COPYCAT 3

    I have told on doing copy without knowledge is harmful and not helpful. This story is of little different angle. Many of us may have heard this story in past.

     There was a man who used to sell hats. He used to take with him many hats in a wicker basket and then used to walk in the town and sell them  and get his daily income. Certainly he was poor  and had to walk whole day. He would sell the hats  and then at noon time rest under a tree  and have his lunch which was prepared by his wife and he used to carry with him everyday. One day as usual he sold some hats  and then around noon time decided to take a lunch break . It was summer  and the weather was hot, so he went to the outskirts of the town  and rested under a big bunion tree . As he rested he saw there were many monkeys jumping around in the trees around. He ate his lunch  and then had a water  and then he decided to take a nap. When he woke up he saw that hats from his basket were gone  and when he looked at the tree ,he saw many monkeys having hats on their head. He got panicky and did not know what to do. He had lost everything that he had  and will not have any money nor he would have any hats to sell to make money. He stood up and shouted at them and they just showed him their teeth . He noticed that the monkeys were copying him . If he pointed to them they would extend their arms towards him If he shouted , they would make a sound . He thought for a second  and he had an idea . He took off his hat and threw  it on the ground . All the monkeys took their hats and threw on the ground . He quickly collected all the hats and put them in basket  and walked away. 

    So doing a copy without understanding can be harmful but also can be used for advantage.

JUST BECAUSE YOU KNOW DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD.

    We have seen how eager we are all to show how much we know  and express our opinion and show off our knowledge . I remember when a new raincoat was bought for my sister  and there was no rain for couple of days and she wanted it be seen by her friends, she got frustrated and went under shower with rain coat  to ENJOY the use of new rain coat. This is more applicable when we have learned something and want others to know what we know. So this story is an old one . 

   There were 4 friends  and they all grew together and then parted to get education . Again this is old Indian story. So when they all finished the education, they all got together and went out for travel. In those days there were no cars  and there were no real concrete rods and people traveled walking  and sometimes had to go through Forrest. As they were walking they came across a skeleton of an animal  and it looked like it was of a tiger. The friends gathered around it and had  a discussion as to whose this skeleton may be . They all agreed that it was a tiger who must have dies and the skeleton was left s other animals may have eaten up the flesh . So one of friends stated that he has learned to reconstruct  the bones  and that will look like a tiger  and so he wanted to show his skills and he did . Now the bones - changed in to look alike of a tiger . The other friend also  wanted to show off what he had learned and so he told them that he can put a flesh on the skeleton and then they can see how this tiger really looked - much better than what they could see just from the skeleton that the other friend had done  and so he did put the flesh on the skeleton. Noe they all could see the ferocious tiger.The third friend was not to be left behind in displaying his skills and knowledge. So he said 'I can bring the life in this tiger with the knowledge that I have learned". The 2 friends wanted him to do that . The 4th guy who had not learned anything like this but just the regular education said , 'I do not want you to do it , if the tiger is alive , we are all dead. " The other 3 would not listen to him  and so he went and ran to far away tree  and climbed . The remaining 3 were excited  and the 3 rd one di the magic  and the tiger came alive . He looked around  and in very short time he killed all 3 .The 4 th one who did not have these kinds of power was saved . 

  So just because you know, you don/t have to show off the knowledge!

COPY CAT -2

   I told the story of copy cat last time  and as we saw  doing a copy without understanding the reason for an action makes a mess and the result is not pretty. Ronald Regan once stated that Imitation is best form of Flattery. But when it is done without understanding the action is useless and may be harmful or makes  it laughable. So this is the second story. 

   In India there was a man who used to wake  and take shower and then do the Pooja. When in those days or even today when someone does the Pooja , they are suppose to wear a special cloth called SOVALE. This is a silk cloth may be about 6 yards  and it is used only at the time of Pooja. The idea is that it is clean. One day he had to go out of town very early in the morning and so had to catch a train early. So he told his elder son to do the Pooja. The eldest son had seen the father doing Pooja and knew the rituals and the Mantra  and the Arti .Once the father left ,the son took shower  and then prepared for the Pooja. The mother had cooked the food for offering it to the God. The son did the Pooja rituals  and then called everyone in the house for ARTI. He was standing  and since the Statues of the God were at lower level he had to bend down  and do the Arti. So everybody gathered for the Arti  and so the son bent down and took out part of the Sovale from behind  and then was to start the Arti. (I understand that those of you who have no idea as to what is Sovale or DHOTI may not understand. The way in which this simple 6 yard cloth is used as a garment, is it is wound around the waist  and then part of it is rolled  and stick at the back side )As the son was to start the Arti he took out the part of the cloth which was at the back , he pulled it out and then started to do the Arti The mother was surprised and asked him as to what he was doing. The son answered that he has observed his father do the Arti and the the cloth from back part is always pulled out by the father. The mother started laughing. Then she explained that when one bends down the back part may sometimes  come out as it is stretched  and that is not part of doing Pooja. So it does not need to be pulled out which son was doing. So the observation of son was partly correct but he did not realize the reason for that and so when he did it on own without it occurring it accidently, it becomes laughable thing. So whenever one does any action one must know why he is doing it.

