He ate the half-eaten fruits given to him by Shabari(who was a Scheduled Tribe) who was aspiring for salvation? He also blessed king of vultures, Jatayu, one who is born in the family of eating dead bodies and flushes etc and Vibhishana, the one who is born in the family of demons. In the end of Ramayana, Sri Rama assures Hanuman, who is from Vanara community, that He will be given the Brahma padavi (designation) in the future. Hence, Hanuman is going to be the next Brahma of this universe.
The Vedic texts describe 330 million devatas, or universal controllers and they used to help us to maintain a health society in earlier yugas. God is beyond the purview of the material universe. Lord Brahma is called Prajapati, the secondary creator of the Universe. Prajapati means the lord of population. Lord Brahma has the responsibility to populate the universe with all species of life. The devatas are controllers of various aspects of nature within the material realm. There is exception to Lord Siva, whose body is the time factor. All of the controllers (ishvaras) belong to God’s natural system of material administration. Within the material realm God has arranged a hierarchy of control for automatic administration of nature. Each of these personalities (numbering 330 million by some) can be called a controller (ishvara) as they are each in charge of a particular aspect of nature. They are actually secondary controllers. It is exactly like a government that has many levels of control, such as Prime Minister (national controller), Chief Minister (state controller) and District Magistrate (district controller).
11) Why Sita was banished by Rama to forest?
Before we go further we should know the story of Ramayana. Rama is the avatar of Lord Vishnu and he came to this world as Rama to set an example to human kind. And in the case of the Avatar his consort Sri Lakshmi also descends to aid the Lord in his divine works. She had incarnated as Sita to fulfill His plan. As the omnipotent Lord, Rama certainly knows that Sita was untouched otherwise omnipotence is meaningless. Neither can Sita be touched by any mortal or immortal , asura or rakshasha or man as she is the adhipathi of this universe. Thus the concept of his suspecting is wife here is a meaningless one. Clearly Rama was eager to establish that his wife was pure and fit for the throne of Ayodhya. And it was to this end that he asked her to undergo the Agni Pariksha which was meant to elevate the status of Sita amongst his subjects. Thus he actually shows how an ideal King should be, one who keeps the feelings of the public in mind. We must realize that in those days much was expected of kings , quite unlike todayÂ’s elected democratic rulers whose misdemeanor we have come to expect. Rama has thus established the code of conduct for an ideal king and by his act becomes flawless and worthy of respect. There is the wise saying of Hanuman told in the Bhagavatha, that the Avatar of the Lord as man in this world is intended indeed for the edification of mankind and not merely for the destruction of the Rakshasas. How can there be grief caused on account of (the separation of) Sita, to this Lord who enjoys Himself in His own form? The idea is that Lord Vishnu takes another form as female in Lakshmi and enjoys by giving pleasure to her.
12) Why Bhima played the foul game by hitting Duryodhana below the waist?
Vishnu as both Rama and Krishna upheld the divine law. As Rama he upheld it by his actions and as Krishna he did not directly participate in the wars but he always advised his devotees to kill the asuras by trickery because the kaurava’s team were very strong due to receiving several boons from demigods. When a warrior follows the principles of warfare that is laid down in the Hindu scriptures and fight with the enemy it is called dharma yuddha. However, the main purpose of such a war is to establish justice and peace by killing the demonic class of people. Krishna didn’t fulfill the principles of warfare but fulfilled the purpose of a war. Thus Bhimasena was advised by Krishna to hit Duryodhana below the waist and kill him.
There is also one more main reason. When Bhishma objected to the act of killing Dushashana by tearing the body to pieces and Duryodhana by hitting below the waist (as it is not according to the rules of warfare) Krishna clarifies the point that a sinner likes Dushashana or Duryodhana deserves that kind of a death. We can fight decently and according to the principles in the battlefield only if the opponent does follows the rules of the warfare properly. Madhvacharya states it is a sin to kill a sinner dharmically. It is like shooting a most wanted terrorist or don without warning or without asking them to surrender. Duryodhana has crossed all the limits of good conduct and behavior. All his attempts to kill the Pandavas have failed but still he was jealous of the Pandavas.
In Aurobindo’s view Krishna came to complete an evolutionary task, the establishment of an orderly society where a sattwic(mode of goodness) type was established firmly over and above the Rakshashic(mode of ignorance and demonic) type.
Duryodhana was actually the incarnation of Kali represents evil. Many people consider Duryodhana to be good person because he supported Karna. After seeing the arrow skills of Karna, Duryodhana considered Karna to be friend because he can help to fight him to conquer Pandavas. He was actaully in the evil policies of politics.
13) Is it true that urvashi was created by Lord Narayana?
In the fourth incarnation, the Lord became Nara-Narayana, the twin sons of the wife of King Dharma. He undertook severe and exemplary penances to control the senses. Their penances and austerities was so intense that it alarmed the Indra. Indra the King of Devas was not knowing that lord of lords has incarnated as Nara-Narayana. Sometimes Indra with the fear of losing his position sends apsaras to disturb the penance of human beings. Here, Indra was concerned about protecting his throne from possible contenders and he sent Kamadeva(Lord of desire), Vasanta (Lord of spring) and apsaras (nymphs) to inspire Lord with passion and disturb Nara-Narayana’s penance without knowing that they are the incarnation of Lord. There are many instances in which Apsaras, heavenly angels, have descended to this earth by the order of a superior demigods like Lord Brahma or Lord Indra, have followed the demigod’s order by distracting the ascetics. The material attractions are created by God only to check one’s advancement in spiritual life. Once a devotee is fixed in God’s consciousness, however, these attractions will not agitate his mind. The illusory potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead acts on behalf of God only.
They tried all their tricks to disturb the penance of Lord. Lord didn’t get disturbed even a bit. They got tired because of this. Then Lord Narayana took a flower and placed it on his thigh. Immediately there sprung from it a beautiful nymph whose charms far excelled those of the celestial nymphs. Apsaras who had came to attract the Lord felt surprised at the charm of nymph and felt shame at their beauty. This story shows the power of the Lord. Even the most beautiful and attractive things are under the control of God. This story is being misinterpreted by many. From this story, we can understand that Narayana is more powerful than demigods. We should also understand that Lord has created both good and bad things in this world. Bad things are created as the counter-force against the good. Just like barriers are placed as the obstacle for the runners from reaching the destination in hurdle race, bad feelings like lust, hatred, etc are created.
Apsaras can be compared to fairies of Western folklore. One popular Western belief is that fairies had been thrown out of heaven, not being good enough to live in heaven, but they were not evil enough for hell too. They are also called fallen angels. According to hindu dharma, Apsaras are the wives of the Gandharvas, court servants of Indra. Indra the chief of demigods and Svargaloka(heaven) is the abode of demigods. One of the duties of Apsaras is to guide to paradise the heroes who fall in battle, whose wives they then become. They mainly act as the handmaidens of Indra or as dancers at his celestial court. Apsaras are also referred in the ancient stories of Greece and Buddhist.
