Mahabharata Originals! #11. Upamanyu's devotion!

               Upamanyu's Devotion!                                                                                                                     # Last blog we saw how Upamanyu's Guru Ayoddhoumya instructed Upamanyu to offer all his food to him , not to ask for Bhiksha again , neither to drink milk given by the cows , nor to drink drops of milk coming out of the mouth of calves!                                                                                                                       After agreeing to his teacher's command he then returned to his work. But now as he had no source of food , he soon became hungry , in this state he needed to eat so he ate leaves of  - Arka                              Arka ( Arka - Calotropis gigantea)                                                                                                                                                     (The milky sap is know to cause keratoconjunctivitis and reversible vision loss.)                                                                              Leaves of Arka are alkaline , bitter and spicy , and very rough in nature. Thus after eating its leaves his vision became weak and in few hours he became blind.                                             " स तैर अर्कपत्रैर्भक्षितैः क्षारतिक्तकटुरूक्षैस्तीक्ष्णविपाकैश्चक्षुष्युपहतोअन्धो बभूव "॥ ५१॥ महा.पौष्यपर्व.५१.                                                    As the Arka Patra blinded him , he roamed in despair and fell into a big well . After a few days , as Upamanyu did not return to his guru , Ayoddhoumya called his disciples and asked " Where is Upamanyu?" His students said " Gurudev you sent him to take care of our cows a fews days ago but we did not see him since then." Guru  Ayoddhoumya said " Maybe he is upset with  me as I instructed him not to eat anything. Let's go and check on him." Thus Ayoddhoumya with his disciples went out to look for Upamanyu. Ayoddhoumya called out Upamanyu's name and said " Son Upamanyu , where are you? Please come here!" After hearing his teachers voice , Upamanyu said shouting loudly " Teacher I fell in this well. I'm in here!" So Ayoddhoumya asked " Son how did you fell in this well?" Upamanyu answered " Gurudev I accidentally ate Arka Patra (leaves of Arka) and became blind. And I fell in this well as I could not see".  Guru Ayoddhoumya said " Son Upamanyu , pray to lords Ashwinikumars (Twin God's) . They are the vaidyas (doctors) of Gods. They will cure your blindness." So Upamanyu started to meditate and prayed to Lord Ashwinikumars with mantras written in Rigveda. After meditating for sometime the twin gods Ashwinikumars came and said " Upamanyu we are very pleased with your prayers , we bought this rice preparation for you , please eat." Upamanyu said " Lords I must apologize but without the permission of my teacher I cannot use this as food"  Ashwinikumars said " Son , earlier your Guru Ayoddhoumya upon calling us  for help , we gave similar rice preparation to him and he without the consent of his teacher, ate it. You should do the same."  Upamanyu said           " I appreciate your blessings to my guru Ayoddhoumya but I must take permission from him to accept your rice preparation as food!"  Thus Ashwinikumars became very happy and said " Son, we are very happy to see your devotion towards your teacher , your Guru Ayoddhoumya is strong as iron , we bless you to become as strong as gold. Also your blindness will go away with our treatment. "  All this incident was narrated to guru Ayoddhoumya who also blessed Upamanyu with boon of understanding the Shastra (Dharma Shastra) and blessed him with everlasting knowledge.                                    Similarly his third student Ved was blessed as he for many days stayed with his Guru and served him with devotion. Hence he too was blessed with everlasting knowledge of Vedas. But when Ved himself became a Guru ( Teacher) he did not ask his students to do his household work as he knew the troubles the students undergo while doing such chores!                                       # Next blog - Story of Ved's student - Uttanka