COPY CAT

     We often copy people that are successful or we think are better than us . In day to day life we tend to copy things without understanding the reason beyond the action. When we do just do a  the action without the knowledge or reason for the action, then we get different result. So that is the story for today. 

   In India there was this man who used to have a monkey and he used to travel from a town to town and the monkey would do some tricks and mischiefs  and the crowd would be entertained and he would make some money. So after a busy morning he decided to take a rest  and went and sat under a big tree. It was summer and the temperature was high and so he was resting under a big tree . He ate some food and the monkey also had some food . While they were sitting under the tree he saw a Scorpion crawling in the dirt. He had a stick and so he hit the Scorpion with the stick and killed it. The monkey was watching it . The man then went to sleep . The monkey was awake. As the man was sleeping a fly came and rested on his face . The man  waved his hand  and the fly flew and then again  came and rested on his face . He did it again. The monkey was watching this and realized that fly was disturbing his master . So as the fye sat on his face again , the monkey took the stick and hit the fly with it . The fly flew away and the stick landed on his face  and he had a bruise. He woke up and was very mad. 

    So the monkey did what the man had done to scorpion with stick. But the monkey did not realize that the scorpion does not fly but the fly does  and so doing the copy it  caused the injury to the master . 

   

MAHABHARAT AND DRUTARASTR AND PANDU

      So in last blog I tried to explain how the characters in Mahabharat are related to the origin of universe. If one would read the Patanjali Sutra Yoga that precedes these blog posts, he will find the origin of universe discussed as I understand in Hindu religion or theology. It has some similarities to the BIG BANG theory. But in this blog I want to try to explain some other characters in Mahabharat as it pertains to the story and origin of the universe. 

   In the story of Mahabharat, Satyavati has  3 children. She is same as Masygangha - one with smell of fish and was daughter of a fisherman, Parashar Rhushi  saw her and fell in love and wanted to have a child from her and she refused  and then he promised her that no one would know and so he created darkness and a child was born which is none other than VYAS who wrote the Mahabharat. So then Parashar with his power gave her boon and she lost the fish smell  and had beautiful fragrance as her aroma . She then was married to Shantanu and had 2 other children namely CHITRAGADA AND VICHITRAVIRYA. 

   Chitragada dies soon after birth  and Vichitravirya could not have children.So his step brother Bhushma kidnapped the 3 girls  and asked Vyas to help. Vyas being the step brother could do it.Ved Vyas was dark color and had long hair and beard  and so one girl AMBIKA closed her eyes  and so the child born was blind - DRUTARASHTRA . Other one AMBALIKA became white with fear  and so the son born was white - Pandu. 

    So symbolically this is the origin of universe. Vyas is consciousness of relativity and discriminating  power. Positive Chitragada is the Primordial element or MAHAT TATVA. and Vichitravirya is Dive Ego. Ambika is Negative Doubt  and Ambalika is Positive Discriminating Faculty. So when negative Doubt comes together with consciousness of relativity the product is MIND and Mind is blind and so Drutarashtra is Blind . When the Consciousness of relativity and discrimination, comes in contact with Positive Discriminating Faculty the Intellect is born and Intellect or BUDHHI is clear and so WHITE.

   There is more to come but for now this is enough. 

MAHABHARAT AND MYSTICISM

     I started in my last blog the story of MAHABHARATA. The story continues for long time and the Mahabharata is the longest poem in any language literature. But to start with we saw lots of things that do not follow the standard or good behavior on part of many characters. So how do we explain them?