It is said that the standard of living in the heaven is thousands and thousands of times higher than the standard of living on this planet. That is how there are more attraction in heaven. According to the Bhagavad-Gita going to or living in heaven has limitations too. Beings who go to these worlds are bound to return to earth once the merits of their previous karma are exhausted. Life in these worlds is also not permanent but the life-span or ‘time to live’ in the heaven is very very large. Complete liberation is possible only when the humans transcend their lower and higher desires and withdraw into themselves to attain the highest world of Supreme Lord.
14) How can the kidnapping of rukmimi by Lord Krishna be justied?
Rukmini was the incarnation of Godess laxmi. She is the incharge of material nature and personfication of material energy. Living beings are created by the interplay of material nature(that gives us the body) and the souls(living force) that emanate from Vishnu. Thus, Godess laxmi is called the mother and Vishnu is called father of the universe.
When Godess laxmi was born as Sita she faced lot of seperation with Vishnu when He was born as Raama. When Godess laxmi was born as Rukmini, her brother was trying to marry her with his friend but she was not interested with marrying with anyone other than Vishnu. Even after knowing that ravana has kidnapped Sita, Raama didn’t attacked ravana directly in rama-avataar. He first sent a messenger to compromise with Ravana and return Sita. This is because the avatara of Raama was meant to teach the society how a perfect gentleman should be. However, when Vishnu was born as Krishna He didn’t followed the guidelines (getting the consent of parents before marrying) because He didn’t want the Goddess laxmi to suffer like in sita-avataar. He is now playing the role of protector. The bottom line is that God acts differently as per to the role he is playing and the situation that demands.
15) Why did Krishna stole away the saris of Gopikas when they were bathing in the river?
This is another difficult to understand scene. Gopikas and Gopaalas in their previous birth were Rishis in Kritha Yuga. They were able to get only the darshan of the Lord Vishnu in krita yuga. In Thretha Yuga they were born as monkeys (vanara sena of Hanuman) and were able to enjoy the darshan of the Lord in Rama avatara as well as Sambhashanam (talk). In the Dhwaapara Yuga they were born as Gopikas and Gopaalas to enjoy darshan(seeing), Sambhashan(talking) and Sparshan(touch). The love relationship the Gopikas shared with God in Dhwaapara Yuga is called madhura bhakti (romantic devotion) which devotees such as Meera have developed. When the Gopikas questioned Krishna whether it was Dharma (righteous) on His part to steal away their dress and requesting them to come out of river, Krishna wanted to share a light moment with his devotees. Although the Kritha Yuga rishis were born in female gender now (were in male gender before), they were shy of coming out without sufficient clothes. The lord Krishna says that it was the Gopikas who were not observing Svadharma (Aathma dharma or their true nature that the body or the gender is not associated with the soul (living force)) but observing Paraadharma (Dehadharma or body consciousness). This has to be understood as leela (divine play) because God is teaching some lesson to his devotees. Krishna gave away the saris the moment the gopikas lifted their hands in total surrender and prayed to Him to save them from shame. This self-surrender is Absolute Love for God exclusively. The meaning is that unless a spiritual aspirant loses his body consciousness and prays to God for grace. He would not win the grace of God. In fact Dheha means that which is worn, a Vasthra. The moral of this story is that doesn’t mean every woman should surrender to lord without wearing any dress. The Gopikas were advanced spiritual yogis of Kritha Yuga (and eager to share madhurya bhakti) and thus God taught such lesson to them.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
16) How come Krishna asked Arjuna to fight with his Grandsire, teachers and cousins?
Krishna tried his best to stop the war and even undertook a peace mission. He pleaded with Dhritharashtra and the Kaurava sons to abandon the path of war. Krishna even took the Vishvaroopa (absolute form of God) and showed to everyone that he was God himself.
This was a war of Dharma against Adharma, in other words Good against Bad. The dharma (duty) of a Kshatriyas (warrior and administrative class of people) is not to pardon evil persons. It is the duty of Kshatriyas to fight with evil persons when they try to control the society so that the peace remains in the society.
This may confused us why Krishna didn’t suggested Arjuna to put down the arms and follow the non-violence like Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. According to vedic system, the 4 divisions of human society (called as caste system) are actually 4 social orders or duties. These 4 social orders are divided according to their nature. Srimad-Bhagavatam the authenticated book declares that if one shows the symptoms of being a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya or sudra, even if he has appeared in a different class, he should be accepted according to the symptoms of classification. According to Sri Krsna in Bhagavad-gita, the qualities of a brahmana are as follows: Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness — these are the natural qualities by which the brahmanas work. If such symptoms are found in a sudra, he should never be called a sudra, just as a brahmana is not a brahmana if he lacks these characteristics. Those who are in tama guna(mode of ignorance) and engaged in hypocrisy and envy are the sudras.
A kshatriya’s dharma is to protect all beings along with fostering the righteous, destroying those who are cruel, and not fleeing from the enemy. One interesting thing here is that there is no difference between religion and social responsibility. A warrior who is brave enough to be killed on the battlefield attains heaven after this earthly life. However, the dharma (duty) of saints or Brahmanas is to pardon the evil persons.
Many great personalities didn’t want to join Kauravas but due to some reason they had to join Kauravas. Shalya wanted to join Pandavas; however, Duryodhana had arranged a grand reception for him all along his way. Without knowing as to who had arranged it Shalya declared that he would support him who had arranged this reception. Consequently he had to join Duryodhana. Similarly, Acharya Dhrona who was expert archery was using the provisions given by Duryodhana. So he accepted Duryodhana’s request to join on kauravas side. Acharya Dhrona is such a great personality that he even told Yudhistira when He would stop the war and put down the weapons. That is he taught the way to pandavas how to kill him. Although Acharya Dhrona, Bhishma and many others fought against pandavas they played a crucial role in God’s work of reducing the burden of earth. They all died in the battle like martyr.
REFERENCES:
http://www.tatvavada.org/eng/
http://www.indiadivine.org/
mahabharata-resources.org/mbtntrans/mbtntrans.html
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/
http://www.krsnabook.com/ch6.html
http://www.advaita.org.uk
sss.vn.ua/quiz_bha.htm
1) Why did Krishna fight with Jaambavaan without knowing that he is a devotee of Raama?