Mahabharata Originals! #10. Story of Aaruni and Upamanyu

     Story of  Aaruni and Upamanyu!                                                                                                                           #  Last blog- We saw a brief information about Kurukshetra. This blog gives us more information about the same and events which took place on kurukshetra earlier to the great war.                                  Paushya Parva - Trutiya adhyayam (Third chapter).                                                                                        There was a great sage named Ayoddhoumya who had three students namely Upamanyu , Aaruni panchal and Veda.                                                                         Story 1 # One day the guru called his student Aaruni who was from panchal desha (land) and said to him " Son , go and repair the bunds of the paddy field." After giving instructions to his student ,the guru went in his hut for meditation. Aaruni went to repair the bund of the paddy field , he tried but could not repair it. After some thinking he had an idea to stop the flow of water  , he himself lied down in place of bund and the flowing water stopped! After sometime that day his guru Ayoddhoumya asked his students " Where is Aaruni? " , his students replied " teacher , you had instructed him to go and repair the bunds of paddy field."  Ayoddhoumya said " Then let's go and check on Aaruni " , so Ayoddhoumya along with his 2 students went to the place and called out " Panchal Aaruni , son where are you? Please come here." After hearing his teacher's voice he got up from the field and stood in front of his guru. He said " Bhagwan ( a form of respect given to a highly learned person ) , I am here , the essential water flowing out the field had to be stopped , so I myself lied down in place of the bund to stop it. After hearing your voice I got up and came in front of you . I offer my prayers to you! Please give me further instructions." Ayoddhoumya said " You have followed my instructions despite the difficulties and obstacles which no one would have tried to overcome. I bless you with everlasting knowledge , you will be blessed with Vedas and Dharma Shastra (Science of Dharma)" After saying this the student Aaruni went to his homeland - Panchal.                                                  Story 2 # Ayoddhoumya had another student named Upamanyu. The teacher instructed him " Upamanyu go and protect our cows." So as instructed he went to look after the cows in the morning and at night came back to his guru's abode and offered his respect by bowing down to him. After a few days his guru observed that Upamanyu is getting healthier and lofty. He asked "Son , you are looking much healthier, what do you eat the whole day while out there protecting the cows?" He said " Gurudev, I ask for Bhiksha ( Bhiksha signifies a Hindu tradition of begging for alms with the purpose of self - effacement or ego conquering.) Guru Ayoddhoumya said " Son , without offering your teacher you should not bring the food to your personal use." Thus Upamanyu said " yes teacher" and started following his advice by offering Bhiksha to his guru. Guru Ayoddhoumya used to take all of his food and Upamanyu then again resumed his duty of protecting the cows. After a few days again the guru saw that Upamanyu is much healthier and asked him " Son , even in this condition and after taking all your food , how do you survive?" Upamanyu said " After offering you all my Bhiksha , I again ask for Bhiksha and in this manner I survive." Guru said " This is not a right and just way of behavior. By asking for Bhiksha the second time you are creating difficulties for other monks who survive on Bhiksha. Thus you shouldn't ask for Bhiksha the second time." Thus Upamanyu said "yes teacher" and returned to protecting and feeding fodder to cows. After a few days again when Upamanyu came to his guru's abode in the evening , Ayoddhoumya asked " Son , I take all your food as offering and you do not ask for Bhiksha again. Still you look fat! What do you eat to survive?" He said " Bhagwan I drink the milk of cows." On hearing this the guru said " Son , I did not give you the permission to drink milk. Thus using milk for food is not right!" Upamanyu said "yes teacher" and become busy in GAW-PALAN ( taking care of cows). Again after a fews days , one evening when Upamanyu returned from the fields , Ayoddhoumya asked " Son , you do not eat food obtained from asking  Bhiksha and offer everything to me , nor do you ask for bhiksha again , and neither do you drink cow's milk , but still are looking fat! what do you eat for food? " Upamanyu answered " Bhagwan , when calves drink their mother's milk , the remaining drops which fall from their mouth is collected by me and later I drink it." On this guru Ayoddhoumya said " These calves surely are innocent and drink less milk in order to provide you more , they surely give more drops of milk to be collected and swallow less amount of milk themselves! Hence from today you will not drink the drops of milk which spill from their mouths!" Upamanyu said "yes teacher" and returned to the fields.                                                                                                                                                          # Next blog- Will Upamanyu pass the test of his teacher ? What next will he do to survive? And story of third student of guru Ayoddhoumya.

Mahabharata Originals! #9. About Kurukshetra!!

