Arjuna Vishaada Yoga
Chapter 1, Verse 12
tasya sañjanayan harṣam
kuru-vṛddhaḥ pitämahaḥ
simhanādam vinadyoccaiḥ
śankham dadhmau pratāpavān
To cheer the heart of Duryodhan, the mighty grandsire (Bhishma), the Ancient of the Kurus, resounding the battlefield with a lion's roar, blew his conch.
This verse is very interesting, because Bhishma knew why Duryodhan wanted to protect him. Duryodhan was not saying, "Protect my great uncle for the sake of protecting him. No! Protect him because it is good for our profit. We can use him!" This made Bhishma very agitated, but he didn't want to show that he was agitated. He thought, "Let me flatter Duryodhan a bit, let me show him that I am interested in his fight." To show Duryodhan, to cheer him up, he roared like a lion and blew his conch very powerfully!
The Ancient of the Kurus: here Sanjaya was calling Bhishma Pitamah an elderly man, because he was very old. He was the great-uncle of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He was glorious. He saw that Duryodhan was saying all this, not out of joy, but out of his anxiety. You see, when you are anxious, you may say something bad. You may go around and say, "Ah, you know that person? He's very bad," and talk negatively about the person. What would be your next action? Would it be to go and poison other people's minds? By poisoning other people's minds and hearing from them, "Oh you are right!", your feeling of guilt might go away and you might create the illusion, "Yes, I am right!" Then, you feel might good with that negativity. It becomes your own reality. That's why, when people gossip, they like to take the gossip from here to there, from there to here, to get acknowledgement that what they are doing is right.
Here Duryodhan was doing this to get some acknowledgement that what he was doing was right. Of course, Bhishma was not stupid. He knew what was happening, and he saw that anxiety. He saw that Duryodhan praised the Kauravas in order to encourage them to fight. He saw that he had been exhorting Dronacharya and all the warriors to protect him. But Bhishma also wanted to show him, "I don't need protection from anybody. I am powerful enough to protect myself." Due to that, he started roaring very loudly and blowing his conch with great strength to show how powerful he was. At that
moment, Duryodhan said to himself, "Oh, yippie! I have conquered this old man now! Oh, I have him in my grip!" - not knowing that Bhishma was just doing this as a show, to make him happy.
The battle would start only when all of them blew their conches together, to announce that the battle was starting. If one side didn't blow their conches, they would not start the battle. These were the rules of that time. It was important to show this excitement, to awaken this excitement, not only in Duryodhan, but in all the people around, because the war would take place -
it was predestined to take place.
Even if the Lord Himself tried to stop it, adharma was still there. Adharma had to be removed. This unrighteous thing which was present inside the people had to go out, had to be completely vanquished. When you go on the spiritual path, you can't hang onto your negative qualities. You have to get rid of them. How will you get rid of your negative qualities? By being positive. By awakening all the good virtues inside of you. This is how you will become free from all these qualities. This is how, on your spiritual path, you can advance and really purify yourself from all these negative things and free yourself. Only then will the Grace of God shine through.
When you start on your spiritual path, you have a battle: you perceive all the negative qualities within more strongly. Sometimes you'll awaken a quality which has never been there before. But this is the purification that one goes through; this is the Kurukshetra that you go through, the Dharmakshetra that you go through. You uproot, one by one, all these qualities and transform them. You transform them until finally you have the Love of God that stays. That's Realisation! To receive His Grace.
To manifest His Love and to beam His Love. And that's the duty of each human being. To love as your Father loves. That's in The Bible, Christ said it. You are made in the image of God. As God loves, you shall love. Because that's the gift He has given you. And this Love will not awaken with all the negative qualities. When the mind is not totally focused on Him, He will not manifest.
Here Bhishma was blowing his conch and showing greatness. The spiritual path is like this battle: when you are on the spiritual path, you see the negativity. How do you go into it? Last week in the Satsang, someone said, "I don't love myself. I don't trust myself." For love to awaken, you have to first find it inside of you. For trust to awaken, you have to first find it inside of you. You have to let go of your weakness. When you are very proud, you are very strong; but in love also, you are strong.
Bhagavad Gita