Jaambavaan was a close friend of Raama in Thretayuga. He had a fantastic desire. He wished to fight a duel with Raama. His wish could not be fulfilled. Lord Vishnu fulfills even the strange wishes of his devotees by creating situations to meet it. In Dhvaaparayuga when Krishna was accused by the king Sathrajith of having stolen his Shyamanthaka gem when it was actually lost in the forest, Krishna had to prove to him that he has not robbed it, so he went in search of the gem. He went to the forest and followed the spoors leading to a lion’s den. There He found the Shyamanthaka gem in the possession of a bear – Jaambavaan. He challenged him to a duel to return it. The duel lasted for 28 days. At last by a sudden flash of illumination Jaambavaan realized that His adversary was his friend Raama. At last his wish was fulfilled. Although Jambavan is the bear and looks old, he doesn’t die. He is a chiran-jiva. He is also called as oldest living being created by Brahma. That is why you find Jambavan in both ramyana and mahabharatha.
2) How can the Raasa Leelaa or Raasa Kreeda of Lord Krishna be justified?
This indeed is a much misunderstood and misinterpreted episode. The Lord Krishna was dancing in moonlight with the cowherdesses, each Gopika dancing with a Krishna. The Lord multiplied Himself into many and stood beside every cowherdess. There are actually five kinds of Bhava(feelings) in Bhakti(love of God) and according to that there are 7 kinds of devotions. The five kinds of Bhavas(feelings) are Shanta(peaceful attitude of devotee ), Dasya(servant attitude of devotee), Sakhya (friendly attitude of devotee), Vatsalya(devotee looks upon God as his child) and Madhurya Bhavas (a devotee regards the Lord as his spouse). Madhurya Bhava is absolutely different from conjugality of earthly experience. Earthly conjugality is most of the time is purely selfish and is undertaken only because it gives pleasure to one’s own self. But in Madhurya bhakti it is because it gives pleasure to God and not for the sake of the devotee. Madhurya bhakti is considered to be supreme way of loving the God. When Lord danced with his devotees, there was no tinge of lust. It is the people who see it that way.
Gopikas and Gopaalas in their previous birth were Rishis in Kritha Yuga. When Lord himself takes avatara(coming down to earth in human form) many of the Rishis who are His devotees and even demigods also come down to earth to participate with God in the leela(divine play). However, most of them do not get chance to mingle with Lord always. When Vishnu appeared as Rama, He had got many proposals to marry from devotees who were born as women. However, He was not ready to marry anyone after marrying sita because the purpose of rama-avatara was to teach how a perfect gentleman should be (maryadha purushothama). However, Rama promised them that He will marry all of them in his next incarnation (krishna avatar). It is said that humans should listen to krishna’s words but should not imitate him (marrying many women), because humans cannot be God.
3) Why did Krishna stole butter and gave trouble to gopikas?
Krishna is described as a butter thief. Krishna did not actually desire butter – but He desired the pure mind kept in the heart-pot of the Gopikas. Usually you can find a lover doing pranks with his beloved one, or a husband with his wife. It is not done with the intention to give trouble to their consort. Since gopikas were eager to share the madhura bhakti(amorous devotional love) with Lord, Krishna doing such pranks was out of love with his devotees. That is why Krishna is called Navaneetha chora. Navaneetha means pure mind. So krishna stealing the butter was out of love but not out of childish behavior.
4) Why Lord Krishna first drank the milk from Putana and then killed her?
After consulting with his demoniac ministers, Kamsa had instructed a witch named Putana, who knew the black art of killing small children by ghastly sinful methods, to kill all kinds of children in the cities, villages and pasturing grounds. Such witches are called khecari, which means they can fly in the sky. They can transfer themselves from one place to another on the branch of an uprooted tree. Putana came to take Krsna on her lap and offer her breast’s milk(which was actaully poison). Krisna first drank the milk and then killed the demoness Putana. Some people who do not understand the divine play of God think that this scene is very indecent. They think that why the God didn’t kill Putana immediately. Krsna is so merciful that because the demon Putana came to offer her breast-milk to Him, He took her as His nurse or mother. But to stop her from further nefarious activities, He then immediately sucked all her blood and killed her. Krishna also closed the eyes when sucking the blood. There is a reason He closed His eyes: He had to kill a nurse or mother.
5) Why draupathi married pancha pandavas?
There were actually five women in one body of draupadhi. The presence of Parvati,Shyamala and Usha with Bharathi in the same body has a background. Once upon a time, these four got into one body and moved before Brahma as a matter of fun. Brahma became angry and cursed them to be born as human beings thrice as they cheated him thrice being in one body. To overcome the hardship of contact with some man other than their husbands during these births, Parvathi ,Shachi etc approached Bharatidevi also to be born with them so that nobody would dare to touch them, accordingly these were born. In the first birth these were born as daughter of Brahmana. During this birth these performed penance to Shiva. Bharathi performed the same to Vishnu present in Shiva. They were told by Shiva and Vishnu respectively in one of their human births they will live with their husbands. Later they were born as Nalanandini and Indrasena. Nalanandini was the wife of Mudgala while Indrasena was the wife of his son Maudgalya. In these two births also they were in one body, Finally , these were born as Draupadi, It is only in this birth that they met their husbands. Arjuna succeeds in hitting the mark and qualifies himself to seek the hand of Draupadi. When Pandavas return home and inform Kunti about their gain, a ticklish situation arises. Without knowing the nature of the gain, Kunti tells her sons that “you five share it”. How could five brothers share one wife? This problem was solved by Sri Vedavyasa who arrived at that time. He informed Drupada, that the Pandavas are really Yama, Vayu, Indra and Ashwini Kumaras born as men. The wives of these are present in the body of Draupadi. Therefore, the marriage with Draupadi is really the marriage with their respective wives. With the grace of Vedavyasa Drupada saw their wives in the person of Draupadi and prostrated at the feet of Vedavyasa. The marriage was organized in a splendid way by Drupada. The way in which the Pandavas dealt with Draupadi is quite interesting. In the person of Draupadi four women viz shyamala, Bharathi, Sachi and Usher were present. These were the wives of Yama, Vayu, Indra and Ashwini Kumaras who were now born as Pandavas. When Dharmaraja was in contact with Draupadi, Shyamala used to be actively present and others used to be in dormant state. Similarly when Bhimasena was in contact with Draupadi, Bharati used to be actively present and others in a dormant state. This process continued in other cases also. This avoided the overlapping of the contacts of these couples. The physical personalities of the wives were one but their actual presence was relative to their husbands. However, in the case of Vayu and Bharati, these were exclusively present when Bhima was in contact with Draupadi and were also present along with others when others were in contact. However, there was no overlapping of these two and the respective others so far as the contact is concerned. It only means that Vayu and Bharati were never dormant. The whole set up seems to be beyond human logic and human understanding. That is why it is called atimanusha.
6) Why did Krishna kill Karna un-righteousness?