                       About Kurukshetra!                                #Last blog- We saw the most important part of Mahabharata , the first chapter! Now we move forward in this great epic! Chapter 2 -Parvasangraha Dwitiyam adhyayam.                                                                                                           Sage Shounak and his disciples asked "  Sutanandana Ugrashrava , in the starting of this great history you mentioned a place called Samanta-panchak-shetra (Kurukshetra) , we all want to know more that place and everything related to it As It Is!"    Sage Ugrashrava said. " Now I will narrate the history , stories and incidences in which you will come to know about Samanta-panchak-shetra , Listen carefully!".                                 In the end of Tretayuga and commencement of Dwapaaryuga , the greatest in warriors - Parshuram had killed many Kshtriya kings because of his anger towards them. Glowing like a raging fire Parshuram killed almost every Kshtriya and made Five Lakes from their blood in samanta-panchak-shetra. He then in anger conducted a ritual for his forefathers by dedicating the blood lakes to them. The Ruschik and other forefathers descended from heaven and said " Great Ram, the abled Bhruguvanshi Parshuram , we are amazed with your bravery and dedication towards your forefathers! U may ask for anything you wish for!"  Parshuram said " Then let me ask you to forgive me for my sin of killing the Kshtriya kings and bless these 5 lakes for becoming a place of spirituality in future." So it shall be said his forefathers and again went to their abode! Also they adviced Parshuram to forgive the remaining Kshtriya's and stop the bloodshed. Thus Parshuram became calm once again! The lands near the 5 lakes were know as samanta-panchak and is a place with spiritual influence. The land which is famous for a particular thing or for a particular sign that land should be named according to that sign ,thus is said by the experts. Then when Dwapaaryuga ended and Kaliyuga was about to commence , the great war was fought between the Pandavas and Kauravas in Samanta-panchak-shetra. A total of 18 akshohini army gathered in that spiritual place for war. And all were destroyed on that land itself, hence it was called samanta (* SUMANT meaning destruction of everything gathered). Then Shounak and other sages said " We would like to know more about the word akshohini. In an akshohini sena (army) how many soldiers on foot , horses , chariots and elephants troops are there? Please explain to us in detail" Sage Ugrashrava said " 1 chariot , 1 elephant , 5 soldiers and three horses are together called as 1 Patti! Experts say three times of this Patti is called as 1 Senamukh and three times of this Senamukh is called as 1 Gulma , three times of this gulma  is called 1 Gana. 3 Ganas make 1 Vahini and 3 Vahini's make 1 Prutana. Three times of Prutana is 1 Chamu and three times of Chamu is 1 Aneekini. And finally 10 Anikeeni's make 1 Akshohini!!!. The great mathematician's have thus calculated that one Akshohini army has 21,870 chariots , 21,870 elephants , number of soldiers are total of 1,09,350 in one akshohini army and horses are 65,610 in number! According to the experts this is the precise calculation of one akshohini army which I said to you. Thus Pandavas and kauravas had a total of 18 akshohini army with them. Thus in time this much army gathered in Samanta-panchak-shetra and also were destroyed there itself! " Further Sage Ugrashrava says " Warrior Bhisma fought for 10 days and Acharya Drona fought for a total of 5 days and protected the Kaurava army.  Great archer Karna fought for 2 days and King Shalya fought for half a day. After that Bheem and Duryodhana's fought for half a day. After 18 complete days , Ashwathama , Krutavarma and Krupacharya attacked at night and killed sleeping soldiers of King Yudhisthir's camp. This great history which I am narrating right now was narrated by Vedvyas's brilliant disciple Sage Vaishmapayan in King Janamejaya's Sarpasatra. As body cannot work without food and is dependent on it so is every story on earth is dependent on Mahabharata , no story is independent from it. Every poem serves Mahabharata. Every reason , logic and intellectual concepts are described in this Mahabharata. There are a total of 100 parvas (sections) in Mahabharata each containing a particular number of chapters. Within Mahabharata itself there are those 18 Purana's , just like on this earth itself there are various species of living organisms. When a person wants to travel the ocean, he is in need of a ship, thus one who wants to understand this great ocean of knowledge "The Mahabharata" , one requires this 1st and 2nd chapter the same way. "                                                                             " श्रुत्वादौ भवति नृणां सुखावगाहं विस्तीर्णं                           लवणजलं यथा प्लवेन ॥३९६॥ "                                                                                                                    #Next blog - 3rd adhyaya Paushya parva and start of the first story from this great epic!! 

Mahabharata Orginals! #8 Sanjay's Advice!!

                         Sanjay's Advice!                                #Last blog we saw how King Dhritarashtra expressed his sorrows to Sanjay. And after regaining his consciousness was adviced by Sanjay thereafter.                                                                                                                    Dhritarashtra says " By seeing what has happened in this war I at this very moment is willing to leave this body and leave the mortal world!! "  