   I do not have all the answers, but I have some understandings of these things as explained by evolved souls like Paramhauns Yoganand . Mahabharat was written by Vyas  and it appears that to some extent it is telling us the ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE. The king Shantanu represents PARABHAHM  and Ganga the Universal Consciousness . As one may recall that in Hindu philosophy the universe comes in to existence  and continues and the dissolves. There are people who believe that the God is ONE ONLY and then some believe that there is PURUSH and PRAKRUTI - SPIRIT AND NATURE . So at the beginning  of the universe they come together and the process starts - the so called big bang. So the Ganga represents Universal consciousness  and that pervades everything . But when it is limited by 3 bodies we have living being. So the freedom from the mortal world is achieved when our Limited consciousness merges with Universal Consciousness. THIS IS THE REASONS HINDU DO ASTHI VISARGJAN -throwing the remains of our body after death in GANAGA. The hope is that our consciousness will be one with universal consciousness.

   Satyavati or Masyagandha represents primordial nature. 

   So one could say that the Shantanu is the Father and the first step is to split in to 2 or arises from him are the CHAITANYA and NATURE -Ganaga and Satyavati. The eight children that Ganga had are the 6 intelligences that control the 3 micro universes and 3 macro universes  and consciousness  and the universal EGO -namely BHISHM. (Gross, Astral and Causal or STHUL, SUKSHMA, KARAN are the 3 universes at individual level and at Macro level)

  I am sure that your head must be spinning with all this stuff so we will talk simple things next time !

MAHABHARAT AND IT'S CHARACTERS AND MYSTICISM

    I have written about the Patanjali Sutra Yoga  and there is question in many of us if the Geeta  and Mahabharat has any mention of it . So I thought that I will write about some of the mysticism related to characters in Mahabharata . Let me mention something to start . The story in Mahabharata are such  that ordinary people will have many questions . For those who have not heard of theses stories ,I will tell some of them quickly and see if I can explain the meaning of the some of the stories which sound not easy to explain. 

  King Shantanu was married to Ganga  and she had made him promise that she will do whatever she wants to do with her kids . And she killed her first 7 children . The 8th one was born and she wanted to kill that and Shantanu asked as to why she is doing it  and requested not to kill . So Ganga  agreed not to kill and then left Shantanu. This child was BHISHMA. Then Shantanu fell in love with fisherman's daughter -Satyavati. But she refused as she did not want her child to be not the next King and so then Bhishma promised that he will not be the next King and promised that he will never marry ,so that his children will not be born  and claim to the throne. Styavati had 2 children  and one dies  and Bhishma kidnapped 3 princes from the the Swayamvar  and that created problem. One of the daughter was in love with another king and so she asked Bhishma to let her go  and hi did . But the king that she was in love with her refused  and so she came back to Bhishma  and requested him to marry and he refused. She requested many to help and they could not fight with Bhishma . So then Parshuram came and agreed to help and then there was war  and after 21 days it was declared as draw at the request of many. She was disappointed and then she prayed  and got a garland  and was told that who so ever will be garlanded will defeat Bhishma , but no one would agree. Then she committed suicide  to be born as SHIKHANDI. Shikhandi became the cause of Bhishma's death.When he was injured and was on deathbed , the Sun was moving SOUTHWARD called Dakshinayan  and so he decided to wait till Sun started moving Northward as person dying in Dakshinayan does not have good life after death.

    Then kidnapped girls -Amba  and Ambalika  and Ambika  had to be impregnated to have heir and since the Vichitrvirya was incapable of doing it and Bhishma had decided to have life long celibacy, He had to call in VYAS -his stepmother's son from first encounter. Vyas was horrible looking and so one girl closed her eyes when he entered the bedroom and so from Ambika a child born was BLIND , from Ambalika - as she became pale with fear, was born Pandu who was white  and may be anemic. 

    There are many more characters and the stories are difficult to explain. And if your head is not spinning with abnormal behavior then there are more stories. But for now I will point to some of the things that I have stated above. 

Why would mother  and that too Ganga herself , would drown her children?

Why would highly evolved Rhushi Parashar would be attracted sexually  for Mashygandha- fisher-woman with foul smell of fish ? 

How do you justify kidnapping of 3 girls at the time of their wedding? and that too by well educated BHishma. 

On top of that how do you justify VED VYAS the one who wrote the Mahabharata and some of Puranas to come to impregnate these girls?

And the blind King Dhrutarashtr  and Pale , anemic King Pandu born out of that union?

After life is determined by the TIME OF DEATH or by how we live our life ?

I will address these questions in next blog and also bring out some more stories  and questions .