Most of who were on the side of kuaravas were actually demons and the people who were on the side of pandavas were demigods. Here, Krishna the Supreme God came on the side of demigods to protect them and relieve the burden of the earth. When Karna’s chariot wheels were struck, he pleaded with Arjuna that he could give him time to retrieve it. That was the rule of the righteous war. At that Krishna said, “You talk of righteousness does not behave like that. You have been the part of evil Duryodhana’s all sinful schemes, you never protested against the insulting treatment given to Draupadi in their court, rather you were a party to aggravate it by your insulting remarks. We cannot forget the recent killing of Abhimanyu. Do you think that was righteous?” Although killing of Karna was un-righteousness, Krishna clarifies this part in the above sentence. On the Kuaravas side there were many great heroes including Karna. Some had actually received several boons and killing of them was not an easy task for pandavas without Krishna. Krishna used tricks to kill Kuaravas after finding the weakness of Kuaravas. When an enemy is repeatedly not following the principles of warfare, the warrior can follow tricks that are not as per rules of warfare to kill the enemy. However, this is an exceptional rule. When a warrior follows the principles of warfare that is laid down in the Hindu scriptures and fight with the enemy it is called dharma yuddha. However, the main purpose of such a war is to establish justice and peace by killing the demonic class of people. Krishna didn’t fulfill the principles of warfare but fulfilled the purpose of a war. Thus the war of Mahabharatha represents the eternal conflict which goes on in every soul between the forces of righteousness and wickedness; to the extent that righteous succeeds, the soul is said to come out victorious on its onward march towards final release. Sri Narayana Himself present in every soul directs this internal war just as Sri Krishna He did in the field of Kurukshetra. The main reason for the Krishna avataaar was to reinstall righteousness in the world and protect his devotees and good people.
One more thing about Karna is that he was not given the social status like pandavas. When Karna lay wounded on the battlefield waiting for the messengers of death, he asks Lord Krishna the reason for suffering in his life, because Karna was actually belongs to kshathiya clan and son of Kunti. Krishna reminds Karna of all the evil deeds he did when he was Dambhodabhava and how he fled from the battlefield and took refuge in Lord Surya and was destined to be slain at the hands of Arjuna. Although Karna is partial amsa of Sun God He faced lot of bad luck and disgrace in life due to giving protection to a demon Dambhodabhava. The story goes like this: Once upon a time, there was an evil demon king Dambhodabhava, in pursuit of attaining the boon of immortality does penance and pleases the Sun God. Unfortunately for the demon, the Sun God refuses to make him immortal but grants him any other boon. So the witty demon conceives a plan and asks for such a boon that would indirectly grant him immortality. The boon he asked was to have 1000 Kavachas(armours) and it must take 1000 Years to break each Kavacha, and the one who would break a Kavacha would instantly die. Nara and Narayana was the avatar of Lord Vishnu. The twins were sons of Dharma and his wife Murti (Daughter Of Daksha) or Ahimsa. These two sages take avatars on earth for the welfare of mankind .The demon Dambhodabhava was named Sahasra Kavacha now. To fit to the boon, first Narayana pennaced for 1000 Yrs and Nara fought 1000 Years with ShahasrKavacha and after 1000 Years, Nara was able to break his one Kavacha. As Nara broke the Kavacha,he died. But Narayan due his penance of 1000 Yrs could get back life of Nara and Narayan starts fighting and Nara starts penance for the next 1000 years.Nara and Narayana alternatively penace and fight for 1000 years and the cycle continued. At last, when they both were able to break 999 Kavachas. Petrified by the very thought of death, the wicked demon fled from the battlefield seeking refuge with the Sun God who had given the boon. ShahasraKavacha hides himself behind the Surya with his last Kavacha due to fear that he would be killed by Nara and Narayana then. Both the heroes of the war, Nara and Narayana chased him and demanded Lord Surya to return the demon to them. But Lord Surya who had given Dambhodabhava the promise to protect him, refused Nara and Narayana to hand over the demon. At this time, there was Pralaya on Earth due to the change of the Yuga. Thus ShashtraKavacha escapes death. In Dwapar Yuga, amsa of Lord Surya and Dambhodabhava was reborn as Karna with Kavacha and Nar and Narayan as Arjun and Krishna respectively. Hence, Karna was affected with “split personality”. Finally it was Narayana who declared that the last of the thousand kavachaÂ’s would be broken by Nara in the Dwapara Yuga when Nara would be born as Arjuna and the wicked Dambhodabhava as Karna. The incarnation of Krishna was to relieve the burden of the earth. The Earth was overpowered by hosts of demon armies like Daityas and Danavas who descended to the Earth taking birth as kings in royal families although previously killed also as demons battling the demigods. In order to lessen this burden of the Earth, the Supreme Lord Krishna descended and manifested Himself in the Yadava dynasty.
The confusion over one’s own action arises in an individual when he is not able to identify his sva-dharma. Arjuna was clearly in this jumble. Dharma is further classified as mukhya-dharma (Main) and gauNa-dharma (Subsidiary).
These change based on the circumstances of the individual. Take the example of a school teacher. His mukhya-dharma and gauNa-dharma change according to the situation. Suppose his own son is a student in his class. The same person has the dharma of a teacher and that of a father. When he is in the classroom, his mukhya-dharma becomes that of a teacher and gauNa-dharma that of a father. Only then will he be able to conduct the class in an impartial manner as a teacher.
The mukha and gauNa dharma-s for him change outside the classroom. There, his mukhya-dharma become that of a father and gauNa-dharma that of a teacher. So we should be able to identify our mukhya-dharma according to the circumstances we are in.
Now take the case of Arjuna. He is basically a kShatriya(to protect the ) whose dharma is to fight. On the other hand, he is also a student, an uncle, a brother and a friend to many in the kaurava army. These are also his dharma in their respective realms. However, in the battlefield his mukhya-dharma is that of a kShatriya and all other dharma-s take a back seat. We can see from the gItA that Arjuna clearly failed to recognize this and this made him to drop his bow and arrow. He forgot his dharma to fight as a kShatriya when confronted with attachments.
7) Why drona didn’t teach archery to ekalavya?
When we hear the word Ekalavya, Guru Bhakti will come to our mind immediately. He gave his thumb, an important finger as Guru Dhakshina for the education obtained from Guru. Before practicing the shastras (shastra vidya) in front of Drona’s idol, earlier he learned Paishacha vidya from group of devils (pishachi). From this force only, he fought against Sri Krishna with Jarasanda and got defeated. Ekalavya attacked Krishna for the second time and got defeated. Ekalavya thought that it’s not possible to kill Sri Krishna using Paishacha Astra. In order to get Divine astras, he came to Dronacharya with bad intention. Acharya Dhrona had promised to Arjuna that he would make him as supreme in Dhanur vidya after liking his conduct. To keep the promise Acharya Dhrona didn’t taught it to Ekalavya first. Also Ekalavya came to learn archery with the bad intention. When Dronacharya came to know that Ekalavya was worshipping him to obtained Astra Vidya, Dronacharya went and got Ekalavya’s thumb as Gurudakshina to teach him the Astra Vidya. After Dronacharya obtained the Guru Dakshina, he then started to teach Ekalavya the Astra Vidya. Here, Dronacharya didn’t violate the promise of Arjuna (because Ekalavya cannot be as efficient as Arjuna) but at the same time he (as a guru) didn’t disappointed his disciple.