                                                                                                     And thus Sanjay said the words of truth , He said " My king , you yourself  have listened to the great history of superior men and kings from the great sage Narada and Vedvyas himself ! Futher Sanjay said " You have listened to the great deeds of many great kings , vessels of all good guna's (qualities) , who held great weapons , equivalent to Devraj Indra himself , those that fought a great many dharma yuddha's (holy wars) , great charities done by them , who became famous , but ultimately had to surrender to time! Kings like Shaibya , warrior Srujjay , Suhotra , Rantideva , Kakshivan , Aushij , Bahalik , Daman , Chaidya , Shairyaati , undefeated Nala , slayer Vishwamitra , mahabali Ambreesh , Marut, Manu , Ikshwaku , Gaya , Bharat , Dashrath's son SHRI RAM , Sashabindu , Bhagirath , the blessed Krutavirya , Janmejaya , and Yayati who through their karma and yajna had given this land a long-lasting name in the world history ! These 24 kings were described by the great sage Narada to king Shwetyaka who was lost in sadness after his son died , to end his grief.  Sanjay says " In previous yuga's (there are 4 yugas) , apart from above said 24 there were many other great sages , warriors , kings , men of honours , list which is very long starting from Puru to Shruti which comprises of 61 more mahapurusha's (great men) from mahapurana's and many more such men who have been described many times, their great deeds told and retold. Have also left this world just like your sons. Those men whose deeds were great, sacrifice , love for humanity , truth , purity , forgiveness , simplicity have been described by great poet's in great many poems and scriptures also left this world!! Your son's duryodhana and rest were Dur-Atma (corrupt soul) , angry , and greedy and also indulged in bad karma's !! You should not be saddened by their deaths. My king you have listened to your Guru's who taught the great Shastra's (sciences)  , you have a sharp memory , a strong intellect , and are respected by the learned , you are Bharat Vansha shiromani ( jewel of Bharat clan/family) , and your thinking is according to Shastra , not influenced by Moha (attachment) and Shoka (sadness) but My King you have shown more partiality towards your sons and had abandoned the Pandavas , that is your mistake undoubtedly! Hence do not become sad for your son's death . We have to experience the fruits of our deeds - thus is written ! No one can be free from it , birth-death _ happiness-sadness are the products of KALA (TIME) and it is the root cause of the above said things! KALA is responsible for the world all living things , and also for its destruction ! Then it is pacified by the great Mahakaal himself.  IN ALL THE UNIVERSE IT IS THIS KAAL WHICH IS THE DOER OF ALL GOOD AND BAD THINGS , IT IS THE DESTROYER AS WELL AS THE CREATOR !                                                                                                                                 "कालो हि कुरूते भावान् सर्व लोके शुभानाशुभान्।

                          कालः संक्षिपते सर्वा प्रजा विसृजते पुनः॥२४८॥"                                                                                                                         When all the senses and with it the mind sleeps , it is this KAAL which is awake. No one can disturb its speed and direction . It does its action equally on every living creature without interference. Whatever that existed in the past , is existing now and will exist in future all are created by this KAAL. By understanding this my great king you should not abandon your senses in grief!   Thus great Ugrashrava says " This is how Sanjay comforted king Dhritarashtra when he was in grief. Thus based on this history the great sage Vedvyas narrated this history of Mahabharata. Thus great scholars and great poet's have been mentioning it in puranas since ancient times!                                                                                                                               Thus by doing Adhyayan (STUDY) of Mahabharata , which purifies the thoughts! One who studies this great history with faith and belief , even if one studies only a single shloka it will destroy the roots of corrupted thoughts entirely!  In this Grantham - the devtas , devrushi , pure brahmarushi's , yaksha's and maha-nagas and other doers of good deeds are mentioned.  In this Grantham - the main topic is Shri Krushna himself , one who is truth , pure , and divine. He is avinashi (non-destructible) , birth-death-rebirth are from him. Satwa-Raja-Tama and Panchamahabhuta (the 5 elements) and their actions are him.                                                                      Also one who studies the first adhyaya of Mahabharata every single day is free from Raja-Tama-Paap-Taap ! (Aggression- Darkness-Bad deeds-Diseases) . One who studies the Anukramanika Adhaya everyday does not have fear even in fearful events.  Even if one reads this chapter's  part in day , in evening or in noon , gets relief from thoughts of fear , Bad deeds and anger. The Anukramanika Adhyaya (1st chapter) is the Root of this Mahabharata Grantham. This is the truth and the ambrosia (drink of immortality) , like butter from curd , Brahmins (educated) in humans ,upanishads in Vedas , ambrosia in medicines , sea in water bodies and cow in four-legged !                                                                    Only through History and Science one has to explain and make understand the Vedas , one who has none of these..Even the Vedas are afraid of such people !!! But the one who studies this first chapter 1st thing in the morning he/she will get the benefits of reading the entire Mahabharata thus is written! That is long-lasting life , purity of thoughts and deeds and will experience heaven here on earth!                                                                                There is a short story which says that - All the God's and goddesses , sages , learned men and women gathered together to compare the Vedas and upanishads in qualities of ideal Grantham       ( book of science) , they put all the four Vedas on the one end of weighing scale and Mahabharata on other! But when Mahabharata weighted more in qualities of deeper knowledge , justice, popularity among scholars and divinity on weighing scale of truth at that time it was given the name MAHA-BHARATA which earlier was called ADYA-BHARATA .                                                                                    Meditation is pure , studing of sciences is also pure , also wealth acquired through hard work and dedication is pure! , but same things done with greed , anger , ego and injustice gives rise to fruits which created by bad karmas.Hence while studing Mahabharata one should have clean thoughts in order to cherish its fruits!!!!.                                                                                                                                                                                                           #This blog marks the end of Adiparva - Anukramanika Adhyaya . Next blog- commencement of  Parvasangraha Parav's - Adhyaya 2!!! Please do comment and share your views on Mahabharata's Adhyaya 1 which is entirely shared through blogs Mahabharata Originals 1-8 !!