Ekalavya was an amsha of Manimanta, the leader of a certain group of demons although he was talented and came from hunter family. Even demons show devotion towards their master but their actions are demonic and their intentions are against what is good for the society. You will find many demons who worship demigods but they dislike Vishnu because He is in charge of reducing the burden of earth. Earth was actually filled with demons at the time Krishna incarnated. If you read the story of Krishna, you will see many demons planning to kill Krishna since His birth without knowing that He is the cause of all causes. One can have peace only when one develops faith in Absolute God and dedicates all his actions for the good as well as to that God.
You will find devotion, talent and hardship even in demons but we cannot support them because they can misuse the skills that are taught. Regarding the social status of Ekalavya, one has to understand the hindu caste system properly.
The caste system was actually called as swa-dharma. It means duty( dharama) according to one’s swabhava(nature). There are 2 types of dharmas according to Vedic system. Samanya (Normal) and vishesha(Special) dharma. Samanya dharma is common to all. It includes being kind, courteous to all beings, etc. Vishesha dharma is what differs and it is also called swa-dharma. Vedic scriptures has explained to us that our actions must match our energy-nature, our prakriti. Our actions, including our livelihood, must be consistent with our state of conscious, our swabhava. Our swadharma, the mode of life and duty that is natural to us, being based on our karma(deeds of previous lives) and samskaras (impressions in our mind).
According to the Hindu religion, the 3 types of natures of the human being are: mode of goodness, mode of passion and mode of ignorance. Hence, the class of people who are completely in mode of goodness (brahmana=one who has gained the brahma gyana (one who has the correct knowledge about the brahmanda(everything about the universe))) are considered as intellectual class since their mind is not biased towards bad things. That is why they were ministers or priests in the king’s court in olden times. The class of people who are in mode of passion and goodness is considered to be belonging to administrative class(kshathriya). That is why they were kings or warriors because the rulers and warriors have to be very active and brave. They must not only be good towards their citizens( mode of goodness) but also should have the courage to punish the culprits (mode of passion). If a king loves even the criminals like a saint, then the society will not be peaceful. The third class of people is a businessmen (vaishya) who is in the mode of passion and ignorance. The last class of people is ones who are driven by immoral thoughts or who do not have control over their mind to decide what right or wrong or even lazy people. They are worker class(sudra). They were not given highest position because they can misuse the powers. For example, the knowledge about making the bombs/guns is misused by terrorists by killing innocent people. This is because they are in the mode of ignorance. By doing manual work, they would gradually rise above the mode of ignorance and would be getting the higher posts in the future or same life. Hence, this system also worked as purification process for the human beings.
If this division is not done properly in a society, there will be no peace, prosperity as well as spiritual progress of individuals. That is why the meaning of Dharma is that which is meant for the stability of the world. It is also means to be both secular and spiritual welfare of living beings.
The 3 natures explained before are found in ‘varying degrees’ in all individuals, be they Indian, American or British. So the God made a broader classification of the individuals. The natures present in individuals fall under the various people in the order of predominance as follows:
BrAhmaNa: sattva–>rajas
kShatriya – rajas–>sattva–>tamas
vaishya – rajas–>tamas–>sattva
shUdra – tamas
In the satya, dwapara and tretayugas it is told that God was helping us to establish good governance in the world. You may ask how God was helping us. The four divisions of human beings were originally done by God to divide the people according to their quality so that there won’t be any waste of time or confusion in selecting the right candidate for different positions in society. God used to fully control the births of the people in previous yugas and decide who has to take birth in which family. We all say that God is the controller of everything but we cannot admit this truth. In the previous yugas, only a pure man, when his punya [karmic merit] becomes exhausted, descends from heaven to earth and is born in kshathriya(administrative class of people) lineage and such man was selected as a king. Such a person is indeed great and is a portion of God on earth. Because Lord Vishnu entered the body of that monarch and helps the citizens to give good governance. Hence we can see the God’s responsibility for the welfare of the world or society. The form of government that is the oldest, most prevalent down through the ages, and most widely found around the globe is that of the divine monarchy. These were found in India, China, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Sumer, Ur, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Sudan, in ancient Greece, as well as in Scandinavia and Celtic Europe. In all these civilizations the king was spoken of as divine representatives. That is why we can see great kings like shibi, Satya harishchandra in earlier yugas. There are also instances of sudra getting purified in the same life and getting all the respect. For example, Sage valmikki who came from hunter family has written epic historical book ramayana. Also Vidura the son of a maid-servant has served as minister of Hastinapura. In Mahabharatha, Krishna has even declined the gorgeous feast of Duryodhana, who came from kshathriya clan and went straight to the hut of Vidura who was born from Sudra mother. Vidura had nothing to offer Krishna except some plantain fruits. In his joy, which made him lose his body-consciousness, he offered the peels to Krishna and threw the pith away, not knowing what he was doing. Such was the delight he was immersed in, on seeing Krishna in his cottage. Sri Krishna uttered not a word. He went on swallowing the peels. He noted that the plantain stuff was being thrown off, but said nothing. At that time, it appears, the wife of Vidura was taking a bath. When she heard that Sri Krishna had come, she ran without even dressing herself properly. She forgot herself equally. When she saw Vidura giving peels to the Lord, she yelled, “Oh! What are you giving?” The moment she uttered these words, Vidura came to consciousness and he immediately told her, “Go and put on your clothes, please.” Neither she knew that she had no proper clothes, nor Vidura knew that he was feeding the Lord with peels. When both began to realise the mistake they had made in their overwhelming joy, the one rushed to put on decent clothes and the other offered the fruit instead of the peels. But Sri Krishna is reported to have smilingly remarked, “Now the taste of the fruit has gone. The peels were tastier.” God loves only himself. He cannot love anything else, because anything else does not exist.
However, this caste system is distorted in kaliyuga because it is controlled (partially) by great demon called kalipurusha. Hence, determining the quality of a human cannot be determined merely from birth or caste in this yuga. The entire system has also collapsed because the caste system is no longer formulated as per the inherent guNas in an individual. It is now a caste system based on the individual’s birth. Even now, if an individual objectively examines his nature, he will come to know of his real dharma (duty that purifies oneself).
In the beginning of satya yuga, there was actually no such caste system. Because all the people were thinking well about others and were pure in heart. As people started to think unethically there was a need to divide the people according to their nature.
In the Bhagavd-Gita Lord has told: “Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. Thus, from this sloka it is clear that even if we educate a person who is in the mode of ignorance he will still act according to his nature. Even if his intellect says that it is wrong to do the misdeeds, he will still do it because of the impulse of the sense organs.
Why did Sri Rama killed Vali?[After Mother Sita was kidnapped, Sri Rama was wandering in the forest looking for her. Although Sri Rama is supreme lord, he wanted to get a good freind to help him to find Sita. This is part of Sri Rama's leela(divine play). On the way, Sri Rama met Hauman and Sugriva.] Sugriva explained his pitiable condition on account of his brother’s aggressive posture. [Sugriva wanted to rescue from Vali and Vali was ready to kill Sugriva. Sri Rama decided to help Sugriva becuase Sugriva's wife was also kidnapped by Vali and he came to conclusion that Sugriva is the right person to help him. This is something to be learnt from God. When we are in difficulty, we have to make freinds who have expierinced the similar difficulty.] Sri Rama promised to him that his aggressive brother Vali will be killed (as kidnapping somone’s wife is a big sin and culphrit has to be punished as Sri Rama himself was a king duty and punishing is his duty. Although Sri Rama was not a king after he came to forest, he was a shatriya by birth and punishing the culphrit is his duty) and the kingship will be restored to him. Sugriva also agreed to help Sri Rama to find out Sita. However, he wanted to know whether Sri Rama had a sufficient amount of strength to fight Vali. Therefore, he showed Rama the body of Dundubhi killed by Vali. Sri Rama threw that dead body a hundred yojanas away by the very toe of his feet and killed by it a number of demons living on Rasatala. Then, Sugriva showed Rama seven demons present in the form of seven Tala trees and said that if you can destroy these by one arrow, then you can kill Vali. Sri Rama destroyed all of them by one arrow, which, after destroying the Tala trees pierced into the seven underworlds viz., Atala, Vitala, etc., upto Patala and also destroyed the demons known as Kumiudi. This is the strength of the God. Then, Sugriva took Rama to the city of Kishkindha to kill Vali. Vali pounced on Sugriva and beated him. But Sri Rama did not kill vali for the first time pretending that he could not distinguish between the two. The real reason was to give an opportunity for the brothers to reconcile and to avoid a confrontation. Even the long enmity among the brothers vanishes when they reach the point of crisis. Since rama has taken the vow to help sugriva when vali tries to attack him, rama became confused on what action to be taken. Rama was sugriva’s ally and rama must help Sugriva as Ram needs some help in return. When Sugriva again appealed to Sri Rama to kill Vali Sri Rama threw a strong arrow at Vali and killed him. When compromising of the brothers was not possible, Rama thought of keeping his promise instead. It is said that Sri Rama killed Vali from behind a tree. The reason for this was neither fear nor treachery. If Vali would have prostrated at the feet of Sri Rama then, it would have been a dilemma whether to stand by his promise to Sugriva or to stand by Vali who had prostrated at his feet. According to the rules of warfare, warrior must not kill the enemy if he surrenders. Although Sri Rama punished Vali by not fighting face to face like a real warriors, there is an exception for the warriors to kill an animal (sugriva was a monkey) when it attacks a person who has to be saved. The bottom point is that when it comes to rescuing a person and there is no enough time to reconcile with the enemy, first we have abide to protect the person.
sugrIva and karNa were both amshAs of the sun, yet they met with different treatments at the hands of the Lord; sugrIva benefited immensly from rAma, whereas karNa was punished. The answer to this seeming paradox is given by srimadAchArya “sa mArutikrutE ravijam raraksha” (MBTN canto 5 verse 46) child of sun (sugrIva) was protected (by rAma) only because he was with hanumantA. “bhImArthamEva ravijam nihatya” (MBTN canto 5 verse 47) It was because of (enimity with) bhIma that offspring of the sun (karNa) was killed (by krishna). A similar reversal is seen in the case of vAli and arjuna. Here again, the key was the relationship that vAli and arjuna had with hanumanta and bhIma respectively. This illustrates the point that getting the grace of devotee of the Lord (vayu) or association of the devotee of the Lord (vayu) is a sure-shot way of getting the grace of hari.
9) Karunanidi has once told that valmikki ramayana says that Rama is fond of wine. Is it true?
The verse that comes in question in this regard in the Valmiki Ramayana, Sundarakanda, Skanda 36, Sloka 41, says: ”Na mamsam Raghava bhunkte, na chaiva madhu sevate, Vanyam suvihitam nityam bhaktamsnati panchamam.” The literal translation of this verse is: ”Sri Rama does not take meat or honey. He partakes everyday of wild fruits and boiled (wild) rice fully sanctioned (for an ascetic) in the evening.” Faulty English translations have put it as something like this: Hanuman to Sita, ”When you were away, Sri Rama did not even take deer meat.” This incorrectly implies that Rama normally may have ate meat but did not do so while Sita was away from Him. Now in this verse, the Sanskrit word bhunkte is a verb that means strong desire for eating. It comes from the Sanskrit bhaksha, which means voracious eating. When you say Na bhunkte, as we see in the line that says ”Na mamsam Raghava bhunkte”, it gives a complete negative connotation, meaning that Lord Rama abhorred meat-eating. On the other hand, if the words were ”Na mamsam Raghavo khadate”, it could then mean that Raghava may have engaged in meat eating before, but had stopped it at this point. However, this is not what is said, but is where some English translations present a similar confusion, or are simply unclear about this issue. Nonetheless, by analyzing the correct view of the proper translation, it indicates clearly that the Valmiki Ramayana shows how Lord Rama not only did not eat meat but greatly disliked it. There is also a verse where Lord Rama laments with his Mother, Kausalya that he is going to be exiled from the palace at Ayodhya into the forest for fourteen years. Below is the misinterptreted verse: ‘I must to lonely wilds repair, abstain from flesh and wine and living there on roots, fruit, hermit’s food, pass twice seven years (14 yrs.) in solitude. The actaul meaning of the sanskrit verse is that even after living in forest, Lord Rama didn’t like to depend on meat of animals(by hunting) or bee-honey(misinterpreted as wine). This is the greatness of Sri Rama.
10) Why Rama killed Shambuka who was doing penance?
We are told that Shambuka was a shudra who was doing penance to attain salvation or some othe reason and he did not like the shudra aspiring for salvation so he was killed off. But the real reason was that Shambuka was an asura (who is in the mode of ignorance) and he was aspiring for IndraÂ’s (who is in charge of heaven) position and he was doing penance for that. It was required to protect devatas (demigods) from the asura that Rama destroyed his penance. It is the job of the king to prevent a person who is in the mode of ignorance to take charge of the society or world. It is also the Vishnu’s job to prevent an unqualified (who is in the mode of ignorance) person to take the demigod position. Indra padavi is a position like prime minister of demigods and heaven. In order to gain that position one has to do lot of sacrifices. Shambuka was trying to acquire this position through wrong means as it is not according to his own merit. In earlier yugas, whenever a person who is in the mode of ignorance takes charge of society or world, the demigods gives hint to the humanity about the future calamity. They are also in charge of maintaining the stability(dharma) of the world. That is how a newly born baby died instantly. That gave clue to King Raama that is there is something unjust that is going in his territory. In kaliyuga, untimely death is so common that people do not consider it seriously. However, in satya yuga and other yugas, there was no or few untimely death because the dharma was so stable.
Narada was a dasi-putra, the son of a maidservant. He has also done penance. Srila Vyasadeva was also (born from the womb of a sudra mother) had done penance. Hence, the conclusion is caste is not by birth. In order to understand the so called caste system properly, read the question 7.
This is not about racial discrimination. If Rama is supporting Racialism, why did He ate the half-eaten fruits given to him by Shabari(who was a Scheduled Tribe) who was aspiring for salvation? He also blessed king of vultures, Jatayu, one who is born in the family of eating dead bodies and flushes etc and Vibhishana, the one who is born in the family of demons. In the end of Ramayana, Sri Rama assures Hanuman, who is from Vanara community, that He will be given the Brahma padavi (designation) in the future. Hence, Hanuman is going to be the next Brahma of this universe.
The Vedic texts describe 330 million devatas, or universal controllers and they used to help us to maintain a health society in earlier yugas. God is beyond the purview of the material universe. Lord Brahma is called Prajapati, the secondary creator of the Universe. Prajapati means the lord of population. Lord Brahma has the responsibility to populate the universe with all species of life. The devatas are controllers of various aspects of nature within the material realm. There is exception to Lord Siva, whose body is the time factor. All of the controllers (ishvaras) belong to God’s natural system of material administration. Within the material realm God has arranged a hierarchy of control for automatic administration of nature. Each of these personalities (numbering 330 million by some) can be called a controller (ishvara) as they are each in charge of a particular aspect of nature. They are actually secondary controllers. It is exactly like a government that has many levels of control, such as Prime Minister (national controller), Chief Minister (state controller) and District Magistrate (district controller).
11) Why Sita was banished by Rama to forest?
Before we go further we should know the story of Ramayana. Rama is the avatar of Lord Vishnu and he came to this world as Rama to set an example to human kind. And in the case of the Avatar his consort Sri Lakshmi also descends to aid the Lord in his divine works. She had incarnated as Sita to fulfill His plan. As the omnipotent Lord, Rama certainly knows that Sita was untouched otherwise omnipotence is meaningless. Neither can Sita be touched by any mortal or immortal , asura or rakshasha or man as she is the adhipathi of this universe. Thus the concept of his suspecting is wife here is a meaningless one. Clearly Rama was eager to establish that his wife was pure and fit for the throne of Ayodhya. And it was to this end that he asked her to undergo the Agni Pariksha which was meant to elevate the status of Sita amongst his subjects. Thus he actually shows how an ideal King should be, one who keeps the feelings of the public in mind. We must realize that in those days much was expected of kings , quite unlike todayÂ’s elected democratic rulers whose misdemeanor we have come to expect. Rama has thus established the code of conduct for an ideal king and by his act becomes flawless and worthy of respect. There is the wise saying of Hanuman told in the Bhagavatha, that the Avatar of the Lord as man in this world is intended indeed for the edification of mankind and not merely for the destruction of the Rakshasas. How can there be grief caused on account of (the separation of) Sita, to this Lord who enjoys Himself in His own form? The idea is that Lord Vishnu takes another form as female in Lakshmi and enjoys by giving pleasure to her.
12) Why Bhima played the foul game by hitting Duryodhana below the waist?
Vishnu as both Rama and Krishna upheld the divine law. As Rama he upheld it by his actions and as Krishna he did not directly participate in the wars but he always advised his devotees to kill the asuras by trickery because the kaurava’s team were very strong due to receiving several boons from demigods. When a warrior follows the principles of warfare that is laid down in the Hindu scriptures and fight with the enemy it is called dharma yuddha. However, the main purpose of such a war is to establish justice and peace by killing the demonic class of people. Krishna didn’t fulfill the principles of warfare but fulfilled the purpose of a war. Thus Bhimasena was advised by Krishna to hit Duryodhana below the waist and kill him.
There is also one more main reason. When Bhishma objected to the act of killing Dushashana by tearing the body to pieces and Duryodhana by hitting below the waist (as it is not according to the rules of warfare) Krishna clarifies the point that a sinner likes Dushashana or Duryodhana deserves that kind of a death. We can fight decently and according to the principles in the battlefield only if the opponent does follows the rules of the warfare properly. Madhvacharya states it is a sin to kill a sinner dharmically. It is like shooting a most wanted terrorist or don without warning or without asking them to surrender. Duryodhana has crossed all the limits of good conduct and behavior. All his attempts to kill the Pandavas have failed but still he was jealous of the Pandavas.
In Aurobindo’s view Krishna came to complete an evolutionary task, the establishment of an orderly society where a sattwic(mode of goodness) type was established firmly over and above the Rakshashic(mode of ignorance and demonic) type.
Duryodhana was actually the incarnation of Kali represents evil. Many people consider Duryodhana to be good person because he supported Karna. After seeing the arrow skills of Karna, Duryodhana considered Karna to be friend because he can help to fight him to conquer Pandavas. He was actaully in the evil policies of politics.
13) Is it true that urvashi was created by Lord Narayana?
In the fourth incarnation, the Lord became Nara-Narayana, the twin sons of the wife of King Dharma. He undertook severe and exemplary penances to control the senses. Their penances and austerities was so intense that it alarmed the Indra. Indra the King of Devas was not knowing that lord of lords has incarnated as Nara-Narayana. Sometimes Indra with the fear of losing his position sends apsaras to disturb the penance of human beings. Here, Indra was concerned about protecting his throne from possible contenders and he sent Kamadeva(Lord of desire), Vasanta (Lord of spring) and apsaras (nymphs) to inspire Lord with passion and disturb Nara-Narayana’s penance without knowing that they are the incarnation of Lord. There are many instances in which Apsaras, heavenly angels, have descended to this earth by the order of a superior demigods like Lord Brahma or Lord Indra, have followed the demigod’s order by distracting the ascetics. The material attractions are created by God only to check one’s advancement in spiritual life. Once a devotee is fixed in God’s consciousness, however, these attractions will not agitate his mind. The illusory potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead acts on behalf of God only.
They tried all their tricks to disturb the penance of Lord. Lord didn’t get disturbed even a bit. They got tired because of this. Then Lord Narayana took a flower and placed it on his thigh. Immediately there sprung from it a beautiful nymph whose charms far excelled those of the celestial nymphs. Apsaras who had came to attract the Lord felt surprised at the charm of nymph and felt shame at their beauty. This story shows the power of the Lord. Even the most beautiful and attractive things are under the control of God. This story is being misinterpreted by many. From this story, we can understand that Narayana is more powerful than demigods. We should also understand that Lord has created both good and bad things in this world. Bad things are created as the counter-force against the good. Just like barriers are placed as the obstacle for the runners from reaching the destination in hurdle race, bad feelings like lust, hatred, etc are created.
Apsaras can be compared to fairies of Western folklore. One popular Western belief is that fairies had been thrown out of heaven, not being good enough to live in heaven, but they were not evil enough for hell too. They are also called fallen angels. According to hindu dharma, Apsaras are the wives of the Gandharvas, court servants of Indra. Indra the chief of demigods and Svargaloka(heaven) is the abode of demigods. One of the duties of Apsaras is to guide to paradise the heroes who fall in battle, whose wives they then become. They mainly act as the handmaidens of Indra or as dancers at his celestial court. Apsaras are also referred in the ancient stories of Greece and Buddhist.
It is said that the standard of living in the heaven is thousands and thousands of times higher than the standard of living on this planet. That is how there are more attraction in heaven. According to the Bhagavad-Gita going to or living in heaven has limitations too. Beings who go to these worlds are bound to return to earth once the merits of their previous karma are exhausted. Life in these worlds is also not permanent but the life-span or ‘time to live’ in the heaven is very very large. Complete liberation is possible only when the humans transcend their lower and higher desires and withdraw into themselves to attain the highest world of Supreme Lord.
14) How can the kidnapping of rukmimi by Lord Krishna be justied?
Rukmini was the incarnation of Godess laxmi. She is the incharge of material nature and personfication of material energy. Living beings are created by the interplay of material nature(that gives us the body) and the souls(living force) that emanate from Vishnu. Thus, Godess laxmi is called the mother and Vishnu is called father of the universe.
When Godess laxmi was born as Sita she faced lot of seperation with Vishnu when He was born as Raama. When Godess laxmi was born as Rukmini, her brother was trying to marry her with his friend but she was not interested with marrying with anyone other than Vishnu. Even after knowing that ravana has kidnapped Sita, Raama didn’t attacked ravana directly in rama-avataar. He first sent a messenger to compromise with Ravana and return Sita. This is because the avatara of Raama was meant to teach the society how a perfect gentleman should be. However, when Vishnu was born as Krishna He didn’t followed the guidelines (getting the consent of parents before marrying) because He didn’t want the Goddess laxmi to suffer like in sita-avataar. He is now playing the role of protector. The bottom line is that God acts differently as per to the role he is playing and the situation that demands.
15) Why did Krishna stole away the saris of Gopikas when they were bathing in the river?
This is another difficult to understand scene. Gopikas and Gopaalas in their previous birth were Rishis in Kritha Yuga. They were able to get only the darshan of the Lord Vishnu in krita yuga. In Thretha Yuga they were born as monkeys (vanara sena of Hanuman) and were able to enjoy the darshan of the Lord in Rama avatara as well as Sambhashanam (talk). In the Dhwaapara Yuga they were born as Gopikas and Gopaalas to enjoy darshan(seeing), Sambhashan(talking) and Sparshan(touch). The love relationship the Gopikas shared with God in Dhwaapara Yuga is called madhura bhakti (romantic devotion) which devotees such as Meera have developed. When the Gopikas questioned Krishna whether it was Dharma (righteous) on His part to steal away their dress and requesting them to come out of river, Krishna wanted to share a light moment with his devotees. Although the Kritha Yuga rishis were born in female gender now (were in male gender before), they were shy of coming out without sufficient clothes. The lord Krishna says that it was the Gopikas who were not observing Svadharma (Aathma dharma or their true nature that the body or the gender is not associated with the soul (living force)) but observing Paraadharma (Dehadharma or body consciousness). This has to be understood as leela (divine play) because God is teaching some lesson to his devotees. Krishna gave away the saris the moment the gopikas lifted their hands in total surrender and prayed to Him to save them from shame. This self-surrender is Absolute Love for God exclusively. The meaning is that unless a spiritual aspirant loses his body consciousness and prays to God for grace. He would not win the grace of God. In fact Dheha means that which is worn, a Vasthra. The moral of this story is that doesn’t mean every woman should surrender to lord without wearing any dress. The Gopikas were advanced spiritual yogis of Kritha Yuga (and eager to share madhurya bhakti) and thus God taught such lesson to them.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
16) How come Krishna asked Arjuna to fight with his Grandsire, teachers and cousins?
Krishna tried his best to stop the war and even undertook a peace mission. He pleaded with Dhritharashtra and the Kaurava sons to abandon the path of war. Krishna even took the Vishvaroopa (absolute form of God) and showed to everyone that he was God himself.
This was a war of Dharma against Adharma, in other words Good against Bad. The dharma (duty) of a Kshatriyas (warrior and administrative class of people) is not to pardon evil persons. It is the duty of Kshatriyas to fight with evil persons when they try to control the society so that the peace remains in the society.
This may confused us why Krishna didn’t suggested Arjuna to put down the arms and follow the non-violence like Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. According to vedic system, the 4 divisions of human society (called as caste system) are actually 4 social orders or duties. These 4 social orders are divided according to their nature. Srimad-Bhagavatam the authenticated book declares that if one shows the symptoms of being a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya or sudra, even if he has appeared in a different class, he should be accepted according to the symptoms of classification. According to Sri Krsna in Bhagavad-gita, the qualities of a brahmana are as follows: Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness — these are the natural qualities by which the brahmanas work. If such symptoms are found in a sudra, he should never be called a sudra, just as a brahmana is not a brahmana if he lacks these characteristics. Those who are in tama guna(mode of ignorance) and engaged in hypocrisy and envy are the sudras.
A kshatriya’s dharma is to protect all beings along with fostering the righteous, destroying those who are cruel, and not fleeing from the enemy. One interesting thing here is that there is no difference between religion and social responsibility. A warrior who is brave enough to be killed on the battlefield attains heaven after this earthly life. However, the dharma (duty) of saints or Brahmanas is to pardon the evil persons.
Many great personalities didn’t want to join Kauravas but due to some reason they had to join Kauravas. Shalya wanted to join Pandavas; however, Duryodhana had arranged a grand reception for him all along his way. Without knowing as to who had arranged it Shalya declared that he would support him who had arranged this reception. Consequently he had to join Duryodhana. Similarly, Acharya Dhrona who was expert archery was using the provisions given by Duryodhana. So he accepted Duryodhana’s request to join on kauravas side. Acharya Dhrona is such a great personality that he even told Yudhistira when He would stop the war and put down the weapons. That is he taught the way to pandavas how to kill him. Although Acharya Dhrona, Bhishma and many others fought against pandavas they played a crucial role in God’s work of reducing the burden of earth. They all died in the battle like martyr.
REFERENCES:
http://www.tatvavada.org/eng/
http://www.indiadivine.org/
mahabharata-resources.org/mbtntrans/mbtntrans.html
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/
http://www.krsnabook.com/ch6.html
http://www.advaita.org.uk
sss.vn.ua/quiz_bha.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment